04 Nov
Blog

HP Envy Inspire 7900e Review: A Versatile Office Printer

The HP Envy Inspire 7900e has robust photo printing capabilities.

"The HP Envy Inspire is an excellent home office printer for the hybrid working world."

advantages

  • Strong photo printing performance

  • New sleep mode for almost silent printing

  • Companion app with many functions

  • Versatile workhorse for home office or home use

  • Affordable price

disadvantage

  • Box shape is boring at home

  • No USB port for printing from flash drives

A few years ago it would have been inconceivable that we would still be as dependent on the printed document as we are today. But the reality of working remotely has changed that.

HP's new Envy Inspire series stands out for being the first printer developed by quarantined engineers for anyone who needs to live, study and work from home during the pandemic. Printers have seen a new renaissance in our workflows, and the $ 249 HP Envy Inspire 7900e is a printer that feels like it was made with that reality in mind.

It has some helpful features to keep us productive as the world looks forward to the transition to a hybrid work environment when things return to normal.

draft

Unlike HP's Tango range that blends into your home, the new Envy Inspire doesn't hide the fact that it's a printer with a scanner attached. The Envy Inspire is available in two models: The Envy Inspire 7200e is the more compact version with a flatbed scanner on top, while the higher quality Envy Inspire 7900e, the model we received for review and which comes first on the market, has an automatic document is equipped with a feeder (ADF) with duplex function. The price range starts at $ 179. However, if you have more robust copy or scan needs, we recommend spending an additional $ 70 to upgrade to the Envy Inspire 7900e for $ 249.

Each printer model is available in a range of colors including Everglades in shades of green, Thistle in shades of purple, Cyan Surf Blue, and neutral Portobello. Whichever you choose, the Envy Inspire looks like a printer – no doubt about it.

The HP Envy Inspire 7900e is available in one of four colors.

The hues are applied as accents to add a pop of color to an otherwise bland cream colored box, and on our 7900e we found the Portobello highlights on the ADF and on the paper tray.

With dimensions of 18.11 x 20.5 x 9.17 inches, the 7900e is a practical workhorse for the home office with an ADF on top and a paper compartment with a front loader. The more compact 7200e could pass as the modern and box-shaped version of the HP Envy 6055, while the 7900e series takes inspiration from HP's OfficeJet Pro series.

Like most modern printers, both new Envy Inspire models have a built-in 2.7-inch color touchscreen for accessing printer settings and shortcuts.

Since the Envy Inspire is primarily aimed at home users – families and students – and small home workers, the paper tray is a bit small for the capabilities of this printer. There is a 125-sheet paper tray at the front and bottom of the printer. That's more than double the 50-sheet input tray on the Tango X, but the paper tray leaves something to be desired for small office environments. Most home office printers start at around 200 sheets for the paper input tray, and the HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e comes with a 500-sheet tray. This means that every time you replace the paper when you attempt to input on the Office Jet Pro, you will have to do so four times on the Envy Inspire. Since the Envy Inspire isn't a compact printer at first, we would have liked HP to have increased the overall height of the device slightly to accommodate a larger input tray.

The new sleep mode reduces printing noise by 40%.

A new and much appreciated innovation is that the photo printer tray is a modular add-on that fits right into the paper tray that you load standard 8.5 x 11-inch sheets into. The photo tray can hold borderless prints in standard 4 x 6, square 5 x 5, or panoramic 4 x 12 inches.

Traditionally, most printers have the photo tray on top of the paper tray, but on the outside. Moving the photo tray inward helps prevent dust build-up, especially if you don't print pictures regularly.

HP Envy Inspire Photo Tray.

The biggest design change – and one you can't visually see – with the new Envy Inspire is a new print mode. A new quiet mode reduces noise by 40% by using intelligent algorithms to slow down the printing process for a quieter experience. The mode was developed during quarantine by HP engineers who were disturbed by loud printer noise during conference calls – a disadvantage of having to share the office space with children who had to print homework.

HP claims to have combined the best features of its Tango, OfficeJet, and Envy lines to create the Envy Inspire.

"We built what we believe to be the best printer so families can work, learn, and get creative – to get things done no matter what life has in store," Jeff Walter, HP director of strategy and product marketing, told Digital Trends. "Whatever you need to create, we can help families with it."

Walter added that the Envy Inspire is a product that combines the best writing systems from HP's OfficeJet Pros, the best photo capabilities, and the best app capabilities from the HP Smart app.

power

An app is required to set up the HP Envy Inspire.

The Envy Inspire wasn't built for speed. Unlike office printers, home users do not stand around the printer to access their documents. Still, the Envy Inspire is a rugged printer that can deliver speeds of up to 15 pages per minute (ppm) in color and black and white, with the first page done in just 18 seconds.

