Power, usability and a very
attractive proposition
HP was one of the key players in the early
Ultrabook invasion with its Folio 13 machine doing well in the business market
and the awesome-looking Envy 14 Spectre wowing consumers. And now the tech
giant is back for another crack with the HP Envy 6.
HP
Envy 6
Unlike HP’s initial forays into the new
market, the Envy 6 ($1,049 inc. VAT) comes with a price-tag to make it a much
more attractive prospect for the masses. It’s almost half the price of the
original Spectre, and that’s with a spec filled with 2012’s best innovations.
For a start, there’s a dual-core
third-generation i5 CPU complete with Intel HD Graphics 4000 and 4GB of RAM.
This engine room resulted in incredibly impressive benchmark results, with
Intel’s new platform resulting in scores that blow the whole of the original
Ultrabook gang out of the water.
And these results are reflected in everyday
usability with the Envy 6 performing amicably with the array of tasks that we
put laptops through in our testing lab. HD video, even at 1080p, isn’t an issue
for the Envy 6, nor is high- resolution image editing, multitasking or even
basic gaming.
The Envy 6 isn’t the machine for you if you
want seamless gaming with the latest titles, but for the casual gamer, it may
just suffice. HD movie editing is possible, although we wouldn’t recommend it
for anything other than a quick clip that you want to upload onto your social
networks.
Everyday excellence
Where you should be using the Envy 6 is for
regular day-to-day use in areas such as document editing, web browsing, social
networking, movie streaming and listening to your music collection. In fact,
sound is one of the Envy 6’s strong points courtesy of its Beats Audio infused
audio control panel. The 15.6-inch, 1,366 x 768, display is also good for media
playback with decent viewing angles, although the contrast ratio could be a
little stronger.
Kaboom!
In our tests, HP’s Envy 6 registered scores that blow the whole of the original
Ultrabook gang out of the water
When it comes to the design, HP has once
again subscribed to the theory that Ultrabooks should favour desirability ahead
of portability. The Envy 6 is still svelte and light enough to slip into your
bag for a day’s adventures but, at 20mm thick and weighing in at over 2kg, it’s
definitely one of the bulkier Ultrabooks we’ve seen so far.
But it still looks great. The brushed black
metallic finish that adorns the lid and keyboard panel is nice and the soft
rubberised red material used for the edges and the bottom not only look smart,
but make the Envy 6 comfortable to hold - there’s not much chance of it
slipping out of your hand on route to your bag.
On the sides you’ll find three USB ports
(two of which are 3.0) an RJ45 port for wired internet and HDMI for hooking up
to a big screen TV. There’s a HD webcam on board and the Envy 6 also packs HP’s
Coolsense tech, helping your system to keep to the optimum temperature. Battery
life is okay - it managed almost five hours in our intensity test.
All of this, combined with 500GB of hard
disk space, and a further 32GB of super speedy flash storage, make the HP Envy
6 an incredibly attractive proposition.
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Info
Price: $1,049
Website: www.hp.com
What’s it best for
Web, mail & photos
HD, movies & TV
Light & portable
Key features
Supplier: www.hp.com
OS: Windows 7
Home Premium
Processor: Intel
Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz
Memory: 4GB
Storage: 500GB
/128GB SSD
Screen size: 15.6-inch
Screen resolution: 1,366 x 768
Graphics: Intel HD
Graphics 4000
Weight: 2.1kg
Verdict
Value: 3/5
Features: 4/5
Performance: 3/5
Total: 3/5
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