The HP Envy 14 is a powerful laptop. It falls just short of being called a workstation. This new generation of Envy features customizable components for the CPU, amount of RAM, and hard drive capacity and speed. Starting at $999, the HP Envy is the best midrange priced laptop PC on the market. Subtle features like the slot loaded DVD port, backlit keyboard, and sleek design make this a must have for any gamer or power user. The only thing better would be upgrading to the 17” display version which starts at $1399.
The 14” model starts with a Core i5 chip and 4GB RAM, 640GB hard disk space. The 8 cell lithium-ion battery provides around 6 hours of power. These are the guts of the system and cannot be changed. So, they went ahead and threw in a graphics card so you don’t have to worry about the lag from Intel HD chipset. The onboard ATI Mobility Radeon 5650 graphics card does better than the Intel HD. However, graphics cards are notorious for heating up laptops. This means you’ll really be able to watch movies in 1080p with no lag. The new Intel Sandy Bridge architecture is supposed to enhance the current graphics on the second generation Core lineup. The value market won’t see those chips until 2012 though.
It weighs just above 5 pounds and has an etched aluminum frame to wrap up these beefy components. A standard 802.11 b/g/n network card is onboard. Taking a step back for a moment and thinking about the types of people who want to own one of these machines, you’ll notice this isn’t your daughter’s freshman year at college laptop. With sophisticated hardware, many power users would find this perfect for mobile working conditions.
Erik Uri, March 8, 2011
I would love to see a review on the 17'' 3D edition of the Envy series. Anywho; Is the screen 1080p or 1440 x 900?
Matthew, April 6, 2011
A review would be nice on the HP Beats laptops