Trend Micro 32-Bit Editors',
Office 2007 Activation Key
Rating
The laser-etched pattern within the lid is trendy and helps retain the Envy 14 from searching a lot of like a MacBook Pro clone—though the light-up HP logo isn’t just an unique notion.
The Envy 14’s keyboard is exceptional, with well-spaced keys and comfortable crucial action.
The appropriate side attributes combo USB/eSATA, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, Ethernet, and electrical power connectors, in addition to a lock slot.
The left aspect sports activities the slot-loading DVD push, 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 10 Fashionable; stellar audio; excellent keyboard; exceptional overall performance No Blu-ray generate alternative; extra-cost dongle needed to output to VGA projectors The Envy 14 delivers top-notch performance, styling that may generate a MacBook Professional fan jealous, excellent multimedia, and an amazing keyboard—all at a reasonable price.
Price (at time of evaluation): $1,289.99 (immediate, as examined)
Key Specs Processor: 2.66GHz Intel Core i5-450M 2.40GHz (Turbo Boost)
Memory: 4GB RAM
Storage: 500GB hard drive
Optical Drive: 8x slot-loading dual-layer DVD writer
Display: 14.5 inches (one,600x900 native resolution)
Graphics: Integrated Intel High definition graphics and ATI Mobility Radeon Hd 5650 (1GB, switchable)
Pounds: 5.two pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 1.11x14.01x9.33 inches
one.11x14.01x9.33 inches: Windows seven House Top quality (64-bit)
HP Envy 14 Evaluation Reviewed by: Denny Atkin
Assessment Date: August 2010
When we reviewed HP’s first-generation Envy fifteen very last 12 months, we have been impressed with its chic, high quality construction and exceptional efficiency but disappointed with its absence of an internal optical generate and its inadequate battery life. HP’s most current entry inside the line, the Envy 14, addresses individuals complaints head on, maintaining the superb performance and sturdy design in the unique, whilst packing an optical drive and much-improved battery daily life in one in the most stylish and comfortable Windows notebooks we’ve examined to date.
There’s no denying the MacBook Professional must 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 within a sculpted depression, rounded edges, and buttonless touch pad are all extremely reminiscent of Apple’s high-end notebooks. It is not a slavish copy, nonetheless. The primarily aluminum scenario is not of unibody construction—the bottom is black plastic—and within this most current revision HP gave up on attempting to cram all the ports onto one aspect and as an alternative provided some connectors lacking on earlier Envy versions. Total, the layout is tasteful, elegant, and practical, and it feels incredibly strong and sturdy. Measuring one.11x14.01x9.33 inches and weighing in at 5.two kilos, it is marginally smaller than the Envy 15 (even though it's the exact same bodyweight), in spite of the addition in the optical generate and beefier battery.
The 14.5-inch LED-backlit screen is really crisp and vibrant. Though the stock Envy ships having a one,366x768-pixel display screen, our design was outfitted together with the roomy optional Radiance Infinity HD+ one,600x900 exhibit. The text is smallish to the higher-res screen, but it’s sharp adequate that even tiny fonts are easy to examine. The display incorporates a extensive coloration gamut, and we could see a vibrance and richness in digital images and DVD playback that is not common of the notebook at this value stage. In reality, observing DVDs making use of the slot-loading 8x DVD writer had us wishing HP offered a Blu-ray generate selection for the Envy 14. Unfortunately, you will have to opt for the considerably larger Envy 17 if you need hi-def ability. Also, although the screen seems to be great, as with most glossy screens, it exhibits reflections inside the glass; we’d really like to determine HP supply a matte option.
The Envy 14’s Beats audio system is similarly impressive and is also a single place wherever the Envy clearly outdoes the MacBook Professional. HP isolated the audio components on the motherboard to avoid the interference that can result in static on some PCs, and furthermore, it extra an amplifier and DSP to enhance and enhance the audio. The outcomes around the built-in speakers are incredibly good—volume and clarity are far above typical for a dual-speaker notebook. Plug the Envy 14 into external speakers or even a good set of headphones, though,
Windows 7 Ultimate Key, and you may locate the audio is nothing brief of astounding. Even on inexpensive earbuds, the audio clarity and punch of our tunes was considerably better than we’d assume from a notebook. Pressing Fn-B to toggle off the Beats enhancements reveals the program is incorporating important depth and additional bass to the audio.
