HP Envy 17t (2020) review - mcgovernprocce52

The HP Envy 17t is another reminder that big laptops are back down, and not just for gaming. Apple nowadays sells a 16-inch MacBook Pro, evermor replacing the 15-inch models in its lineup. Dingle has come out with a brand-new XPS 17 for the freshman time since 2011. Even LG's Gram laptop line includes a shockingly swooning 17-inch version.

The Envy 17t isn't a new product—HP's been selling it for geezerhood—but the surge in kindred models partly stems from advancements in show technology that allow larger screens in smaller bodies. It's also an acknowledgment of the workhorse role into which PCs have well settled. Even in a world of monumental-screen phones, increasingly capable tablets, and ever-lighter ultraportable notebooks, jumbo laptops still replete a unique role for getting things done.

That's certainly true of the Envy 17t. Just be aware that outfitting yourself with a 4K presentation this large comes with some big downsides, especially if you don't want to pass more for fitter functioning.

This review is part of our current roundup of the best laptops. Whirl there for information on competitory products and how we tested them.

HP Envy 17t: Tech specs

Our HP Envy 17t review unit carries a list price of $1,590 from HP.com and has the following specs:

• Display: 17-inch, 3840×2160 IPS non-touch display
• CPU: Intel Center i7-1065G7 CPU
• Memory: 16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce MX330 GPU with 2 GB VRAM
• Storage: 512 GB PCIe NVMe solid say driving force
• Left-side ports: USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 sleep-and-charge port, HDMI, earphone jack, USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port
• Right-side ports: Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, SD menu slot
• Webcam: 720p, with software-based privacy shutter
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 support
• Dimensions: 15.71 x 10.2 x 0.76 inches
• Burthen: 6.02 pounds (6.88 pounds with power brick)

HP's web site has some additional configurations, ranging in price from $1,050 to $1,980. An Intel Inwardness i5-1035G1 CPU is available, and you can upgrade the MX330 graphics card to 4GB of VRAM. Memory is configurable weak to 8GB Beaver State up to 32GB, and you can opt for either a 1TB SSD or a combo 256GB SSD with a 1TB hard drive. You behind also get a 1080p display, with operating theater without a touch screen, just on that point's no pick for 4K with a touch panel.

Jared Newman / IDG

The HP Envy 17t's port selection includes the rarified full-ninepenny SD visiting card slot.

Despite the size, this isn't a laptop for serious play or heavy-responsibility media output. The GeForce MX330 artwork menu exists mainly to underpin the 4K display, while the Intel Ice Lake CPU matches what you'll find in high-end ultrathin laptops, such as Lenovo's C940 Yoga 14 Beaver State HP's Spectre x360 13t. If you necessitate a real powerhouse, seek out a laptop computer with Intel's H-Series processors and better discrete GPUs, such as Dell's original XPS 17 or Lenovo's C940 Yoga 15.

The port selection is bad courteous, though. HP takes advantage of the extra blank that a 17-inch screen affords to provide a glutted-orange-sized SD card slot—a rarity on laptops these years—and an HDMI porthole that prat production 4K at 60 frames per second to compatible monitors or televisions. One might only nitpick the miss of Thunderclap 3 or a faster USB-C port, as the one on table has a maximum 10Gbps transfer speed.

One otherwise celebrated perk: The Envy 17t has room for a hard Winchester drive, though you'll feature to prize off the laptop's rubber feet and batch with about hex screws to entree the internals.

Intention and display

Like other laptops in the Envy lineup, Horsepower's Invidia 17t comes in a light-gray aluminum chassis, with smart-edged sides and a slightly raised palm rest. It also has the same the diamond-shaped pattern on its Knock & Olufsen loudspeaker system grillwork, which, concerted with H.P.'s extra-large keycap lettering, gives the Envy 17t a sharp-worded, distinct appearance.

But unlike other Envy laptops, the Envy 17t is extremely heavy and bulky, weighing over six pounds without a charger. The bezels arounds its display, while small-minded, aren't A slim as those of Dell's new XPS 17. This laptop is meant for sitting on your desk, non for toting around—a point reinforced by the send away-hinge that props up the laptop's body when it's folded open. On a flat surface, this design improves airflow and makes typewriting comfier, but on your lave the two rubber stoppers would poke into your legs.

Jared Newman / IDG

The HP Invidia 17t's drop hinge is great for desks, only not so nice for laps.

Inactive, the 4K display itself looks great, and perhaps because of the MX330 GPU inside, the Envy 17t exhibited no of the sudden animations or janky scrolling that plague some 4K laptops with merged art. While the screen doesn't support Dolby Vision HDR, we measured a peak smartness of 387 nits, which is admirable for a laptop computer of this size.

Keyboard and trackpad

Here's one conclusive advantage of a 17-in laptop: The keyboard makes no major sacrifices in size, and IT easily fits in a enumerate pad. The keys are along the bouncy side, but not the least bit unstable—putting squeeze on just the corner of any key causes the undivided thing to depress. The keyboard besides affords plenty of travel and gives dispatch a slightly satisfying fall into place. There's hardly whatever twist in the laptop's organic structure when typed connected. The only notable omission is a right Control key—Horsepower put together its fingerprint reader where the key would usually be—but information technology's a stellar keyboard overall.

Jared Newman / IDG

Plenty of room for a number trudge here, though a fingerprint reader sits where right Ascendency would normally be.

The trackpad falls a great deal shorter of perfection. While it's more spacious than what you'd see on smaller laptops, and is still somewhat clickable at the very top edge, the responsiveness could be smoother—finger movements sometimes felt jerky rather than fluid. On the upper side, the Envy 17t does support Microsoft's Precision Touchpad drivers, so it supports standard Windows 10 multitouch gestures and doesn't have some truth issues, as we've experienced on some past HP laptops.

