HP HP15HD 2024, Ryzen 5 7520U, 16GB, 256GB SSD, Silver

The HP 15 is a $550 budget laptop with a standout 16GB of RAM and a decent 1080p IPS screen. The Ryzen 5 7520U is weak by modern standards, and the 256GB SSD is tight. It's fine for everyday office work and light gaming, but not for heavy multitasking or creative workloads. Buy it for the RAM and Windows 11 Pro, not for raw performance.

The Ryzen 5 7520U sits at the 20th percentile for CPUs in our database, which is a polite way of saying it's near the bottom of the barrel for modern laptop processors. That sounds harsh, but context matters. This is a $550 laptop, and the 7520U is built on AMD's older Zen 2 architecture. It'll handle Office apps, video calls, and web browsing without breaking a sweat. Just don't expect it to chew through 4K video exports or compile large codebases quickly. The 4-core, 8-thread design means multitasking is fine, but heavy sustained loads will make the fan spin up and the performance dip.

The integrated AMD Radeon Graphics lands at the 70th percentile, which is actually the strongest part of this machine's performance profile. That's because most laptops in this price range ship with weaker Intel integrated graphics. You won't be playing Cyberpunk 2077 on this thing, but older titles, indie games, and esports like League of Legends or CS2 at low settings are actually playable. The gaming score of 50.9 out of 100 reflects that reality. It's not a gaming laptop, but it's less embarrassing at light gaming than most budget machines.

The MacBook Air M4 and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition are both dramatically faster, lighter, and better built than the HP 15. They also cost two to three times as much. If you have the budget, either one will run circles around this HP for everything from battery life to screen quality. The Surface Laptop 7th Edition especially makes the HP's 1.81kg weight and Wi-Fi 5 feel ancient. But again, we're talking about a $550 laptop versus machines that start around $1,000.

Closer to home, the Lenovo Legion 5i and Acer Predator Helios Neo are gaming laptops with discrete GPUs that crush the HP 15 in any graphics-heavy task. They're also heavier, hotter, and more expensive. The ASUS Zenbook UX3405CA is probably the most interesting comparison. It's an ultrabook with a better CPU, faster storage, and a much lighter chassis, but you'll pay a premium for that portability. The HP 15's pitch is simple: it's cheap, it has a big screen, and it has enough RAM to not feel disposable. That's a specific niche, and it fills it reasonably well.

At $550, the HP 15 is priced like a budget laptop but carries a couple of mid-range specs. The 16GB of RAM is the headline here. Most laptops in this range ship with 8GB, and that extra memory is the difference between a machine that feels snappy in year one and one that's still usable in year three. The Windows 11 Pro license is another quiet value add. If you were buying a Home license and upgrading, that's real money saved.

The trade-off is the storage. 256GB fills up fast, especially once Windows, a few apps, and some photos get involved. You'll likely need an external drive or cloud storage within the first year. Compared to competitors, the MacBook Air M4 and Surface Laptop 7th Edition are in a completely different price bracket, so they're not really fair comparisons. Against other sub-$600 Windows laptops, the HP 15 holds its own on RAM and display, but the weak CPU and small SSD keep it from being a slam dunk.

The HP 15 is one of those laptops that feels like it was designed by committee. You get a Ryzen 5, 16GB of RAM, a 1080p IPS screen, and Windows 11 Pro for around $550. That's a weirdly specific mix of specs that makes you wonder who exactly HP had in mind. The answer, as far as we can tell, is someone who needs a dependable daily driver for spreadsheets, browsing, and maybe some light photo work, without spending MacBook money.

What makes this interesting is the RAM situation. 16GB of LPDDR5 is more than you'd expect at this price point, and it's the kind of spec that keeps this machine feeling responsive a few years down the road. The Ryzen 5 7520U is a 4-core chip that boosts up to 4.3GHz, which is fine for everyday tasks but won't set any records. The 256GB SSD is the real bottleneck here, and we'll get into that later.

This is a budget laptop with a couple of surprisingly non-budget specs. It's not trying to be a gaming rig or a creator workstation, despite what the marketing copy might imply. It's a workhorse for people who want Windows 11 Pro, a big screen, and enough RAM to keep a dozen browser tabs open without crying. If that sounds like you, keep reading.

Skip this if you're a developer, video editor, or anyone who needs real CPU horsepower. The Ryzen 5 7520U ranks in the bottom fifth of laptop processors we've tested, and the 256GB SSD will have you constantly managing storage. For development work, look at something with at least a Ryzen 7 or Core i7 and 512GB or more of storage. The ASUS Zenbook UX3405CA is a good step up if you can stretch your budget.

Also skip it if you travel a lot. At 1.81kg, this isn't a featherweight, and the plastic build doesn't inspire confidence in a backpack that gets tossed around. The port selection is also limited, with just one USB-C and no Thunderbolt support. If portability matters, the Surface Laptop 7th Edition or MacBook Air M4 are much better options, though they cost significantly more.

If you need a basic Windows laptop for office work, school, or general browsing, and you want to keep the cost under $600, the HP 15 is a solid choice. The 16GB of RAM and 1080p IPS display are the specs that matter most for everyday use, and they're both better than what you typically find at this price. The Windows 11 Pro license is a nice bonus for anyone who needs BitLocker or domain join support.

But if you're a developer, a serious creator, or someone who wants to play modern games, look elsewhere. The CPU is the weak link, and the 256GB SSD will have you juggling files within months. For those use cases, you'd be better off saving up for something with a stronger processor and more storage, or looking at a used business laptop with a better CPU and a larger drive. The HP 15 is a good budget laptop, not a miracle worker.