With a balanced configuration and cost-effective pricing, the previous generations of HP Battle 66 have gained a lot of attention, especially the previous generation can be said to have pointed out the equilibrium attribute to a stage within the four thousand price range. After a year, HP with AMD Barcelo Zen3 brought the fifth generation version of the Battle 66, as a fourth-generation version of the user, just intuitively feel the difference between the two generations of the machine, with this article for the reference of users.
01/ Compare which upgrades have been brought by the previous generation
The battle 66 fourth generation version is actually an important replacement version of several generations of machines, bringing updated molds and functional configuration updates, and the fifth generation version can be understood as a Refresh of the fourth generation version, which can be said to update this mold to the improvement stage. The 5th gen Battle 66 in my hand is powered by AMD's new Ryzen 5 5625U processor. My side summarized what improvements have been brought by the next battle 66 five generations version, as well as some common features of the fourth and fifth generations of war 66.
- "Processor upgrade to AMD 2022 Ryzen™ 5000 series processor", long-term power consumption is also unlocked from the previous 15W to 25W;
- Dual memory slots remained, while the M.2 hard drive expansion bits were increased from one to two;
- Battery capacity increased, from 45Wh to 51Wh, the long endurance is still the same;
- Fingerprint recognition was upgraded to facial recognition, and HDMI interface was upgraded to 2.0b.
Other features are similar to the four generations:
- The main price is still in the four thousand price segment;
- 400nit brightness 1w ultra-low power consumption high color gamut screen;
- Cover the full-featured expansion interface;
- Three-sided aluminum alloy, relatively thin metal body;
- Both hardware and software are optimized for office applications.
The fifth generation version of the Battle 66 still uses the previous mold, and this set of molds is actually quite high in the HP product line, plus the three-sided aluminum alloy metal body that is more easily accepted by users at present, so it is not bad to use this set of molds. It is also the same, the battle 66 five-generation version is still 14 and 15.6 inches two size versions, if you care more about portability, 14-inch weight control will be better, 1.38kg level, and the 15.6-inch version, there is no waste of the fuselage, still bring the numeric keypad.
In addition, taking into account the environmental protection problem, the fifth generation of the Battle 66 has chosen the most environmental protection solution as possible from the material and packaging: the outer packaging is made of 100% recycled material, the inner packaging is made of biodegradable material, the fuselage is made of 50% recyclable aluminum metal, the speaker adopts 45% PCR + 5% OBP, and other environmentally friendly components are made of > 50% PCR.
Internal adjustment, added an M.2 expansion bit, this ordinary user may not have any concept, but the current market 14-inch 1.35kg range of models, support dual memory slot + dual hard disk expansion bit of the model left, basically 2kg range of the game book support, and this is a main attack on four thousand price segments of thin and light, it seems precious.
The new reserved M.2 expansion slot supports the 2242 specification M.2 device, instead of the more common 2280, some people feedback that it is not easy to buy, but in fact, you can search casually to know that the SSD of this specification is still quite common as an OEM accessory, and the price will not be much worse. Of course, if HP directly uses the factory-configured hard disk with 2242, and then leaves out the 2280 slot, it will obviously be better.
The storage configuration expansion potential of the fifth generation of the War 66 is indeed enough to cope with the service cycle of the entire aircraft.
The battery of the machine configuration also chooses a larger capacity per unit volume, so it is upgraded to 51Wh capacity, and the AMD mobile platform itself is known for its excellent power control, which is still very easy to run for more than ten hours of battery life like the previous generation.
As a PC, the fifth generation of the Battle 66 continues the good layout of the previous four generations, and the IO expansion interface of the whole machine has chosen a variety of fully compatible configuration directions, rather than a radical but not easy to use full [C-port] scheme at present.
IO interface, including 3 USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports (do not distinguish between high and low speed ports), and then a USB-C 3.1Gen2 port (fully functional support video output, charging), HDMI interface and RJ45 network port are also retained, and the HDMI interface is also upgraded to version 2.0b, plus USB-C, you can achieve two external 4K display devices. The previous micro SD card slot was cancelled (personally I also feel that either there is a standard SD card slot, and micro SD is not necessary to retain), and the corresponding position is currently used for some special versions to optionally install 4G network card version.
In addition, the built-in wireless network card of the machine is also upgraded to qualcomm's latest Wi-Fi 6E wireless network card as standard, and supports Bluetooth 5.2 technology
The HDMI interface has been upgraded to 2.0b, and the Type-C port that originally supports video output has further improved the video output specifications
The rugged design of the I/O interface remains, which is really rare for entry-level models.
The reliability of the whole machine and the after-sales part has not shrunk because of pricing, still through 19 MIL-STD-810H military standard tests, after-sales includes 2 years battery warranty, 1 year free on-site maintenance + 1 year accident insurance + hui butler 7 * 24 hours artificial cloud online service 1 year accident insurance a bit [care +] meaning.
