Microsoft Office Pro Plus HP Envy 14 Review - Comp

Pattern Micro 32-Bit Editors'
Rating



The laser-etched pattern on the lid is trendy and helps retain the Envy 14 from seeking an excessive amount of like a MacBook Pro clone—though the light-up HP logo is not just an unique notion.

The Envy 14’s keyboard is exceptional, with well-spaced keys and at ease crucial action.

The right facet capabilities combo USB/eSATA, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, Ethernet, and energy connectors, along with a lock slot.

The left aspect sports activities the slot-loading DVD drive, a pair of USB ports, a combo headphone/microphone jack, as well as a separate headphone jack.

The backlit keyboard is handy for nocturnal typing.
HP Envy 14 10 Trendy; stellar audio; wonderful keyboard; outstanding performance No Blu-ray push choice; extra-cost dongle required to output to VGA projectors The Envy 14 delivers top-notch functionality, styling that might create a MacBook Pro fan jealous, exceptional multimedia, and an great keyboard—all at a affordable cost.
Price (at time of assessment): $1,289.99 (direct, as examined)
Crucial Specs Processor: two.66GHz Intel Core i5-450M two.40GHz (Turbo Enhance)
Memory: 4GB RAM
Storage: 500GB challenging drive
Optical Generate: 8x slot-loading dual-layer DVD writer
Display: 14.five inches (1,600x900 native resolution)
Graphics: Integrated Intel Hd graphics and ATI Mobility Radeon High definition 5650 (1GB, switchable)
Pounds: five.2 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): one.11x14.01x9.33 inches
one.11x14.01x9.33 inches: Windows 7 House Premium (64-bit)
HP Envy 14 Review Reviewed by: Denny Atkin
Review Date: August 2010
When we reviewed HP’s first-generation Envy 15 very last year, we were impressed with its chic, high quality construction and excellent efficiency but disappointed with its absence of an internal optical drive and its bad battery daily life. HP’s newest entry within the line,Office 2010 Professional Plus Key, the Envy 14, addresses individuals complaints head on, keeping the excellent performance and durable layout in the first, even though packing an optical generate and much-improved battery daily life in one with the most stylish and at ease Windows notebooks we’ve examined so far.
There’s no denying the MacBook Pro should have inspired the Envy 14’s style team. Its laser-etched, aluminum lid with light-up logo, black-framed glossy LCD, backlit Chiclet keyboard resting in a sculpted depression, rounded edges, and buttonless touch pad are all very reminiscent of Apple’s high-end notebooks. It’s not a slavish copy, even so. The mainly aluminum case is not of unibody construction—the bottom is black plastic—and within this latest revision HP gave up on wanting to cram all of the ports onto one particular facet and rather included some connectors lacking on earlier Envy models. Overall, the design and style is tasteful, classy, and practical, and it feels very sound and long lasting. Measuring 1.11x14.01x9.33 inches and weighing in at 5.2 kilos, it is a bit more compact compared to Envy 15 (though it's the exact same pounds), despite the addition in the optical drive and beefier battery.
The 14.5-inch LED-backlit display screen is extremely crisp and vibrant. Although the stock Envy ships using a 1,366x768-pixel screen, our design was outfitted together with the roomy optional Radiance Infinity HD+ one,600x900 display. The text is smallish within the higher-res exhibit, but it’s sharp enough that even tiny fonts are easy to go through. The display features a wide colour gamut, and we could see a vibrance and richness in digital images and DVD playback that’s not typical of the notebook at this value stage. The truth is, watching DVDs making use of the slot-loading 8x DVD writer had us wishing HP provided a Blu-ray generate choice for the Envy 14. Sadly, you will must select the much more substantial Envy 17 if you need hi-def ability. Also, whilst the screen seems to be fantastic, as with most glossy screens, it exhibits reflections in the glass; we’d adore to see HP supply a matte option.
The Envy 14’s Beats audio system is similarly impressive and is also one particular area in which the Envy evidently outdoes the MacBook Professional. HP isolated the audio components on the motherboard in order to avoid the interference that may outcome in static on some PCs,Microsoft Office 2007 Pro, and it also additional an amplifier and DSP to improve and improve the audio. The results around the built-in speakers are very good—volume and clarity are far over common for a dual-speaker notebook. Plug the Envy 14 into exterior speakers or possibly a good set of headphones, even though, and you will discover the audio is absolutely nothing limited of astounding. Even on cheap earbuds, the audio clarity and punch of our tunes was drastically greater than we’d assume from a notebook. Pressing Fn-B to toggle off the Beats enhancements exhibits that the system is including significant depth and added bass towards the audio.
The fantastic Chiclet keyboard has outstanding response,Microsoft Office 2007 Pro, great spacing amongst keys, and is also extremely cozy to form on. The keyboard now includes a backlight, which may be toggled using a purpose essential. The operate keys double as media controls; you hit Fn in mixture with them to enter an real F1-F12 key press.