The print resolution is up to 1200 x 1200 dots per inch (dpi) for black and white pages and 4800 x 1200 dpi for color prints and photos. Print speeds here were just under the 24 pages per minute output on the HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e, which is one of the best printers on our list this year. Compared to the color speed of 10 pages per minute of the somewhat older HP OfficeJet Pro 8025, the speed of the Envy Inspire wasn't a problem.

To put speeds in perspective, the Envy Inspire's boxier build includes internals that allow it to print at speeds much faster than cuter, design-conscious home printers. The HP Tango X, another high-quality printer, achieves around 10 ppm. Monochrome and 8 ppm about half the speed of the Envy Inspire for color jobs.

Pages per minute is only half of the print speed equation, while the second half depends on how fast the first page can be finished. In my experience, the first page was finished in a little over 15 seconds, and the HP specifications for print speeds were largely correct, with speeds between 12 and 16 pages per minute. Printed text appeared razor sharp and was legible even in small fonts.

Color prints were similarly sharp. Photos printed on Epson glossy photo paper appeared sharp, and the quality – sharpness, tones, and dynamic range – reproduced by HP's Envy Inspire rivaled prints made by the online photo service Shutterfly. Shutterfly's prints appeared a bit warmer compared to HP's photo print rendering. And like Shutterfly, the HP mobile app gives you access to a variety of different templates for creating posters, greeting cards, invitations, and other printable content.

HP's smart app for printing from mobile devices. I can't tell what HP's photo capabilities will be like on HP photo printing paper as none was supplied for this test. In general, most printer manufacturers recommend that you pair their printer with their branded photo paper for the best results. According to HP, the Envy Inspire's new ink technology offers a 40% wider color space and new ink technologies to render lifelike photos.

HP claimed that when printing on 4×6, 5×5, or 4×12 paper, the printer will be smart enough to select the photo paper tray – instead of the standard letter-size paper tray – to print. I couldn't test this feature because I didn't have photo paper of these sizes to test.

While it's admirable that HP is promoting its cloud-based approach to printing, the Envy Inspire could have been easier to set up. Once out of the box, you must download the HP Smart app and follow the instructions to begin printer setup before you can print or make copies. The app guides you through connecting to the printer's ad hoc WiFi network so that you can then connect to your home or office WiFi network. After the printer connects, it will take a few minutes for the printer to update its firmware.

This means that unlike a traditional printer, not only is the overall process a bit complicated, but you also have to use the process dictated by HP before you can do anything with your printer.

Unlike dedicated photo printers, the Envy Inspire doesn't have separate cartridges for color ink. Instead, the printer is powered by two ink cartridges – a black and a combination cartridge with three ink colors for cyan, magenta and yellow.

Both the cartridges and paper must be installed before you can begin setting up the printer. We therefore recommend doing this immediately after taking the printer out of the box and removing all protective films – and there are plenty of them!

The ADF on top of the Envy Inspire 7900e can scan up to 50 pages at a time and handle up to 8.5 "x 14" paper, while the flatbed can handle 8.5 "x 11.7" sheets. The scan resolution is set to 1200 x 1200 dpi and the scan speed is around 8 pages per minute. In addition to using the hardware for scanning, you can also use your smartphone's camera as a scanner with the companion HP mobile app, available on both Android and iOS smartphones.

Duplex scanning, copying and printing can be performed on this printer, which can save you paper if you need to. If you are concerned about saving ink, you can set the printer to print in draft mode. This mode produces lighter prints, but you use less ink and get faster print speeds.

The nice thing about the Envy Inspire is that it has advanced features to simplify your document workflow, making it feel like a more capable office printer. You can set up custom shortcuts to make the printer's tasks easier. For example, small businesses with more extensive accounting needs can program a shortcut to make a physical copy and upload a digital copy of a document to a cloud service such as Google Drive or QuickBooks when they scan a receipt or invoice. In addition to storing documents in the cloud, you can also configure shortcuts to send you the scans by email.

Other useful features include the ability to create printables, which are photo cards and invitations from templates. These are great for handicrafts or for sending a birthday card if, for example, you forgot to pick one up at the supermarket.

Another app function is the ability to send a mobile fax with the app. HP is offering a trial version of its mobile fax service and you can configure it to send a digital fax through the app. The Envy Inspire does not have native fax functionality, and this could be a useful feature when you need to generate a fax.

I really appreciated the new Quiet Mode from HP, which reduces the noise level by about 40% by slowing the printing speed by about 50%.

"When we developed it, it was really interesting … because we developed (Quiet Mode) at a time that we also experienced personally," said Walter. “So if you work from home and there are several people in the house using the printer, for example, you can schedule sleep mode from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. when you might be making Zoom calls and have the printer print 40% quieter during those times . "

HP's new Quiet Mode

Since I don't need a printer to be a speed champion at home, I've generally always kept sleep mode on and not intended for the work day as the system's noise level is noticeable.

