HP 15s (15s-eq3000) review – what can the low price tell about it?

Chances are high that the HP 15s (15s-eq3000) has appeared when you looked for affordable notebooks online. And this means that Google has done its job well because this is one of the most viable options for your search.

Of course, there are laptops like the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (15″, 2022), or the Acer Aspire 3 (A315-43) that may also be good options. However, if you are looking for something with power and a really, really low price tag – the HP 15s is the place to be.

But what is the hardware in question? Well, you can rely on the refreshed Ryzen 5000U series with the top-end option being the Ryzen 7 5825U. Indeed, a super powerful and efficient CPU.

It will allow you to do things previously unimaginable by a device of this price range. There is a cost, though. There always is. And with the HP 15s, it may be one not worth paying. Stay with us to find out.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-15-15s-eq3000/

Contents


Specs Sheet

  • AUO5799
  • Color accuracy  4.2  3.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, No OS
  • Battery
  • 41Wh, 3-cell, 41Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 358.5 X 242 X 17.9 mm
  • Weight
  • 1.69 kg (3.7 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HP TrueVision HD with temporal noise reduction
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Digital Microphones
  • Speakers
  • Dual Speakers, HP Audio Center
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

All HP 15 (15s-eq3000) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you will find the mandatory paperwork, as well as a 45W charger.


Design and construction

Naturally, one of the first things to give way in these kinds of products is the build quality. It is made out of plastic, which doesn’t appear to have any meaningful structural support on the inside.

The 1.69 kg chassis may be light, but it clearly can’t withstand an excessive amount of twisting. Also, standing at 17.9mm in thickness might help with the appeal, but definitely make the laptop easier to destroy.

Opening the lid with a single hand is also not an option. On the bright side, the slim side bezels make the appearance significantly better to look at. Up top, there is an HD Web camera.

Now, let’s take a glance at the base. The first thing we notice is the large grill, which spans the entire width of the device. It holds two speakers, which is pretty great.

Below it, you will find the keyboard. It features a NumberPad section and is relatively comfortable for typing. Thanks to the long key travel, we can ignore the nonuniform feedback. Unfortunately, it lacks a backlight.

Then comes the touchpad. It has a weird wide rectangular shape. The tracking is good, though, and we can definitely use it as our daily driver.

Turn the laptop upside down, and you will only find the ventilation grill. It helps the single fan draw cool air, while the heat is then exhausted through a vent on the back of the base.

Ports

On the left side, there is the charging plug and two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports. Then, on the right, you get an HDMI 1.4b connector, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and an SD card reader.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

To access this notebook’s internals, you need to remove the two rubber feet. Then, undo the 8 Phillips-head screws, and pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool.

Inside, we find a 41Wh battery pack. It lasts for 9 hours and 30 minutes of Web browsing, or 9 hours of video playback. To take it out, undo the 5 Phillips-head screws that are on your way and lift it from the chassis.

There are two SODIMM memory slots, which work in dual-channel mode and fit DDR4 modules. As for storage, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot.

In terms of cooling, there is one heat pipe, a heat sink, and a fan of medium size.


Display quality

HP 15s (15s-eq3000) in our configuration is equipped with a 60Hz Full HD IPS panel with model number AUO5799. Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

The viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The measured maximum brightness of 287 nits in the middle of the screen and 269 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 8%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6420K – almost matching the sRGB standard of 6500K.

In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – 1340:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows HP 15s (15s-eq3000)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 52% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results in factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of the HP 15s (15s-eq3000) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 32 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

HP 15s (15s-eq3000)’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels at any point. This makes it comfortable for use during long work periods, without harming your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Gloss level measurement

Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 72.2 GU).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP 15s (15s-eq3000) configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS AUO5799.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

HP 15s (15s-eq3000)’s speakers produce a loud sound with good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviation. However, we noticed some distortion, when you set the volume to 100%.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-15-laptop-pc-15-e3000/2101006329

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This machine’s 41Wh battery pack lasts for 9 hours and 24 minutes of Web browsing, or 8 hours and 49 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

This particular model of the series comes with the Ryzen 3 5425U, Ryzen 5 5625U, or Ryzen 7 5825U.


GPU options

Only integrated graphics can be found here, which is not too bad, to be honest.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS64 fps43 fps25 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS90 fps44 fps25 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

AMD Ryzen 5 5625U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP 15s (15s-eq3000)2.87 GHz @ 63°C @ 30W2.72 GHz @ 78°C @ 25W2.31 GHz @ 86°C @ 19W
HP 255 G93.00 GHz @ 72°C @ 28W2.84 GHz @ 80°C @ 25W2.54 GHz @ 69°C @ 18W
Dell Vostro 15 35252.88 GHz @ 76°C @ 29W2.70 GHz @ 83°C @ 25W2.70 GHz @ 88°C @ 25W
Dell Vostro 16 56253.06 GHz @ 66°C2.83 GHz @ 72°C2.67 GHz @ 67°C

Out of the four laptops we’ve tested with this processor, the HP 15s is the worst in long-term performance. However, it shows a pretty respectable clock speed in the first two checkpoints.

Comfort during full load

In addition to that, the machine was not too loud, and the external temperature reached a cozy 46°C.


Verdict

As the saying goes – you get what you pay for. The build quality of the HP 15s (15s-eq3000) is not fantastic. With an all-plastic body, with very little support on the inside, you should expect a lot of flex when you twist the machine.

Furthermore, albeit the port selection is not bad, as it houses an SD card reader, the USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port can only be used for data transfer. Respectively, the keyboard lacks a backlight and sports nonuniform feedback, which hinders its otherwise decent typing properties.

Battery-wise, you can expect around 9 to 9 hours and a half, depending on whether you watch HD videos offline, or browse the Web in a single tab.

HP 15s (15s-eq3000)’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Unfortunately, it covers only half of the colors from the sRGB gamut.

However, this is a price worth paying, considering the low cost of the device itself. Plus, it doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment, which makes the laptop safe for long periods of time.

Unfortunately, there are 768p and 1080p TN options. You know the drill – avoid them, and tell others to do that too.

By the way, don’t be disappointed if you get your laptop with a single-channel memory. There is space for a second RAM module, while the M.2 PCIe x4 slot makes sure you get a rather fast storage device.

We are also happy to say that the 15s-eq3000 doesn’t share its overheating issues with the 15s-eq0000. This makes it a very appropriate option for day-to-day work, and if you want to enjoy some light gaming, don’t forget to make use of that second RAM slot. Integrated graphics cards love dual-channel memory.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-15-15s-eq3000/

Pros

  • Low price
  • 2x SODIMM + 1x M.2 PCIe x4
  • SD card slot
  • No PWM (AUO5799)
  • Good power efficiency
  • Comfortable keyboard
  • Optional fingerprint reader


Cons

  • Covers only 52% of sRGB (AUO5799)
  • USB Type-C is only used for data transfer
  • Plastic build

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Flyvez
Flyvez
1 year ago

Ma come fate a dire che questa serie abbia il pannello ips quando non né ho visto uno con un angolo di visione decente…

Flyvez
Flyvez
3 months ago
Reply to  Flyvez

In vendita non si trovano più modelli di questa serie con pannello ips almeno in Italia…