HP 15-da0053wm ‘Graphite Mist’ 15.6″ Touchscreen Laptop (Intel i5-8250U CPU, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD + 16GB Optane)

The HP 15-da0053wm is a lower mid-range laptop PC with a 15.6″ touchscreen display. For around $500, the 15-da0053wm delivers the excellent Intel Core i5-8250U processor with the basic Intel UHD 620 integrated graphics, a smallish RAM size of 4GB, and a spacious 1-Terabyte hard drive with plenty of storage space. Performance of the hard drive is enhanced using 16GB of Intel Optane memory.

Since it belongs to the budget-class HP 15 notebook series, the 15-da0053wm features a chassis made of plastics (in ‘Graphite Mist’ color). Also, the display is a basic one, although it provides touch input support. The screen has a low-end HD resolution, which is less crisp than Full HD you can find in many mid-range laptops nowadays. Also, the panel features standard viewing angles, as opposed to wide viewing angles of the IPS panels. What’s also missing on the HP 15-da0053wm is keyboard backlight.

The good thing is that the laptop features the Intel Core i5-8250U. It is a very fast quad-core processor for the daily computing duties, like web browsing, Office apps, media playback, and even some basic gaming thanks to its Intel UHD 620 graphics. The chip can also handle very well some advanced tasks like video editing, although heavy duties are not its main purpose. The main downside of the HP 15-da0053wm performance-wise is its small RAM size of 4GB. This means you will have a limited ability to run many programs simultaneously without slowdowns. For comfortable multitasking 8GB or more is recommended. As for storing data, the included 1TB hard drive provides a lot of free space for your files and programs. Hard drives is a slow kind of a storage device, as opposed to the newer solid state drive technology. Thankfully, HP has included 16GB of Intel Optane memory, which provides a speed boost for HDD storage. With Optane, the HDD won’t be as fast as solid state drives for sure, but it will speed up a bit program loading times and other operations involving the HDD. Regarding storage, it’s also worth noting the HP 15-da0053wm has a built-in DVD writer, a feature that is missing on many modern laptops.

According the the laptop’s product page on Walmart, the HP 15 ‘Graphite Mist’ 15-da0053wm delivers a battery life of “up to 10 hours and 15 minutes” with mixed computer usage. However, that estimation should be taken with a grain of salt, because the laptop comes with only a medium capacity battery of 41 WHr.