The official violence test found on the Internet, the degree of machine resistance can be felt by yourself
02/ Upgrade AMD 2022 Ryzen™ 5000 Series Processors
Battle 66 Fifth Generation Edition this processor platform upgrade to AMD 2022 Ryzen™ 5000 series processors, so how to understand this [upgrade].
1. You can understand that the previous Cezanne Zen3 minor update, mainly optimized the voltage, frequency and performance, the obvious perception is that the CPU frequency increased by 100MHz, the rest of the architecture features are still retained, and the built-in AMD Radeon Graphics core display of GCN architecture is still the same.
2. "Why didn't you choose to use the Ryzen 6000 series processor?" This is actually very simple, on the one hand, the time point, the Ryzen 6000 series processor (low-voltage version) is not so fast, the current main choice is Barcelo Zen3 or the previous Cezanne Zen3; on the other hand, the price, Ryzen 6000 series processor will be paired with DDR5 \ LPDDR5X memory, so the corresponding pricing will also go up a step, the early stage will choose the Ryzen 6000 series processor, the battle 66 may have to give up the price segment of four thousand. In summary, the fifth generation of 66 has selected a processor that is more in line with its own application positioning, and AMD will be similar to last year this year, and it is also sold at the same time as the two generations of architecture platforms.
3. Higher performance power consumption limit
Fortunately, in another place that affects performance, the fifth generation of the Battle 66 has brought a substantial improvement, which is the upper power consumption limit of the CPU. Last year, when testing the fourth generation of the war 66, it was found that the actual cooling part of the machine still had a large space to meet the higher power consumption, but at that time the machine was more conservative and the power consumption was only given to 15W, and this time to the fifth generation of the war 66, it was actually upgraded to 25W, which was also somewhat unexpected, after all, this kind of entry-level business model generally does not care too much about the optimization of the power consumption performance part.
Although the upper power consumption limit of the fifth generation of the war 66 is increased to 25W, the actual high load state is used for a long time, whether it is temperature performance or fan control is better, the overall is still a relatively low temperature state, especially the fan noise increase is not obvious
In order to intuitively understand the improvement range, so I also directly pulled the Ryzen™ 7 5800U on the previous generation battle 66 to compare with the 2022 Ryzen 5000 series processor.
The first theoretical performance test of the CPU benefited from a higher power consumption ceiling and a slight increase in its own frequency, and the gap between the 6c12t Ryzen 5625U and the 8c16t Ryzen 7 5800U was further narrowed.
In the comprehensive performance test part of the platform, taking PCMAKR10 as an example, the two scores are [battery mode] and "plug-in state", if only the benchmark performance is tested, it is basically no difference.
Incidentally, several rendering application tests were run, mainly to investigate and compare processor performance, including Ryzen 5600U and Ryzen 7 5800U, these tests will be more sensitive to processor performance and power consumption.
V-Ray and Corona test, these two are biased towards the "running score" nature, so the Ryzen™ 5 5625U compared to the previous Ryzen 5600U has a certain range of improvement, compared to the Ryzen 7 5800U because of the processor specifications (nuclear display thread) so there is a significant gap, but ran more in line with the actual application scenario of the blender test, the battle 66 five generations of Ryzen 5625U benefit power consumption upper limit can maintain a long period of high power consumption frequency, so the actual rendering time is even more than the Ryzen 7 The 5800U is still 7 seconds faster, which is not easy, and it also shows the significance of increasing the upper limit of power consumption.
In terms of product positioning, such machines as the Battle 66 will obviously not be used for APPLICATIONS such as CPU rendering, but Ryzen has benefited from CPU specifications for several generations, in fact, the performance is indeed enough to meet the needs of most office scenes, and even daily multimedia editing is no problem. I use the same 11-minute 4K material, combined with the most popular short video software [Clipping] as an example, the output of 4K high bit rate time is 16 minutes, and the output of 1080P high bit rate is 6 minutes (Pr, the time will be shorter). For student parties or users who are just getting started with video editing, the ZEN3+GCN architecture can still meet its performance requirements.
Fan wai: The use of GCN architecture core display to achieve viewing video playback interstitial frames
The next generation of Ryzen 6000 series processors will be equipped with RDNA2 architecture GPU, the performance part will certainly be stronger, but this also represents the video interpolation function supported by the GCN architecture, which may become history, so if you are a video entertainment enthusiast, the GCN architecture GPU built into the Ryzen 5000 series processor has special advantages, like my own desktop even if there is a combination of unique + ZEN3 APU, when playing video, you can use the kernel display to interpolate the video.
Specific use of the way, search "APU \ A card + Bluesky FRC + interpolation frame" these keywords, there are many online tutorials, and it is very simple.
As for the game, I specially tested the Yuanshen this time, and under the medium quality of 1080P resolution, the average frame can reach 38 frames, which is already relatively smooth. The highest image quality of LOL can also be 100+ average frames, and it is also possible to deal with the travel process if you want to be entertained.
