Windows Seven HP Envy 14 Review - ComputerShopper.

Pattern Micro 32-Bit Editors'
Rating



The laser-etched pattern around the lid is fashionable and helps preserve the Envy 14 from looking a lot of like a MacBook Professional clone—though the light-up HP emblem isn’t exactly an original notion.

The Envy 14’s keyboard is fantastic, with well-spaced keys and comfortable important motion.

The right side features combo USB/eSATA, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, Ethernet, and electrical power connectors, as well as a lock slot.

The left facet sports the slot-loading DVD generate, a pair of USB ports, a combo headphone/microphone jack, plus a separate headphone jack.

The backlit keyboard is helpful for nocturnal typing.
HP Envy 14 ten Fashionable; stellar audio; excellent keyboard; outstanding functionality No Blu-ray drive alternative; extra-cost dongle necessary to output to VGA projectors The Envy 14 delivers top-notch functionality, styling that could produce a MacBook Pro fan jealous, outstanding multimedia, and an great keyboard—all at a reasonable price tag.
Price (at time of critique): $1,289.99 (immediate, as examined)
Crucial Specs Processor: two.66GHz Intel Core i5-450M two.40GHz (Turbo Boost)
Memory: 4GB RAM
Storage: 500GB challenging drive
Optical Drive: 8x slot-loading dual-layer DVD writer
Screen: 14.five inches (one,600x900 native resolution)
Graphics: Integrated Intel Hd graphics and ATI Mobility Radeon Hd 5650 (1GB, switchable)
Bodyweight: 5.2 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): one.11x14.01x9.33 inches
1.11x14.01x9.33 inches: Windows 7 Residence Top quality (64-bit)
HP Envy 14 Assessment Reviewed by: Denny Atkin
Review Date: August 2010
When we reviewed HP’s first-generation Envy fifteen very last year, we have been impressed with its chic, high quality building and exceptional functionality but disappointed with its absence of an internal optical push and its inadequate battery lifestyle. HP’s newest entry within the line, the Envy 14, addresses these grievances head on, preserving the exceptional overall performance and durable design and style in the original, whilst packing an optical drive and much-improved battery daily life in one with the most fashionable and comfortable Windows notebooks we’ve examined up to now.
There’s no denying the MacBook Pro should have motivated the Envy 14’s layout crew. Its laser-etched, aluminum lid with light-up emblem, black-framed glossy LCD, backlit Chiclet keyboard resting inside a sculpted depression, rounded edges, and buttonless touch pad are all really reminiscent of Apple’s high-end notebooks. It is not a slavish duplicate, even so. The largely aluminum scenario is not of unibody construction—the bottom is black plastic—and on this latest revision HP gave up on attempting to cram each of the ports onto 1 facet and rather provided some connectors lacking on earlier Envy types. All round, the design and style is tasteful, elegant, and sensible, and it feels very sound and long lasting. Measuring one.11x14.01x9.33 inches and weighing in at 5.two lbs, it’s a bit scaled-down as opposed to Envy 15 (although it's the exact same pounds), despite the addition from the optical push and beefier battery.
The 14.5-inch LED-backlit display screen is extremely crisp and vibrant. Though the stock Envy ships having a one,366x768-pixel display screen, our design was equipped using the roomy optional Radiance Infinity HD+ one,600x900 show. The text is smallish within the higher-res show, but it’s sharp sufficient that even modest fonts are easy to go through. The show incorporates a vast coloration gamut, and we could see a vibrance and richness in digital photographs and DVD playback that’s not normal of a notebook at this value level. In reality, viewing DVDs utilizing the slot-loading 8x DVD author had us wishing HP supplied a Blu-ray drive option for your Envy 14. Unfortunately, you will need to select the much bigger Envy 17 if you'd like hi-def capability. Also, although the display seems to be wonderful,Windows Seven, as with most glossy screens, it demonstrates reflections in the glass; we’d love to find out HP provide a matte alternative.
The Envy 14’s Beats audio method is similarly outstanding and it is 1 location where the Envy clearly outdoes the MacBook Professional. HP isolated the audio components around the motherboard in order to avoid the interference which will consequence in static on some PCs,Office 2007, and in addition, it added an amplifier and DSP to improve and enhance the audio. The outcomes around the built-in speakers are incredibly good—volume and clarity are far previously mentioned common for the dual-speaker notebook. Plug the Envy 14 into external speakers or a good set of headphones, though, and you are going to locate the audio is practically nothing quick of astounding. Even on affordable earbuds, the audio clarity and punch of our tunes was drastically much better than we’d expect from a notebook. Pressing Fn-B to toggle off the Beats enhancements reveals that the program is adding important depth and additional bass towards the audio.
The exceptional Chiclet keyboard has excellent response,Genuine Office Standard 2010, very good spacing between keys, and is quite at ease to kind on. The keyboard now features a backlight, which may be toggled employing a function key. The purpose keys double as media controls; you hit Fn in combination with them to enter an actual F1-F12 important press.


