HP Envy 13 (2019) Overview

The HP Envy 13 2019 affords glorious efficiency and elegance at an agreeable worth. It is not fairly on a par with its major opponents – however then once more, it’s inexpensive.

Execs

• Excessive-quality touchscreen show
• Glorious color area protection
• Properly priced

Cons

• Common battery life
• No Thunderbolt 3

Key Specs

• Overview Value: £899
• 13.3-inch Full HD touchscreen
• 307 x 211 x 147mm
• Intel Core i5-8265U/i7-8565U
• 1.2kg
• Nvidia GeForce MX250
• 8GB/16GB RAM

What’s the HP Envy 13 2019?

The HP Envy 13 is a premium Home windows 10 laptop computer that goals to sq. as much as the brand new Dell XPS 13, tackle the brand new Apple MacBook Airs, and, to a lesser extent, supply a substitute for the 13-inch Razer Blade Stealth. 

It’s priced attractively – the HP Envy 2019 vary begins at simply £899, which is £100 cheaper than the entry-level Dell XPS 13 choice. To your cash, you get a Home windows 10 laptop computer with a 13-inch touchscreen show, Intel Whiskey Lake processors, devoted Nvidia graphics to help with photograph modifying, and a intelligent design that improves airflow by means of the gadget. 

The brand new 2019 HP Envy 13s additionally encompasses a nifty webcam killswitch for the privacy-conscious. This can be a characteristic that HP has included in its higher-end (and dearer) Spectre laptops up to now, so it’s nice to see this trickle down right here.

The mannequin I’m reviewing right here is an HP Envy 13-aq0000na – the most cost effective choice within the HP Envy 13 2019 vary. It options an Intel Core i5-8265U processor, 8GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics processor, and a 256GB Toshiba NVMe (KBG30ZMV256G) SSD, 238GB of which is out there to the person. 

Associated: Greatest laptops 2019

The HP Envy 13 is without doubt one of the nicest-looking laptops we’ve seen shortly, and borrows some design options from the HP Spectre vary

HP Envy 13 design – A segmented silver surfer

The HP Envy 13 is a really neatly packaged 13-inch laptop computer. Bordering the Full HD show are some skinny bezels – 0.7mm on the edges and 10mm on the highest – and Bang & Olufsen-branded audio system sit behind a sequence of micro-drilled holes that comply with an alternating right-angled triangle sample. The triangular motif is repeated on the underside and on the hinge of the case, too. 

Very like Asus’ ZenBooks – notably the ZenBook Professional 14 and the ZenBook 15 – the hinge has been cleverly angled so whenever you open up the Envy 13, the rear portion of the deck’s underside is hoisted barely off the floor of the desk. 

This achieves two issues. First, the keys are angled in direction of your fingers, making for a barely extra pure typing really feel. Maybe extra importantly, the triangular air vents discovered on the underside are raised up from the desktop, which permits for the fan to push heat air out and away from the primary elements as soon as they begin turning into scorching underneath the collar. 

That angled show case makes the HP Envy 13 is extra comfy to kind on, plus its innards will be saved cooler

Connections-wise, you get one Kind-C USB port that helps Energy Supply, so you may cost up any handsets whereas transferring recordsdata and pictures (at speeds of as much as 5Gbps) – even when the laptop computer is sleeping, because of HP Sleep and Cost. DisplayPort 1.2 can be supported if you wish to hook up with an exterior monitor, and also you get a Kind-C USB-to-HDMI adapter within the field. 

There are additionally two Kind-A USB 3.1 ports, the right-hand one helps HP Sleep and Cost, whereas the left-hand port helps solely information switch. 

The Kind-C USB port right here will allow you to draw energy from the mains – however the excellent news is that you simply don’t have, as there’s additionally a devoted port for the provided mains adapter. 

There’s been a current pattern the place laptop computer makers may have a USB-C port with energy supply, or Thunderbolt 3 know-how, and have that stand in because the de facto mains port port. Thunderbolt 3 is superior, permitting information switch at charges of as much as 40Gbps, while outputting 4K video at 120Hz; DisplayPort 1.2 allows you to do the identical, however solely at 60Hz. Nonetheless, it’s additionally costly to implement, so it may possibly drive up laptop computer costs. 

