Hp Envy X360 Convertible Laptop - 15z Touch Ryzen Review

Our Verdict

With an impressive Ryzen 7 5700U CPU, a bright screen, plus a skilful keyboard and battery life, HP's $999 Envy x360 fifteen has a lot to like. Peradventure that's why it's consistently out of stock.

For

• + Good keyboard
• + Bright brandish
• + Very proficient performance and solid battery life

Confronting

• - Slower ports than Intel models
• - Consistently out of stock

Tom'due south Hardware Verdict

With an impressive Ryzen seven 5700U CPU, a brilliant screen, plus a practiced keyboard and bombardment life, HP's $999 Envy x360 15 has a lot to like. Perchance that'southward why information technology's consistently out of stock.

Pros

• +

  + Adept keyboard

• +

  + Bright display

• +

  + Very adept performance and solid battery life

Cons

• -

  - Slower ports than Intel models

• -

  - Consistently out of stock

Whether information technology's due primarily to the

ongoing chip shortages

, the

increased demand for laptops

during the pandemic, or just general functioning impressiveness, HP's Envy x360 15 is the latest convertible to launch in both Intel and AMD flavors. The

$999 (eu0097nr) model

we're looking at here sports an 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen vii 5700U, paired with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD in a pleasing metal chassis that looks and feels premium, without being overly flashy.

It'southward a strong hardware philharmonic, complimented past a very practiced keyboard, and a 400-nit, 1080p console upgrade that both looks good and performed well in our testing. Whether it winds upwardly making our list of

all-time ultrabooks

will take to wait for testing results and a deeper look at some of the laptop'southward features. Only we like that HP and other manufacturers (similar

Asus with its ZenBook 13

, and

Microsoft with its Surface Book

) are increasingly giving consumers a choice in premium laptops between AMD and Intel. Nosotros'd but like to see the AMD-based models in stock a flake more regularly.

Specifications

CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 5700U
Graphics	viii-Core AMD Radeon (Integrated)
Retention	sixteen DDR4-3200 MHz
Storage	512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display	15.six-inch, 1920 ten 1080 touchscreen
Networking	Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX 200, Bluetooth 5
Ports	1x USB 3.ii Gen 2 Type-C, 2x USB three.two Gen 2 Blazon-A, HDMI 2.0, SD card reader
Camera	720p
Bombardment	51WHr
Power Adapter	65W
Operating System	Windows 10 Home
Dimensions(WxDxH)	14.09 10 ix.06 ten 0.74 inches / 357.9 x 230.1 10 18.8 mm
Weight	4.42 pounds / ii m
Cost (every bit configured)	$999

Blueprint of the HP Envy x360 15

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(Paradigm credit: Tom's Hardware)

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(Prototype credit: Tom's Hardware)

HP'south Intel Tiger Lake-based Envy x360 15s come in a shiny silver, but its Ryzen five and 7 models come in a darker metallic grayness beat out that I detect much more highly-seasoned. Aside from the attractive modern chrome HP logo on the lid and a tasteful Green-eyed emblazoned on one of the hinges (and in smaller letters below the keyboard), the pattern is pleasingly modern and minimal.

The metal shell also feels solid and premium, but at an even 2kg (that'due south four.42 pounds), this convertible isn't exactly a lightweight. Nosotros haven't tested many other 15-inch convertibles recently, but of the three xiv-inch fold-overs we'll exist pitting this Green-eyed against in our performance testing later, Lenovo'due south Yoga 7i is the heaviest, at 3.1 pounds.

And at fourteen.09 x 9.06 10 0.74 inches, the HP Envy x360 15 also isn't the sveltest of premium convertibles. Merely it's not so bulky that it shouldn't slip into most backpacks or medium-sized numberless without an issue.

My only beef with the general design is a small one. The 2 vents at the rear of the laptop, in between the hinges where your fingers tend to state when lugging it around, have cut edges that feel a bit sharp. Not so much that they cut or scratched my hand, only they feel a bit rough against your fingers with the 4.4-pound weight of the laptop pressing the edges into your fingertips. You can avoid this by carrying the laptop with the front end edge facing down, but the rear is where the most bulk is, so that'due south how I tend to grab and carry laptops, much similar a difficult-bound volume.

(Image credit: Tom'south Hardware)

In terms of connectivity, the Envy x360 15 is well equipped -- in the diversity of ports, if  not in speed. The left edge houses a headset jack, USB-C, full-size HDMI 2.0, and USB-A.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Hardware)

Along the right edge resides an SD bill of fare slot, another USB-A, and the barrel connector for ability. Note likewise that the USB-C port on the left side tin can also be used for charging the laptop--if you bring your own USB-C charger.

