HP Envy 14 2021 Review: Good Laptop computer laptop, Nevertheless Tread Evenly

HP Envy 14 (2021) review: Good laptop, nevertheless tread flippantly

MSRP $1,250.00

“The HP Envy 14 lacks an outstanding present, nevertheless makes up for it with spectacular effectivity.”

Professionals

• Wonderful productiveness effectivity
• Steady assemble top quality
• Conservative magnificence
• Good entry-level gaming
• Superior keyboard and touchpad

Cons

• Present is subpar for the meant creative market
• Somewhat bit thick and heavy for the class
• Media battery life is underwhelming

HP’s Envy laptops have morphed from midrange selections into what the company intends as most likely probably the most engaging machines for creative varieties. The Envy 15, for example, is a powerful laptop with a color-accurate OLED present that competes correctly in direction of totally different 15-inch laptops with regards to effectivity and, considerably, price. Now, HP has reintroduced its HP Envy 14 sort subject with a model new machine that leverages Intel’s Eleventh-gen Tiger Lake CPUs and discrete Nvidia graphics — all in a chassis that’s a bit smaller than its greater sibling.

I reviewed an $1,150 Envy 14 configuration with the Core i5-1135G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), a 14-inch WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) IPS present in a additional productivity-friendly 16:10 facet ratio, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q GPU.

That’s a premium price for the configuration, proving that the Envy 14 is supposed to compete with the right laptops you can purchase. Nevertheless does it present the effectivity and present top quality that creative prospects crave?

Design

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The Envy 14 is constructed of stamped aluminum, which is one distinction from the CNC-machined Spectre line. The latter is a bit more sturdy in its assemble top quality, with the Envy 14 demonstrating solely a contact of bending inside the lid and flexing inside the keyboard deck. It’s a powerful assemble, merely not up there with the likes of the HP Spectre x360 14 or totally different premium laptops identical to the Dell XPS 13.

The MSI Standing 14 Evo is one different 14-inch clamshell laptop that feels concerning the equivalent as a result of the Envy 14 — robust nevertheless not pretty top-notch. Observe that the Standing 14 Evo could be a few hundred {{dollars}} decrease than the HP with a Core i7 and 1TB SSD. Lastly, I’ll level out the Porsche Design Acer E-book RS, which mixes carbon fiber and metallic for a additional robust actually really feel.

Aesthetically, HP was going for a minimalist design with the Envy 14, and it succeeded. Not just like the gem-cut and multicolored Spectre x360 14, the Envy 14 is a matte silver coloration with an uncluttered look and straightforward strains. It’s engaging ample nevertheless doesn’t stand out. The MSI Standing 14 Evo could be additional aggressive in its styling and coloring, nevertheless I uncover the Envy 14 strikes a nice steadiness.

It’s heaps like Lenovo’s Yoga 9i on this respect — a design that’s not meant to draw consideration to itself nevertheless gained’t embarrass you regardless of the ambiance. To ensure that you a 14-inch clamshell to level out off, the Porsche Design Acer E-book RS has by far most likely probably the most aggressive styling.

Mark Coppock/Digital Tendencies

Mark Coppock/Digital Tendencies

Mark Coppock/Digital Tendencies

The Envy 14 is a bit stouter than a variety of its 14-inch rivals. Its chassis is pretty sized due to an 88% screen-to-body ratio and small bezels all through apart from the chin, which is just barely greater than the current sample. Nevertheless it’s a bit thicker at 0.71 inches and heavier at 3.3 kilos. The Standing 14 Evo, for example, is 0.63 inches thick and weighs 2.85 kilos, whereas the Acer Swift 5 is 0.59 inches and a few.31 kilos.

These laptops don’t have the selection for discrete graphics, however, and should hand over interior space for conserving points cool. The Envy 14 moreover appears a bit thicker due to a rear leg that props up the keyboard and gives additional space beneath for greater airflow.

Connectivity is an precise power, with a USB-A 3.1 port, full-size HDMI 2.0 port, USB4 Type-C port with Thunderbolt 4 assist, and a 3.5mm audio jack alongside the left-hand facet, and one different USB-A 3.1 port and a microSD card reader on the right-hand facet. Wi-fi connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.

Effectivity

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Not like the larger Envy 15 that sports activities actions a 45-watt Intel CPU, the Envy 14 choices an Intel Eleventh-generation Tiger Lack Core i5-1135G7 processor. We’ve found that to be a quick alternative inside the U-series, virtually as fast in plenty of cases as Intel’s Core i7 that’s clocked solely a bit sooner.

The Envy 14 lives as a lot because the CPU’s promise. As you may even see inside the desk beneath, it doesn’t excel in Geekbench 5, nevertheless it absolutely’s additional aggressive in our totally different assessments. HP presents its Command Coronary heart software program program that allows you to tune the CPU for fan noise and heat versus full-on effectivity, nevertheless it absolutely doesn’t make as a variety of a distinction inside the Envy 14 as a result of it does inside the Envy 15 and Spectre x360 14, as two examples. The Spectre x360 14, notably, makes good use of the utility — it’s pretty fast in Effectivity mode whereas very quiet and much slower in Balanced mode. All the Envy 14 outcomes listed beneath are with the utility set at Balanced.

