The HP Envy 14 is like a last rider of the C+ term paper that always had potential, though just indispensable an bit of extra report and excellence to get an A. In actuality, when HP introduced the Envy 14, the company was rather blunt about a fact that many of the issues which plagued the strange Envy systems had been addressed, together with the miss of an visual drive as well as backlight set of keys, the frustrating touchpad as well as the heat caused by the Core i7 processor. On paper, a 14.5-inch Envy 14 has all you wanted to see in those initial models whilst still maintaining its beautiful yet difficult etched aluminum framework. It’s additionally got the new reduce $999 starting cost, yet our review section rang up during $1,290. So, has the Envy 14 eventually make the way to the head of the category? We’ve spent a little peculiarity time with the rig to find out. HP Envy 14 examination

Look and feel

The Envy 14’s smaller shade creates it somewhat narrower than a 15.4-inch Envy 15, but alternative than which it’s flattering much a reproduction of a previous laptop. And we’ve got absolutely no problems with which, considering you found a strange Envys to be dual of the most downright overwhelming laptops to ever beauty the earth. There’s still no denying which the all-aluminum body and winding edges have been reminiscent of Apple’s unibody MacBooks Pro, though as you pronounced in the Envy 15 review, HP’s take is the bit more adventurous with the textured dark steel lid as well as palmrest. The small divots in a lid create a subtle swirly pattern which can only really be seen when standing at a distance. Still, the curved metal corner which runs around the laptop comes to the rather pointy edge, and similar to the MacBook Pro, it can be somewhat uncomfortable when your wrists lay opposite it.

The Envy 14 is plain to a bone – seriously, a build peculiarity is sincerely conspicuous for the cost — and even better, it’s not all which complicated for the 14.5-inch machine. At 5.2-pounds, it’s .4 pounds lighter than both a MacBook Pro and HP Pavilion dv5. The 1.09-inch thick complement does have room for some combined ports as good – it’s got dual USB ports, an eSATA / USB combo port, HDMI, DisplayPort, Ethernet, as well as two headphone jacks, a single of that dual as a mic jack as good. It’s still peeving that there’s no VGA pier, but you can collect up an HDMI to VGA connective tissue from HP for $50, or from Amazon for around $20. A two-in-one label reader dwells upon the front lip of that laptop, while the left side makes room for the slot-loading visual drive. HP opted to exclude the Blu-ray option on a 14-inch system because of the size — HD front seekers have to head for a Envy 17.

Keyboard as well as touchpad

The Envy 14’s soothing coated chiclet keyboard, similar to which of a prior Envys as well as a Pavilion dm4, is a wish, and we mean the real wish, to sort on. And right away that you can turn on a backlight in dim lighting, we really can’t regard the feel of a squared-off keys sufficient. Come to think of it, it may opposition a ThinkPad Edge’s set of keys as our the one preferred out there.

And now a million-dollar question: has HP softened its single-buttoned ClickPad, to the point where it doesn’t ruin a rest of a reward Envy knowledge? The answer, dear readers, is approbation, nonetheless it’s still got issues. The good headlines is that the desk pad itself is utterly far-reaching, creation navigating as well as double drumming to have selections easy. The bad headlines is that you most elite to click regulating the double-tap because you had steady issues with the physical buttons. Just like we’ve noticed when using a desk pad on the Pavilions, if the thumb crosses over a left rodent button line, which it does every so often, we remove all carryout of a cursor and it jumps all over the shade. We’re not fans of carrying to adjust our ride upon a button, but assume that users will get begin to get used to a positioning over time. The multitouch gestures have also been improved — two-finger scrolling was responsive for the many partial as was pinch-to-zoom.

Screen as well as audio

The 14.5-inch, 1,600 x 900-resolution display is the exhale of fresh air compared to the laptops we’ve not long ago reviewed. Not usually is a resolution better than a 1366 x 768 displays we’ve been staring at lately, though a extravagant of the flush potion LCD is miles better than the others HP’s used lately. A lot of that has to do with a HP Radiance Infinity LED panel, that was additionally on a Envy 13. The 350nit display has the higher color progression than other displays, as well as you notice the difference upon first foot — even a blue of the Windows Start button sticks out more than on alternative screens. Viewing a Tron: Legacy trailer was the pretty stunning experience with the blue intense lasers appearing intensely detailed. Even improved when we slanted a screen retrograde, we were still able to have out Garrett Hedlund’s face, and likewise when you moved to a size of the shade we could a relocating images. It always feel great to take the mangle from complaining about poor LCDs and viewing angles. We do have to contend a display is rather than glossy, as well as when incited off it could have your counterpart disturbed about losing its pursuit.

