Windows 7 Code HP Envy 14 Review - ComputerShopper

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The laser-etched pattern around the lid is trendy and will help keep the Envy 14 from hunting too much like a MacBook Professional clone—though the light-up HP emblem isn’t exactly an unique idea.

The Envy 14’s keyboard is exceptional, with well-spaced keys and comfortable important motion.

The appropriate side features combo USB/eSATA, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, Ethernet, and energy connectors, in addition to a lock slot.

The left aspect sports the slot-loading DVD push, a pair of USB ports, a combo headphone/microphone jack, plus a separate headphone jack.

The backlit keyboard is useful for nocturnal typing.
HP Envy 14 ten Trendy; stellar audio; great keyboard; excellent performance No Blu-ray drive selection; extra-cost dongle needed to output to VGA projectors The Envy 14 delivers top-notch overall performance, styling that might create a MacBook Professional fan jealous, outstanding multimedia, and an great keyboard—all at a reasonable price.
Price (at time of assessment): $1,289.99 (immediate, as tested)
Important Specs Processor: two.66GHz Intel Core i5-450M 2.40GHz (Turbo Boost)
Memory: 4GB RAM
Storage: 500GB difficult drive
Optical Push: 8x slot-loading dual-layer DVD writer
Screen: 14.5 inches (one,600x900 native resolution)
Graphics: Integrated Intel High definition graphics and ATI Mobility Radeon High definition 5650 (1GB, switchable)
Pounds: five.two pounds
Dimensions (HWD): one.11x14.01x9.33 inches
1.11x14.01x9.33 inches: Windows seven Home Premium (64-bit)
HP Envy 14 Review Reviewed by: Denny Atkin
Review Date: August 2010
When we reviewed HP’s first-generation Envy 15 previous 12 months, we were impressed with its chic, good quality development and exceptional performance but disappointed with its absence of an inner optical push and its very poor battery life. HP’s most current entry inside the line, the Envy 14, addresses those grievances head on, maintaining the excellent overall performance and sturdy design in the authentic, whilst packing an optical generate and much-improved battery daily life in one of the most fashionable and comfortable Windows notebooks we’ve tested to date.
There’s no denying the MacBook Pro must have inspired the Envy 14’s design and style group. Its laser-etched, aluminum lid with light-up emblem, black-framed glossy LCD, backlit Chiclet keyboard resting inside a sculpted depression, rounded edges, and buttonless touch pad are all really reminiscent of Apple’s high-end notebooks. It is not a slavish duplicate, even so. The largely aluminum case is not of unibody construction—the bottom is black plastic—and within this most current revision HP gave up on looking to cram every one of the ports onto one aspect and as an alternative integrated some connectors missing on previously Envy types. Overall, the design is tasteful, elegant, and useful, and it feels incredibly reliable and long lasting. Measuring one.11x14.01x9.33 inches and weighing in at 5.two pounds, it is slightly scaled-down as opposed to Envy fifteen (though it's the exact same pounds), even with the addition with the optical push and beefier battery.
The 14.5-inch LED-backlit display is really crisp and vivid. Though the stock Envy ships having a one,366x768-pixel display, our design was equipped with all the roomy optional Radiance Infinity HD+ one,Office 2010 Keygen,600x900 show. The text is smallish to the higher-res screen, but it is sharp sufficient that even little fonts are simple to study. The screen incorporates a wide color gamut, and we could see a vibrance and richness in digital photographs and DVD playback that’s not typical of the notebook at this cost level. In fact, viewing DVDs employing the slot-loading 8x DVD author had us wishing HP presented a Blu-ray drive alternative for your Envy 14. However, you are going to should opt for the a lot larger Envy 17 if you want hi-def ability. Also, even though the screen looks great, as with most glossy screens, it shows reflections from the glass; we’d adore to see HP supply a matte selection.
The Envy 14’s Beats audio program is similarly outstanding and it is one particular region where the Envy obviously outdoes the MacBook Professional. HP isolated the audio elements to the motherboard to avoid the interference which will result in static on some PCs, and furthermore, it extra an amplifier and DSP to boost and enhance the audio. The outcomes on the built-in speakers are extremely good—volume and clarity are far over typical to get a dual-speaker notebook. Plug the Envy 14 into exterior speakers or possibly a good set of headphones, even though, and you may uncover the audio is nothing at all brief of astounding. Even on low-cost earbuds, the audio clarity and punch of our tunes was significantly greater than we’d anticipate from a notebook. Pressing Fn-B to toggle off the Beats enhancements shows that the method is adding significant depth and added bass to the audio.
The superb Chiclet keyboard has superb response, very good spacing between keys, and it is really comfy to kind on. The keyboard now features a backlight, which may be toggled employing a function important. The perform keys double as media controls; you hit Fn in combination with them to enter an actual F1-F12 key press.


