What'southward the Dealbreaker?

The HP Envy x360 ends up as a laptop that does a couple of things really well, while letting you down big time in a few other areas. While we are looking at a cheaper and lower-tier product than HP'due south flagship Spectre line, I feel a more balanced approach would have led to a better final product.

Where the Green-eyed x360 succeeds is undoubtedly in its main hardware: about configuration options get out you with either a Ryzen 5 2500U or an viiith gen Cadre CPU paired with MX150 graphics. Y'all'll exist getting enough of CPU and GPU horsepower here, with the Intel/Nvidia configuration giving y'all the best bang for your buck because the discrete GPU is more powerful than AMD'due south integrated Vega 8.

The pattern is likewise bang-up from both a visual and structure standpoint, with nice bonuses such as a Windows Hello camera. The generally metal body is premium despite the Envy x360 sitting below the Spectre x360 in HP's lineup, and it features a keyboard but as good as nosotros've seen in other recent HP ultraportables.

But the existent deal breakers hither are the display and bombardment life. The display isn't capable of total sRGB coverage so it looks wearisome and undersaturated, plus it lacks top-terminate brightness. And the battery capacity is simply too minor for a xv-inch laptop, falling more in the 13-inch category which leads to poor battery life when you lot motion to a larger display.

By the time y'all configure the Envy x360 to something worth using – the $700 base model doesn't include SSD storage, for case – you'll find yourself spending around $1,000, which simply isn't worth it. The competing Lenovo Yoga 720 starts at $950, and for that price yous get a much faster CPU and GPU along with basics like an SSD and a suitably large bombardment.

It ends up a bit of a shame that the get-go Ryzen Mobile laptop isn't actually that good, just I hope we have a few more than options to look at as the yr progresses. Perhaps Acer's Swift 3 will knock the brawl out of the park, because it's not AMD's fault the Green-eyed x360 isn't upwards to scratch; the silicon is solid, information technology just needed to exist paired with ameliorate hardware like it deserves.

Shopping Shortcuts:

  • HP Envy x360 on Amazon, Newegg

Pros: Powerful hardware: either Ryzen Mobile, or Intel 8th-gen plus discrete Nvidia graphics. Excellent build with a slap-up keyboard.

Cons: Substandard brandish can't produce full sRGB gamut. Small battery delivers poor battery life. Uncompetitive pricing for configurations really worth buying.