Today we’re reviewing the HP 15-F211WM 15.6″ Touchscreen Laptop, a recent release from HP which is gaining popularity as a budget laptop option.
In this review, we’ll take a closer look at the 15-F211WM Laptop and see how it performs in terms of hardware.
Overview: HP 15-F211WM 15.6 Inch Touchscreen Laptop
HP offer the 15-F211WM laptop as a budget option with plenty of storage space. It’s most distinguishing feature is the touchscreen functionality, a feature not often seen on lower-priced laptops.
It comes preloaded with Windows 10 and the main selling features of this laptop include it’s 500GB hard drive, touchscreen, DVD burner and integrated webcam and microphone. It comes in one color – black, for a sleek yet timeless look.
This HP laptop seems most suited to those looking for a general-purpose laptop, especially if you are looking for a touchscreen at an affordable price.
Pros
- Touchscreen
- Affordable pricing
- 500GB storage
- 1 year manufacturer’s warranty, including complimentary chat support from HP for the warranty period
- 90 day HP phone support
Cons
- Lower-end processor
- Doesn’t come with Microsoft Office (comes with trial version only)
- Limited upgradeability
Who Is It For?
Let’s get this out of the way first up: the HP 15-F211WM is not a high-end performance laptop. However, it is a very affordable laptop option, particularly for anyone who is looking for touchscreen functionality.
This laptop will suit anyone who is looking for an everyday laptop to use doing general tasks – think browsing the internet, watching videos, using it for social media or general office applications (Word, Excel, etc.), skype or webcam video chatting, reading or burning DVDs/CDs, and the like. The large 500GB hard drive offers the user plenty of space for storing photos, movies or other files.
If these are the kind of applications you’re planning on using your laptop for, then this offering by HP may be a good candidate for you. The dual-core Celeron processor is decent enough to handle these kinds of tasks, though you may notice some sluggishness if you are running many applications at once (multitasking) or running any programs that require a fair amount of processing power.
Who Isn’t It For?
If you prefer a little more speed or are planning on running more high end programs then the hardware in this laptop may be a little too low-end for your needs.
If you’re planning on using this laptop for gaming, video editing, or tend to do a lot of multitasking with multiple programs/applications running at once, then you will probably find this laptop on the slow side. With only 4GB of RAM installed, it’s not particularly suited for specialist applications on top of everyday general use.
Performance
Let’s dig a little deeper into the performance of this laptop. In terms of value for money, it’s definitely popular due to it’s competitive pricing as a budget offering, however, at this price you can’t expect the best hardware as we’ve already covered.
The processor in this computer is Intel’s Celeron which is an entry-level processor, however, it is a dual core offering with a decent clock speed (2.16GHz and turbo boost up to 2.58GHz for those times of extra demand). In any case, it’s quite suitable for a general use laptop.
Graphics are handled onboard by the integrated Intel HD Graphics module. Again, this is more than suitable for everyday use and the video output is clear on the 1366pixels x 768pixels 15.6 inch display.
In terms of memory, this laptop comes with a single 4GB DDR3L RAM stick. Keep in mind if you do want to upgrade this the laptop only has one available RAM slot.
Storage capacity is good, with a 500GB hard drive, and although it’s definitely no high-end hard drive, it will suit the everyday user.
Additional features such as the DVD burner drive, integrated webcam, microphone and speakers, and the touchscreen functionality round off this product to make it a very tidy offering especially for it’s entry level price point.
Check out the user reviews on Amazon >>
Touchscreen
The 15.6 inch touchscreen is one of the main selling features of this laptop, so let’s take a closer look it. It’s not often that you get a touchscreen offering at this price point, which seems to explain the popularity of this laptop. There is no on/off button for the touchscreen, meaning it’s always available and functional.
