HP 255 G9 review

Hot out of the oven comes the HP 255 G9. It is a laptop suitable for the home and the office (or the home office), as it features pretty capable hardware at a price, which is almost unbeatable in its class.

But what is its class? Well, it comprises notebooks like the Dell’s Vostro 15 3525, Lenovo’s V15, or Acer’s Aspire 3. As a rule of thumb, budget-friendly devices require a lot of compromises, especially if you want to get decent-enough hardware.

Of course, this is the case here. Knowing that AMD’s RDNA2 graphics architecture will make the Ryzen 6000U processors more expensive, HP picked the Zen 3 refresh CPUs, that AMD released in the first quarter of this year (2022). This includes the Ryzen 3 5425U, Ryzen 5 5625U, and Ryzen 7 5825U.

You should also expect to see a plastic body and lack of some features like a keyboard backlight and more. However, you may be surprised to see that other features previously dubbed “premium” will be present in this notebook.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-250-g9-255-g9/

Contents


Specs Sheet

HP 250 G9 / 255 G9 - Specs

  • AUO AUO499F
  • Color accuracy  10  3.2
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 4000GB SSD + up to 1000GB HDD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro, No OS, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 41Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 357.9 x 242 x 19.8 mm (14.09" x 9.53" x 0.78")
  • Weight
  • 1.74 kg (3.8 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
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD with Temporal Noise Reduction
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

All HP 250 G9 / 255 G9 configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the packaging, we found a paper envelope with all of the guides and manuals. In addition, you get a 45W power adapter.


Design and construction

Like last year, the laptop comes in an all-plastic shell. The dark model features an interesting woven pattern on the surface, while the silver device has a smooth finish on top.

Nevertheless, both units weigh 1.74 kg and have a profile of 19.8mm, which is pretty much the same measurements as last year. Quite expectedly, the structural strength of the lid is not great. On the other hand, the base is considerably tougher, but it produces some gentle squeaks when you attempt to twist it.

Furthermore, the lid cannot be opened with a single hand. The bezels around the screen are pretty thick, with exception of the side ones. It’s good to see that there is an HD Web camera above the matte display.

Moving to the keyboard, we see a unit that lacks a backlight. On the bright side, you get a NumberPad section, large keycaps, and large characters on all keys, which makes up for the lack of a backlight to some extent. What is more interesting, is that the key travel is pretty long, while the feedback is clicky and consistent. Ultimately, this is one of the better units in terms of comfort.

Below the keyboard and on the right side of the palm-rest area, you will find the fingerprint reader. And above the board, there is the power button and a grill hiding the two speakers. In terms of the touchpad, you get a rather small surface with relatively smooth gliding and very accurate and responsive tracking. As you can see, there are a couple of buttons below it. Unfortunately, we find them hard to press, which makes them a bit uncomfortable for daily use.

Since the speakers are at the top, the bottom panel only houses a ventilation grill. The cool air is then pushed through a heat sink to the outside world via a vent on the back of the base.

Ports

On the left side, you will find a LAN port, an HDMI 1.4b connector, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and an Audio jack. Then, on the right, you get the charging plug, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, and an SD card reader. Unfortunately, the single USB Type-C port does not support a DisplayPort output, nor Power delivery functions.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

To access this notebook’s internals, you need to undo two Phillips-head screws. Then, remove the two rubber feet and undo the rest of the Phillips-head screws. After that, open the lid and gently pop the bottom panel with a plastic tool.

Inside, you will see a very familiar 41Wh battery pack. It lasts for 10 hours and 30 minutes of Web browsing, or almost 8 hours of video playback. To take it out, remove the four Phillips-head screws keeping it attached to the chassis.

Memory-wise, there are two SODIMM slots, which work with up to 32GB of DDR4 memory in total. As for the storage, you can see an M.2 PCIe x4 slot for Gen 3 SSDs, and a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay, without the necessary mounting equipment.

In terms of cooling, the laptop has one heat pipe, connected to a pretty big heat sink, where a medium-sized fan blows the heat away.


Display quality

HP 255 G9 is equipped with a Full HD TN panel with model number AUO AUO499F. 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).

As expected from a TN panel – the viewing angles are terrible. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The measured maximum brightness of 220 nits in the middle of the screen and 208 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 13%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6860K – slightly colder than the optimal for 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 low – 450:1.

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 on 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 255 G9’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 50% 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 HP 255 G9 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 = 9 ms.


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 255 G9 doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. This makes it comfortable for long periods of work 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 65.2 GU).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP 255 G9 configurations with 15.6″ FHD (TN, 1920 x 1080) AUO AUO499F.

*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 255 G9’s speakers produce a sound of not very good quality and low volume. On the bright side, the low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-255-15.6-inch-g9-notebook-pc/2101122489

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. Here, the 41Wh battery pack lasts for 10 hours and 33 minutes of Web browsing, or 7 hours and 41 minutes of video playback.