"What we're doing is we're essentially slowing a lot of things down and trying to tweak that adjustment to roughly cut the noise in half," Walter explained. “And so we end up slowing it down by about 50%. There are things like, do you know how fast the paper spins? How fast does the cartridge go back and forth? And all of these things produce different decibel levels. And so some things slow down more than others, some adapt more than others, and so we just optimized everything. "

The Envy Inspire's double-sided photo printing is a great addition.

The company stated that sleep mode will not affect print quality, which I think is correct.

For home users who want to print photos or work on scrapbooking projects while locked, the Envy Inspire's double-sided photo printing is a great addition. In addition to printing beautiful photos, the Envy can also extract the removable image file format data from your smartphone's camera to print the geotagged location, date and time on the back of the photo. This makes it easy for you to remember when the store was created. You can also add your own personal note – like "Grandma's 80th Birthday" – as a caption.

For now, the duplex photo printing feature with date, location, and timestamp is limited to the mobile app, but the company is working on bringing it to its desktop software in the future. The reason we rolled out the feature on mobile first is because most of our photos are already on our smartphones, HP said.

The Envy Inspire is designed for PCs and Macs as well as Android and iOS devices. In addition, HP has also worked with Google to make the Envy Inspire the first Chromebook certified printer.

“We have also thought of all the devices that will be in the household,” says Walter. “With more kids doing schoolwork or technology becoming more important to students, we partnered with Google, which has a certification program for Chromebooks. And we made sure that the HP Envy Inspire is the first HP printer to be certified to work with Chromebooks. "

Our opinion

The HP Envy Inspire complements HP's printing universe as a powerful printer for all your home, craft and work projects. With the Envy Inspire, HP not only delivered on its promise to bring the best of inkjet technologies into a single printer, but also created a tool with features that can come in handy as more people, including, work from home during the pandemic a quiet mode and powerful photo functions.

Is there a better alternative?

HP's Envy Inspire uses inkjet printing technology, and the company claims it combines the best of features from the Tango, Envy, and OfficeJet Pro lines. Suitable inkjet alternatives include the HP Tango series. Make sure to check out our recommendations for the best inkjet printers.

If you need a faster printer to process documents, the OfficeJet Pro 9025e from HP is a great alternative. At $ 249, the Envy Inspire 7900e is $ 100 cheaper than the dedicated office range from HP in the test. The hybrid work / home market that the Envy was designed for makes it a more versatile solution as it is designed for printing documents and photos. Moving to the flatbed version of the Envy Inspire – the Envy Inspire 7200e is coming early next year – will make the price even more competitive, as this model is expected to cost $ 179 when it launches.

Budget conscious buyers who are concerned about the price of inkjet printers, printers with refillable ink tanks, like Epson's EcoTank ET3830, will lower your long-term running costs with cheaper, refillable ink tanks.

How long it will take?

The HP printer has a one-year limited hardware warranty that can be extended to two years. The printer benefits from regular software updates to keep it secure and may even add new features over time through the HP Smart Printing app.

Printers are not designed for annual or biennial upgrades like smartphones, and the HP Envy Inspire should last for many years provided you keep getting fresh ink and paper. The company offers a subscription ink service that makes it easy to refill ink, but not paper. A combo subscription to refill ink and photo paper would make this an excellent printer for the craft room, home historian, and budding photographer.

Should you buy it?

Yes sir. If you are looking for a home printer that can print, scan and copy, the HP Envy Inspire is an excellent choice. Unlike Envy printers, the Envy Inspire doesn't reinvent printer design. Instead, HP plays up the utilitarian aesthetic of this printer to deliver a solid all-round workhorse that will blend in well with your home or home office workflow.

Editor's recommendations



21 Aug
Blog

HP Envy 15 (2020) Review: Insanely Fast, Incredible Price

HP Neid 15 2020 review 04

"The HP Envy 15 delivers great performance at a great price."

  • Incredibly strong performance

  • Beautiful and color-accurate AMOLED display

  • Solid build quality

  • Excellent keyboard and touchpad

  • The display supports touch and pen

  • A little stronger than rivals

  • No full size SD card slot

Dell has had great success with its XPS 15 – a sleek, professional laptop with surprisingly high performance. HP has never had its own MacBook Pro 16-inch competitor – at least not in terms of performance.

The HP Envy 15 fills this gap and offers a discount compared to Dell and Apple. My test device is priced at HP.com for $ 1,600, as configured, with a 10th generation Intel Core i7-10750H CPU, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of solid state drive (SSD) storage, 4K AMOLED display, and RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU. A similarly configured XPS 15 will cost you well over $ 2,000 in comparison, and you'll have to upgrade to the even more expensive XPS 17 if you want to customize the graphics.

