Introduced as a replacement for the Voodoo Envy in 2009, the Envy series
originally kicked off with 13 and 15-inch models. The premium notebook
line was expanded in mid-2010 with 14 and 17-inch flavors, the former of
which we received for evaluation. It's been just over a year since we published that review
and we've since been graced with the second-gen Envy 14. Although it
looks quite similar on the outside, the 2011 iteration has revamped
internals.
Now, here's where I make a pause to explain the tricky timing we went
through in testing and reviewing the Envy 14. This second-gen model was
launched in August and we received our test system about a month later.
That was around the same time HP suddenly halted their webOS business
and hinted at a possible PC unit spin off.
Weeks went by, HP received all kinds of good and bad press (mostly the
latter), their relatively new CEO went out the door, and in late October
we finally received a final answer: HP is keeping its PC business and we should see more products in the near future.
Back to business as usual, HP revamped the Envy 15 and 17 models in late
November, while the Envy 14 remained mostly the same, receiving a
couple of speed bumps and price cuts.
Our evaluation system used to cost $1,079.99 but now you can get it for $899.
The Envy 14 comes with a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-2430M with Turbo Boost,
6GB DDR3 SDRAM, a Western Digital 750GB hard drive, Radeon HD 6630M
switchable graphics, a 14.5" HD BrightView Infinity LED display, 8X
DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer support, Intel HM65 Express Chipset, Intel
802.11a/b/g/n WLAN with Bluetooth and an 8-cell 3800mAh Lithium Ion
battery. Windows 7 Home Premium is the operating system of choice.
If you are familiar with the Envy line, there aren't any surprises from
last year's models. The computer arrived in similar packaging and
includes a power adapter, removable battery, power cord and a quick
setup guide. The power adapter includes a USB port for charging mobile
devices which is a nice touch.
From the outside the 2010 and 2011 Envy 14 models are nearly
indistinguishable. The Envy has a strong resemblance to Apple's MacBook
Pro which for the most part could be considered a good thing. The latest
version features the same gunmetal lid with an attractive etched
pattern. A reflective HP logo is positioned on the back corner of the
lid on the right side and emits a subtle white glow when the system is
on.
On the front of the notebook are two speaker grills with the Beats audio
logo prominently displayed beside the left grill. A SD / MMC card slot
flanks the speaker on the right. On the right side of the system is a
power and hard drive activity light, USB 3.0 port, HDMI port, mini
DisplayPort, Kensington lock slot, Ethernet jack and an array of exhaust
vents.
The back of the system is clean besides another series of exhaust vents.
On the left side is the slot-loading optical drive, two USB 2.0 ports
and headphone / microphone jacks.
There are four anti-slip pads on the bottom of the notebook although one
of the feet was broken on our sample. HP cycles review samples through
multiple media outlets and we have no idea how many others have tested
this Envy before we received it. Even so, a broken foot calls into
question the durability of the notebook a bit and upon further
inspection, the access panel that had the broken pad feels pretty
flimsy.
Feet aside, the bottom of the Envy 14 is relatively plain. There's the
aforementioned access panel that hides the removable battery and hard
drive.
Opening the lid, we see the beautiful infinity display with the Beats
audio logo on the top left and the Envy 14 badge on the right. The
display has a resolution of 1366x768 which isn't quite the 1600x900
pixels found on last year's Radiance display. Unfortunately, HP no
longer offers the Radiance display option as they were unable to obtain
enough from suppliers for 2011. There's a "Skype-certified" 720p webcam
above the display with microphones on either side of the lens.
Also returning is the full-size backlit chiclet keyboard that has a nice
solid feel when typing. There are no dedicated media keys but the
function buttons across the top row double as secondary buttons without
having to first press the Fn key. For example, pressing F5 turns the
backlight on rather than refreshing the page you are currently viewing.