The large touch pad supports a variety of multi-touch gestures for scrolling, zooming, and rotating images; additionally, it adds new three-finger press and flick options for quick-launching applications and navigating Web pages. The lower third with the pad integrates the mouse buttons; just press down the left or proper sides to make selections.
The before Envy fifteen had a limited number of ports because HP crammed each of the ports along one side. By spreading them out on both sides, the selection is much far better within the Envy 14. The number of USB 2.0 ports has been upped from two to three, one of which doubles as an eSATA port. You’ll also find HDMI and mini-DisplayPort outputs,Office Professional 2007 Sale, a Gigabit Ethernet connector, an SD/MMC slot, and both a headphone jack along with a headphone-out/microphone-in combo jack. Wireless support includes Bluetooth and dual-band (2.4 and five.8GHz) 801.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. There’s also a extremely very good Hd webcam, which includes auto face-detection, great low-light efficiency, along with a built-in microphone. The a single thing you might miss if you use your notebook for presentations is a VGA monitor output. If you use VGA projectors, you’ll want to purchase an HDMI-to-VGA adapter cable, available being a $50 choice from HP, or for considerably less elsewhere. (Even Apple only charges $29 for a single.)


This notebook is just as ######y around the inside as the outside. It is powered by a 2.4GHz Core i5-450M processor (supporting up to two.66GHz in Turbo Enhance mode), backed by 4GB of DDR3 RAM, with 6GB and 8GB configurations available. It includes an ATI Mobility Radeon Hd 5650 graphics processor with 1GB of DDR3 video memory for games and other demanding 3D applications; the notebook can automatically revert towards the slower stock Intel High definition graphics developed into the motherboard chipset to save battery life. (This is known as switchable graphics, but as far as implementation is concerned, this will be the least intuitive. Other switchable graphics options use a hardware switch or do so automatically.) There’s a speedy 500GB, seven,200-rpm hard push for storage, in addition to the aforementioned slot-loading 8x DVD burner. (The inclusion from the optical generate means the second inner push selection found within the Envy 15 is lacking here.)


There’s a single further difference inside the hardware, compared with all the Envy 15, which bears mentioning: While the Envy fifteen would toast your lap with intensive use, the Envy 14 remains cool within the outside even when gaming and editing videos. The fan, which is nearly silent at idle, does get noticeably audible when the laptop is working tough, but furthermore, it does its job nicely and keeps the Envy 14 from heating up.
The Envy 14 turned in impressive final results on our benchmark tests. It did nicely on our PCMark Vantage benchmark test, which measures all round method functionality with productivity programs. Its score of 6,185 around the 64-bit version in the test beat its Core i7-powered Envy fifteen predecessor’s score of 5,243 and was also substantially faster than five,734 scored by the Toshiba Satellite M645, a similar 14-inch, Core i5 consumer notebook that sells for $1,049.
The Envy 14’s Core i5 CPU also turned in great numbers on our media-centric tests. It completed our Windows Media Encoder test, which measures the speed of converting a video file to a new format, in 3 minutes and 59 seconds, nearly tying (by one second, give or take) the Core i7-powered Envy 15 and the Toshiba M645. It did even better on our iTunes conversion test, converting 11 songs from MP3 to AAC format in 3 minutes, 11 seconds, compared to 3:49 for the Envy fifteen, and 3:fifteen for that Toshiba M645.
On our Cinebench test, which taxes all the available cores of the CPU, the Envy 14 held it own, marginally beating out the category typical for other 64-bit notebooks, having a score of 8,159 but this time,Microsoft Office 2007 Product Key, falling behind its closest competitors, which managed 8,348 (Toshiba M645) and 9,896 (HP Envy 15). The regular 64-bit score is 6,810, showing the Envy 14 has the mettle to multitask and deliver on CPU-intensive chores, even however it is not best-in-class.


