HP Envy 13 mini-review: Spectre fans, meet your budget option

That "unconventional" hinge looks like it's putting a lot of stress on the hinges, and probably causing a lot of friction on on the back edge of the top of the screen.

I feel like a lot of these types of laptops are competing, maybe only subliminally, with Mac laptops. While I've long been a Mac user, I've never been less compelled by MacOS than nowadays. I find Windows 10 to finally be a version of Windows that almost does everything the way I want them to do it. But I'm finding that there are frustrating compromises with just about Windows laptop.

This has incredible specs for the price. I'd get it over a Mac no question if it was just that. But it looks like the engineering quality may have more compromises than I'd feel comfortable sinking $1,000+ into.
 
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grommit!

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Does the FHD (nontouch) screen come in matte/nonreflective or just full "I like looking at my own face" mode?

I'd like the answer to this also. I find matte screens more practical on a laptop as you're often using it in lighting conditions that you have no control over.
 
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Probably worth noting in the review:

i) The gold option is a $10 upgrade for some reason. Looks great.

ii) Holy Heck, this might be a mistake on the HP website, but the discrete graphics upgrade to GX250 is... $20! Twenty bucks! I've only ever seen graphics upgrades for $100 or thereabouts. Well done HP!

Usually I steer well clear of HP consumer oriented laptops, but this looks like a very decent compromise.

Yeah, they charge an insane amount for the ram upgrade, but everything else is reasonable.

Unfortunately, the ram is the thing you can't replace, so for power users with 16gb ram, the price is closer to $1000.
 
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Charges via barrel charging port... And it is a nope..

When will DDR4 with 32 gig options become more mainstream?

Oh well... I'll wait another year for a work lappy upgrade...
Do you also complain when your Corolla doesn't come with 300 HP?

Both of those exist. The V6 Camry makes 300 HP. Intel's ULV chipsets have supported 32GB since the 6th gen/Skylake (4 years ago!).

You just gotta get away from consumer laptops and LPDDR3 and towards laptops with DIMM slots. I could put 32GB in my mom's T560 if I wanted to, and that's just a ULV office box from 2016. The T590 takes 48GB!

It's a similar issue with ports - if you like ethernet, external displays, and USB drives, modern consumer laptops are sub-par. But the business ones got you covered.
 
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pen_sq

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I have an Envy 13 (2017), it is the flakiest piece of garbage ever made. It bluescreens, sometimes the SSD is mysteriously offline, the out of date IGP driver frequently takes a dump. I memtested it, no that isn’t the problem. Put your money directly in the trash before buying anything HP.

(HP claimed my warranty started a year before I bought it, I couldn’t get them to fix shit.)
 
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jazzylarry

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I feel like a lot of these types of laptops are competing, maybe only subliminally, with Mac laptops. While I've long been a Mac user, I've never been less compelled by MacOS than nowadays. I find Windows 10 to finally be a version of Windows that almost does everything the way I want them to do it. But I'm finding that there are frustrating compromises with just about Windows laptop.

I have found some non Apple laptops to be compelling in features, the biggest drawback on many are that they come with Win10. Linux laptops would be fine.
 
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jazzylarry

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Probably worth noting in the review:

i) The gold option is a $10 upgrade for some reason. Looks great.

ii) Holy Heck, this might be a mistake on the HP website, but the discrete graphics upgrade to GX250 is... $20! Twenty bucks! I've only ever seen graphics upgrades for $100 or thereabouts. Well done HP!

Usually I steer well clear of HP consumer oriented laptops, but this looks like a very decent compromise.

Yeah, they charge an insane amount for the ram upgrade, but everything else is reasonable.

Unfortunately, the ram is the thing you can't replace, so for power users with 16gb ram, the price is closer to $1000.

This was the same issue with Apple Laptops and Minis until this last refresh (or two for MBPs) where they now give you DDR4 RAM options (on minis and the 15" MBPs).
 
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warisz00r

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I have a late 2018 Envy 13. I don't remember if it was ever advertised as being chargeable using the USB C port, but mine has been charging perfectly through the port using Aukey's 60W USB PD power brick.


Which version of the machine do you have? I have the ad173cl revision and it does not charge using my 60W RavPower adapter.

I was actually pretty disappointed to have to carry yet another wall wart around for this computer.
Mine is ah1027tx.
 
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wastrel

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A mini-review for a mini-laptop. I have several 14" laptops, 2 with FHD screens. I can't really envision going smaller still at that resolution. I don't really see the need for higher res on any laptop; on the small screen of a smartphone, sure, but not on a laptop display--it just isn't very useful. My oldest laptop is a 15.6" from the days when all [real] laptops were either 15.6 or 17.3 inches; I can't really see myself getting another laptop that isn't 15.6" at least--no "mobility" needed. (Which for me means "premium" doesn't really apply to a 13 inch laptop, even if it comes with a premium price.) I do love my 2 HP laptops best though.
 
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This is strange. I know some Envy 13 models advertise support for USB-C charging.

Although I guess HP doesnt really care about its consumer lines. I bought a Pavilion 13 laptop based on the user manual and spec page which advertised usb-c charging (chose it over the Dell because it had dedicated pageup down buttons). As it turns out, they copied pastaed the spec sheet from a similar looking Envy laptop and the USB-C port only supports data transfer.
The only HP models worth looking at are their enterprise models. Their consumer gear is just not up to snuff quality-wise.
 
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Does anyone even make a matte non-touchscreen laptop anymore? I'm curious if any of you out there regularly use touchscreens on your laptops in your workflows and if so how. I bought a Surface Book thinking I'd use the pen all the time, but I only used it to show it off and never even think about using it any more.

I guess I could always get a Mac and put Windows on it :p
 
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"Nevertheless, the fingerprint reader works as promised"

How well does it actually work? I have a Spectre x360, which has the fingerprint sensor in the same place, and it's by far the worst sensor I've ever had the misfortune of using. It actually lets me log in maybe 1/2 the time on a good day, and more like 1/10 overall. Considering how good the sensors are even on cheap phones, HP must have put a lot of effort into making it work so poorly. I can only assume it's not part of the power button because they knew most people would want to just ignore the useless thing entirely.
 
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someone0

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Weird, neowin confirm w/ HP that the USB-C can be use for charging also. In addition to that, I check the "Maintenance and Service Guide", not the normal user guide. And it did confirm that on page 10. http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06271813

"USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port (supports data transfer, power delivery 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2 [4096 × 2160 at 60
Hz] through Type-C adapter, HDMI 2.0 through adapter, HDCP 2.2 through adapter)*"
 
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someone0

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In my personal experience, USB-PD w/ 45w can charge the laptop when it's not in use, eg: sleep or power down. USB-PD 60w is the ideal minimum in my opinion to actually use and charge at the same time, with that said, I do see that 60w may not be enough in the case you are doing something CPU intensive. As long as you are not doing something CPU intensive all the time you should be able to get by using USB-PD 60w charger, otherwise, I say get something beefier or stick w/ the barrel charging.
 
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