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The HP Envy 15 2020 edition is one very beautiful machine and it comes as no surprise that HP is positioning this laptop as a direct competitor to the MacBook Pro series. The MacBook Pro has always been a favorite for many content creators. In recent times, however, many PC manufacturers have decided to design laptops specifically for content creators. HP Envy 15 2020 edition is one of those laptops. The question on most content creators’ minds is whether or not, the Envy 15 2020 is the right machine for them.
Specifications
This seems like the right place to start. The HP Envy 15 2020 is a beefy laptop when it comes to performance. In its maximum configuration, it comes with the 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H, the ultimately powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max Q edition with 6GB of VRAM, 16GB of DDR4 memory and 1TB of SSD storage.
Laptop is available with a 4K AMOLED touchscreen. However, you can opt for the UHD graphics 630 screen instead.
The RTX 2060 Max Q edition of graphics card that the HP Envy 2020 comes with is one of the unusual aspects of the laptop. Most laptops in this category like the Dell XPS 15, usually max out at GTX 1650 or 1660Ti. This already makes it one of the very powerful laptops in this category of slim laptops for content creators.
Design
The team at HP in charge of the Envy was definitely going for sleek and stylish design.
The new model is smaller than the previous generation, thanks to its thinner bezels. It however weighs more than the MacBook Pro due to its more powerful processors. HP decided to go for a regular hinge this time as a way of mimicking the simple and more professional look that MacBook laptops convey.
Speaking of hinges, the hp envy only opens to about 140 degrees. For a laptop with an AMOLED touchscreen, you would expect that the laptop will be designed in a way that would allow it turn into a tablet. But I guess, we can never really get the perfect laptop now, can we?
The base of the laptop is made of strong aluminum, similar to the HP Spectre series. In the bid to enhance comfort, the clickpad and palm rest areas are slightly elevated.
Thermals
With all of the power crammed into the small shell of the HP Envy 15 2020, it makes sense that HP would take the cooling of this device very seriously.
Hp decided to go for the recently popular vapor chamber in place of the regular copper pipe-based cooling setup. In a test carried out by Digit website, it was stated that the vapor chamber does a good job of keeping both the CPU and the GPU at acceptable operating temperatures under maximum load.
The HP Envy fans do not run too loud even under maximum load either. There was only was caveat concerning the Envy 15’s thermal test, the aluminum chassis acted as a heat dissipator. Now, while this is good for keeping the laptop cool, it means that the laptop does feel a little bit hot around the center of the keyboard area. Even the palm rest was said to get up to 41.5 degrees Celsius. This temperature is not going to boil a cup of coffee. But it is good to know that the laptop might feel a bit warm under heavy workloads.
I/O and Keyboard
The Envy 15 comes with a white backlit keyboard which seems to be a signature one for the Envy series. The keyboard of the Envy 15 has appropriately sized keys and descent vertical travel distance. The only weird thing about the keyboard might be the replacement of the right ctrl key with a fingerprint sensor.
In terms of I/O, the Envy 15 comes with 2 x thunderbolts 3.0 ports, a full-sized HDMI port, 2 x USB 3.0 ports, 1 x MicroSD card port, and a combined microphone and earphones port. It is important to note that the thunderbolt 3.0 ports do not support power delivery.
Final Verdict
The configuration mentioned above that comes with the 4k AMOLED screen and the RTX 2060 Max Q edition sells for around $1,500. This price point makes the HP Envy 15 2020 a very attractive option for content creators. It offers a lot of the good stuff. If you are convinced you can trade your Macbook for the HP.