The ATI Mobility Radeon Hd 5650 chip offers quite very good 3D functionality. Its score of five,967 on our 3DMark 06 benchmark at native resolution isn’t best-in-class, but it is double the average for other thin-and-lights examined this year, and it’s plenty fast to play modern games like Starcraft II smoothly and with a great level of detail. On our Company of Heroes DirectX 9 test, the Envy 14 managed a smooth 50fps at native resolution; that dropped to a still-playable 27.1fps in DirectX 10 mode.
The Envy 14 lasted an impressive 3 hours and 17 minutes on our DVD rundown test, a substantial improvement over the Envy 15’s embarrassingly limited one:04 consequence. This is a tad quick from the category common (3:26) but still better as opposed to Toshiba M645. Whilst writing this review, browsing the Web, and listening to Pandora, we managed just over 4.5 hours on a single charge. This is due to its ability to shut off its ATI Radeon GPU on battery. Unfortunatley, you will have to go into the Control Panel to manually re-enable the GPU when running on battery. Unlike the MacBook Pro it pays tribute to, the Envy 14 incorporates a removable battery. You can purchase an extra eight-cell inner battery for $75 when configuring the Envy 14, or opt for the $200 six-Cell Slim Fit Extended Life Battery, which clips onto the bottom in the notebook and works in conjunction using the built-in battery.
On the software front, the Envy 14 includes Envy IOS (Instant-On Solution), a preboot environment based on Splashtop technology that gives you quick access to a Web browser, Skype, and other basic functions without needing to launch into Windows. Once you do boot the 64-bit version of Windows seven House Premium, you're presented using a cool-looking (if somewhat dark) re-skinned version with the operating method. The integrated HP MediaSmart utilities are actually worth a look, with sleek, easy-to-use modules that include a music player, photo manager, Web video viewer, basic video editor/DVD player, and Webcam controller. Bundled applications include Corel PaintShop Photo Professional X3, Corel VideoStudio Professional X3, Microsoft Works, along with a 60-day trial version of Norton Internet Security 2010. There is also a preinstalled copy of Microsoft Office 2010. It’s not a demo version. Rather, you can purchase or enter a product essential to utilize the full product, or choose the free, advertising-supported Office Starter 2010, which includes stripped-down versions of Word 2010 and Excel 2010. You likely won’t use or appreciate all these applications, but aside from the 60-day trial, we wouldn’t ding them as bloatware.
HP offers some decent—though not astounding—support. You get a one-year hardware warranty to the Envy 14, complete which has a dedicated toll-free 24/7 Envy support line, free shipping both ways on repairs, and online chat support.
With its trendy and durable design and style, exemplary functionality, and stellar audio, HP earned an Editors' Choice for the previously Envy fifteen despite is pitiful battery daily life and optional exterior optical drive. Using the Envy 14 directly addressing those grievances, HP has definitely struck gold. The Envy 14 has looks, durability, efficiency, and good battery lifestyle. It is incredibly comfy to use, and it’s reasonably priced for a laptop in its class. With its super-sharp and colorful screen, amazing illuminated keyboard, and outstanding audio playback, it’s difficult to think of a lot that HP could do greater here.
Price (at time of assessment): $1,289.99 (direct, as examined)

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