Subscores
After the Envy 4, HP has now released its big brother, the Envy 6, a 15.6-inch ultrabook that sells for as low as £440. Is it worth the upgrade from the Envy 4?
Design
Barring the different diagonal sizes, the Envy 4 and Envy 6 have similar designs. The part-matte, part-glossy chassis looks just as beautiful coming out of the box as the Envy 4, but once again it quickly gets covered in fingerprints and smudges on both the glossy and matte sections.
The keyboard is just as well integrated into the chassis as before. The downside is that it's the same keyboard, meaning that there's an over-3-cm-wide strip of unused space on either side, which could just as easily have been used to include a numerical keypad.
As on many of HP's notebooks, you don't have to hit the Fn key to use shortcuts like the volume, screen brightness, keyboard brightness, and so on. Instead, it's F1, F2, etc. that require the Fn key.
The Envy 6 has all the connectivity to meet most people's needs with three USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI output, an SD card reader, an Ethernet port, a headphone jack and a microphone jack. And there's good news: unlike so many other ultrabooks, here everything is standard so you won't need to buy any adapters.
Heat levels with the components under stress
The Envy 6 makes very little noise. Even with the components under stress the fan stays in check. We can't say the same, however, for the temperature: even with nothing more than a low-consumption Core i3 processor the heat rises to nearly 50° C in places. But this shouldn't pose any threat to the components—only your lap.
Audio
Beats Audio takes care of the sound on most of HP's products. And, like the Envy 4, on the Envy 6 it isn't a success. The headphone output was designed with inexplicable clumsiness. The volume goes quite high, but it's necessarily accompanied with an enormous amount of harmonic distortion (over 3%), with hissing that stays noticeable even with music playing.
Add to that some very mediocre speakers that saturate and distort the sound, and you have a listening experience you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
Another problem with this screen is the brightness. It never goes above 175 cd/m². That, coupled with the glossy surface, make it highly susceptible to reflections from any direct light sources. And the 1366 x 768 resolution is a bit low for a 15.6-inch display. We (like most users, we imagine) would have preferred 1920 x 1080, or 1600 x 900 at the very least. That way small writing would at least be legible...
Processor Power
No surprises here. With an Intel Core i3-2367M processor and 4 GB of RAM, the Envy 6 has no trouble running productivity software and browsing the web, and even has a little power left over for heavier tasks such as video encoding. It isn't the fastest notebook around, but it will perfectly fulfil the average user's everyday needs. Just don't expect to do anything more CPU-intensive on it, because it just won't hack it.
The 128 GB solid-state drive makes the Envy 6 fairly responsive on the whole. Startup takes around 45 seconds (including time to hook up to Wi-Fi) and shutdown takes 10 seconds, max.
Gaming
Again, no surprises here. The Intel HD 3000 is more than capable when it comes to decoding HD movies, but much less so when running video games. If you want to play without a choppy image and in native resolution, then you'll have to stick with older, smaller games.
Battery Life
Weighing 2.5 kg and with a battery life of 5 hours and 7 minutes (during continuous video playback with the screen at 100 cd/m², Wi-Fi turned off and headphones plugged in), the Envy 6 is good when it comes to mobility. Then again, while it's only 2 cm thick, the 374-mm width and 252.8-mm length make it average-size for a 15.6-inch laptop and it won't always fit easily in your backpack.
Design
Barring the different diagonal sizes, the Envy 4 and Envy 6 have similar designs. The part-matte, part-glossy chassis looks just as beautiful coming out of the box as the Envy 4, but once again it quickly gets covered in fingerprints and smudges on both the glossy and matte sections.
The touchpad recognises all the common multitouch commands (two-finger zooming, 2-to-4-finger scrolling...) and your fingers glide smoothly and easily over the surface. Unfortunately, having the same lining as the 14-inch model, it collects smudges and sticks a bit when you press down too hard.
The keyboard is just as well integrated into the chassis as before. The downside is that it's the same keyboard, meaning that there's an over-3-cm-wide strip of unused space on either side, which could just as easily have been used to include a numerical keypad.