Ports on the left-hand facet of the HP Envy 13 L-R: 3.5mm headphone jack, USB-A, USB-C

Its omission right here is one thing of a combined bag. On the one hand, you don’t profit from sooner information switch speeds and sooner video output – however, if that form of factor isn’t a dealbreaker for you, you then get to choose up a less expensive premium 13-inch laptop computer, with a little bit of a reduction. 

When you don’t get a full-sized SD card reader right here, there’s a microSD card reader. SD-to-microSD card adapters are simple to come back by nowadays, so in case you needed to have the ability to edit pictures on the HP Envy 13, you’ll want to choose up one in all these. 

There are a few neat bells and whistles which are worthy of point out. First; the fingerprint scanner. Whereas it’s more and more widespread to see these on high-end laptops these days, their presence isn’t all the time a given. 

Ports and controls on the right-hand facet of the HP Envy 13, L-R webcam killswitch, microSD card reader, USB-A, mains adapter port

Second, on the right-hand facet subsequent to the microSD slot, is a webcam killswitch that does precisely what it says on the tin – it robotically disables the digital camera feed by slicing the ability to that part.

Now you see me…

In the event you’re frightened about somebody, or one thing – whether or not that’s GCHQ, the CIA or the FSB – remotely accessing your system and spying on you, then this answer is at the least extra elegant than a blob of Blu-tac or a bit of masking tape caught over the digital camera. 

…and now you don’t!

As I mentioned within the intro, the assessment unit is the entry-level HP Envy 13. Nonetheless, all of them measure and weigh the identical, that includes the identical Nvidia MX250 graphics card with 2GB of GDDR5 video RAM, however they do characteristic totally different processors, RAM, and storage.  

Right here’s how the 13-aq0000na sits within the 2019 vary:

HP Envy 13 keyboard – How simple is the HP Envy 13 to kind on?

HP has packed quite a bit in to the HP Envy 13’s keyboard. On the proper sit the navigation keys – Residence, Web page Up, Web page Down, Finish. This isn’t typical for a laptop computer, least of all a 13-inch mannequin. 

The primary letter keys are properly sized, which, for somebody with bigger than common fingers, I actually appreciated. Whereas the keycaps themselves don’t really feel particularly premium, they depress with a pleasing, barely springy really feel and fireplace again properly. 

HP has packed loads in to the Envy 13’s deck – disgrace about these arrow keys, although

It isn’t fairly as premium-feeling because the maglev keys of a Dell XPS laptop computer, however my impression is that most individuals will discover the HP Envy 13 simple and pleasing to kind on. 

I didn’t like the truth that the arrow keys are bunched collectively within the backside proper nook, with the Up and Down arrows are half the scale of their Left and Proper counterparts. This can be a widespread situation with small laptops, so the HP Envy 13 isn’t alone right here – though I don’t have to love it (once more, large fingers). I’m nitpicking right here, but it surely’s my solely actual gripe with the keyboard. 

The trackpad is properly sized, and whereas I didn’t discover it to be terribly responsive or simple to make use of out of the field, some fine-tuning of the settings ensured it labored extra to my liking. 

The quad speaker system options two audio system on the highest and one on both facet, beneath the HP Envy 13’s deck

HP Envy 13 audio system – Are the Bang & Olufsen audio system any good?

HP says that the Envy 13’s audio system have been custom-tuned in collaboration with fancy Danish audio model Bang & Olufsen. 

On the time of writing, I’ve been unable to find out if which means that these audio system have been personally tuned by B&O workers, or in the event that they merely suggested HP’s audio engineers on the right way to get probably the most out of the 4 audio system right here. 

Regardless, the result’s spectacular. Whereas we don’t at the moment use decibel meters to measure most quantity, I can affirm that the HP Envy 13 can get fairly rattling loud. I used to be in a position to blast out “Grasp of Puppets” by Metallica from my desk, go and make a espresso within the kitchen within the Trusted Evaluations workplace and nonetheless be capable of hear the track fairly clearly from behind a glass door. 

