HP Envy 13 review - HP's thinnest laptop yet

HP has billed its latest Envy 13 as its "thinnest laptop yet", which is apt given it's got its 'Envy' name to live up to. Measuring 12.9mm at its thinnest point, it’s slimmer than the similarly-specified Asus ZenBook UX303UA, but not quite as svelte as the Dell XPS 13, which tapers from 15mm down to just 9mm. 

That's still an impressive feat for a 13.3in laptop, though, and it's immensely comfortable to carry around. At 1.27kg, it's marginally heavier than the lightest XPS 13, but you're not going to notice the difference during day to day use, and it’s certainly a laptop you can take on the move all day without feeling the strain.

Its design is very classy and understated, with a mixture of a silver aluminium chassis and a matt black bezel around the screen. The lid has an attractive mirrored HP logo and a debossed strip for a little visual flourish. Along the left edge, you’ll find an SD card reader, a USB3 port that supports sleep and charge and a headset jack, while the right side has two more USB3 ports and a full-size HDMI port for connecting a display. 

Keyboard and Touchpad

The premium design takes a slight dent when you notice how much flex is provided by the aluminium chassis, however. Strike away at the keyboard and it warps under the pressure of your fingers. The travel of the keyboard is disappointingly limited as well, which, when combined with the flex in the chassis, makes it not a particularly comfortable or accurate keyboard to use. The half-height Enter key was also irritating as the hash key has been placed directly above it.

The Envy 13's lifted hinge design does at least make typing a bit more comfortable when you're sat at a desk, as the way the lid tucks round and under actually elevates the keyboard tray slightly when you open it. However, it also makes using the Envy 13 on your lap a little awkward, as the raised angle makes it less stable. 

The keys are backlit, which is handy for typing in low lighting conditions, but there’s no brightness adjustment, so you can only have it turned on or off. It's a welcome inclusion considering the price of the laptop, but I wish the backlight was better integrated, as you can see the small LEDs at the base of each key when it's turned on, which becomes even more prominent with the raised keyboard angle. 

The touchpad has a short but wide design. It’s not overly small, but a little extra vertical space wouldn't have gone amiss, especially when there’s an abundance of space above the keyboard. The touchpad isn’t a Precision certified touchpad, either, so I found it rather imprecise and at times also a little erratic.

Broad strokes to move the cursor from one side of the screen to the other were generally fine, but smaller movements don't provide that 1:1 movement you get with a quality Precision touchpad where it feels like your swipes are being directly translated onto the screen. Multi-touch gestures, at least, were more responsive, so two-finger scrolling and three-finger swipes all worked perfectly well. There’s also a fingerprint reader to the right of the touchpad that can be used with Windows Hello for fingerprint sign in.

Speakers

There's a pair of Bang & Olufsen-branded speakers placed to the left and right of the keyboard. These fire upwards, which is far better for dispersing and projecting sound than the puzzling down firing speakers often found on laptops, but in terms of sound quality, they’re disappointing. At higher volumes, the mids tend to distort and become uncomfortable, and there’s very little low-end to speak of. They’re by no means the worst laptop speakers I’ve heard, but you'd be better off plugging in a pair of headphones when listening to music or watching films.

Configurations and Performance

The HP Envy 13 is available in a range of different configurations, so you’ll need to make sure which one you’re buying. At present, you can get an Intel Core i5-6200U model which has a 1,920x1,080 screen or a higher-end Intel Core i7-6500U model which has a 3,200x1,800 resolution display.

Bizarrely, the model I was sent for review (Envy 13-d002a) was a mixture of the two, with a 1,920x1,080 display and a Core i7 processor. This particular model doesn't seem to be on sale anywhere at time of writing, so this review will have to act as a basic guide to give you some idea of how the different models perform.

The Intel Core i7-6500U has a base clock speed of 2.5GHz and can Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz under the right thermal conditions. This was paired with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. In our application benchmarks based on 4K video, it managed an overall score of 37, which was a little disappointing considering this was the same processor used in the Lenovo Yoga 700 (14.1in), Asus ZenBook UX303UA and Dell XPS 13, which scored 47, 46 and 46 respectively.

Even though the fans pick up to an audible level with the system under load, the thinner, lighter chassis of the Envy 13 likely meant the cooling wasn’t quite as efficient, hence the drop off in performance. Handling the tasks of everyday computing, the Envy 13 still performs adequately, just not quite as swiftly as some of its peers.

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 520 will also mean only light gaming is possible. In Dirt Showdown at 1,280x720, 4x anti-aliasing and High graphics it produced a disappointing 22.3fps, so you’ll need to reduce image quality to get playable framerates.

Battery life was only average at 6 hours 23 minutes. This was tested by playing a video with the display set to 170cd/m2 brightness, so more general use will see the laptop getting you through an average working day at least. Its longevity pales in comparison to the Asus UX303UA’s excellent 9 hours and 50 minutes, however.

Display

Meanwhile, the 1,920x1,080 IPS panel was a respectable performer and comfortable to view thanks to its matt coating and wide viewing angles. Its black levels of 0.28cd/m2 were good for the money, as was its peak brightness of 306.1cd/m2. A contrast ratio of 1,077:1 was also great. Colour accuracy for the sRGB gamut was the only area where the display came up a little short, with coverage of just 83.7%. Its average Delta-E of 3.22 also showed the Envy 13 isn’t the most accurate display for colour sensitive work. For more general use and web browsing, however, it’s more than adequate, and the backlight is evenly distributed across the screen.

Conclusion

Overall, though, the HP Envy 13 is a bit of a mixed bag. Its design is great to look at, but it doesn’t necessarily hold up so well under closer scrutiny, especially when you put your hands on it. I found the keyboard, in particular, disappointing to use for prolonged periods, and its performance is also hindered by its chassis compared to similarly-specified laptops.

Still, it is keenly priced. The Envy 13-d003na model with the 3,200x1,200 display and Intel Core i7-6500U is also good value at around £730, but keep in mind I can't attest to the screen's quality and its high-resolution will also likely have a negative impact on the laptop's battery life.

The Envy 13-d008na has the same 1,920x1,080 screen I tested but an i5-6200U for around £649. The main difference is predominantly in base and Turbo clock speed on the i5-6200U, which is 2.4GHz and 3GHz respectively, so you can expect around 8% slower performance, but that's still pretty good value for its price. In the end, though, I would rather spend a little extra and get the Asus ZenBook UX303UA, as this has better build quality and performance along with a top-notch screen.