There has to be a catch, right? After all, it takes more than just performance per dollar to compete against its high-end competitors. I've searched hard for compromises, and while the Envy 15 isn't perfect, HP hasn't cut corners with the Envy 15.

design

Compared to the gemstone-cut HP Specter x360 15 with a tiny bezel, the Envy 15 is a pretty conservatively designed laptop. On its own, the Envy 15 is a pretty attractive 15-inch laptop. Its silver color scheme adorns an aluminum housing that is very robust – cannot bend or bend anywhere. The Envy 15 has just enough chiseled parts to make it unique – like the small indentation between the keyboard deck and the palm rest. It adds some pizzazz, but not so much that it outperforms the Specter for its looks alone. Let's not forget that the Envy 15 is technically a "midrange" laptop, which makes the build quality and size even more impressive.

The Envy isn't a petite laptop. It's a bit big and heavy as you'd expect on a 15-inch all-metal machine, 0.73 "thick (actually not bad for a 15-inch laptop, actually) and 4.75 pounds. The Dell XPS 15 is 0.71 inches thick and 4.5 pounds by comparison.

The Dell XPS 15 also has a slimmer profile, largely thanks to the smaller bezels. The Envy 15's screen-to-body ratio of 82% is a bit lower, partly due to a fairly large chin. Since the XPS 15 uses a display with an aspect ratio of 16:10, the two laptops are similar in size. It's just that the XPS 15 intelligently fills the space with a display instead of a bezel.

While the Envy 15 has some of its own design tricks up its sleeve, the focus is more on performance. It includes hidden rear vents that effectively move air without affecting the look of the back of the laptop. The Envy 15 also has a large pair of feet on the floor that set it off the table more than the competition for extra airflow.

Connectivity is a strength of the Envy 15. You get two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 support, plus a full-size HDMI 2.0 port (updated from HDMI 1.4 on the previous model) so you can connect three displays to the device without a dock . You also get two USB-A 3.1 ports and a microSD card reader. However, HP made a mistake by not including a full-size reader. The target group for the Envy 15 are those who want to quickly transport data directly from their cameras.

Wireless connectivity is up to date thanks to an Intel Wi-Fi 6 chipset and Bluetooth 5.0.

HP also added a nice bonus in the form of a second SSD slot that allows either a RAID configuration or additional storage. When you add a few two terabytes (2 TB) of SSDs, you suddenly have an unusually large amount of storage space, which is especially useful for the creative types.

display

The Envy 15's 4K AMOLED 16: 9 display is spectacular, according to my colorimeter – although you can save some money by resorting to a Full HD option. The AMOLED panel is bright at 404 nits (and the anti-glare function makes it appear even brighter), has an incredible contrast at 404,410: 1 (the best IPS displays come in at around 1500: 1) and its gamma is just right at 2.2. That makes it a dream machine for productivity and multimedia watchers. Turn on HDR and you've got one of the best Netflix experiences out there with black text on a white background. As a writer, I just love this role. These results are on par with the best you can find, including the Dell XPS 15 and MacBook Pro 16-inch. Their IPS displays are similarly bright, but cannot come close in terms of contrast.

The Envy 15's display is also great for developers who HP is targeting with all this performance. The color gamut is very large with 100% of sRGB and 97% of AdobeRGB. The XPS 15 does a little better with exactly 100% of both color spaces in the color gamut. The Envy 15 also has an excellent color accuracy of 0.73 (the human eye can't see anything below 1.0), again just slightly behind the 0.37 of the XPS 17 and 0.65 of the XPS 15.

Most importantly, for the first time ever, HP has a machine that has both the power and the display to compete with the world's best creative laptops. There's no such thing as an HP Specter laptop with 45-watt CPUs, powerful GPUs, and color-calibrated displays. The Envy 15 is the first consumer laptop from HP that puts it all together into a truly competitive package.

The display is also touch and pen enabled, which is an added bonus. Writing on a clamshell laptop display isn't easy, but the feature is there when you need it.

I'll note here that the Envy 15's HDR support is also better than the 2019 Specter x360 15 with AMOLED (I didn't get a chance to test the 2020 version). For the best HDR performance in Netflix, turn on HDR in display settings. Unlike the Specter, this doesn't completely change the overall quality of the display. There's a small drop in color saturation, but it's not dramatic, and Netflix HDR looks great with "true" HDR enabled. This is a benefit of HP's current AMOLED – it supports VESA DisplayHDR and Windows 10 seems to handle it better than before. It's still not as good as the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme's Dolby Vision HDR, which in my experience is the best HDR you'll find on a laptop.

Audio is provided by two upward-facing speakers on either side of the keyboard. The volume wasn't impressively loud, but very clear and without distortion. There was more bass than you would expect and the mids and highs were pleasant. You could watch Netflix on the Envy 15 and not crave headphones as long as you just listen. It still may not match what Apple achieved with its MacBooks, but the Envy 15's speakers aren't bad.

performance

The Envy 15 is HP's shot over laptops like the XPS 15 and 17 that is also aimed at creative people. Therefore the laptop has to be fast.