As on many of HP's notebooks, you don't have to hit the Fn key to use shortcuts like the volume, screen brightness, keyboard brightness, and so on. Instead, it's F1, F2, etc. that require the Fn key.
The Envy 6 has all the connectivity to meet most people's needs with three USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI output, an SD card reader, an Ethernet port, a headphone jack and a microphone jack. And there's good news: unlike so many other ultrabooks, here everything is standard so you won't need to buy any adapters.
Heat levels with the components under stress
Images taken with a Fluke Ti25 Thermal Imager
The Envy 6 makes very little noise. Even with the components under stress the fan stays in check. We can't say the same, however, for the temperature: even with nothing more than a low-consumption Core i3 processor the heat rises to nearly 50° C in places. But this shouldn't pose any threat to the components—only your lap.
Audio
Beats Audio takes care of the sound on most of HP's products. And, like the Envy 4, on the Envy 6 it isn't a success. The headphone output was designed with inexplicable clumsiness. The volume goes quite high, but it's necessarily accompanied with an enormous amount of harmonic distortion (over 3%), with hissing that stays noticeable even with music playing.
Frequency response curve from the speakers
Green section = good / Orange section = tolerable / White section = torture
Green section = good / Orange section = tolerable / White section = torture
Add to that some very mediocre speakers that saturate and distort the sound, and you have a listening experience you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
Screen:
The colours are pretty disastrous. With a Delta E of 12.2, a calibration profile will be your only hope for salvation. And the contrast even worse (300:1). These are paltry results, even for a notebook.Another problem with this screen is the brightness. It never goes above 175 cd/m². That, coupled with the glossy surface, make it highly susceptible to reflections from any direct light sources. And the 1366 x 768 resolution is a bit low for a 15.6-inch display. We (like most users, we imagine) would have preferred 1920 x 1080, or 1600 x 900 at the very least. That way small writing would at least be legible...
Our Review Model: Envy 6-1070
The model we were sent for review features an Intel Core i3-2367M processor, 4 GB of RAM, an Intel HD 3000 graphics chipset and a 128 GB solid-state drive. Whereas the comments above refer to all versions of the HP Envy 6, the observations below apply only to the configuration we tested, as each model has different technical specs. Individual components may vary depending on the country/region you live in (see inset).
Processor Power
No surprises here. With an Intel Core i3-2367M processor and 4 GB of RAM, the Envy 6 has no trouble running productivity software and browsing the web, and even has a little power left over for heavier tasks such as video encoding. It isn't the fastest notebook around, but it will perfectly fulfil the average user's everyday needs. Just don't expect to do anything more CPU-intensive on it, because it just won't hack it.
The 128 GB solid-state drive makes the Envy 6 fairly responsive on the whole. Startup takes around 45 seconds (including time to hook up to Wi-Fi) and shutdown takes 10 seconds, max.
Gaming
Again, no surprises here. The Intel HD 3000 is more than capable when it comes to decoding HD movies, but much less so when running video games. If you want to play without a choppy image and in native resolution, then you'll have to stick with older, smaller games.
Battery Life
Weighing 2.5 kg and with a battery life of 5 hours and 7 minutes (during continuous video playback with the screen at 100 cd/m², Wi-Fi turned off and headphones plugged in), the Envy 6 is good when it comes to mobility. Then again, while it's only 2 cm thick, the 374-mm width and 252.8-mm length make it average-size for a 15.6-inch laptop and it won't always fit easily in your backpack.
Pros
- Fast startup and shutdown
- Battery life: 5 hrs 7 min
- Quiet
- Standard connectivity (no need for adapters)
- Separate headphone and microphone jacks
Cons
- Not for gamers
- Low-quality glossy display
- Horrendous sound
Conclusion
The Envy 6's biggest selling point is its thin size (19.8 mm), which officially makes it an ultrabook—and that's about it, because on the 15.6" market you can find all sorts of laptops with better specs at a lower price.
OUR SCORE
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