The number and class factor of the ports here is solid, but all of the USB ports are 3.two Gen 2, which tops out at 10 Gbps. Most of the Intel-based contest, meanwhile, has Thunderbolt ports. And a Thunderbolt 4 or

USB 4

port has a top theoretical bandwidth of twoscore Gps--four times that of the USB ports here. That said, unless you piece of work with very fast external storage, or hope to plug into multiple loftier-resolution displays with a single cable, the speed of the ports here should suffice for well-nigh users.

Productivity Performance of the HP Green-eyed x360 fifteen

Because of its 8-core, Ryzen 7 5700U processor and 16GB of RAM in our $999 review configuration, paired with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB

WD SN530

SSD, we expected the HP Green-eyed x360 15 to stand out compared to the Intel-based convertible competition. And for the nigh part, it did.

Simply speaking of competition, at that place aren't many fifteen-inch premium convertibles to pit this organisation against, and then we settled on a trio of slightly smaller (14-inch screen) competitors. At that place'south the

MSI Prestige xiv Evo

, powered by an Intel Cadre i7-1185G7 and selling for $1,149 in our review configuration. Following that up is the more than affordable ($899)

Lenovo 7i

, with its Cadre i5-1135G7 (and a lesser 12GB of RAM). And last on the list is HP'south own

Spectre x360 14

, with an i7-1165G7 CPU and an OLED display that sold for $1,699 in our review configuration.

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On Geekbench 5, a synthetic benchmark that measures overall performance, the HP Envy x360 15 was a bit backside the Intel-based contest on the single-core test, at ane,204. But its multicore score of half dozen,851 is well alee of everything else here, with the MSI getting closest at 5,727.

The Envy x360 15's multithread prowess carried over to our Handbrake test, where we transcode a test file from 4K to 1080p. The Envy finished our examination in 8 minutes flat, while the closest competitor here took more than 50% longer, 12 minutes and 27 seconds. And the slowest result here, HP's ain Spectre x360 14, took over x minutes longer, (18:05).

The Green-eyed x360 xv landed only behind HP's smaller Spectre x360 14 on our file transfer examination, in which we task laptops to read and write 25GB worth of files. Its speed of 570.5 MBps wasn't quite every bit fast as the Spectre's 580.6, only information technology was meliorate than annihilation else hither, especially the Lenovo Yoga 7i's 318.1 MBps. That said, none of these scores are particularly fast. Any of the

best SSDs

(at least the all-time NVMe SSDs) would perform meliorate here.

We besides ran the HP Green-eyed x360 fifteen through 20 consecutive Cinebench R23 runs to simulate an extended work session. The laptop averaged a score of 7827, while its CPU ran at an average clock speed of ii.six GHz and striking average temperatures of 76.82 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Fahrenheit).

Display on the HP Green-eyed x360 15

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

While the lower-end models of the Envy x360 xv ship with a 250-nit 1080p IPS touchscreen, ours came with an upgraded 400-nit model. And even if you opt for one of the lesser versions of this laptop, we'd say it'due south worth the $80 up-charge.

Covering 77 percent of the wider DCI-P3 colour gamut (and 199% of the bottom sRGB), this console isn't the most colorful. But information technology's only actually shamed here by the much-pricier Spectre x360 14, with its OLED screen. And those two laptops match each other in the brightness department, although our average 339-nit measurement was below HP'southward 400-nit rating. Anecdotally, this is an appreciably bright display. I had no problems using it even in my living room with the afternoon sunday streaming obnoxiously in.

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Aside from flipping through some spring travel photos from years past (sigh), I also watched the Venom: Let At that place Be Carnage trailer on the laptop. The blacks were nearly as inky as Cletus Kasady's soul. And while the color palette of that picture show is subdued, the few vivid spots (the buttons on a lethal injection machine and a raging fire) were equally vivid as Venom's quips virtually eating Eddie Brock's friends.

Keyboard and touchpad on the HP Envy x360 15

(Image credit: Tom'due south Hardware)

HP carries over what it calls its "All-In-1" keyboard hither, which puts handy features like the mic mute and camera shutter buttons on the height row. The power button also lives hither, to the left of the delete key. While this has been problematic in the past, information technology's tough to activate accidentally here because yous actually have to press information technology for a few seconds to initiate sleep or a shutdown. And HP has given the ability button a stiffer feel than the surrounding keys, and so you should notice if you've hit information technology past accident.

