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HP Envy 13 review

Verdict

A lavishly designed ultraportable with staggering battery life, but more liable to frustrate than excite

Review Date: 25 Nov 2009

Reviewed By: Sasha Muller

Price when reviewed: £1,304 (£1,500 inc VAT)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
4 stars out of 6

Value for Money
3 stars out of 6

Performance
5 stars out of 6

Details
Part Code	VB166EA
Review Date	25 Nov 2009
Price ex VAT	£1,304
Price inc VAT	£1,500
Overall rating
Features & Design
Value for Money
Performance

Warranty
Warranty	1yr collect and return

Physical specifications
Dimensions	321 x 216 x 21mm (WDH)
Weight	1.690kg
Travelling weight	2.1kg
Weight with extended battery	2.3kg
Travelling weight with extended battery	2.8kg

Processor and memory
Processor	Intel Core 2 Duo SL9300
RAM capacity	3.00GB
Memory type	DDR3
SODIMM sockets free	0
SODIMM sockets total	2

Screen and video
Screen size	13.1in
Resolution screen horizontal	1,366
Resolution screen vertical	768
Resolution	1366 x 768
Graphics chipset	ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330
VGA (D-SUB) outputs	0
HDMI outputs	1
S-Video outputs	0
DVI-I outputs	0
DVI-D outputs	0
DisplayPort outputs	0

Drives
Capacity	250GB
Hard disk usable capacity	233GB
Internal disk interface	SATA/300
Hard disk	Toshiba MK2529GSG
Optical disc technology	External DVD writer
Optical drive	HP
Battery capacity	2,700mAh
Replacement battery price inc VAT	£0

Networking
Wired adapter speed	1,000Mbits/sec
802.11a support
802.11b support
802.11g support
802.11 draft-n support
Integrated 3G adapter
Bluetooth support

Other Features
Wireless hardware on/off switch
Wireless key-combination switch
Modem
ExpressCard34 slots	0
ExpressCard54 slots	0
PC Card slots	0
USB ports (downstream)	2
PS/2 mouse port
9-pin serial ports	0
Parallel ports	0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports	1
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports	0
3.5mm audio jacks	1
SD card reader
Memory Stick reader
MMC (multimedia card) reader
Smart Media reader
Compact Flash reader
xD-card reader
Pointing device type	Touchpad
Audio chipset	IDT HD Audio
Speaker location	Front edge
Hardware volume control?
Integrated microphone?
Integrated webcam?
Camera megapixel rating	2.0mp
TPM
Fingerprint reader
Smartcard reader
Carry case

Operating system and software
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
OS family	Windows 7
Recovery method	Recovery partition, burn own recovery discs
Software supplied	CyberLink DVD Suite, Core VideoStudio X2, Corel Paint Shop Pro X2, HP Mediasmart Suite

Battery and performance tests
Overall application benchmark score	1.02
Office application benchmark score	1.10
2D graphics application benchmark score	1.09
Encoding application benchmark score	0.90
Multitasking application benchmark score	0.99
3D performance (crysis) low settings	40fps
3D performance setting	Low

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Comments

User comments

Why buy?

You can buy a apple macbook pro for £899 which will be made better, and is faster. the macbook battery lasts 7 hours any way. £1500 is a lot for a copy.

By BenSearson on 26 Nov 2009

Yeah, but with the macbook you'd have the stigma of being an apple attention whore.

Also what's with running crysis on underpowered garphic chips, what's the point, it's hardly a real world test is it. No one is going to do that, use a photoshop test or something useful and meaningful.

By dodge1963 on 26 Nov 2009

Touchpad

Why are other companies trying to copy Apple's buttonless touchpad (e.g. HP, Dell). Even using OS X is is an acquired taste, and it's less well suited to Windows - particularly when it's badly implemented.

By davidbryant4 on 3 Dec 2009

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