HP Envy 13 mini-review: Spectre fans, meet your budget option

We give a lot of attention to flagship PC families—and for good reason. Devices like the Dell XPS 13 and HP’s Spectre 13 often get new technologies and design perks before other lineups in the OEM’s portfolio. That remains true, but Dell, Lenovo, HP, and others are showing their other PC lines some love, too. Now, it’s not so strange to consider an Inspiron or an Envy laptop even if you usually sought out the latest and greatest machines for their cutting-edge tech and processing power.

HP’s newest Envy 13 laptop could cause Spectre diehards to take another look. With updated processors, optional Nvidia graphics, and a sleeker design, the Envy 13 looks like it can hold its own against devices like Dell’s Inspiron 13 7000 Black Edition, and even its cousins the Spectre 13 and the Spectre x360 13. As with any more affordable laptop (this one starts at $799), it makes some sacrifices to keep costs down, but those may prove inconsequential even for the most staunch Spectre lovers.

Look and feel

Specs at a glance: HP Envy 13 (as reviewed)
Screen	13.3-inch 4K (3840×2160) IPS touchscreen
OS	Windows 10
CPU	Intel Core i7-8565U
RAM	16GB LPDDR3
Storage	512GB PCIe SSD + 32GB Optane Memory
GPU	Nvidia GeForce MX250
Networking	802.11ac 2×2 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Ports	1 x USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 (data transfer only), 2 x USB-A (1 x data transfer only, 1 x HP Sleep and Charge), 1 x microSD card, 1 x headphone/mic jack, 1 x power port
Size	12.08×8.32×0.57 inches
Weight	2.59 pounds
Battery	65Whr 4C
Starting price	$799.99
Price as reviewed	$1,159.99

The Spectre 13 and all of its variants are not for everyone, particularly those who don’t like making a statement with their laptops. Its metallic edges and accents make it flashy, and its angled corners are a nod to jewelry design. The Envy 13 forgoes all of that and instead looks like a professional, yet sleek, work machine. I tested a silver model, but it’s also available in a gold finish, which may appeal to those who want their laptop to have just a tad more personality than the rest.

While the Spectre 13 and x360 13 pride themselves on being thin and light, the Envy 13 isn’t as concerned with that—although you do get a surprisingly compact laptop. I’m not sure why I expected it to feel larger in my hands and in my backpack—maybe its blocky back edge deceived me—but the 12.08×8.32×0.57-inch, 2.59-pound laptop was a conveniently portable device.

The Envy 13 has a premium design in its own right, it just wears that premium nature differently than the Spectre 13 does. Its premium feel mostly lies in its all-metal chassis, slim bezels, angled edges, and clever hinge that lifts the laptop slightly when you open it. HP took a similar approach that Dell used when making the Inspiron 13 7000 Black Edition, which focuses on upgrading the laptop’s materials and trickling down some, but not all, high-end design elements.

Like the Inspiron, the Envy 13 has a fingerprint reader, but it lies on the palm-rest area instead of being integrated into the sliver of a power button that sits on the top-right corner of the keyboard area. Some machines allow you to power on and log in at the same time when they have integrated fingerprint readers on their power buttons, but Dell’s device doesn’t have that feature, and HP’s device cannot, since the two pieces of hardware are separate. Nevertheless, the fingerprint reader works as promised and is the only form of Windows Hello authentication on the Envy 13.

Added practicality comes in with the Envy 13’s ports: one USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 port (for data transfer only), two USB-A ports with drop-jaw designs, a microSD card slot, a headphone jack, and a barrel charging port. I appreciate the drop-jaw design on the USB-A cables because they allowed HP to keep the device decently thin while also not compromising on connectivity options. HP also brought over the webcam kill-switch from the Spectre series to the Envy 13, allowing users to electronically disable the webcam whenever they please.

Screen and keyboard

The 13.3-inch display can be customized a few ways: you can get an FHD panel, an FHD touch panel, or a 4K touch panel. Our model had the 4K touchscreen, and it was as lovely as you’d expect. Since the Envy 13 is a regular laptop, most users will be served well by the base FHD panel. Touchscreens add limited usefulness to standard laptops, but undoubtably there are users who have grown accustomed to touchscreens on all of their devices and will want one on this device, too.

