The Envy 14 is an Ultrabook with massive potential in the HP series. This laptop that captures unique materials and premium features in its 14-inch size. It is different from the previous entries and might become one of the best selling laptop models in the HP lineup.
The Build
The easiest thing to notice when you see HP envy is the premium packaging. It comes with a gorilla glass that covers the whole screen, the palm rest, and the touchpad. Although the but in this is that you have to constantly deal with smudges and visible fingerprint stains. The screen is a feature that is easily noticeable and impressive on this laptop, it is a 1600×900 full LCD panel that gives the laptop a beautiful brightness.
Keyboard
The keyboard is pretty comfortable for long period typing, it has a full-function row and backlight, and the trackpad is an all-glass with good gestures, recessed clicks, and tracking. It has a good combination of a solid keyboard, a wonderful screen and trackpad, and all outputs and inputs you are going to need.
Connectivity
The Envy 14 is an excellently designed flexible laptop with the SD card slot, a headphone, and microphone port, an Ethernet jack, a USB 3.0 and 2.0 port, the video-out DisplayPort option, and the HDMI on the left. It has the analog-rocker dial with a radiant beats logo on the right. On either side, you would see the beats equalizer-button, a mute button, a power jack, and two indicator lights.
Software
The HP Envy 14 has Windows 7 Home Premium and it is the 64-bit version. The usual HP software is present along with Microsoft Office, Bing Bar and Silverlight, the HP Movie Store, Adobe’s Photoshop Elements, and the Premiere Elements that comes without a fee.
The windows that come with the HP are not to be upgraded, as it is neither recommended nor supported. This is because of the latest Gen processor and its huge amount of RAM. This software is fast and responsive, especially when it comes to an untampered installation.
Performance
The HP Envy 14 is equipped with 4GB DDR3 RAM along with a 128GB SSD and 1.6Ghz Intel Core i5 processor. It is not possible to pack discrete graphics in the Ultrabook build yet and this makes it impossible to play high-end games on it, although the Intel HD-3000 series would handle simple and older games. However, the processor is enough of simple tasks.
The time for boot up is swift, and if you do the cold boot, the windows log-in screen comes on in like 20 seconds. It has instant sleep restores as a result of its premium quality SSD.
However, if these options don’t suit your needs, you can go for models with a higher configuration that has the Core i7 CPU, 256GB SSD, but maintains 4GB RAM.
Battery and Media
For media options that require a disc, the HP Envy 14 does not give many options because of its small form factor. However, that aside, it is what you want entertainment-wise. Thit combines the premium screen, the beat audio, and wonderful speakers to create a wonderful experience for music and streaming videos. If you are a constant user, the HP Envy 14 would give you a better option for music and movies with its DisplayPort and a full-sized HDMI-out.
One would have a poor expectation regarding the battery due to the high-resolution screen and powerful processor. However, this is not so. It is not the best when it comes to battery life, but it will go a long way in a regular work session. The HP Envy 14 adapters continue to have three-prong plugs, which is quite underwhelming but it also comes with the USB charging port, built-in so you can charge your phone without having to turn on your computer.
The HP Envy 14 can last up to 16.5hours on a charge, and HP claims that the fast charge feature will enable the battery to go from 0 to 50% in 30 minutes and that is very impressive.
Final Verdict
The Envy 14 sits among the best Ultrabooks according to reviews. It could be an alternative to the MacBook Pro for windows users with its unique features. It has a great performance, a unique style, a high-resolution screen, lots of ports, and if you do not need the disc drive, you have nothing to worry about.
Generally, it runs well. However, the multitouch controls gesture is inconsistent, especially when you want to scroll with two fingers. Overall, the HP Envy 14 seems to have a lot of potentials.