In that location's also a fingerprint reader where you'd usually observe the correct control or fn primal, to the left of the arrow keys. Since I don't by and large use those keys, I like the placement of the biometric sensor here, though I'd prefer if the webcam likewise worked with Windows Hullo -- it does not.

In terms of layout and experience, the keyboard here is very good, with large keys and skillful spacing, as well as a adept amount of travel for a sparse laptop. I notwithstanding prefer Thinkpad keyboards, just what's here is better than most premium portables. It would just take me a while to get used to the flatness of these keys.

Every bit for the touchpad, information technology's nice and roomy at about v.75 inches diagonally. HP says it'due south xix% larger than in previous models, and most of that's in the vertical dimension. I had no bug with it treatment my swipes, taps and multi-finger gestures. Just the surface did have a tendency to choice up finger smudges. So if you care almost looks, you'll desire to wipe information technology downward regularly.

Audio on the HP Envy x360 15

The pair of downward-firing speakers that sit below the keyboard, on the underside of the HP Envy x360 15, are solid if non stellar. They pump out a decent amount of volume that sounds pretty skillful, especially when the laptop is sitting on a hard desk-bound or tabular array. I listened to the Anarchy Theory EP from Colombian Synthwave maestro, Meteor, and the opening track, "Blue Thunder" was loud and articulate at maximum book. The retro synths and rhythm guitars pumped out by the Envy xv were plenty to fill up my small living room with a pleasing level of sound--merely just just. And I didn't really notice the punch of the drums the mode I did on my desktop, which is currently connected to a Yamaha YAS-108 soundbar.

In brusque, the speakers on the Envy 15 are fine for watching movies and YouTube clips and listening to music in front end of the laptop. But if you lot like things loud, or with more a moderate level of low-stop thump, you lot'll want to pair a Bluetooth speaker or plug in a good set of PC speakers.

Upgradability of the HP Green-eyed x360 15

HP says that aught within the Envy x360 fifteen is designed to be user-replaceable. And indeed, with simply two exposed screws (one of which we couldn't go to turn, despite a concerted attempt), nosotros couldn't get the bottom off the laptop ourselves. Likely in that location are more screws hidden nether the rubber pes strips, which would almost certainly be damaged if removed.
Image Credit: HP

(Paradigm credit: HP)

Only the visitor did ship us an epitome (above) of the organisation with the underside removed. The Grand.2 SSD behind a shield on the lower-right looks removable, equally does the Intel Wi-Fi six/Bluetooth card in the upper-left. And the bombardment should exist adequately easy to supersede, then long equally you're careful about the speaker cable that sits just beneath information technology. In fact, HP has posted a video explaining exactly how to remove the battery, here.

But again, given that yous'll likely have to damage the lesser of the laptop to do any upgrades, yous should probably opt for the components yous'll be happy with when buying from HP, rather than attempting to add together something yourself afterward.

Bombardment Life on the HP Envy x360 xv

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Hardware)

On our bombardment test, which involves browsing the web, running OpenGL tests and streaming video over Wi-Fi, all at 150 nits, the Envy x360 didn't look bad compared to the contest -- only it didn't stand out either. Lasting 11 hours and 23 minutes was enough to catapult it ahead of the smaller, OLED-equipped Spectre x360 14 (which lasted just 7 hours and 14 minutes). But both the MSI and Lenovo competition lasted well-nigh an 60 minutes longer. Still, xi hours of unplugged runtime is solid and should exist enough to get yous through a workday, unless y'all're doing more CPU-intensive tasks.

Oestrus on the HP Green-eyed x360 15

The HP Green-eyed x360 15 didn't go overly warm during our temperature benchmark, where nosotros stream video for 15 minutes and so record its temperature in central areas.

The convertible'south touchpad registered 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit (29.viii Celcius) Fahrenheit), while the center of its keyboard (betwixt the G and H Keys) hitting 90.7 degrees Fahrenheit (32.6 Celcius). On the underside, things were a scrap warmer, merely far from toasty. Most of the surface registered between 86 and 87 degrees Fahrenheit (30-30.half-dozen Celcius, merely the hottest point was near the back vents, where the temperature climbed to 96.7 degrees Fahrenheit (35.9 Celsius) near the back of the laptop and its vents.

Webcam on the HP Envy x360 15

The Green-eyed x360 xv'due south webcam is decent in terms of colour accuracy and dealing with low calorie-free. Simply its resolution is stuck at 720p, so don't expect miracles (or even a marvel) when it comes to particular.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Hardware)

For those night morning work calls, the company also bundles its Enhanced Lighting app. It lets you lot use the brandish'southward backlight as rudimentary lighting to illuminate your face. I could encounter this coming in handy in a pinch, but it also obscures large parts of the screen while you're using information technology, which ways you either have to make your video call window small, or you won't be able to see some people. You tin choose to accept the display's top and bottom, sides, or both turn into low-cal bars, or opt for a circular ring-like light, and even adjust the color temperature. Simply if you take reason to use this more one time or twice, you should probably merely invest in a rechargeable lite

like this $20 model from Neewer

, which will almost certainly put out more lite, while likewise letting you actually run into and use your full laptop screen.