The keyboard on the Envy 13 is quite nice—it extends almost to the side edges of the chassis thanks to the speaker grille placement above it, closer to the hinge. The keys have decent travel, but they are also quiet—it’s like typing on soft pillows. Some users like the clicky nature of most keyboards, but others will appreciate this style because it will not audibly encroach on the workspaces of those around you. The up- and down-arrow keys are a little small, but HP managed to include a column of page navigation keys on the right side of the keyboard.

The only downside to the stellar keyboard is that the Precision trackpad suffers a bit from the keyboard’s size. It’s narrower than most trackpads, measuring about 2.25 inches in width, and that may get in the way of comfortable cursor movement, swiping, and gestures.

Performance

Given its similar specs, the HP Envy 13’s performance was similar to that of the Dell Inspiron 13 7000 Black Edition. HP’s machine stood out in its graphics scores, though, thanks to the optional MX250 GPU in our review unit. We also ran a Grand Theft Auto V benchmark on this machine to see how it might handle gameplay, and we quickly found out that the Envy 13 couldn’t run our test as we usually run it, with most graphics options maxed out. So, we maxed out as many attributes as we could before the video memory was exceeded and then ran the benchmark test. The machine played GTAV at an average of 62.5fps.

If you don’t spring for the Nvidia graphics card, you’ll get the same integrated Intel GPU as the Black Edition has, so you can expect the Envy’s graphics performance to be similar. While running our gaming test and some of our more intense benchmark tests, the Envy 13’s fans spun enough for me to hear them whirl. The bottom-center portion of the chassis heated up a bit, but not enough to make it uncomfortable to use on a lap.

You can use HP’s Command Center to choose the thermal profile that’s best for your usage, too. By default, HP optimizes the system to balance performance and temperature, but you can use Performance mode to kick up the fan speed to cool the CPU more efficiently while it provides as much power as possible or Comfort mode to cool the device down if it starts to get too warm.

Battery life

The Envy 13’s battery life depends heavily on the screen configuration you choose. HP estimates up to 18 hours of battery life with an FHD panel and up to 10 hours with a 4K panel. Our tests showed that to be true, at least for a 4K display: the Envy 13 lasted an average of 11 hours on our Wi-Fi test and just over 6.5 hours on our webGL test. Those are solid numbers that are similar to those of the Inspiron 13 7000 Black Edition, but they’re nowhere near the exceptional battery life of the newest Spectre x360 13. The Spectre x360 13 has many things the Envy 13 doesn’t, but the most useful perk is its incredibly long battery life that helps it last at least a full 24 hours on a single charge.

Just enough luxury to stand out

While I love the idea of a convertible, I’m more of a standard laptop girl. My work doesn’t require a lot of sketching or anything that would be made easier if I used a stylus or a device that twists into a tablet. Convertibles are quite useful as multipurpose devices, but not everyone needs or wants that versatility. The HP Envy 13 is a solid laptop alternative for those users, as well as those who don’t want to drop $1,000 on a new PC.

We may have reviewed the top-tier model, but the base $799 model has the same Core i7 CPU as well as 8GB of RAM and 256GB of PCIe SSD storage. To put things into perspective, those are the same specs found in the HP Spectre x360 13 that’s currently our favorite Windows ultrabook convertible, but the Spectre costs $1,349. Naturally, that price includes many things that the Envy 13 lacks—a convertible design, an IR camera, an included stylus, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the machine’s crazy-long battery life.

If any of those features are important to you, it’s probably worth it to consider the Spectre x360 13 or another flagship ultrabook like it. However, if you can sacrifice those premium features, the Envy 13 is a solid laptop that you could get for a price that won’t ruin your budget and also provides enough options for you to spec it out as you please.

The Good

• Professional, lightweight design.
• Two USB-A ports with drop-jaw design.
• Webcam kill-switch.
• Optional Nvidia graphics card and Optane Memory.
• Good battery life.

The Bad

• Fingerprint reader not integrated into power button.
• No IR camera.
• No Thunderbolt 3 ports.

The Ugly

• Charges via barrel charging port.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1537621