The problem is that the Envy 15 uses a slower processor than the XPS 15 and XPS 17 – at least based on the units we tested. The Core i7-10750H has two fewer cores and four fewer threads than the Core i7-10875H in the Dells, which puts the Envy 15 at a disadvantage in many content creation applications.

This disadvantage is most evident in Geekbench 5 and Cinebench R20, where the multi-core performance was only tested 27% behind the XPS 15. The XPS 17 is of course even faster. The Envy 15 naturally handles the processor it has chosen quite well, just like other Core i7-10750H laptops we tested.

However, it comes down to performance in practice. That's why I switched to the Handbrake video coding application. Limited to the CPU only, I converted a 420MB video to H.265 and the Envy 15 was ready in a little under two and a half minutes. This is comparable to the XPS 15 in just over two minutes and the XPS 17 in just under two minutes. The ROG Strix G15 with the i7-10750H lasted three seconds longer than the Envy 15.

Finally, I ran our Premiere Pro video rendering test which exported a two minute 4K project to ProRes 422. During this process, both the CPU and the GPU can be used together, allowing a graphics card like the RTX 2060 Max-Q to be bent. It took the Envy 15 just five minutes and a second to complete the test in standard mode. Compare that to the XPS 17, which lasted three minutes and 38 seconds – that's a faster score than recorded in our XPS 17 test because that test used the latest and much faster version of Premiere Pro. Given the price difference and the fact that the XPS 17 uses a faster processor, this is an impressive feat for the Envy 15.

I also tested the HP Command Center software, which has different performance modes. By default, the company sets the Envy 15 to be relatively quiet and run relatively cool. This is how I did all of the above tests. When you really need to get the best possible performance out of the system, performance mode makes a big difference. Other laptops have similar utilities, but I've found HPs to be particularly aggressive. The setting didn't affect performance on synthetic benchmarks, but it did increase Handbrake and Premiere performance on the XPS 17. Given the price difference, this is an impressive result.

Play

HP doesn't advertise the Envy 15 as a gaming laptop, but if you have an RTX 2060 Max-Q inside, there's no reason not to use it. And in our series of gaming reviews, it quickly became clear that the Envy 15 is a good mid-range slot machine.

I ran our tests at 1080p and 4K as 1440p wasn't an option in this driver set. And that's probably fine since 1080p is probably where you want to play your games.

Starting with the synthetic 3DMark benchmark, the Envy 15 achieved 5,123 points in the most demanding Time Spy test, which is slightly behind the 5,801 of the XPS 17 with its RTX 2060. As we'll see, these two machines are pretty evenly matched in terms of performance to run today's modern titles, with the XPS 17 having a slight edge.

In Civilization VI, the Envy 15 achieved 121 frames per second (fps) at 1080p and medium graphics, compared to the XPS 17 at 143 fps and the XPS 15 with its GTX 1650 Ti at 114 fps. Interestingly, the Envy 15 managed 100 fps in ultra graphics compared to the XPS 17 with 90 fps and the XPS 15 with 64 fps. The Envy 15 also beat the XPS 17 and 15 when gaming in 4K resolution.

In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the Envy 15 hit the sweet spot at 60 fps at 1080p and high graphics, compared to the XPS 17 at 61 fps and the XPS 15 at 47 fps. Finally, the Envy 15 was able to play Fortnite at 1080p and Epic at 84 fps, while the XPS 17 hit 82 fps. This allows both laptops to maintain a solid 60 fps in Fortnite unless you jump up to 4KB with both dropping to around 30 fps.

Of course, none of these frame rates above 60 fps are of any use to you, as the Envy 15's screen is locked with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. It also doesn't include anti-screen-tearing technology like G-Sync or FreeSync. As with many of these productivity-oriented computers, casual gaming is fine, but a suitable gaming laptop with a higher refresh rate provides a far smoother gaming experience.

Keyboard and touchpad

Apple's Magic Keyboard on the latest MacBooks is the best laptop keyboard out there. Still, the HP keyboard, which has moved from the Specter to the Envy range, is my second favorite. There's a lot of traveling and just the right balance between a light touch and a snappy feeling with a confident ground movement. The mechanism is perfect for me so that I can instantly update myself and type for hours without getting tired.

I like the keyboard on the XPS 15 and some other laptops (I'm thinking of the Lenovo ThinkPad range), but I prefer the HP version over any other Windows 10 laptop. I'm delighted to see that HP isn't reserving the keyboard for the Specter range, and I'll find that you can get the same for the HP Envy x360 13, which is well under $ 1,000.

Interestingly, the Envy 15's touchpad is better than that of the Specter x360 15. It's not the same widescreen version, which means it's bigger and takes up a lot more palm-rest space. It's glass-covered and very convenient to scroll and swipe. It also supports Microsoft's Precision touchpad drivers and all Windows 10 multi-touch gestures. It's as good as a touchpad on a Windows 10 laptop.

