HP Envy 13
The most noticeable thing about the 13 inch HP Envy is it’s similarity with Apple’s 13 inch MacBook Pro. It has the same kind of style, with the black frame around the screen, the metal casing and the same isolated black keys for the keyboard. And it looks fantastic, it’s got an incredible design and is amazingly slightly lighter than the MacBook Pro (which is already nice and light). HP have managed to reduce the weight of the machine by not following Apple’s idea of creating the laptop out of one sheet of aluminium – this means it’s lighter but doesn’t feel as solid and rugged as the sleek MacBook Pro.
The HP Envy doesn’t have as much processing power as the MacBook Pro, which is perhaps surprising given the price tag (it has a 1.86 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, compared to the 2.26Ghz MacBook version) but it still performs very, very well. You can run a number of different programmes, including Firefox, Photoshop, iTunes all at the same time and not notice any slow-down until you start with the very graphically intensive programmes. Especially when running Windows 7, the Envy does a brilliant job of handling multiple tasks quickly.
The screen is great too – it’s very bright, crisp and colourful and it’s great for Photoshop, web design or simply watching a film. But there is a very noticeable downside to the Envy – it’s trackpad is clunky. It looks great, and (like the Mac) it supports multi-touch gestures which is great on paper, but it’s difficult to use. It’s nowhere near as responsive as the Apple MacBook Pro trackpad, and a lot of the time it struggles to tell that you’re using two fingers, instead of one. The trackpad definitely takes some getting used to, which is a shame. Another downside to the Envy is that it’s followed the netbook route of not including an optical drive, which has helped to make it lighter but can make it difficult if you have any install CDs for software.
Overall, it’s a really nice laptop with a great screen, really light and easy to pick up and take with you. It’s let down by it’s trackpad though, and it has a very hefty price tag – if you’re desperately after a portable laptop that runs Windows 7 smoothly then this could be the laptop for you, but it is more expensive than the (already fairly pricey) Apple MacBook Pro equivalent, so it may be worth considering that too.