The touchscreen is quite responsive and supports multi-gesture, meaning it can recognize up to 5 touches at the same time. You can see an example of this (at 3min, 40sec) in the review video below:
Software
The 15-F211WM also comes with some pre-loaded software, including:
- Windows 10 (64 bit) operating system
- Games (Plantx vs Zombies, Farm Frenzy)
- HP Help and Support Assistant (inbuilt self-help support)
- HP Recovery Manager (recover and restore media on your PC)
- HP ePrint (wireless printing for HP ‘ePrint’ enabled printers)
- TripAdvisor applications
- Netflix and VUDU applications (programs only; subscriptions not included)
- CyberLink PhotoDirector and PowerDirector (video and photo editing tools)
- CyperLink Power Media Player (enhanced lighting and audio for watching videos)
- CyperLink YouCam (inbuilt webcam application)
- Snapfish application (photo access from any device)
- Dropbox – free 25GB online storage for 6 months
- Evernote Premium – 3 months included
- Office (trial only)
- McAfee – free 30 day antivirus subscription
- HP 3D DriveGuard 6 (software that prevents damage to your harddrive under bumpy conditions)
- HP CoolSense (heat management software)
Overall the software offering is not bad, though it is a downside that it doesn’t come complete with the Microsoft Office software. If you will be using this laptop for school or work and need programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and the like, then you’ll need to purchase a separate subscription or key to Office when your trial period runs out.
Portability
This laptop offers average portability for a notebook computer. In terms of size, it’s a standard laptop size for today’s laptops and is just under 1 inch thick.
It’s overall dimensions are 0.89 inches in height, 15.18 inches long and 10.16 inches wide. Weighing in at about 5.05 pounds, it’s light enough to be carried around, but if you’re often on the go and carry your laptop around daily, you might prefer an ultrabook sized laptop as they are much smaller/thinner/lighter.
Battery life has been reported from several users as between 3-6 hours.
Warranty & Support
The 15-F211WM comes with a 1 year manufacturer’s hardware warranty, which is obtained by registering your product purchase with HP.
What we like about this is that you get complimentary chat support from HP for the full length of the warranty period – that’s 1 year of free support in the event that you run up against any issues.
You also get 90 days of phone support from HP from the date of purchase.
15-F211WM Notebook Specifications
The official full specifications for the 15-F211WM laptop can be found here or here, but we have also included a summary below for easy reference.
Product Name:
15-F211WM
Product Number:
L0T32UA
Dimensions:
0.89 inches (H) x 15.18 inches (W) x 10.16 inches (D)
(22mm (H) x 385mm(W) x 258mm (D) )
Weight:
5.05 pounds
Operating System:
Windows 10 Home (64 bit)
CPU:
Intel Celeron N2840 Processor (2.16GHz Dual Core with Turbo Boost up to 2.58GHz)
Graphics:
On-board graphics adapter model: Intel HD Graphics
Display:
15.6 inch diagonal high definition WLED-backlit touchscreen display
Resolution: 1366 x 768
External Ports:
2 x USB 3.0 (one of which supports USB Boost)
1 x USB 2.0
1 x HDMI
1 x RJ-45 (LAN)
Multi-format Digital Media Card Reader
1 x Headphone-out/Microphone-in (combination jack)
Memory:
4GB DDR3L SDRAM (1 DIMM)
1 user accessible memory slot
Storage:
500GB 5400RPM hard drive
Power Supply:
45W AC adapter
Battery:
Removable 3 cell 31WHr 2.8Ah lithium-ion polymer battery
Battery life -approximately 3-6 hours (user reported, not officially specified by HP)
Network Card and Wireless:
Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN wireless card
1×1 802.11 b/g/n WLAN wireless option
Optical Drive:
SuperMulti DVD burner
Other Features:
Sound: HD Audio with stereo speakers
Keyboard: Full size island-style keyboard with numeric keypad
Pointing Device: Touchpad supports multi-touch gestures without on/off button
Camera: Front facing VGA webcam with integrated digital microphone
Security: Kensington MicroSaver lock slot
Summary
The HP 15-F211WM is a decent laptop for general use, and with plenty of storage it’s a good entry-level machine. It’s best selling feature definitely seems to be the touchscreen, a luxury which is not usually found at this entry-level price point on most laptops.
This makes it an increasingly popular choice for those who are after an affordable-priced laptop for everyday use but also has that nice little extra bonus of touchscreen control.
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