As mentioned earlier, the display is touch sensitive and as precise as ever. If you want to use HP's active pen with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, you have this option too. The passwordless login for Windows 10 Hello takes place via a fingerprint scanner, which is located in the keyboard next to the arrow keys – and works quickly and without errors.

Battery life

Pack that much power into a laptop and equip it with a low-power AMOLED display (which can be aided by using a dark color scheme since AMOLED uses the least power when the screen is high in black), and you won't going to expect a lot of longevity. This also applies to a battery capacity of 83 watt hours.

According to our standard benchmark tests, that's exactly what we saw. In our most demanding Basemark web benchmark test, the Envy 15 lasted almost exactly three hours. That's not terrible for such a powerful laptop, but it does mean that if you're really putting a strain on the CPU and GPU, you'll likely run out of battery life well before lunch. Interestingly, the XPS 15 with 86 watt hours of battery and the XPS 17 with 97 watt hours did not do better. The XPS 17 lasted six minutes less and the XPS 15 16 minutes longer.

The 4K screen means you need to have the charger close at hand.

In our web browser test, which is the best indicator of productivity, the Envy 15 lasted around 6.75 hours, which is not particularly long. Once again, the XPS 15 and 17 were close together, with the XPS 17 running 19 minutes less and the XPS 15 happening 19 minutes longer. Finally, I looped the laptop through our Full HD Avengers test trailer and it took about eight hours. And you guessed it – the XPS 15 was close again with 30 minutes less. The XPS 17 did it more than an hour longer.

The bottom line is that these powerful, creative laptops with low-power displays probably won't keep you actually working for an entire day. You want to carry your charger around with you. This is quite a task as they are pretty large power bricks. But that's the price you pay for fast laptops with beautiful displays.

Our opinion

The HP Envy 15 is the company's fastest consumer laptop and the one that best meets the needs of creative professionals with high work demands. Really, it's not even close – if you want similar or greater performance, you'll have to switch to HP's commercial line, especially the workstations. And the Envy 15 does its job well – it's fast, it can be configured with even faster components if you are looking to spend more, and it offers the type of display that fits all creative needs.

The Specter line is great for productivity users and those who value good looks and a smaller case. But it's the Envy 15 that makes power users happy – for hundreds of dollars less than they spend on competitive laptops.

Are there alternatives?

The Dell XPS 15 and Dell XPS 17 both offer the same or better performance with great displays and are equally good for creative workflows. But you'll be spending a lot more money, getting a little more class, and a more useful 16:10 display, but not much more.

If you're not a creative professional and want a 15-inch laptop with more flexibility and panache, the HP Specter x360 15 is a good alternative. You'll spend similar money and have an option for an equally great AMOLED display, but you won't get anywhere near the performance.

Don't forget the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme and the MacBook Pro 16-inch. These, too, can be configured with the same powerful components, and both provide superior displays. However, as with the XPS options, be prepared to spend a lot more money.

How long it will take?

The Envy 15 is well built and should last for years. However, we would like the guarantee to be longer than a year.

Should you buy it?

Absolutely. If you're looking for a laptop that can handle demanding creative tasks at a cheaper price, the Envy 15 is the one for you.

Editor's recommendations




06 Jul
Blog

HP Envy x360 13 Review: AMD Ryzen Cranks Up the Value

HP Envy x360 13 Ryzen Review 01

HP Envy x360 13 review: AMD Ryzen 4000 increases the value

"The HP Envy x360 13 is a midrange laptop that doesn't compromise despite its low price."

  • Slim and attractive

  • Superior typing experience

  • Excellent performance

  • Balanced port selection

  • Well built

  • Battery life delays

  • Pen not included

Better performance at a lower price? Laptops aren't usually sold like this, but that's exactly what the new HP Envy x360 suggests.

The HP Envy line has played the second violin after the company's premium Specter laptops. It was the option in the middle area and has always led to corner cuts. No more.

The new Envy x360 13 with Ryzen 4000 CPUs is a typical example of this and promises better performance than the corresponding Specter at a lower price. I looked at an $ 860 configuration with a Ryzen 5 4500U CPU, 8 GB RAM, a 256 GB solid-state drive (SSD), and a low-power, Full HD display (1,920 x 1,080).

Although not perfect, I knew that as soon as I held the Envy x360 in my hands, my expectations for a laptop at this price had to change.

design

The Envy x360 13 is an all-metal laptop made of punched aluminum in the elegant color Midnight Black, which is also available with the Specter x360 13. The difference is that the Specter is made of aluminum, but you won't see the difference. Hold them side by side. The build of the Envy x360 exudes quality and thanks to some reductions in the Envy bezel, both feel very small for 13-inch laptops.