All through the board, the Envy 14 performs admirably, even in direction of the Core i7 rivals. In our Handbrake check out that encodes a 420MB file to H.265, the Envy 14 was based on all nevertheless the Standing 14 Evo and the Ryzen 7 5800U-based Asus ZenBook 13 that blew away its Intel rivals. In effectivity mode, the Envy 14 was in third place amongst this group.

In Cinebench R23, the outcomes had been associated, with the Standing 14 Evo and the Zenbook 13 predominant the pack. Observe that the Envy 14 scored an rather more aggressive 6073 inside the Cinebench multi-core check out in effectivity mode. Inside the PCMark 10 Full check out, the Envy 14 obtained right here in second place inside the normal score. It moreover did correctly inside the Productiveness and Content material materials Creation components of the check out whereas falling behind inside the Requirements portion.

Basic, the Envy 14 was a powerful performer in our benchmarks, and it felt that method whereas I was using it in the midst of the review. It’s a speedy machine for all the productiveness duties you’ll want to throw at it, and it does as correctly in creative capabilities as one other Tiger Lake laptop. It can presumably’t maintain with AMD’s Ryzen CPUs in processor-intensive duties, nevertheless that’s the place the discrete GPU comes into play.

For many who’re using an utility which will reap the advantages of the GPU, then the GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q — a rarity inside the 14-inch class — makes an precise distinction. HP configured the GPU with Nvidia’s Studio platform drivers, which give greater effectivity and reliability in certain well-liked creative capabilities.

For example, I ran the PugetBench benchmark that runs by a set of intensive duties in Premiere Skilled — an utility that makes surroundings pleasant use of a GPU. The Envy 14 did pretty correctly for a U-series machine, scoring 432 to embarrass the ZenBook 13’s 180 and the MacBook Air M1’s 320. It couldn’t maintain with laptops powered by Intel’s 45-watt CPUs and sooner GPUs, nevertheless it absolutely did correctly based on its components. Truly, it beat out the HP Spectre x360 15 that scored 339 with its Core i7-10750H and GTX 1650 Ti.

The Envy 14 could be an trustworthy entry-level gaming laptop for anyone who wants a little bit of break from work. It led the pack inside the 3DMark Time Spy check out, doubling up the Intel Iris Xe-based rivals. It moreover carried out decently in Fortnite, hitting 49 frames per second (fps) at 1080p and extreme graphics (57 fps in Effectivity mode), the place the rest of the Tiger Lake class runs spherical 30 fps.

With epic graphics enabled, the Envy 14 hit 39 fps (40 fps in Effectivity mode), nonetheless pretty playable and much ahead of the Tiger Lake frequent of spherical 22 fps. You gained’t run trendy titles with graphical particulars turned up, nevertheless tune points down a little bit of, and most titles shall be playable.

Present

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Inventive professionals want exhibits with broad coloration gamuts and proper colors to affiliate with a extreme brightness stage and fantastic distinction. Does the Envy 14’s productivity-friendly 16:10 present stack up along with its design and effectivity?

In a phrase, no. It’s a shiny present at 371 nits, correctly above our 300-nit threshold. Nevertheless it covers merely 70% of AdobeRGB and 94% of sRGB, barely beneath frequent for premium and near-premium laptops and correctly beneath frequent for exhibits meant for creative varieties. Not one of many 14-inch laptops I’ve talked about on this review are considerably higher — the MSI Standing 14 Evo and Porsche Design Acer Base RS every obtained right here in at 73% of AdobeRGB and 97% of sRGB, for example, so merely barely elevated.

The Envy 14’s coloration accuracy was good at 1.28 (1.0 or a lot much less is taken under consideration fantastic). The Standing 14 Evo hit 1.3 and the Porsche Design Acer Base RS was at 1.15. These greater than frequent outcomes and nearer to the expert stage.

The excellence was one different weak spot for the Envy 14, which achieved a ratio of merely 880:1. We choose to see premium exhibits at 1000:1 or elevated, which the MSI and the Acer every virtually achieved at 970:1 and 940:1, respectively.

In reality, the Envy 14’s present could be barely acceptable as a premium productiveness present. It truly doesn’t keep as a lot as the necessities desired by creators, not just like the OLED present on the Envy 15 that managed 97% of Adobe RGB, 100% of sRGB, a 404,410:1 distinction ratio (to be trustworthy, that’s typical for OLED exhibits and no IPS panel will ever come shut), and a DeltaE of 0.73.

If the Envy 14 has a weak level referring to its objective market, this present could be it. And it’s an important one — anybody wanting to buy this laptop for image or video modifying ought to carry these results in ideas.