The touchpad and click buttons are once again integrated into a single
unit. I've had mixed experiences with this in the past; some good,
mostly bad. Last year's Envy 14 was one of the worst, but we were told
by HP those issues have been corrected thanks to a new ImagePad that is
more accurate and can handle more fingers at once. We'll check these out
in better detail next.
Software and Performance
HP was quick to point out their CoolSense technology which lets you
control system cooling through a software interface, something not often
seen on notebook computers. There are three pre-configured settings to
choose from: maximum cooling, quiet or optimized performance.
A built-in accelerometer parks the hard drive when excessive movement is
detected to prevent damage to the drive's platter. The accelerometer
also puts the system into maximum cooling mode when in transit to
prevent any potential overheating.
The Beats audio software suite is split into four tabs: volume,
listening experience, recording experience and advanced settings. The
interface is a bit plain but there are plenty of options to work with,
including a graphic equalizer with four different presets: Beats Active
NR, Beats In-Ear, Beats Passive and Default. Under Recording Experience,
users can toggle Noise Cancellation, Acoustic Echo Cancellation and
Beam Forming.
The Envy 14 features Intel's Turbo Boost technology, which is built into
Core i5 and i7 chips and is designed to better manage workloads by
dynamically adjusting individual processor core speeds when more
processing power is needed.
HP Envy 14 (2011) System Specs
- 14.5" HD BrightView Infinity LED 1366 x 768 display
- Intel Core i5-2430M (2.4GHz - 3GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
- 6GB DDR3 SDRAM
- AMD Radeon HD 6630M
- Western Digital 750GB hard drive
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
HP EliteBook 8460p System Specs
- 14.0" LED-backlit HD anti-glare 1366 x 768 display
- Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
- 4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 memory
- 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6470M
- 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 System Specs
- 13.4" TFT 1366 x 768 display (covered with Corning Gorilla glass)
- Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
- 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
- Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
- Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
HP Envy 14 (2010) System Specs
- 14.5" HP Radiance 1600 x 900 display
- Intel Core i5-450M (2.4GHz - 2.66GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
- 4GB DDR3 system memory
- 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
- Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200RPM
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Benchmark Results
| Synthetic Tests | Envy 14 (2011) | EliteBook 8460p | ThinkPad X1 | Envy 14 (2010) |
| 3DMark 06 | ||||
| 3DMark Score | 7486 3DMarks | 5029 3DMarks | 3750 3DMarks | 6866 3DMarks |
| PCMark Vantage | ||||
| PCMark Suite | 5734 PCMarks | 7408 PCMarks | 7607 PCMarks | 6840 PCMarks |
| Application Tests | Envy 14 (2011) | EliteBook 8460p | ThinkPad X1 | Envy 14 (2010) |
| iTunes Encoding Test | -- | 01 min 12 sec | 01 min 15 sec | 01 min 34 sec |
| File Transfer Test | ||||
| Small files | 1 min 21 sec | 1 min 23 sec | 1 min 23 sec | 1 min 20 sec |
| Large file | 52 sec | 1 min 5 sec | 1 min 2 sec | 1 min 14 sec |
The iTunes encoding tests consist of converting 14 MP3s (119MB) to
128Kbps ACC files and measuring the operation's duration in seconds. For
the file transfer test, we measure how long it takes to copy two sets
of files from one location to another on the same hard drive. On the
small files test we transfer 557 MP3s, totaling 2.56GB. For the large
file, these same MP3s were zipped into a single file measuring 2.52GB.
| Gaming Performance | Envy 14 (2011) | EliteBook 8460p | ThinkPad X1 | Envy 14 (2010) |
| Far Cry 2 | ||||
| 1024x768 Medium Quality | 41.87 FPS | 27.05 FPS | 26.59 FPS | -- |
| Native Resolution, High Quality | 35.14 FPS | 22.28 FPS | 17.94 FPS | -- |
| StarCraft 2 | ||||
| 1024x768 Medium Quality | 67.56 FPS | 44.70 FPS | 15.23 FPS | -- |
| Native Resolution, High Quality | 45.28 FPS | 27.78 FPS | 10.42 FPS | -- |
Usage Impressions, Wrap Up
It's unfortunate HP no longer offers the Radiance displays on this
generation Envy 14 as the increased resolution and vivid colors were
unique selling points. That's not to say the 1366x768 infinity LED
display is bad though -- it's actually a very well-rounded panel.
