The red team’s processors are faster and more efficient than they have been in years.
Elsewhere, the HP Envy x360 is well rounded.
Features and Design
The HP Envy x360’s decent price doesn’t mean budget design.
The chassis feels good, too.
Build quality is good, too, with little give to be found in any of the metal panels.
The Envy weighs just 2.86 pounds and is 307mm wide and 16mm thick.
On the HP’s right-hand edge, you’ll find a full-size USB port alongside a microSD card slot.
There’s another full-size USB connector on the left-hand side next to a USB-C port and a headphone jack.
Those ports use the USB 3.2 Gen 1 protocol, which restricts them to a maximum bandwidth of 5GB/s.
Those drop-down hinges could potentially break, too.
The lone USB pop in-C connector has 10GB/s of bandwidth, it supports DisplayPort and power delivery.
Internally, connectivity extends to dual-band 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 5.0.
Closer examination shows that the HP has some good features and some inevitable compromises.
The keyboard offers excellent quality, especially considering the price.
And while the keyboard’s backlight is bright and even, it only has two levels of adjustment.
The touchpad is good, too.
The dimensions of this machine mean that the pad isn’t particularly tall, but it has ample width.
For mainstream work it’s fine.
Quality levels are reasonable, but not outstanding.
It’s enough contrast to deliver punchy, vibrant images with decent nuance without going over the top.
The average color results are paired with middling gamut figures.
Audio output from the speakers is only average but good enough for casual use.
TDP can be configured by manufacturers to either 15W or 25W, determined by a laptop’s thermal capabilities.
It’s a solid specification combo at this price, but the HP faces plenty of competition.
Running the machine in performance mode saw those scores improve to 448 and 2,240 points.
In other benchmarks the Ryzen 5 4500U performed similarly as in our review.
The solid everyday performance is bolstered by reasonable thermal ability - a happy side-effect of the cut-back TDP.
The exterior remained cool.
It struggled in the CPU-intensive Civilization VI, too.
The HP is capable of playing games butmostly casual or older titles.
The read speed keeps the OS feeling responsive, but those writes could potentially hinder your workflow.
Battery Life
The HP has a moderate 51Wh battery that delivers average longevity.
Impressively, the Envy is cheaper than those Intel equivalents, too.
The lower price and decent build makes the Envy an attractive alternative.