The large touch pad supports a variety of multi-touch gestures for scrolling, zooming, and rotating images; furthermore, it adds new three-finger press and flick options for quick-launching applications and navigating Web pages. The lower third from the pad integrates the mouse buttons; just press down the left or proper sides to make selections.
The earlier Envy fifteen had a limited number of ports because HP crammed all of the ports along 1 facet. By spreading them out on both sides,Microsoft Office Pro Plus, the selection is much better to the Envy 14. The number of USB two.0 ports has been upped from two to three, certainly one of which doubles as an eSATA port. You’ll also locate HDMI and mini-DisplayPort outputs, a Gigabit Ethernet connector, an SD/MMC slot, and both a headphone jack and a headphone-out/microphone-in combo jack. Wireless support includes Bluetooth and dual-band (2.4 and 5.8GHz) 801.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. There’s also a really very good Hd webcam, which includes auto face-detection, excellent low-light efficiency, along with a built-in microphone. The 1 thing you might miss in the event you use your notebook for presentations is a VGA monitor output. Should you use VGA projectors, you are going to want to purchase an HDMI-to-VGA adapter cable, available being a $50 selection from HP, or for significantly less elsewhere. (Even Apple only charges $29 for one particular.)


This notebook is just as ######y within the inside as the outside. It’s powered by a 2.4GHz Core i5-450M processor (supporting up to 2.66GHz in Turbo Boost 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 on the slower stock Intel High definition graphics built into the motherboard chipset to save battery lifestyle. (This is known as switchable graphics, but as far as implementation is concerned, this may be the least intuitive. Other switchable graphics options use a hardware switch or do so automatically.) There is a speedy 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard push for storage, as well as the aforementioned slot-loading 8x DVD burner. (The inclusion from the optical drive means the second internal drive selection found to the Envy 15 is lacking here.)


There’s a single further difference inside the hardware, compared with the Envy fifteen, which bears mentioning: While the Envy 15 would toast your lap with intensive use, the Envy 14 remains cool to 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 difficult, but in addition, it does its job nicely and keeps the Envy 14 from heating up.
The Envy 14 turned in impressive outcomes on our benchmark tests. It did properly on our PCMark Vantage benchmark test, which measures all round program performance with productivity programs. Its score of 6,185 on 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 very good 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 fifteen 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 that Envy 15, and 3:15 for that Toshiba M645.
On our Cinebench test, which taxes every one of the available cores of the CPU, the Envy 14 held it own, marginally beating out the category common for other 64-bit notebooks, which has a score of 8,159 but this time, 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 although it’s not best-in-class.


The ATI Mobility Radeon Hd 5650 chip offers very very good 3D efficiency. Its score of 5,967 on our 3DMark 06 benchmark at native resolution isn’t best-in-class, but it is double the common for other thin-and-lights tested this 12 months, and it’s plenty fast to play modern games like Starcraft II smoothly and using 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 outstanding 3 hours and 17 minutes on our DVD rundown test, a substantial improvement over the Envy 15’s embarrassingly limited one:04 end result. This is a tad quick in the category regular (3:26) but still far better compared to Toshiba M645. While 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 are going to must go into the Control Panel to manually re-enable the GPU when running on battery. Unlike the MacBook Professional it pays tribute to, the Envy 14 incorporates a removable battery. You can purchase an further eight-cell inner battery for $75 when configuring the Envy 14, or opt for the $200 six-Cell Slim Fit Extended Lifestyle Battery, which clips onto the bottom of the notebook and works in conjunction with 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,Microsoft Office 2007 Pro Plus, 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 having a cool-looking (if somewhat dark) re-skinned version in 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, and a 60-day trial version of Norton Internet Security 2010. There is also a preinstalled copy of Microsoft Office 2010. It is not a demo version. Rather, you can purchase or enter a product important 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 style, exemplary performance, and stellar audio, HP earned an Editors' Choice for the earlier Envy 15 despite is pitiful battery existence and optional external optical generate. With the Envy 14 directly addressing those complaints, HP has definitely struck gold. The Envy 14 has seems to be, durability, overall performance, and good battery lifestyle. It’s incredibly cozy to use, and it’s reasonably priced to get a laptop in its class. With its super-sharp and colorful display, amazing illuminated keyboard, and superb audio playback, it’s challenging to think of considerably that HP could do much better here.
Cost (at time of assessment): $1,289.99 (immediate, as examined)

www.hp.com

See all of our HP Envy 14 coverage
See all of our Hewlett-Packard coverage

Related Laptop Stories on ComputerShopper.com
Top 5 Thin-and-Light Laptops
HP Envy 15
Toshiba Satellite M645-S4055
Gateway ID49C08u
HP ProBook 4425s
Toshiba Satellite M645-S4118X


Computer Shopper does not currently have pricing information for this product. It may be available directly from the manufacturer's Web site.
Special Deal: HP 8-Cell Battery For HP Envy 14 Series - Rm08 106.24
Shop for Notebook Accessories at HP! Compatibility: HP Envy 14 series