HP Envy 4-1010ea 14in Ultrabook review

HP made quite a fuss when it launched its Spectre Ultrabook back in May, and whilst we praised its gleaming, glass design we also noted that the Spectre was a bit on the porky side for what was meant to be an ‘ultraportable’ laptop. It was also burdened by a £1200 price-tag that might make even Apple blush. HP Envy 4-1010ea …

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting how prices are beginning to come down on ultra books, could it have been they were over priced?

I still want a full fat laptop with DVD player, a product that is reasonably priced without any spec taken out.

So no, I'm not buying into it, just like I'm not buying into the new Apple products. To me a laptop without. DVD is like buying a sports car that you have to pedal.

[Richard Ball]

Or perhaps a sports car without a roof.

[Volker Hett]

Or maybe one without air condition :)

[A. H. O. Thabeth]

"I still want a full fat laptop with DVD player" I agree; well almost

I want the space for a DVD just so that can remove the DVD and replace it with an SSD. That way I get the speed of a good sized SSD and the storage of a good sized HD for speed. Any DVD content I need I can rip when it on the move; Rip once Copy many.

[Anonymous Coward]

one advantage of that Metro start screen

These low resolution 768 displays are highlighted by the number of tiles on the Metro start screen so come October they'll stick out like sore thumbs at PC World and other retain outfits so even the least knowledgable consumer can see they are bargain bin not premium products. This HP Envy model is set for a short shelf life.

[Anonymous Coward]

WHAT?

£649 + i3 (+HP! ;)) = Affordable = FAIL!

[Drummer Boy]

How on earth

Can an i3 processor laptop be called an ultrabook??!!

[Code Monkey]

Re: How on earth

Yes. To be classed as an Ultrabook only requires an Intel Core processor.

[LomaxFC]

Re: How on earth

Also

14" 1366x768 == 'Ultra'

Does not compute.

[Mark 65]

Re: How on earth

"Can an i3 processor laptop be called an ultrabook??!!"

How about a new form factor called the "shitbox" (TM)?

It's for any machine that is touted as being something it really just isn't. A poxy i3 for £600+? Tell him he's dreaming.

[Kebablog]

Not a bad looking device to be honest, but frankly let down by a poor resolution. The 11" MBA gets away with that resolution because of the size, but bump up the physical dimensions of the screen and it looks crap

To be fair it's not just HP - Lenovo are guilty of the same crime x220-t420-t520 all come with the same res, it's fine on the x220 but scaled up it's naff.

/rant

[Robert E A Harvey]

That's right

I can live with a 2011 CPU, but I can't live with 1990s screen resolution. 1366 x 768 is a joke.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm curious...

How come a 1,4 GHz Intel Core I3 (in the HP) beats a 2,5 GHz Core I5 (in the MacBook Pro) in the benchmark? Is it something to do with this Boot Camp thingie? Alternatively, does PCMark 7 rely heavily on video performance, which may be better done in the HP?

[Sean Timarco Baggaley]

Re: I'm curious...

The comparison model was the 13" MacBook Air, not the MacBook Pro.

The Core i5 CPU in the MBA is 1.8 GHz component, not a 2.5 GHz one.

Apple also don't update their Boot Camp drivers more than a couple of times a year or so.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mmmm - OK,

..but the text said "Apple’s 13in MacBook Pro", the link pointed to a review of the 13in MacBook Pro, and in the said review the PCMark 7 score was stated to be 2450, which is indeed less than the HP's. This doesn't seem to be a typo.

Is Boot Camp a virtual machine or does it run on bare metal?

[cliff 2]

Re: Mmmm - OK,

"Is Boot Camp a virtual machine or does it run on bare metal?"

It runs on bare metal - which in the case of the MacBook Pro includes a bog-standard hard disk. The Envy 4 has both a hard disk and a 32GB SSD module, which does seem to give its PCM7 score a bit of a boost.

[Mark 65]

Re: Mmmm - OK,

Was going to say I believe the speed is due to the 32GB SSD. IO bandwidth will be severely hampered on the internal drive of the Macbook. It is completely out-gunned by the Macbook Air 11" which is SSD only.

[A. H. O. Thabeth]

Re: I'm curious...

It is down to having the OS on an SSD.

So

MacBook Pro 13"

with i5@ 2.5GHz and an HD 2450

Envy 4-1010ea

with i3 @ 1.4GHz and as SSD 2743

MacBook Air 11"

with i5 @ 1.6GHz and an SSD 3446

So an SSD in the MacBook Pro would be far quicker.

I hope this helps.

[Parallel_Monogamist]

Ferg

1.8kg and a crap res screen AGAIN. Are you kidding??

[Parallel_Monogamist]

Once again...

...shit resolution screen. And 1.8kg. What's 'ultrabook' about that FFS?

[dajames]

Unfortunate turn of phrase ...

"a 500GB hard disk that is backed up by a 32GB SSD module."

... either that or the real news is in the revolutionary backup compression technology!

[cliff 2]

Re: Unfortunate turn of phrase ...

There's a difference between "backed up by" and "backed up onto"......

[Wang N Staines]

Just bought an Ivy i7 Lenovo laptop 2 weeks ago for £550, this also has crap screen res.

These ultra expensive need to up their game.

[The New Turtle]

I was thinking this might be my Macbook replacement, right up until I saw the screen res.

That's a complete fail. Sorry, HP. It was excusable (though poor) to launch such a machine 12 months ago, but now that is completely unacceptable at this price point. Did you guys buy a job lot of 20 million lousy screens, because everyone seems to be fitting them laptops at almost every price point without thinking twice. I'd rather you didn't bother with the token SSD, just saving money by using an HDD that could be swapped out later than saddle an otherwise viable machine with a weakness that can't be upgraded.

[Patrick R]

"pleased to see that it includes Gigabit Ethernet"

Surprise, surprise! Ain't it the sandard since more than 5 years ?