That sweet visible experience is met with an similarly awesome audio knowledge. To start, the speakers upon a front corner of the laptop have been severely shrill as well as full. However, HP’s additionally teamed up with Beats Audio to yield the high finish hardware and software-based audio-out knowledge. When you plugged our Sony MDR7506 headphones into the audio jack we could immediately listen to a disproportion in between listening to Eminem’s “Not Afraid” upon a Envy as well as the MacBook Pro. The fuller as well as more minute tune was additionally obvious when you incited off a Beats option in the software controller.

Performance, graphics as well as battery life
The Envy 14 is only as strong internally: our review unit was powered by a 2.66GHz Intel Core i5-450M processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM as well as the 500GB 7,200rpm tough drive. It was also joined with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 GPU with 1GB of VRAM. The processor and RAM alone pushed out some of the best benchmark scores we’ve seen in quite the while, which translated to very zippy bland opening. Not usually was a system extremely adept at doing the common application bucket simultaneously – including Firefox, TweetDeck, Trillian, Microsoft Office, and Skype – but when we threw in Photoshop to edit a couple of pictures it didn’t flinch or slow down. Also, those heat issues you complained about when you reviewed a Envy 15 have left, for a most part. The set of keys as well as touchpad of the laptop stayed relatively cool during our use, even whilst playing Flash videos. The bottom of the laptop did get a bit comfortable, though not to the point that we feared blazing any reproductive viscera. We’ve additionally listened a little recent buyers complaining about air blower noise, though you weren’t worried by it.

ATI’s Radeon HD 5650 additionally surfaced the lot of a alternative laptops on 3DMark06. With its 1GB of VRAM, it pushed along a 1080p shave beautifully – yet Intel’s integrated resolution is more than capable of dealing with HD content. When it came to gaming, the label helped KO a Joker’s crew at 33fps in Batman: Arkham Asylum. We also downloaded a demo version of World in Conflict on Steam, and at medium settings it clocked in at over 40fps. The graphics opening is pretty great for the mid-range label and it can await a killer Eyefinity setup if you happen to have six monitors, though you can’t assistance though think a solution like NVIDIA’s Optimus would be good upon this arrange of machine – the couple of times when you unplugged it wouldn’t switch to a integrated graphics until we sealed some programs, as well as we had to go into a graphics control row to turn on a GPU when you longed for to play some Batman when using on battery power.

 PCMarkVantage 3DMark06
 Battery Life 

HP Envy 14 (Core i5-450M, ATI HD 5650) 6038 6899/1928 3:51 

Sony VAIO Z (Core i5-450M, NVIDIA 330M) 9949 6193 4:25 

ASUS U33Jc (Core i3-370M, NVIDIA 310M) 5574 1860/3403 5:10 

Toshiba Portege R705 (Intel Core i3-350M) 5024 1759 4:25 

Acer TimelineX 4820T (Intel Core i3-350M) 4926 1724 5:04 

Dell Vostro V13 (Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300) 2687 556 2:39 

ASUS UL50Vf (Core 2 Duo SU7300) 3724 827/3438 6:10 

Speaking of a battery, the Envy 14’s 3800mAh eight-cell battery lasted 3 hours as well as 51 mins on our video outline test, that loops a same customary definition video at 65 lightness. For a laptop of this size, that’s not bad by any standard, and when writing this review and surfing the web (listening to Pandora and checking e-mail, really) you got about 4 as well as the half hours or runtime. HP does suggest an additional battery slice for the whopping $200, which attaches to a bottom of the laptop.

Software

We’ve knocked HP utterly a bit lately for preloading too much program, and most of it’s still there upon a Envy 14 — HP’s just hidden it better. As you can see above, a desktop comes flattering unclothed, but buried in the Start Menu is the couple to Barnes & Noble’s Desktop eReader, Norton, and HP’s browser toolbar. We don’t need to tell you which a browser toolbar that’s adorned with HP links and shortcuts was a single of a initial things to go. HP additionally has its own software, including the QuickWeb instant-on OS as well as MediaSmart media panel.

Wrap-up Turns out, our fifth class clergyman was right: with careful revision as well as the bit some-more attention to details a once mediocre product can be incited into a single of a most appropriate around. The Envy 14’s superior build, head-turning design, good audio, beautiful arrangement, as well as powerful viscera makes it well value $999 – and even $1,290 for our examination unit’s configuration. Our complaints are really limited to a additional software as well as a guidance bend compulsory to use the touchpad, and well, that’s really not all which much compared to a list of things we truly adore about this 14.5-inch laptop.