HP Envy 15: Stylish and powerful laptop is a great choice for creators

I have often seen people engaged in creative work—photographers, graphic designers, vloggers, architects, filmmakers and more—literally pull out their hair out of sheer frustration when they are let down by their computers, laptops in particular. Slow performance, machine suddenly freezes or tends to overheat, screen display is truncated, browsing is slow, etc. Let us not forget, a creator’s mind is never idle, always fueled with inspiration from the world around them.

Creativity can strike anytime, anywhere. Yet lack of proper equipment can hold them back from achieving their true potential.

With a rich history of PC innovations for the creative community, HP is trying to address the pain point described above with its new machine—HP Envy 15. With a minimalist design and a powerful mix of hardware and software features, the Envy 15, is built for those who regularly edit photos and video, or develop graphics or web designs. It is available in three variants: the first option is powered by 10th gen core i5 10300H with 16GB and 512GB SSD GTX 4GB 1650Ti GFX/15.6-inch FHD, priced at Rs 1,19,999; the second variant is powered by 10th gen core i7 10750H with 16GB and 1TB SSD, GTX 6 GB 1660Ti GFX 15.6-inch FHD and is available at Rs 1,49,999 (our trial unit), while the third machine comes with 10th gen core i7 10750H with 16GB and 1TB GB SSD RTX 6 GB 2060 with Max-Q design13 15.6-inch OLED Touch, and is available at Rs 1,69,999.

My initial take was that the Envy 15 is positioned more toward the graphic design crowd. However, an extensive review spanning a pretty long period convinced me that this machine is ideal for any sort of creative person who wants portability, style, and performance. Since tasks around video, audio or graphic design, require a lot of memory and a powerful GPU, the Envy 15 will not let you down one bit. Fast rendering, seamless playback, and smooth multitasking is a breeze with an up to 10th Gen Intel Core i7 (H-series) processor, up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q design, and upto 16GB of DDR4 memory.

Digital creations take on a new level of details and realism with 4K OLED VESA certified DisplayHDR True Black display. It features 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut, 100,000:1 contrast ratio with 400 nits brightness. Additionally, the HP Envy 15 will let you play many of the best PC games out there on ultra settings without grinding your fps to a halt. It is the first HP Envy machine to offer gaming-class thermals—a vapour chamber and two 12-volt fans. Compared with a traditional heat-pipe design, HP’s custom vapour chamber solution provides 33% more processor power to power through intensive workloads. Trust me, even the most die-hard laptop PC gamers would not be able to tell the difference between the Envy 15 and the best gaming laptops in the market.

A head-turning device when it comes to appearance, the Envy 15 comes with a sophisticated aluminium chassis and diamond-cut design; it is the first Envy with a layer of glass on top of the touchpad for a smooth-touch experience. Plus there is an all-in-one keyboard with easily accessible buttons for power, camera shutter, mute mic, fingerprint reader etc.

An interesting feature is HP QuickDrop on the Envy 15; this seamlessly transfers digital creations, documents, notes, websites, addresses, and more across a variety of devices—PC, iPhone, Android, or tablet. The device also features HP Dynamic Power, which intelligently allocates power between the CPU and GPU; and, the IR thermal sensor supports Performance Control to fully utilise thermal capacity. There is blazing-fast storage and connectivity with up to 1TB PCIe SSD and RAID 0 (2xSSD), 3x faster file transfer speeds connectivity with Wi-Fi 6 versus Wi-Fi 5, and Bluetooth 5. There is 16.5 hours of battery life, plus you can quickly charge the device with HP Fast Charge, offering a 50% charge in 45 minutes.

In the end, for the creative lot looking for a powerful laptop that can handle some of the most intensive tasks, the HP Envy 15 is a great machine with its sleek design, gorgeous 4K touchscreen display and good all round performance. Highly recommended.

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Dimensions: 35.7 x 23.6 x 1.84cm
• Display: (15.6-inch FHD, IPS, WLED-backlit
• Processor: Intel 10th gen core i7 10750H
• Operating system: Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
• Memory & storage: 16GB, 1TB SSD
• Battery: 6-cell, 83 Wh Li-ion polymer (Support battery fast charge)
• Estimated street price: Rs 149,999