HP Envy 16 Review

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HP Envy 16 Review

The HP Envy 16 (2022) may be less expensive than competitors, but its design inspiration is obvious. From the minuscule screen bezels and recycled aluminum chassis to the curved edges and speaker grilles, it is evident that this laptop has taken design lessons from the Apple MacBook Pro.

On the right side of the Envy's aluminum chassis, you'll find a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, an HDMI 2.1 output, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and thanks to a barrel adapter, you don't have to sacrifice a Thunderbolt port for charging. A headphone jack, another full-size USB connector, and a microSD card slot are located on the left edge.

Internal connectivity is provided by dual-band Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, so I have no complaints. The webcam is remarkable: a 5MP unit with pixel-perfect resolution, Windows Hello support, and a privacy button with a cool status indicator. The Envy also outperforms rival notebooks in terms of connectivity; the Dell has only one full-size USB connector, and Apple has eliminated them entirely. However, bear in mind that both competitors have SD card slots for full-size cards, and the MacBook Pro has an additional Thunderbolt port.

There are additional areas where the Envy could be improved, even though minor flaws are to be expected at this price. Similar to the competition, it lacks wired internet. No biometric scanner is present. The display is sturdy, but the base's underside feels too fragile. With a weight of 2.3 kilograms and a thickness of 20 millimeters, the Envy is larger than its competitors.

Ergonomically, the Envy is satisfactory. The keyboard is quick, comfortable, and silent, but slightly more responsive keys would be appreciated. It has an additional series of function buttons on the right side, and the backlight is adequate. It even has an emoji button that displays a menu of emojis and gifs, a feature taken from smartphone keyboards.

Negatively, there is no numeric keypad and the Return key has a single height. The trackpad is acceptable, but the button strokes are excessively deep. The default resolution of 2560 x 1600 is adequate for sRGB tasks. The OLED panel is comparable to the Retina display on the MacBook Pro.

The HP Envy 16 that I reviewed utilizes the least expensive of its three screen variants. It is a 16-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600, so it is reasonably sharp, and the 16:10 aspect ratio provides additional vertical space. The refresh rate of 120 Hz is adequate for ordinary gaming.

HP Envy 16 Review

The quality levels are also reasonable. This panel can be used both indoors and outdoors due to its outstanding Delta E value of 1.4 and 418-nit brightness level. The contrast ratio of 1161:1 is an excellent IPS result, as it provides substantial vibrancy and depth without being oversaturated. However, there is a reason why this is the most affordable panel. The black point of 0.36 nits could be a little lower, as the darkest areas are lacking in depth. Moreover, although the HP panel generates a respectable 96% of the sRGB color gamut, it hovers around 70% in the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 color spaces. This screen's color capabilities are limited to general creative tasks.

This entry-level display is inferior to the MacBook Pro 16's 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display, which offers superior contrast, luminance, and color fidelity. If you need more inventive capabilities, the OLED upgrade from HP will cost you $200. This panel has a 3840 x 2400 resolution and handles the sRGB and DCI-P3 color spaces flawlessly, but it cannot handle the Adobe RGB color space, and its maximum luminance in SDR mode is still 400 nits.

This upgraded panel matches the quality of the MacBook and XPS screens and gives you more creative freedom, making it a worthwhile and remarkable upgrade for a system that will still cost less than $2,000 and therefore remain significantly less expensive than the MacBook and OLED-equipped XPS.

There is a catch in this situation. This OLED panel is the best screen option for the Envy, but it is not presently available in the UK and Europe, so buyers in those regions save money but sacrifice quality. The third screen option from HP costs an additional $70 and adds touch functionality to the standard IPS display. The interactive version is the default option in the United Kingdom. The Envy's Bang & Olufsen hardware emits audio from the front edge of the system and either side of the keyboard, with excellent volume and bass but a slightly lacking midrange. This audio equipment cannot contend with the Apple MacBook, but it is adequate for everyday media.

The Intel Core i7-12700H has remarkable productivity credentials: it has six performance cores and eight efficiency cores that support 20 threads, and its performance cores operate at a maximum of 4.7 GHz. The Envy employs 16GB of dual-channel DDR5 memory in addition to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics core's 6GB of dedicated memory, 3840 stream processors, and 95W TDP. Its 1TB Micron 3400 SSD has remarkable read and write speeds of 6814 MB/s and 5016 MB/s, resulting in quick PC and application boot times.

The Envy's i7-12700H processor is among the quickest I've encountered. Its single-core and multi-core Geekbench scores of 1779 and 12,214 are outstanding. Its PCMark 10 score of 7127 is also outstanding, and I anticipate that the Envy will be consistently faster than the XPS 15.

This is encouraging for creative computing. The Core i7 processor can readily handle any photo-editing or video-editing and encoding task. You can open as many browser tabs as you want, and multitasking, coding, and office applications run smoothly. Only by upgrading to the Core i9-12900H will you receive a significant performance boost. This is beneficial if you want to tackle more difficult content creation duties, such as 4K video editing and CAD software. This version of the Envy starts at $1949, £2099, or €2799, and the US and UK prices appear particularly attractive; the Core i9 CPU-equipped XPS costs $2399, £2199.

The M2 Pro processor found in the new MacBook Pro 16 is the Envy's chief performance rival. This CPU scores between 1950 and 15,000 on Geekbench when installed in the new Mac Mini, suggesting that Apple's updated laptop will maintain its performance lead. Nevertheless, the HP is a capable creative application and gaming device. Stick to a more manageable resolution of 1920 x 1200, and you'll be able to play demanding single-player games at solid framerates. The Envy ran Borderlands 3 at 62 frames per second and was 15 frames quicker in Horizon Zero Dawn.

Any eSports title will operate at an average frame rate greater than 120 fps at native resolution, which bodes well for the competition; however, eSports enthusiasts will require a refresh rate greater than 120 Hz. Switching to creative applications will significantly improve the performance of any software that can utilize GPU acceleration.

If you intend to use the HP GPU for gaming, however, you should anticipate some thermal issues. When the graphics core is under load, the exterior panels become warm and the decibel level matches that of a high-end gaming notebook. It is not impossible to overcome, but it is annoying. The situation is better in work benchmarks; there is fan noise and it's warm outside, but it's more manageable, particularly if you're using headphones or speakers.

Despite its robust internals, the HP Envy 16 performed well in battery tests. Utilize the Envy for conventional, everyday work duties, including some content creation, and you will be able to complete an entire workday. In a standard work test, the Envy endured 8 hours and 42 minutes.

The battery life increased to an impressive 14 hours and 52 minutes in a movie playback test with the screen brightness reduced, so if you're diligent with how you use the notebook, it will also get you through your commute. Expect a more modest 90 minutes of use if you intend to drive the components to their limits or use the Envy for gaming, which is a disappointing but not unexpected result. This lifespan is superior to anything the XPS can achieve, but the MacBook Pro provides even greater results. Consider that battery life will decrease if you choose the OLED upgrade.