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

HP 255 G9 41Wh, 3-cell
HP 15 41Wh, 3-cell

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.

HP 255 G9 41Wh, 3-cell
HP 15 41Wh, 3-cell

CPU options

As of the time of writing this review, the laptop is offered with the Ryzen 3 5425U, Ryzen 5 5625U, or Ryzen 7 5825U.

HP 250 G9 / 255 G9 CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the HP 250 G9 / 255 G9 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP 250 G9 / 255 G9 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

The only available graphics card here is the one integrated into your processor.

HP 250 G9 / 255 G9 GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the HP 250 G9 / 255 G9 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP 250 G9 / 255 G9 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS62 fps42 fps26 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS85 fps42 fps24 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 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

Well, it’s not like we expected anything else, but the long-load performance of this laptop is not great. However, it remains pretty cool throughout the entire test, which makes us happy enough.

Comfort during full load

Furthermore, the externals don’t heat up too much, even under extreme load conditions. With that said, the fan is the main reason for that to happen, which may result in a bit of noise at some times.


Verdict

See, this may be a media-consumption device, rather than a media-creation one. However, we are not really sure if watching videos or playing games would be a satisfactory experience with this laptop.

HP 255 G9’s TN panel has a Full HD resolution, quick pixel response times, and a flicker-free backlight. Unfortunately, it has all of the negative characteristics of TN panels – low contrast ratio, poor viewing angles, and in this case – low color coverage.

Add to that the abysmal speaker quality, and you would never use your laptop as a preferred method for listening to music or even watching movies. We know that HP had to do a ton of cost-cutting, but speakers should not be overlooked.

On the bright side, the 255 G9 can be purchased with an IPS panel, and we strongly advise doing so, if you are settled for this device of course. Plus, you will have other features to brag about. For instance, this budget-friendly notebook comes with a fingerprint reader.

Also, albeit it lacks a backlight, the keyboard is fantastic for work. It has long key travel, clicky feedback, and is extremely consistent. The NumberPad is big, as are all the keycaps and the characters on top of them. Well, we didn’t particularly like the touchpad, but only because of the too tough to press dedicated buttons below it.

Open the laptop, and you will find two SODIMM slots for up to 32GB of DDR4 memory, and an M.2 PCIe x4 slot. Although the machine supports 2.5-inch storage devices, you will have to find all of the mounting accessories separately.

The port situation on the outside is equally confusing. Yes, there is an SD card reader, as well as two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an HDMI 1.4b connector, a LAN port, and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port. Quite sadly, the last one can only be used for data transfer.

And if you are afraid that your battery will run dry before you finish your workday, rest assured – it will run out. Well, if you are browsing the Web, it may last you about 10 hours and a half, while watching videos will drain it for 7 hours and 41 minutes.

But imagine you are a more hard-working user, and you don’t just watch highlights of the 2016 Formula 1 season when Nico Rosberg beat 7-time World Drivers’ Champion Lewis Hamilton in equal machinery. Instead, you add some e-mails, data analysis, and a presentation or two. Then, you will surely need the 45W charger.

By the way, isn’t it interesting how AMD laptops generally require less power and generate less heat? Well, this is the key to a good budget-friendly laptop. Indeed, Intel’s options are currently better for photo and video editing, but the Zen 3 architecture can still rule in other aspects such as 3D rendering.

So, if it wasn’t for the horrid screen and speaker duo, we would have gladly recommended this piece of machinery. On the other hand, the Lenovo V15 Gen 2 is one of the good alternatives to this laptop.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-250-g9-255-g9/

Pros

  • Low price
  • 2x SODIMM + 1x M.2 PCIe x4 + 1x 2.5-inch SATA drive bay
  • SD card slot
  • No PWM (AUO AUO499F)
  • Good cooling and power efficiency
  • Comfortable keyboard
  • Fingerprint reader


Cons

  • Covers only 50% of sRGB (AUO AUO499F)
  • Narrow viewing angles and low contrast ratio (AUO AUO499F)
  • USB Type-C is only used for data transfer
  • Plastic build
  • Touchpad buttons are slightly uncomfortable

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Ben
Ben
11 months ago

Please, how can I add 2.5-inch SATA SSD to this laptop ? Thank you for the anwser.

Last edited 11 months ago by Ben
Nagy Zoran
Nagy Zoran
1 month ago

Hi for all users!
I have an HP 255 G9 (6A1A7EA) laptop.
The sh*tty HP manufacturer does not provide a SATA cable with this laptop!
Therefore, you have to order a SATA cable “LS-H323P” on AliExpress or Ebay.
I bought it for 12 EUR.
The “LS-H323P” can be used in HP 255 G8 and HP 255 G9 laptops.
NOT good for HP 255 G10 laptop.
With this cable solution you can connect inside in laptop maximum a 2TB SATA HDD or SATA SSD.
F*ck HP manufacturer for this issue!
Greetings from Serbia and Happy warez/hacking/modding!