Compared to competitors in its price range, the Envy x360 stands out. The materials are far better than a laptop like the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 made of plastic (and much larger). Although this laptop is about $ 200 cheaper, it uses the same Ryzen 5 processor and has the same 2-in-1 functionality.

The Envy x360 is also fairly thin and light. At 0.65 inches, it's thinner than the Specter x360 at 0.67 inches and at 2.92 inches, slightly heavier than 2.88 pounds. The Envy x360 is smaller than the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, which is 0.82 inches thick and 3.3 pounds. And compared to the previous version of the Envy, HP has done a remarkable job by squeezing more computers into a thinner case – the Envy definitely intervenes in the Specter x360's space when you look at the overall design.

As a 2-in-1 device, the Envy x360 feels robust in all four modes – clamshell, tent, media and tablet. The hinge works smoothly, but holds the screen in place with little wobble when you move it. It's not quite as tight as the Specter x360, but it's better than the IdeaPad Flex 5. Again, the delta between the Premium Specter x360 and the Envy x360 is smaller than expected in the middle.

The HP Envy x360 13 isn't nearly as extravagant as the gem-cut Specter, but it's still an attractive laptop. Let's call it elegant rather than luxurious – its lines are clean and streamlined, giving it a coherent design that looks great from every angle. Compared to the boring Lenovo Flex 5 14 Ryzen, the Envy is the more sophisticated laptop.

Connectivity is about what to expect from a thin and light machine. There are two USB-A 3.1 ports to support older devices that are easy to get, as well as a microSD card reader and a USB-C 3.2 port (which charges the laptop despite the proprietary connector).

performance

AMD's Ryzen 4000 chips were very impressive. Every laptop we tested with the CPU, including some budget models, performed much better than the 10th generation Intel alternatives. Whether you're talking about Ice Lake or Comet Lake, there's a Ryzen 4000 chip that does it – you need to jump on 45-watt Intel parts to get better performance.

The HP Envy x360 13 also performed well, though not as quickly as some other Ryzen machines. In Geekbench 5, for example, 1,101 points were scored in the single-core test and 4,485 points in the multi-core test. This is comparable to the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 with the same Ryzen CPU from 1,096 and 4,543. In comparison, the Acer Spin 3 with a 10th generation Intel Core i5-1035G1 scored 1,215 and 3,615 points, which is slightly faster in single-core mode and much slower in multi-core mode. The Specter x360 13 with a Core i7-1065G7 scores 1,164 and 3,981 points and makes the Envy the faster sibling.

The Envy x360 13 isn't the fastest Ryzen 4000 system, but it still beats most Intel systems.

When switching to our handbrake test, which encodes a 420 MB video as H.265, the Envy x360 13 took just under three minutes. It's quick, even though the IdeaPad Flex 5 was 16 seconds faster. I tried HP Performance Mode in the Command Center utility and found that the IdeaPad only takes five seconds less time. Compare these results to laptops like the Microsoft Surface Book 3 13 with a Core i7-1065G7 that took about four and a half minutes. Note that the Acer Swift 3 with the Ryzen 7 4700U was only about 10 seconds faster, which means that the Ryzen 5 4500U is a good sweet spot for this kind of performance. When comparing the Envy x360 with the Specter x360, the Envy was even a full minute faster, even when the Specter was running in performance mode.

The Envy x360 13 may not be the fastest Ryzen 4000 system we've tested, but it still beats most Intel systems. You will find it great for demanding productivity work and even for some creative apps if necessary. Just don't plan on gaming – you get performance that is little better than Intel's new Iris Plus graphics and far less than a discrete GPU.

display

HP equipped my test device with its energy-saving 400-nit Full HD IPS display (1,920 x 1,080). This is an upgrade of $ 50 over the standard-performance 300-nit Full HD display. You can spend $ 60 more on the latest HP screen technology that hides the screen from the sides. I like the display that HP chose for the Envy x360 13. It is bright at 399 nits and has a large contrast at 1110: 1 (we like to see a contrast at 1000: 1 or more). The color gamut is only average at 71% sRGB and 96% sRGB – for premium laptops – and the accuracy is not the best at 2.26 (1.0 or less is considered excellent).

This is much better than the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 with an accuracy of 47% AdobeRGB, 63% sRGB and 3.0. This display was also weak at 242 nits and suffered from poor contrast at 770: 1. The display alone is one reason why you want to spend the additional $ 200 on the Envy x360 13 over its Ryzen 4000 competitor.

The Envy's display isn't quite as good as some other laptops. For example, the Full HD display of the Dell XPS 13 Clamshell had better colors at 77% AdobeRGB and 97% sRGB, more accurate colors at 1.53 and a higher contrast ratio of 1440: 1. At 377 nits, however, it was not quite as bright can get the same display as the Envy of the Specter x360 13, and the premium device also offers a 4K OLED display with absolutely spectacular colors and contrasts. This is a checkbox that the Envy x360 cannot tick.