Along with being loud, the audio system are additionally good at maintaining bass and treble distortion to a minimal at excessive volumes. Clipping is just actually noticeable in case you push issues past the 90% boundary – and, to be trustworthy, in case you’re utilizing the HP Envy 13 to stream playlists when you’re working, you most likely gained’t need it up that loud anyway. Equally, dialogue on streamed TV reveals sounded fantastically clear, with strains spoken by characters distinct and separate within the combine. 

HP Envy 13 show – Can I take advantage of the HP Envy 13 for photograph modifying?

The HP Envy 13’s Full HD (1920 x 1080) show is superb, probably the greatest we’ve seen on a 13-inch laptop computer. 

Utilizing our X-Ceremony colorimeter and DisplayCAL 3, I recorded near-total protection of the usual RGB (sRGB) color area at 98.2%. 

That’s a stable end result, one which might be of curiosity to internet designers, digital artists, or any digital photographers taking pictures or working inside that color area. 

Elsewhere, the HP Envy 13’s display screen lined 69.2% and 71.7% of the broader Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 gamuts respectively. 

For context, the Asus ZenBook Professional 15 2018 and Apple MacBook Professional 2018 fashions we examined lined 98.7% and 88.1%, and 84% and 98.9% of these color areas, and are the very best Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 scores we’ve recorded on any laptop computer thus far. 

The Dell XPS 13 and Razer Blade Stealth, that are equally specced, gave us the next outcomes:

As you may see, there’s subsequent to no distinction between the HP Envy 13 and the Dell XPS 13 by way of color area protection, and the Razer Blade Stealth is just barely behind each.

Whereas some photographers preferring to work within the Adobe area will balk at such a low rating (you’ll need at the least 80% protection), the DCI-P3 protection ought to make little distinction as as to if you’d purchase this laptop computer for video modifying. The 8GB of reminiscence and comparatively low-powered GPU imply that the HP Envy 13 isn’t actually fitted to video work anyway. 

I recorded a color temperature of 6616K, which can be glorious – 6500K is the candy spot, making certain that white areas of a digital show don’t look too purple/heat or too cool/blue. In contrast, the Dell XPS 13 and Razer Blade Stealth gave us 6558K and 6771K.

Talking of distinction, I recorded a most brightness of 367.08 nits and a black stage of 0.29 nits, which provides as much as a stable distinction ratio of 1252:1. 

Any laptop computer show that may kick out 300 nits will help you work comfortably in a wide range of lighting circumstances. As such, 367 is superb, even when it’s a little bit off of the 400 nits max brightness HP guarantees. 

A distinction ratio of above 1000:1 is an indicator of a good-quality show that may do a good job of making certain that darkish areas of a picture, whether or not that’s a photograph or a TV stream, gained’t look uninteresting and vague. Equally, brilliant areas gained’t look washed out, both. However the better the distinction between the darkest and lightest tones, the upper the ratio, and subsequently the higher the show might be at doing this. 

Briefly, this the HP Envy 13 has an important show that compares properly with different units in its class. The distinction ratio won’t be pretty much as good because the Dell XPS 13, and peak brightness can’t contact that of the Razer Blade Stealth both, but it surely’s stable nonetheless. 

HP Envy 13 efficiency – What’s the HP Envy 13 like for working?

Laptops powered by Whiskey Lake processors are usually protected bets – they’ll tear by means of on a regular basis PC processes with out making an enormous dent on the battery. 

The inclusion of a devoted GPU implies that you’ll be capable of whizz by means of photograph modifying duties a little bit extra briskly, too. 

The HP Envy mannequin I’ve examined features a Core i5 CPU (the Core i5-8265U), whereas a lot of the Whiskey Lake laptops we’ve examined featured the more-powerful Core i7 variant. On the time of writing, this makes it tough to match this HP Envy 13 with, say, the Dell XPS 13, which encompasses a processor with sooner clock speeds and an even bigger reminiscence cache. 