The handiest feature here is a physical shutter, housed inside the bezel. Hit the photographic camera icon push just to the left of the power push button, on the meridian row of the keyboard, and you tin can see the shutter appoint, and the hole in forepart of the camera gets obscured by a series of diagonal white lines, and so you know your camera is blocked at a glance. With physical shutters similar this, I ever wonder how often they get jammed or otherwise fail over months and years of apply. Merely then long as the shutter doesn't get stuck in a position that blocks your webcam, you tin always just utilize a piece of record or a sticker to block the camera when you need privacy.

Software and Warranty on the HP Green-eyed x360 15

HP has done a fairly skilful job of keeping the bloatware that'south here under control. Considering afterward casually using and testing the laptop, I didn't think there was much. But ane long look at (and a full scroll downwardly) the start carte reveals shortcuts for McAfee. Booking.com, Adobe trials, Lastpass, ExpressVPN and the Utomik games subscription service, among others. Many of these are just shortcuts, which isn't quite as bad as pre-installed software, but while there's a lot here, I didn't find much in the way of nagging popups, which I appreciate.

HP bundles its own software as well, including (oddly, for a non-gaming laptop), its Omen software, which gathers your game installs and screen grabs from various services into one identify. Perhaps this makes a fleck of sense, as the laptops AMD integrated Radeon graphics are more capable of light gaming than older Intel Integrated graphics. But if you want to play more than than casual and older titles, you should probably invest in something with a dedicated GPU.

Also here is HP Command Heart, which presents system data, lets y'all manually adapt cooling and performance, and prioritize the network traffic for specific programs.

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Command Middle likewise has an interesting Focus Fashion that, when activated, gives the screen'southward total brightness to whatever window is in the foreground, while dimming out your desktop background and other apps. The company claims this can help with battery life, and perhaps it will for some. But Windows already has a "focus mode" for when you desire to only focus on 1 thing: It's generally enabled past clicking the box in the upper-right corner to brand what you lot're working on take up the whole screen.

HP sells the Envy x360 xv with a i year limited hardware warranty and 90 days of telephone support.

HP Envy x360 15 Configurations

Aside from the $999 Envy x360 15 organization we're looking at here with a Ryzen 7, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, the company sells a $699 model with a Ryzen v 5500U, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

There are a couple of Intel-based, silvery-clad Green-eyed x360 15 options, just for fans of the Atari 2600 (or grandma's old station wagon), there'south likewise a "nightfall black+ wood modern walnut" option that's black with woodgrain paneling. That model sells for $1009.99 with a Cadre i7-1165G7, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. As is typical with HP, you lot can configure most of these models with more than RAM or storage, and improve screens. Interestingly, on the woodgrain-adorned Intel model, you can as well choose a 4K AMOLED brandish for an extra $150. Note to HP: Information technology would be nice to have that option on the AMD-powered variants likewise.

Bottom Line

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

While the HP Envy x360 xv is a smartly designed premium fifteen-inch convertible that performs well and has a good keyboard and brandish. At $999, it'southward a proficient option, especially for those doing video editing or other highly threaded tasks on the go. With 8 cores and 16 threads, it outperforms similarly sized Intel-based alternatives and even manages to deliver potent (though not class-leading) battery life in the process.

The convertible'southward primary problem is one nosotros've seen quite often over the last year, and longer than that when it comes to AMD-based laptops with higher-cease CPUs: It'due south consistently out of stock. Every time we checked while testing and reviewing this model, over the form of nigh two weeks, it was sold out. And as we were finishing upward this review, almost of the Intel-based models were besides, so peradventure stock problems aren't just express to AMD-based devices. Should that situation improve, this convertible is worth considering. Simply there are also plenty of groovy alternatives on our best ultrabooks and premium laptops page.

After a crude start with the Mattel Aquarius equally a child, Matt built his first PC in the belatedly 1990s and ventured into mild PC modding in the early 2000s. He's spent the last xv years roofing emerging technology for Smithsonian, Popular Science, and Consumer Reports, while testing components and PCs for Figurer Shopper, PCMag and Digital Trends.

williamsthemannind.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hp-envy-x360-15-2021

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