I enjoyed this display in everyday use. It was bright enough and the contrast made black text stand out against a white background. Colors may not be good enough for professional photo and image editors, but they don't prevent me from viewing pictures or viewing Netflix.

After all, the speakers shooting down were surprisingly loud without distortion. That was a nice surprise. The bass was missing, but the mids and highs were clear, and I could rely on the speakers when I listened casually. I pulled out my headphones for action films and music – but that applies to almost all laptops with the exception of Apple's MacBooks.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboards of the HP Specter x360 laptops are my second favorite behind Apple's fantastic new Magic keyboard on the latest MacBooks. They have plenty of travel and nice big keycaps well spaced, and the mechanism has a click that avoids any hint of bottoming. I can type on these keyboards as quickly as I can on any other keyboard, including Apple's. Why do I mention the more expensive Specter keyboard? Because as far as I can tell, the Envy x360 is exactly the same keyboard. HP has again removed a key differentiator between these two computers.

The Envy x360's touchpad is also similar to that of the Specter, although its surface is not quite as smooth. However, it does support Microsoft's Precision Touchpad protocol, so multi-touch gestures work perfectly. Interestingly, I prefer the click of the Envy touchpad to that of the Specter – it's softer and more confidence that a button was actually pressed.

The Envy x360, of course, has a touch display that's 2-in-1, and it works almost always. It also supports the latest pen protocol from Microsoft, which promises a longer battery life (up to 30 days) and a more natural tilt function for the 4,096 pressure sensitivity levels. And yes, you guessed it, that's something the Specter doesn't have – even though the pen isn't included in the Envy.

Finally, next to the arrow keys, there is a fingerprint scanner in the keyboard that works perfectly. However, Windows Hello about facial recognition is not included, as is the case with more expensive laptops. The Envy x360 has a privacy screen for the webcam. Unlike the Specter, however, it is a physical cover that is activated by pressing a special key on the keyboard. It is neat to see how the cover appears when you press the button.

There is also a special button to mute the microphone, another data protection function that has been taken over by the Specter line.

Battery life

The jury is not yet sure how efficient the Ryzen 4000 is, but it looks like the Intel chips haven't hit yet. The Envy x360 13 has a battery life of 51 watt-hours and a low-power display that has given some other laptops a spectacular battery life. Still, the results of envy weren't at the top of our list.

In the web browser test, which is the best indicator of how long the battery is performing typical productivity tasks, the Envy lasted just over nine hours. That's a good score, but well below the 12 hours of the Dell XPS 13. The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, which lasted almost eight hours, was outperformed.

The Envy lasted almost four hours in our demanding Basemark web benchmark test. This is also a strong score, but was solidly beaten by the 4.7 hours of the XPS 13. The IdeaPad Flex 5 lasted only eight minutes less. In our video test, which replayed a local video clip, the Envy lasted 13 hours compared to the 14.5 hours of the XPS 13 and the 11 hours of the IdeaPad Flex 5. This is the only test in which the low-power Display demonstrated its worth.

Overall, the Envy x360 13 is likely to give you full-day productivity as long as you don't put too much strain on the Ryzen CPU. I suspect the 10th generation Intel CPUs are a bit more efficient than the Ryzen 4000 series, but I can't prove that – we still don't have enough data.

Our opinion

The HP Envy x360 13 creates a mystery for HP. It's faster than the more expensive Specter x360 13 and almost as well built. If you're not looking for a 4K display, I can't give a good reason to spend more on a Specter. That's a relatively high praise for the Envy and makes it a great 2-in-1 device at a medium price.

The Envy really doesn't have many weaknesses, although battery life wasn't the greatest strength and it's a shame that the pen isn't included. It's simply a well-designed 2-in-1 device that meets the needs of most people who want to spend around $ 1,000 on a machine. You can even configure up to $ 550 if you really want to save costs.

Are there alternatives?

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 is a close competitor and costs around $ 200 less. It has the same Ryzen CPU and slightly faster performance. However, the battery life is not that long and the screen quality is lower.

The Lenovo Yoga C640 is another great option from just $ 600. The Intel Core i3 is a pretty big step back in terms of performance, but in return you get a significantly better battery life.

The HP Specter x360 13 offers improved aesthetics and the ability to configure a 4K display. As configured (though with a slower Intel CPU and 512 GB of memory), it's about $ 300 more expensive, and adding the 4K display adds another $ 200 to the price.

How long it will take?

The Envy x360 13 is built well enough to last as long as you need it, and its performance will keep up for years to come. By integrating Thunderbolt 3, you can connect modern peripheral devices. However, the 1 year warranty is typical and disappointing.

Should you buy it

Yes. The Envy Envy x360 13 is a slim, well-built and fast 2-in-1 device that feels far more valuable than the price suggests.

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