HP is on a roll lately. They’ve been cranking out increasingly sexy mobile PCs over the last couple of years, and have attempted to assert themselves as a premiere brand of laptops for performance- and function-conscious consumers.
Their top-of-the-line is their Envy series. The name comes from the Voodoo Envy, which HP purchased back in 2008. At the time, the Voodoo Envy was a carbon-fiber beast that represented the ultimate that Voodoo could produce. HP reserved the name in spirit, and the line culminated in the recently announced Envy Spectre, a 14″ glass Ultrabook that has turned many heads.
For those who need more oomph, the regular Envy line is what HP recommends, and we recently received the latest refresh of the Envy 17 to look at.
Specs as shipped to us:
- Intel Core i7-2670QM @ 2.20ghz
- 8gb DDR3 RAM @ 1600mhz
- 6-cell 86WHr battery
- Western Digital 750gb 7200RPM HD
- HP BD-ROM drive
- Intel integrated 802.11a/g/n Wi-fi adapter
- Bluetooth 2.0
- MMC and SD card reader built in
- Wireless audio support
- AMD Radeon 7690M with Switchable Graphics support, supports DirectX 11
- AMD Eyefinity support through 2x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI
- Full HD Infinity LED-backlit display
- Intel WiDi (Wireless Display) support through on-die Intel HD Graphics 3000
- HP TrueVision HD webcam
- HP Beats Audio
The red pinstripe in the keyboard tray is a subtle and awesome touch
The first thing that you notice about the new Envy 17 is the extremely high production quality. You can blame Apple for this, but the quality of industrial design and construction of high-end laptops has gotten much better in the last few years. The body of the Envy 17 is aluminum, and even the bottom plate is metal. In true HP style, the design language is finally maturing—things like the tiny “Envy” brandmark are etched into the metal, the ports are beautifully rendered, the weight is not too bad at 7.5 lbs, and very subtle details like a red pinstripe on the inside of the keyboard tray as well as a very high quality volume knob all add up to a very nice aesthetic.
1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 2x USB 3.0, and dat volume knob
Versatility with WiDi and Eyefinity
Switchable graphics opens up quite a few doors. There is both an onboard Intel GPU built into the Core i7 and a discrete AMD Radeon 7690M XT, and they can be switched via software. This enables some pretty flexible output choices. First of all, it supports AMD Eyefinity, with three monitor support via one HDMI and two full-size DisplayPort outputs. Second, if you prefer to go wireless, there’s always WiDi.
HP Envy 17 switchable graphics interface
The Envy 17’s implementation of WiDi is the Intel-specific version, which uses the GPU-accelerated transcoder, named QuickSync, in Intel’s on-die graphics. WiDi is Intel’s proprietary wireless video implementation, which takes that transcoded content and beams it over 802.11n to a compatible receiver. The receiver converts the signal back to a picture and tosses it up on the screen. Think of it as wireless HDMI. Some newer TVs may have the receiver built in, but companies like D-Link also make an external receiver you can buy for unsupported TVs. With a compatible WiDi 2.0 receiver, you should be able to stream at 1920×1080. One caveat, however—WiDi does not support HDCP, so you cannot stream protected content like a Blu-ray disc.
Benchmarks
We start off with Futuremark PowerMark, which runs a series of everyday tasks until the battery drains. This gives a pretty good idea of real-world battery life, since manufacturer’s claims (in HP’s case, an extremely liberal 7 hours) are often pretty pie-in-the-sky. PowerMark was run in the “balanced” mode.
As you can see, it’s probably more like three hours if you’re actually, you know, using the thing. A 9-cell battery is an option, which should extend this to closer to four and a half hours.
Next up, 3D Mark 11, a 3D benchmark showing relative 3D performance with DirectX 11 games.
P1583 isn’t great, by any stretch, but it will play games reasonably. Here are some Skyrim benchmark numbers, just for giggles:
Skyrim on High settings on the HP Envy 17
As you can see, it dipped to 21 FPS at a few points, but for the most part the game was perfectly playable on high settings. With a few minor tweaks, the game will run admirably at 30FPS and above. The LED-backlit screen makes the experience bright and shiny.
Hardware
One of the things that has really impressed us with the last few HP laptops we’ve reviewed is the ease of access to hardware areas for upgrades and replacements. Take a look at our EliteBook 8760W review; the entire bottom comes off. On the Envy 17, only half the bottom comes off, but it still gives you access to the battery, both drive slots, your license stickers and serial numbers, and the wireless upgrade slot:
Getting to the RAM slots is not much of a trick either.
Software and Warranty
One of the things that shows exactly where HP is aiming this model is in the software loadout. The Envy 17 comes bundled with full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premiere Elements, which itself is a couple hundred bucks’ worth of software kit. With these two programs, one could create compelling video or blogging content. Heck, we could run Icrontic on those two programs alone. HP is saying: This is a content creation machine. It’s not a high-end professional content-creation monster workstation, but for most people it will absolutely be a great computer. The addition of Beats Audio cements the idea that this can be used to create blog and social media content.
It also comes standard with two years of Norton Internet Security. Most people will be content with this setup, while those who are more performance minded or who tend towards tech enthusiasm and geekery will forgo the subscription and use something a bit more agile, such as Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast.
HP also bundles in their normal software suite, including their actually not-at-all-bad HP Support app, which is unobtrusive, lightweight, and actually keeps everything up-to-date. HP is also pretty good as far as most vendors go about bloatware. The only bloatware installed out of the box was a Microsoft Office 2010 trial. In addition, there’s also the HP Wireless Audio manager for supported devices.
The default warranty is HP’s two year 24×7 online support plan. It can be upgraded to three years at time of purchase.
A solid buy
The current HP Envy 17 line starts at around $1250. Fully loaded, it can get up to around $2000, but even the low-end configuration is pretty tight.
We get asked for a lot of laptop recommendations here on Icrontic. If you’re in the market for a middlish-high-end laptop that will carry you through, say, a college career or a burgeoning blogging or small business startup, we are happy to recommend the HP Envy 17 and are awarding it the Icrontic Stamp of Approval for its excellent build quality and tight attention to aesthetic.
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