HP Envy TouchSmart 15 review

 

TechRadar rating

4/5

For

• Powerful processor
• Good graphics card
• Loads of RAM
• Nicely made
• Comfortable to use

Against

• Rubbish battery life
• Iffy trackpad
• Poor viewing angles on screen
• Loud and hot
• No SSD

Well-judged blend of quality, price and features

HPs Envy line is the companys high-end range - the top-class stuff, in theory - but has produced mixed results recently. We were impressed by the Spectre XT and Envy X2, but werent so sure about the Envy 6 or Envy 4.

But the HP Envy TouchSmart 15-j004ea is closer to what the Envy line originally stood for, so we always had high hopes for it. Its simply a highly specd machine, fitted into a smart chassis.
Inevitably for a Windows 8 laptop, it has a touchscreen. But its generally aiming straight at being a regular premium machine, without gimmicks or being incredibly small and light. Think MacBook Pro or Samsung Series 7 Chronos rather than MacBook Air.

Reassuringly weighty

Indeed, at 29.9mm thick and weighing 2.56kg, its far from being an Ultrabook. But what you get in exchange is a superb spec sheet. Theres a quad-core Intel processor, a 2GB Nvidia graphics card, a colossal 16GB of RAM and a generous 1TB hard drive.

Thats all combined with a 1080p screen, Beats Audio speakers, a full-size keyboard and multitouch trackpad, and four USB 3.0 ports (most laptops will only give you two SuperSpeed ports).

Its all particularly impressive for the price. At around £1,000, its great value for pros, making the extra £500 youd spend on a MacBook Pro or Razer Blade Pro seem steep if the core specs are what you want.

HP isnt just applying the premium features to whats inside the machine, though - its taken a stab at upping the build quality on the outside, too. The casing is partly aluminium, specifically on the top and sides of the bottom half of the machine, making it feel solid and high-quality in use.

Its a little bit of a cheat, because it reverts to plastic on the bottom, but thats not to the detriment of the overall build quality. Theres very little of the creaking or flex you get on cheaper laptops - except for on the back of the screen, where the case does bend quite a lot. We doubt it would be enough for the screen to get damaged in normal use, though.

Theres also a little bit of give beneath the keyboard, but from our time with it, we dont see any effect that would have on durability.

Read the rest of this post ----> Performance

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