HP Envy 14
Equally at home playing games and films as it is tackling a day’s work, this is a top-quality offering
SCORE
PRICE £1,167 (£1,400 inc VAT) from hp.com
The HP Envy range has been a regular on the PC Pro A List, often offering amazing quality for the money. With a starting price of £1,100, the latest iteration of the Envy 14 range falls short of that description, but if you’re after a powerful machine with luxury trimmings, then read on.
Let’s start with the power on offer. Our test system included a Core i7-1165G7, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and discrete GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics. As such, it’s no surprise to see it near the top of every speed-test graph ( see p92). If you’re after firepower, this is a superb choice.
It even qualifies as a gaming laptop of sorts thanks to that GeForce chip, which is based on Nvidia’s older GTX technology (so not RTX with its raytracing abilities) and meant the Envy actually beat the Asus TUF Dash in Dirt: Showdown at 1080p. Admittedly, the newer and more technically demanding Metro: Exodus put the Envy back in its box, scoring 31fps at 1080p compared to 73fps for the Asus.
If gaming isn’t so important to you, then you should consider buying that cheaper version of the Envy 14. This still includes a Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM, but drops the storage to 512GB and relies on Intel’s integrated Iris Xe graphics. As can be seen from the other laptops here that use Intel’s accelerator, it still offers enough grunt for playable rates in many games.
What’s most impressive about the Envy 14 is that it offers all this power without sacrificing portability. Sure, it isn’t the sleekest or lightest laptop here – it’s 17.9mm thick and weighs 1.6kg – but a typical battery life of almost ten hours shows that you won’t be searching for a plug socket all day. If you want a quick top-up, then throw the chunky 135W charger into your bag, which promises 50% capacity in half an hour, but you can charge via the USB-C port on the left side of the chassis at a push.
It would have been nice to have more than one such port, but it’s a flexible beast as it can also be used for outputting to a monitor. Alternatively, you can use the HDMI port that sits beside it. HP splits the pair of USB-A ports on either side of the chassis, with a 3.5mm jack and microSD card slot on the right. Not a bad haul.
We’re even bigger fans of the keyboard, which is arguably the best of this Labs. The keys have a cushioned, quiet action, and when coupled with the excellent layout (let’s not quibble over the single-height Enter key), this is a laptop we would be delighted to use if forced to write a 100,000-word novel on it. We would add a mouse, though, as the trackpad’s clicking action feels comparatively cheap. The screen doesn’t quite reach the heights of the keyboard, in part because of the glossy finish and visible overhead lights, but it’s still one of the best on test. Whites look white, and it covers 97% of the sRGB gamut with an average Delta E of 0.51; both commendable figures.
It’s also pretty bright, reaching a 381cd/m2 peak in our tests.
This all means that movies look great, and we have more good news if you’re looking for a laptop to entertain you: the speakers are excellent. They’re downward-firing from the sides, which means they work best when you place the Envy on a hard surface rather than resting on your lap, but it’s worth the effort – and likewise for music, with this laptop one of the few that’s capable of handling delicate classical tunes along with bass-heavy tracks.
Audio is sadly the star of this laptop’s webcam show as well, with the usual compressed mushy video to contend with. HP has committed to improving this aspect of its laptops in future releases, and in truth it’s no worse than any other here. It doesn’t support Windows Hello for facial recognition sign-in (surprising at this price), but the large fingerprint reader to the left of the cursor keys is a capable substitute.
We like the HP Envy 14 and it came close to winning an award. Standing in its way are a trio of factors: the high price, its girth and strong competition. Including HP’s own Pavilion 14 opposite. We also note that, like all the laptops with discrete graphics, Windows 11 hadn’t landed by the end of our tests.
Nevertheless, this is a top-quality laptop packed with powerful components. If you’re looking for a machine to keep entertaining you for years to come, it’s a sound investment.