03/ Continuous enhancement of the office experience
In addition to the expansion and performance of the improvement, the fifth generation of the war 66 has also continued to strengthen the optimization of office applications, and this time it feels more obvious that it is the optimization and improvement of collaborative office and video conferencing.
The fifth generation of the Battle 66 has upgraded from fingerprint recognition to facial recognition in terms of security, and the same camera area has also been optimized, using an ambient light-sensitive camera with 88 ° wide angle and support for TNR timing noise reduction, combined with the new software part, you can make various program settings for your video conference screen. These feature settings are the richest I've ever seen with a built-in camera model, let alone a model at the same price.
The software can support the automatic tracking and positioning of the avatar and body shape, and can also automatically optimize the picture according to the scene lighting conditions
In addition to the various settings for the video, it actually supports scanning the two-dimensional code, which is also too showy~
The radio part of the battle 66 fifth generation is also optimized, equipped with dual array microphones with Noise Cancellation Software intelligent Al noise reduction two-way noise reduction, can filter out more than 100K of noise, and through HP Clear Voice, even if wearing a mask can be clearly picked up.
In the past, the radio and camera function is the most easily overlooked, this 1, 2 years everyone began to understand the importance of home office and video conferencing, HP this is also relatively timely, especially for a four thousand price point office book is also very rare.
Another feature that is easier to overlook, and even HP itself does not pay much attention to, is [HP Flash], that is, the collaborative office function with mobile devices. At present, this kind of collaborative software can be said to be the oldest difficulty in the PC camp, and it is also the place where the fruit ecology is most envied. I deliberately used [Android] and [iPhone] to test the next [HP Flash], the convenience and operability of the collaboration actually exceeded my expectations, on the one hand, they are supported, on the other hand, the operation experience will not be too anti-human, basically the mobile terminal installs a mobile version of the [HP Flash], other operations are similar to the operation mode of AirDrop. The whole process surprised me, but HP itself did not seem to pay special attention to promoting this function, which can be felt from the software function setting level.
The screen part is the same as the battle 66 four generations \ five generations of two generations, with these attributes: support one-handed opening and closing, support 180 ° opening and closing angle, nominal 400nit brightness (actually exceeded), 1w ultra-low power consumption, high color gamut screen.
Looking at these properties alone is not a feeling, but in the daily office you will get the convenience of these. For example, after the 180 ° flat desktop, because the screen is higher than the 400nit brightness, you do not have to worry about the ambient light directly hitting the screen can not see the screen content; this 1w ultra-low-power high color gamut screen, for most of the daily office scenes is also a more practical configuration, on the one hand, reduce power consumption to extend the battery life, the screen itself quality (such as color accuracy) is also good, and low brightness does not flash.
In the same surface light scene, the contrast between the highest brightness and the 300nit brightness screen screen, you can better intuitively understand the difference between high brightness
One-handed opening and closing + facial recognition in one go
The overall screen quality is OK, the only "regret" may be the response speed, but the office machine originally did not care about this
The average value of "color accuracy" is controlled at 0.88, which is excellent.
04/ Strengthen the Balance attribute again
At the time of another platform architecture change, this battle 66 five-generation upgrade plan chose a more conservative and stable plan, that is, to continue to polish its own [equilibrium] attributes. There is no waiting to strengthen the new architecture, but this also ensures the timely supply and maintenance of the original four thousand price positioning range, barely on the new architecture either price increase, or serious castration of other functional configurations, rather than seriously affecting the experience, it is better to simply leave a higher model, or make a distinction.
If you are ready to choose an office book, especially an office book with a limited budget, from the performance performance, expansion potential and current actual convenience of use and other dimensions to compare and weigh, the comprehensive performance of the battle 66 five generation is really a bucket, more importantly, this is still a model that focuses on five thousand price points.
At present, the fifth generation of the War 66 factory directly pre-installs Windows 11 Home Edition and Office 365, eliminating the need for self-upgrade
This side also incidentally combines the pricing of the previous four generations of models, and says that the current Battle 66 fifth generation of a purchase strategy. At present, the price of the fifth generation of war 66 is basically the same as that of the previous generation, R5 high color gamut is from 4299, only R7 high color gamut is 100 more expensive than the previous generation; the size part can be selected according to their own preferences (15.6 is heavier, but the screen is larger and there is a numeric keypad, 14 is lighter and more convenient to go out) The same configuration price; the storage configuration has increased 32G memory, 1T SSD version to choose from, this can be considered according to the current price, anyway, the battle 66 upgrade is simple, and HP after-sales service does not have to worry.
By the way, this mouse made me a little surprised, why? You can understand it as [Fries Version] "anywhere wireless mouse". Support dual-mode three devices (2.4G + dual Bluetooth), more importantly, actually configure the exclusive dual-mode scroll wheel of a factory before, that is, you can switch to the infinite scroll wheel mode, the weight is only 98g, belongs to the category of pinch rats, the specific model is HP Battle X commercial 635 dual-mode mouse.