Keyboard and touchpad

Mark Coppock/Digital Tendencies

The Envy 14 inherited an equivalent keyboard to the one current in HP’s Spectre line — and that’s an outstanding issue. There’s a great deal of spacing between the sq. keys and the switches are mild and precise, with a comfortable bottoming movement. The lettering is engaging and legible in good lighting, and the two-level backlighting is environment friendly and fixed. That is probably one of many greater keyboards spherical, rivaling Dell’s XPS 13 and solely barely falling behind Apple’s latest Magic Keyboard on its MacBook line.

The touchpad could be fantastic, benefitting from the larger keyboard deck due to the taller 16:10 present. The touchpad is a Microsoft Precision mannequin, in actual fact, and so it’s responsive and precise. The buttons click on on solidly nevertheless with out an extreme quantity of noise, which is a plus. There’s moreover an equally responsive contact present, and I appreciated it all through my testing.

A fingerprint reader gives dwelling home windows 10 Howdy assistance on the keyboard and replaces the right administration button. I’m not a fan of that placement, having run into at least one utility with a hard-coded use for the right administration button, nevertheless the fingerprint reader was appropriate and fast in my testing.

Further security and privateness are provided by a carry out key that controls a bodily shutter for the webcam and a faithful button to indicate off the microphone. These are small touches which could be appreciated for these events when you don’t want your webcam displaying off your messy office — or worse, being hacked and used to spy on you.

Battery life

Mark Coppock/Digital Tendencies

The Envy 14 packs a 63 watt-hour battery, which frankly is smaller than I anticipated. The Spectre x360 14, a rather a lot smaller laptop, managed to fit in 67 watt-hours. Even so, I was anticipating greater longevity out of the Envy 14 due to its lower-resolution 1,920 x 1,200 IPS present as compared with the Spectre’s 3,000 x 2,000 OLED panel.

As a result of it appears, my expectations had been met. The Envy 14 achieved merely over 12.5 hours on our web looking out check out that loops by a set of well-liked websites. That’s a strong score that beats out all the 14-inch rivals I’ve talked about by a lot of hours and is inside the greater echelon of all the laptops we’ve examined.

The Envy 14 wasn’t pretty as sturdy in our video check out that performs a Full HD Avengers trailer until the battery runs out. Proper right here, the HP managed 14.5 hours, an outstanding score nevertheless one which’s beat out by the MSI Standing 14 Evo and the Porsche Design Acer Base RS. Usually, we see an even bigger distinction between the online and video assessments, with the latter often being pretty a bit longer.

Lastly, I ran the PCMark 10 Gaming battery check out that stresses the CPU and GPU, and the Envy 14 manages barely beneath 1.5 hours. That’s on the low end of all the machines we’ve examined, demonstrating that the Envy 14 is an precise battery hog when it’s beneath load. Sadly, the Envy 14 couldn’t full the PCMark 10 Features battery check out, which is the right indication of real-world productiveness.

Basic, I’d cost the Envy 14’s battery life just about nearly as good for productiveness work and by no means just about nearly as good for media consumption. And positively, while you’re going to be pushing the CPU and GPU, then you definitely positively’ll want to carry your charger with you.

Our take

The Envy 14 is a well-built, good-looking 14-inch laptop with a fast Core i5 and a discrete GPU that’s unusual for a nongaming laptop of this dimension. That makes it a strong performer and, in that sense, an outstanding alternative for the creative varieties that HP is aiming to please. Sadly, its present is a bit subpar — it’s okay for productiveness prospects nevertheless not rather a lot for creativity.

That makes the Envy 14 an attention-grabbing laptop to cost. It’s a powerful offering for primary prospects, with good effectivity and productiveness battery life, a powerful assemble, and an excellent keyboard and touchpad. It couldn’t meet the desires of the creative varieties that HP is aiming at, nevertheless it absolutely’s a wonderful laptop for everyone else.

Are there any choices?

The MSI Standing 14 Evo is a powerful varied to the Envy 14. It’s sooner at CPU-intensive duties, has a higher present, and good battery life. It’s moreover pretty a bit cheap, nevertheless in actual fact, you don’t get the short GPU.

If a 2-in-1 is additional your style, then you definitely positively’ll want to ponder the HP Spectre x360 14. It’s sooner when in effectivity mode, it’s constructed and seems greater, and its OLED present meets the desires of image and video editors in a fashion that the Envy 14 can’t.

As common, I’ll moreover present up the Dell XPS 13 as an alternative. It’s smaller, constructive, with its 13.4-inch 16:10 present, nevertheless that present is barely greater, and the Dell has a considerably higher assemble top quality.

How prolonged will it last?

The Envy 14 is constructed correctly ample to last for years of productive service. The components are up to date and can maintain with the on a regular basis individual’s requires for pretty some time. The one-year assure is disappointing nevertheless the commerce commonplace.

Should you buy it?

Certain, nevertheless not for image or video modifying if tons of appropriate colors are required. The Envy 14 is an outstanding productiveness machine and should be judged as one fairly than the creative powerhouse that HP positions it as.

Editors’ Ideas