Horizontal viewing angles are very acceptable, but the vertical angles
leave a bit to be desired and that's the only real negative I could find
with the screen.
As with last year's product, the keyboard is a strong point for the Envy
14. There's no mushy feel when typing and the backlit keys help when
it's dark. More importantly, however, are the changes that HP made to
the touchpad and click buttons. Last year's touchpad was extremely bad.
The company was aware of the issue and supplied updated drivers that
helped to an extent but it was still a bad system.
I'm happy to report that HP's new image sensor technology delivers. The
touchpad worked as it should, even with multi-touch gesturing.
Furthermore, I was able to keep my left index finger on the mouse click
button without the pointer going haywire when I used my right index
finger to move it. I still prefer independent, physical mouse click
buttons but this combination isn't bad either.
I conducted our standard notebook battery tests on the Envy 14. Our
video playback test consists of looping a 720p rip of one of my favorite
movies (Inception) in Windows Media Player at full screen with max
brightness and Wi-Fi disabled. This is a taxing test that resulted in 3
hours and 25 minutes of usage.
Our endurance test is run with five Firefox windows open with the
"Reload Every" add-on refreshing each page every five minutes to
simulate real-world browsing. Max screen brightness is used and Wi-Fi is
enabled. This test resulted in 3 hours and 6 minutes of life. For
comparison, the HP EliteBook 8460p with a faster processor lasted about
an hour and a half longer on each test.
The Beats Audio subsystem also comes standard on all Envy models and was
included on last year's model as well. HP worked with the team at
Interscope Records (think 50 Cent, Dr. Dre and U2) to develop a unique
and real audio experience through hardware and software. The team
created an audio profile based on Interscope's feedback of what music
"should" sound like. On the hardware side, HP has beefed up some of the
components to avoid crosstalk and feedback and included a
better-than-standard amplifier.
It seems that HP might have beefed up the dual speakers on this system.
That's a good thing of course, but you still shouldn't expect much bass
-- after all, they are notebook speakers.
The real benefit of the Beats audio system comes when plugging in a pair
of headphones or an external speaker system. Music here sounds much
better than a standard notebook provides. If this was my system, I'd
carry a nice set of headphones with the notebook at all times as I often
find myself rocking out on Spotify or Pandora.
HP made it easy to access the 3800mAh battery and hard drive, both of
which are tucked out of sight under a tool-less access panel. The
memory, however, remains hidden deeper in the system. 6GB is more than
enough for a modern notebook and is exactly how I'd configure my own
system.
Noise generation and heat output are in line with other Sandy Bridge
notebooks we have recently looked at. Both attributes are noticeable but
neither is excessive, especially considering how powerful the CPU is.
Our informal YouTube 4k resolution video test taxed the CPU up to 92%
percent usage and around 80% on average. The video feed remained
lag-free despite the high processor utilization.
HP's 2011 Envy 14 picks up right where last year's model left off by
beefing up the internals, adding modern connectivity options like USB
3.0 and DisplayPort and greatly improving the touchpad. The optical
drive is a convenience feature should you find yourself still using DVDs
on a regular basis. We're pleased with the Envy 14, and it's a good
value for a solidly constructed laptop at $900, however it remains to be
seen if it can handle the stiff competition from thinner and lighter
ultrabooks that are expected to arrive early 2012. We wouldn't discard
an impending update to the Envy 14 itself as part of that thin and
lighter movement as well.