The large touch pad supports a variety of multi-touch gestures for scrolling, zooming, and rotating images; it also adds new three-finger press and flick options for quick-launching applications and navigating Web pages. The lower third in the pad integrates the mouse buttons; just press down the left or right sides to make selections.
The earlier Envy 15 had a limited number of ports because HP crammed each of the ports along one particular aspect. By spreading them out on both sides, the selection is much much better on the Envy 14. The number of USB two.0 ports has been upped from two to three, one of which doubles as an eSATA port. You’ll also discover 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 five.8GHz) 801.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. There’s also a quite good High definition webcam, which includes auto face-detection, excellent low-light performance, along with a built-in microphone. The one thing you might miss if you use your notebook for presentations is a VGA monitor output. Should you use VGA projectors, you’ll want to purchase an HDMI-to-VGA adapter cable, available like a $50 selection from HP, or for significantly 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 two.4GHz Core i5-450M processor (supporting up to 2.66GHz in Turbo Boost mode), backed by 4GB of DDR3 RAM, with 6GB and 8GB configurations available. It includes an ATI Mobility Radeon High definition 5650 graphics processor with 1GB of DDR3 video memory for games and other demanding 3D applications; the notebook can automatically revert to the slower stock Intel Hd graphics developed into the motherboard chipset to save battery daily 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 generate for storage, in addition to the aforementioned slot-loading 8x DVD burner. (The inclusion in the optical push means the second inner push option found to the Envy 15 is missing here.)


There’s 1 additional difference within the hardware, compared with the Envy 15, which bears mentioning: Even though the Envy 15 would toast your lap with intensive use, the Envy 14 remains cool on 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 difficult, but in addition, it does its job effectively and keeps the Envy 14 from heating up.
The Envy 14 turned in remarkable benefits on our benchmark tests. It did effectively on our PCMark Vantage benchmark test, which measures overall system performance with productivity programs. Its score of 6,Windows 7 Code,185 on the 64-bit version of the test beat its Core i7-powered Envy fifteen predecessor’s score of five,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 a single second, give or take) the Core i7-powered Envy 15 and the Toshiba M645. It did even better on our iTunes conversion test, converting 11 songs from MP3 to AAC format in 3 minutes, 11 seconds, compared to 3:49 for your Envy fifteen, and 3:15 for the Toshiba M645.
On our Cinebench test, which taxes every one of the available cores of the CPU, the Envy 14 held it own, slightly beating out the category average for other 64-bit notebooks, with 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 common 64-bit score is 6,810, showing the Envy 14 has the mettle to multitask and deliver on CPU-intensive chores, even however it’s not best-in-class.


The ATI Mobility Radeon Hd 5650 chip offers really great 3D functionality. Its score of five,967 on our 3DMark 06 benchmark at native resolution is not best-in-class, but it is double the common for other thin-and-lights tested this year, and it’s plenty fast to play modern games like Starcraft II smoothly and using a very 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 10 mode.
The Envy 14 lasted an outstanding 3 hours and 17 minutes on our DVD rundown test, a substantial improvement over the Envy 15’s embarrassingly brief 1:04 result. This is a tad brief from the category average (3:26) but still better than the Toshiba M645. While writing this evaluation,Windows 7 Professional Product Key, browsing the Web, 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’ll should go into the Control Panel to manually re-enable the GPU when running on battery. Unlike the MacBook Professional it pays tribute to, the Envy 14 features a removable battery. You can purchase an further eight-cell internal battery for $75 when configuring the Envy 14, or opt for the $200 six-Cell Slim Fit Extended Lifestyle Battery, which clips onto the bottom of 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 7 House Top quality, you're presented having a cool-looking (if somewhat dark) re-skinned version in the operating program. The included 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 Professional X3, Corel VideoStudio Pro X3, Microsoft Works, and a 60-day trial version of Norton Internet Security 2010. There’s also a preinstalled copy of Microsoft Office 2010. It is not a demo version. Rather,Windows 7 Starter Key, you can purchase or enter a product crucial 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 on the Envy 14, complete which has a dedicated toll-free 24/7 Envy support line, free shipping both ways on repairs, and online chat support.
With its trendy and sturdy layout, exemplary performance, and stellar audio, HP earned an Editors' Choice for your previously Envy fifteen regardless of is pitiful battery lifestyle and optional exterior optical generate. Using the Envy 14 directly addressing people grievances, HP has definitely struck gold. The Envy 14 has seems, durability, efficiency, and very good battery lifestyle. It’s extremely cozy to use,Office 2007 Pro Plus Key, and it’s reasonably priced to get a laptop in its class. With its super-sharp and colorful display, great illuminated keyboard, and excellent audio playback, it is hard to think of considerably that HP could do far better here.
Value (at time of review): $1,289.99 (immediate, as tested)

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