HP ENVY 15 Customizable Notebook Review

HP ENVY 15 Customizable Notebook Last year’s Envy laptops were a bit of a disappointment. The new Envy 15 and 17, which HP released right at the end of 2011, finally feature a whole new design.

First, know that the new Envy laptops come in 15.6-inch and 17-inch sizes, with the 14-inch version transitioning to the new Spectre Ultrabook. Our review concerns the 15.6-inch Envy 15, which is pretty big as all-purpose laptops go. It’s 15 inches wide, 9.6 inches deep, and 1.2 inches thick. It features a Core i5-2430M processor, 6GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 7690M discrete graphics card, and a 500GB hard drive. Our review unit does have one upgrade, and it’s a genuine deal-breaker. For $150 more than the base $1099 price, you can upgrade the Envy 15’s 1366-by-768-pixel “BrightView” display to a full HD “Radiance” display with a resolution of 1920 by 1080. The upgraded technology gives the display bright and brilliant color, plus very wide viewing angles. It turns out that most users with the IPS panel upgrade have reported a color-calibration issue, in which red shades have an orange hue. You can find a lengthy forum thread about this problem at Notebook Review, as well as a thread on HP’s support forum. The high-res, bright IPS display upgrade is a major selling point for the Envy 15, and this color problem is very real and very disconcerting. The left side of the Envy 15 features a slot-loading DVD-RW drive, but the system has no Blu-ray option. The right side houses the gigabit ethernet jack, full-size HDMI and DisplayPort connections, a USB 2.0 port, and a multifunction memory card slot. Wireless support is excellent, with 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, WiDi wireless display support, and even HP’s own wireless audio (compatible with KleerNet devices).

HP is proud of its Beats audio integration, and rightfully so. The analog volume knob at the right edge is a delight, and far easier to use than mashing a volume button up or down. The Envy 15 has a dedicated mute button, too, plus a Beats button that brings up the rich audio tools. HP’s built-in software is improving, but still manages to annoy a little. The new HP Envy 15 is a fairly slick all-purpose laptop, if a little on the bulky side.

HP ENVY 15 Customizable Notebook Laptop

Display
Display size 15.6 inches
Maximum resolution 1920 x 1080
Display type Glossy LCD with LED Backlight

Processor
Processor class Intel Core i5
Processor model 2430M
Processor speed 2400 MHz
Number of Cores 2
Cache size 3 MB

Graphics
Graphics Type Switchable
Integrated Graphics Chipset Intel
Integrated Graphics Chipset Model Number HD Graphics 3000
Discreet Graphics Chipset AMD Radeon
Discreet Graphics Chipset Model Number HD 7690M
Graphics Memory 1024 MB

Memory
Installed memory 6 GB
Maximum memory 16 GB
Memory technology DDR3

Storage
Hard Drive Type Hard Disk Drive
Total HD Size 500 GB
Hard Drive Speed 7200 RPM
Number of hard drives included 1
Other Storage SD/MMC Card
SDHC Card

Optical Drives
Optical Drive Speed 8 x
Optical Drive Loading Type Tray

Battery
Vendor Rated Battery life 7.25 hours

Networking
Ethernet Type 10/100/1000 Mbps
Wifi Type 802.11 n/b/g

Interface Connections
Number of USB 3 Ports 2
Number of USB 2 Ports 1

Video Interfaces
DisplayPort
HDMI

Additional Interfaces 
 Bluetooth

Dimensions
Weight (min) 5.8 pounds
Weight (with accessories) 7.1 lbs
Width 15 inches
Depth 9.6 inches
Height 1.2 inches

HP ENVY 15 Customizable Notebook PC HP