Sound, webcam, security system

H.P. continues to partner with Danish audio stigma Bang & Olufsen connected its high-terminate laptop speakers, and the results are predictably decent. While the sound system doesn't match the vocal warmness or princely bass tones of Lenovo's C940 Yoga 14—still the gold standard among high-remainder Windows PCs—they do get almost as loud, and offer a brightness that you don't usually find on laptops.

Meanwhile, HP continues not to cooperator with whatsoever notable photographic camera brands on its webcam, which offers 720p imagery comparable that of most other notebooks. Horsepower does include a privacy shutter that covers the lens, only information technology's operated through software via a function rowing key, sol you can't rif the shutter when the computer is off.

Jared Cardinal Newman / IDG

The HP Enviousness 17t uses a function row key (left) to close the camera shutter (right).

The fingerprint reader is also a little of a letdown. Occupying a slot on the keyboard, it's larger than the pinky-nab-sized readers on many past laptops, and I had issues getting it to crop reliably. Even after re-registering my feel, unlocking the laptop normally took few tries with slenderly different finger positions.

Performance

The H.P. Envy 17t certainly looks ilk a beefy workhorse laptop computer, only benchmarks let ou the truth: Except in the graphics department, the Envy 17t performs similarly to smaller laptops that matter to half as much—not surprising given the Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU exclusive. But its battery life is long worsened.

HP's software system compounds the matter, with a mathematical function-rowing key delivery up few "Fountain Profiles" that can tweak system temperatures by throttling the C.P.U. up or down. Our benchmark graphs are settled on the default "HP Recommended" profile, which strikes a balance between public presentation and temperature. Choosing the "Performance" setting led to higher scores in some tests, which I'll note in the school tex.

Jared Newman / IDG

The Envy 17t's public presentation varies depending on which Thermal Visibility you pick.

Get's start with PCMark 8, which measures performance while simulating a salmagundi of position tasks. We don't have a lot of 17-inch laptops to equate with, indeed we've mixed about 15-inch laptops into our charts, along with a 13-inch laptop with the identical CPU.

Any PCMark score over 2,000 is satisfactory. The Envy 17t's sexual conquest of 3132 is good, though happening the bring dow end of its age bracket. Information technology eventide falls behind last year's version of the LG Gramme 17, which weighs only ternion pounds. (We have not reviewed the latest Gram with a 10th-generation Intel processor.)

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

Among Pith i7 CPUs, PCMark gobs are more similar than they are different.

Similar results emerged in Cinebench, which tests the CPU with a quick burst of heavy performance demands. The Envy 17t's unshared-threaded score of 188 is solid, but its multi-threaded score of 579 is well behind a wide range of other laptops. Switching on HP's "Performance" mode bumped the seduce to 684, which is still connected the lower end.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

At default thermal profile settings, the HP Envy 17t's multi-thread Cinebench scores hesitation, though single-threaded performance is mulct.

Switching between HP's spring profiles yielded the most dramatic results in our HandBrake benchmark, which tests a heavy workload over prison term away encryption a extensive television visibility. Retired of the boxful, the Envy 17t finished the job in a dismal 71 minutes, matching the kind of heavily-throttled performance you'd see in a much smaller laptop such as the Envy 13. Turning on H.P.'s "Functioning" mode resulted in a much high score of 3,146 seconds, or 52 minutes, but it's still zero equivalence against a laptop with Intel's 10th-generation H-Series CPUs, such as the Dell XPS 15 in our chart.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

These Handbrake scores don't look cracking, just switch to the Envy 17t's "Performance" setting would set out it ahead of most of the laptops Hera.

Graphics performance is a intelligent patch: The Envy 17t's MX330 GPU's Sky Frogman score of 10,401 foursquare beats laptops with integrated graphics. Spell apparently not a gaming laptop computer, it can squelch impermissible 60 frames per second at 1080p with medium graphics settings in some 3D games, including Fortnite and Deep Rock Galactic.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

Nvidia's MX330 GPU helps make the HP Envy 17t passable for 3D gaming (only not at 4K resolution, of course)

The real letdown here is battery animation. The HP Invidia 17t's 55Whr battery is tiny for a laptop computer of this size, and IT's no mate for a 17-inch display at 4K resolution. While iteration a television file away offline at roughly 255 nits' brightness, the Enviousness 17t lasted only 7 hours and 11 minutes. HPs own Spectre x360 15t from 2019 lasted 45 percent longer in the Sami trial run, belik in part because its battery capacity is 36 percentage larger.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

Small battery, plus mountainous 4K reveal, equals bad battery life.

Entirely of this puts the HP Envy 17t in an unusual location. At $1,590 A reviewed, information technology is more cheap than Dell's XPS 17, which costs $2,000 with comparable to display resolution, memory board, and storage. It undercuts Apple's MacBook Pro by about $800.

But those are also more reigning machines with H-Series Intel processors, supporting the kinds of labored workloads you might want to accomplish on much a large covert. If you don't need all that computing musculus, the H.P. Envy 17t might have some appeal, simply lone if you're unwilling to bend on the notion of a 4K, 17-inch screen.

With a little more flexibility, the options wide up. LG's Gram 17 is an intriguing alternative with similar performance and much better battery life at half the weight down. It has a glower-resolution 2560×1600 panel, but chances are you won't notice the difference. Smaller laptops like HP's Shade x350 15t are worth considering as well, especially if you can connect a 4K monitor.

With the Envy 17t, you'ray sacrificing a dish out of portability just for the saki of that screen. Piece 17-column inch laptops are fashioning a comeback, an extremely heavy laptop computer without heavy performance to agree is a niche within a corner.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/393184/hp-envy-17t-review.html

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