Trend Micro 32-Bit Editors'
Rating
The laser-etched pattern around the lid is stylish and will help preserve the Envy 14 from seeking too much like a MacBook Pro clone—though the light-up HP logo is not exactly an authentic idea.
The Envy 14’s keyboard is excellent, with well-spaced keys and cozy important action.
The right aspect functions combo USB/eSATA, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, Ethernet, and power connectors, along with a lock slot.
The left aspect sports the slot-loading DVD generate, a pair of USB ports, a combo headphone/microphone jack, as well as a separate headphone jack.
The backlit keyboard is useful for nocturnal typing.
HP Envy 14 ten Fashionable; stellar audio; wonderful keyboard; superb functionality No Blu-ray generate option; extra-cost dongle necessary to output to VGA projectors The Envy 14 delivers top-notch efficiency, styling that could make a MacBook Professional fan jealous, excellent multimedia, and an brilliant keyboard—all at a acceptable price.
Price (at time of review): $1,289.99 (direct, as tested)
Key Specs Processor: 2.66GHz Intel Core i5-450M two.40GHz (Turbo Boost)
Memory: 4GB RAM
Storage: 500GB challenging drive
Optical Drive: 8x slot-loading dual-layer DVD writer
Display screen: 14.5 inches (one,600x900 native resolution)
Graphics: Integrated Intel Hd graphics and ATI Mobility Radeon High definition 5650 (1GB, switchable)
Pounds: five.two pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 1.11x14.01x9.33 inches
1.11x14.01x9.33 inches: Windows 7 House Premium (64-bit)
HP Envy 14 Critique Reviewed by: Denny Atkin
Evaluation Date: August 2010
When we reviewed HP’s first-generation Envy fifteen previous year, we ended up impressed with its chic, quality building and superb efficiency but disappointed with its lack of an inner optical generate and its poor battery existence. HP’s most current entry within the line, the Envy 14, addresses individuals grievances head on, keeping the excellent performance and durable design and style of the original, even though packing an optical push and much-improved battery existence in one in the most trendy and comfortable Windows notebooks we’ve tested thus far.
There’s no denying the MacBook Pro will need to have inspired the Envy 14’s design group. Its laser-etched, aluminum lid with light-up emblem, black-framed glossy LCD, backlit Chiclet keyboard resting in a very sculpted depression, rounded edges, and buttonless touch pad are all very reminiscent of Apple’s high-end notebooks. It’s not a slavish copy, nevertheless. The primarily aluminum case is not of unibody construction—the bottom is black plastic—and within this most recent revision HP gave up on looking to cram all of the ports onto one particular aspect and rather integrated some connectors lacking on earlier Envy types. All round, the style is tasteful, sophisticated, and useful, and it feels really sound and long lasting. Measuring 1.11x14.01x9.33 inches and weighing in at 5.2 lbs, it is somewhat smaller than the Envy 15 (although it's the exact same excess weight), even with the addition of the optical drive and beefier battery.
The 14.5-inch LED-backlit screen is incredibly crisp and vibrant. Even though the stock Envy ships with a one,366x768-pixel display, our model was equipped using the roomy optional Radiance Infinity HD+ one,600x900 exhibit. The text is smallish on the higher-res display, but it’s sharp adequate that even little fonts are easy to study. The show features a wide coloration gamut, and we could see a vibrance and richness in digital pictures and DVD playback that’s not normal of the notebook at this value point. In fact, watching DVDs utilizing the slot-loading 8x DVD writer had us wishing HP offered a Blu-ray push option for your Envy 14. Sadly, you are going to must go for the a lot more substantial Envy 17 if you need hi-def ability. Also, although the display appears amazing, as with most glossy screens,
Office 2010 Professional, it exhibits reflections from the glass; we’d enjoy to determine HP supply a matte option.
The Envy 14’s Beats audio system is similarly outstanding and is a single area wherever the Envy plainly outdoes the MacBook Pro. HP isolated the audio components around the motherboard to stop the interference which will end result in static on some PCs, and furthermore, it additional an amplifier and DSP to enhance and enrich the audio. The outcomes to the built-in speakers are extremely good—volume and clarity are far above common for a dual-speaker notebook. Plug the Envy 14 into exterior speakers or a great set of headphones, though, and you'll locate the audio is nothing limited of astounding. Even on cheap earbuds, the audio clarity and punch of our tunes was considerably better than we’d expect from a notebook. Pressing Fn-B to toggle off the Beats enhancements exhibits that the program is adding considerable depth and additional bass on the audio.