The exceptional Chiclet keyboard has outstanding response, great spacing amongst keys, and is also quite cozy to type on. The keyboard now has a backlight, which can be toggled using a purpose key. The operate keys double as media controls; you hit Fn in combination with them to enter an genuine F1-F12 essential 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 correct sides to make selections.
The earlier Envy 15 had a limited number of ports because HP crammed all of the ports along one particular aspect. By spreading them out on both sides, the selection is significantly better on 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 will also locate HDMI and mini-DisplayPort outputs, a Gigabit Ethernet connector, an SD/MMC slot, and both a headphone jack as well as a headphone-out/microphone-in combo jack. Wireless support includes Bluetooth and dual-band (two.4 and 5.8GHz) 801.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. There is also a really good High definition webcam, which includes auto face-detection, good low-light performance, and a built-in microphone. The 1 thing you might miss if you use your notebook for presentations is a VGA monitor output. In case you use VGA projectors,
Microsoft Office 2010 Pro Plus, you are going to 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 within 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 on the slower stock Intel High definition graphics built into the motherboard chipset to save battery 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 hard drive for storage, in addition to the aforementioned slot-loading 8x DVD burner. (The inclusion of the optical generate means the second internal push choice found on the Envy 15 is missing here.)
There’s a single added difference within the hardware, compared using the Envy fifteen, which bears mentioning: Although the Envy fifteen would toast your lap with intensive use, the Envy 14 remains cool around 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 additionally, it does its job effectively and keeps the Envy 14 from heating up.
The Envy 14 turned in remarkable final results on our benchmark tests. It did nicely on our PCMark Vantage benchmark test, which measures overall program efficiency with productivity programs. Its score of 6,185 to the 64-bit version with the test beat its Core i7-powered Envy 15 predecessor’s score of 5,243 and was also drastically 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 particular second, give or take) the Core i7-powered Envy fifteen and the Toshiba M645. It did even greater 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 15, and 3:15 for your Toshiba M645.
On our Cinebench test, which taxes all of the available cores of the CPU, the Envy 14 held it own, slightly beating out the category common for other 64-bit notebooks, using a score of 8,159 but this time, falling behind its closest competitors, which managed 8,348 (Toshiba M645) and 9,896 (HP Envy fifteen). 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 although it is not best-in-class.
The ATI Mobility Radeon High definition 5650 chip offers extremely good 3D efficiency. Its score of five,967 on our 3DMark 06 benchmark at native resolution is not best-in-class, but it is double the regular for other thin-and-lights examined this 12 months, and it’s plenty fast to play modern games like Starcraft II smoothly and having a good 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 ten mode.
The Envy 14 lasted an impressive 3 hours and 17 minutes on our DVD rundown test, a considerable improvement over the Envy 15’s embarrassingly brief one:04 end result. This is a tad short with the category average (3:26) but still far better compared to Toshiba M645. Even though writing this critique, browsing the Web,
Microsoft Office Home And Business 2010, 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 are going to 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 has a removable battery. You can purchase an extra eight-cell internal battery for $75 when configuring the Envy 14, or opt for the $200 six-Cell Slim Fit Extended Daily 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 Property Premium, you're presented which has a cool-looking (if somewhat dark) re-skinned version from 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’s also a preinstalled duplicate of
Microsoft Office 2010. It is not a demo version. Rather, you can purchase or enter a product key 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 within the Envy 14, complete with a dedicated toll-free 24/7 Envy support line, free shipping both ways on repairs, and online chat support.
With its stylish and sturdy style, exemplary efficiency, and stellar audio, HP earned an Editors' Choice for the earlier Envy 15 regardless of is pitiful battery daily life and optional exterior optical generate. Using the Envy 14 directly addressing individuals complaints,
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, HP has definitely struck gold. The Envy 14 has looks, durability, functionality, and excellent battery existence. It’s very comfy to use, and it is reasonably priced to get a laptop in its class. With its super-sharp and colorful display screen, fantastic illuminated keyboard, and outstanding audio playback, it’s challenging to think of a lot that HP could do far better here.
Value (at time of evaluation): $1,289.99 (direct, as tested)
www.hp.com
See all of our HP Envy 14 coverage
See all of our Hewlett-Packard coverage
Related Laptop Stories on ComputerShopper.com
Prime 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
Microsoft Office 2010 Pro Plus HP Envy 14 Review -
discourse
Linear Mode