I anticipated that may account for a drop in efficiency, however trying on the benchmarking scores, you’ll see that the distinction is negligible. 

Whereas PCMark 10 offers an at-a-glance take a look at a laptop computer’s efficiency, we use Geekbench 4 to stress-test the processor. Curiously, the Dell XPS 13 doesn’t evaluate in addition to you may suppose, regardless of that includes a extra succesful CPU. 

Typically, any PCMark 10 rating over 4100 is nice for PC necessities, whereas Geekbench single and multi-core scores above 4000 and 8000 respectively counsel {that a} system can deal with PC fundamentals properly. 

Disk learn and write scores for the HP Envy 13 are fairly middling. Whereas I didn’t actually battle to avoid wasting or open recordsdata from the 25GB SSD, such a result’s solely going to be a priority when gaming. 

HP Envy 13 gaming – Can I play Fortnite and Apex Legends on the HP Envy 13?

The presence of a devoted graphics processor right here, mixed with the low necessities of battle royale titles, may properly make the HP Envy 13 a succesful machine for gentle gaming. In fact, you’d be mistaken to purchase the HP Envy 13 if gaming is a precedence, however you’ll nonetheless (nearly) be capable of sneak a couple of rounds of Apex or Fortnite right here in case you dumb down the graphics settings.  

On Fortnite, with the graphics settings turned to the max in Full HD, the very best body fee the laptop computer might hit was 25fps which is simply too low for a dependable efficiency. Flip down the graphics preset to “medium” although, and you may see the body fee climb as excessive as 60fps, however the sacrifice to the visible high quality is extraordinarily noticeable. 

On Apex Legends, I fared much less properly. Even with textures and visible results dialled down or turned off, with FRAPS turned on, I’d chug alongside at 20-30fps. 

Apart from battle royale video games, you need to be capable of get small low-budget indie video games to operate properly right here, however virtually every little thing else is off limits – proving the HP Envy 13 has subsequent to no gaming pedigree, regardless of its devoted GPU.

Battery lifetime of the HP Envy 13 is beneath common, which is a disgrace, as a result of this isn’t the case with equally specced laptops

HP Envy battery – Can I get a full day’s battery out of the HP Envy 13?

The HP Envy 13 might be good for round 5 to 6 hours whenever you’re on the transfer, and that’s with the brightness dipped.

Whereas operating the PCMark 8 “Work” benchmark to simulate a day of workplace purposes, I saved the display screen’s brightness locked to 150 nits, or simply over 80% brightness utilizing the on-screen management. At this determine the benchmark estimated that you simply’ll get 3 hours 38 minutes away from the mains. 

In my expertise, you’ll get much more than that. Nonetheless, I ought to add that when working in a well-lit workplace area, in a gathering room, or at house, I tended to set the display screen’s brightness to round 75% (roughly 130 nits), as I discovered that to be probably the most comfy stage. 

You may additionally use the built-in Nvidia Management Panel to modify to the much less power-hungry graphics processor – Intel UHD Graphics 620 – which is built-in into the CPU.

Doing so will after all see a minor efficiency drop in issues like Photoshop Parts, and an even bigger drop in gaming. Nonetheless, in case you’re not planning on enjoying many video games on this machine, which may not be an enormous deal. 

Battery points apart, the HP Envy 13 stays an important worth for cash alternative

Why purchase the HP Envy 13?

Total, I’m tremendous impressed with the HP Envy 13. It isn’t fairly as succesful or {powerful} because the Dell XPS 13 or the Razer Blade Stealth, but it surely’s cheaper than each units. 

Battery life is a little bit beneath common, and when you can nearly get by means of a working day while not having to be tethered to the mains, I’ve tended to see laptops with Whiskey Lake processors supply far more energy per hour than the HP Envy 13 – possibly the Core i7 variations do a greater job of allocating assets, however till these are available for testing, I can’t say for positive. 

In the event you’re not a devoted gamer, and photograph modifying is of secondary significance, then I’d advocate the HP Envy 13 as a stable, cheaper different to the Dell XPS 13. 

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