The fantastic Chiclet keyboard has superb response, excellent spacing amongst keys, and is also quite cozy to kind on. The keyboard now includes a backlight, which can be toggled employing a function crucial. The purpose keys double as media controls; you hit Fn in mixture 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; in addition, 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 earlier Envy fifteen had a limited number of ports because HP crammed all the ports along a single facet. By spreading them out on both sides,
Windows 7 Home Premium Product Key, the selection is considerably far better within the Envy 14. The number of USB 2.0 ports has been upped from two to three, certainly one of which doubles as an eSATA port. You’ll also uncover HDMI and mini-DisplayPort outputs, a Gigabit Ethernet connector, an SD/MMC slot, and both a headphone jack plus 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 is also a really very good Hd webcam, which includes auto face-detection,
Windows 7 Enterprise Key, very good low-light functionality, 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. Should you use VGA projectors, you’ll want to purchase an HDMI-to-VGA adapter cable, available as a $50 choice from HP, or for considerably less elsewhere. (Even Apple only charges $29 for one particular.)
This notebook is just as ######y around the inside as the outside. It is powered by a two.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 High definition 5650 graphics processor with 1GB of DDR3 video memory for games and other demanding 3D applications; the notebook can automatically revert for the slower stock Intel High definition graphics constructed into the motherboard chipset to save battery daily life. (This is known as switchable graphics, but as far as implementation is concerned, this is the least intuitive. Other switchable graphics options use a hardware switch or do so automatically.) There’s a speedy 500GB, 7,200-rpm challenging generate for storage, together with the aforementioned slot-loading 8x DVD burner. (The inclusion of the optical drive means the second inner generate selection found within the Envy fifteen is lacking here.)
There’s one particular extra difference from the hardware,
Microsoft Office Standard, compared together with the Envy 15, which bears mentioning: Although 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 hard, but in addition, it does its job nicely and keeps the Envy 14 from heating up.
The Envy 14 turned in remarkable outcomes on our benchmark tests. It did properly on our PCMark Vantage benchmark test, which measures all round method overall performance with productivity programs. Its score of 6,185 within the 64-bit version from the test beat its Core i7-powered Envy fifteen predecessor’s score of 5,243 and was also considerably faster than 5,734 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 1 second, give or take) the Core i7-powered Envy 15 and the Toshiba M645. It did even much better on our iTunes conversion test, converting 11 songs from MP3 to AAC format in 3 minutes, 11 seconds, compared to 3:49 for your Envy 15, and 3:fifteen for the 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 regular for other 64-bit notebooks, with 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 average 64-bit score is 6,810, showing that 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 really very good 3D performance. Its score of five,967 on our 3DMark 06 benchmark at native resolution isn’t best-in-class, but it’s double the typical for other thin-and-lights examined this year, and it is plenty fast to play modern games like Starcraft II smoothly and with a excellent 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 extraordinary 3 hours and 17 minutes on our DVD rundown test, a important improvement over the Envy 15’s embarrassingly limited 1:04 consequence. This is a tad quick in the category typical (3:26) but still much better compared to Toshiba M645. Although writing this critique, browsing the Web, and listening to Pandora, we managed just over 4.five hours on a single charge. This is due to its ability to shut off its ATI Radeon GPU on battery. Unfortunatley, you’ll 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 added eight-cell inner battery for $75 when configuring the Envy 14, or choose the $200 six-Cell Slim Fit Extended Daily life Battery, which clips onto the bottom with 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, and other basic functions without needing to launch into Windows. Once you do boot the 64-bit version of Windows seven Residence Premium, you're presented having a cool-looking (if somewhat dark) re-skinned version with the operating method. The incorporated 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 Pro X3, Corel VideoStudio Professional X3, Microsoft Works, along with a 60-day trial version of Norton Internet Security 2010. There is also a preinstalled duplicate of
Microsoft Office 2010. It’s not a demo version. Rather, you can purchase or enter a product essential to utilize the full product,
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus, 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 on the Envy 14, complete using a dedicated toll-free 24/7 Envy support line, free shipping both ways on repairs, and online chat support.
With its stylish and durable design, exemplary efficiency, and stellar audio, HP earned an Editors' Choice for your previously Envy fifteen even with is pitiful battery lifestyle and optional exterior optical drive. Using the Envy 14 directly addressing these complaints, HP has definitely struck gold. The Envy 14 has appears, durability, functionality, and very good battery daily life. It’s really cozy to use, and it is reasonably priced for any laptop in its class. With its super-sharp and colorful screen, amazing illuminated keyboard, and superb audio playback, it’s difficult to think of much that HP could do much better here.
Price tag (at time of review): $1,289.99 (direct, as examined)
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