The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this on Amazon was that HP's strategy was to simply seduce people into buying this beauty. While undeniably tempted, I decided to fish out reviews from various sources, all of which suggested that the Envy was not just a looker, but rather a dependable machine. I was convinced, and ordered it - the shopping experience was smooth as expected, but my newest acquisition simply blew me away.
Design: As stated already, the Envy is an absolute stunner, the silver body complemented by super-sharp geometric styling. At 1.5 cms thick and around 1.3 kg in weight, it epitomizes ultraportability and seems built for all-day use. While the 13.3 inch 1080p IPS display may not be as beautiful as others in the market, it is anti-glare - something I was specifically looking for. The keyboard is another gem - a pleasure to type on, with just the right amount of key travel and tactile feedback. The trackpad is smooth, accurate and has clickable buttons apart from being gesture-enabled.
Performance: This model has an 8th generation quad-core i5 processor with a base frequency of 1.60 GHz and a max turbo frequency of 3.40 GHz - enough power for everyone except the most high-end, discerning power users. While the 8 GB RAM is DDR3 and not DDR4, one can't complain much about that at this price point. The integrated Intel UHD 620 is more than sufficient for anyone who is not a gamer or works with graphic intensive tasks like video editing. It drives my full-HD LED TV like a charm, and from what I have read, should be able to handle 4K displays as well, but do confirm this if you have a 4K TV. However, what really takes the cake is the superfast 256 GB of PCIe SSD - having used a venerable Lenovo with an HDD prior to this, the boot time of less than 10 seconds blew me away!
Other features: There are four ports on the left - a headphone jack, a full-size dropdown USB 3.1 Gen 1, a USB 3.1 type-C, and a microSD card reader. The right side features the power inlet, another USB 3.1 Gen 1, and the very handy fingerprint scanner. The display comes equipped with a hotkey-enabled privacy screen which reduces the field of view when activated and would come in handy in public places when working with sensitive information.
Conclusion: The HP Envy 13 is not just an exceedingly beautiful machine, but is also a very capable companion. This model is intended as a daily productivity and entertainment driver, and can handle most everything you throw at it - except games and tasks like heavy video editing, in which case you should opt for the model with discreet graphics. While I thought about getting the i7 version, there is very little to gain from that jump in exchange for a lot of money, and it doesn't seem worth it. So if you are in the market for an stunning ultraportable that does not compromise on performance, I could not recommend this enough.
CAUTION: Take the one-star reviews by non-certified buyers with a generous pinch of salt. One says that they bought it more than 6 months ago when the product has only been available since June 2018, while the other talks about the
screen 'blinking' and the trackpad making sounds without providing any details.
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