While HP’s Spectre lineup is what HP would probably consider their top-tier brand, the ENVY series has quietly become a very potent competitor, with premium-grade materials, and even discrete graphics, while still coming in sometimes hundreds of dollars less than the Spectre models. For 2020, HP is ramping up the ENVY lineup, refreshing all of the models, but the company has put special focus on the 15.6-inch ENVY 15 for this year.
ENVY 15
The creator market has become one of the new battlegrounds in the PC space, and for 2020 HP is clearly focusing the ENVY 15 on that market. The new ENVY 15 is the powerhouse in the ENVY lineup, with Intel’s H-Series processors coupled with NVIDIA graphics. Offering up to a Core i9 with 8 cores and sixteen threads, coupled with NVIDIA GPUs up to the RTX 2060 Max-Q gives the new ENVY 15 some serious performance for creative workflows like Lightroom, or video rendering. The ENVY 15 is also a member of the NVIDIA Studio program, meaning it offers the Studio drivers. You can pick up the ENVY 15 with up to 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of PCIe storage in RAID if needed.
One of the standout features on the new ENVY 15 is the 15.6-inch UHD OLED display, offering 100% P3 gamut coverage, and factory calibrated for a Delta E < 2. The OLED display is certified for VESA DisplayHDR 400 TrueBlack, thanks to the incredible contrast OLED provides, and the display is rated for up to 600 nits of brightness as well.
Packing this much performance into a thin and light chassis is always going to push the cooling to the limits, and HP has outfitted it with a new vapor chamber cooling which they say offers 33% more processing power than traditional heatpipe designs, and HP offers DynamicPower to allocate TDP between the CPU and GPU to balance workloads.
Creators also require connectivity, and HP provides two Thunderbolt 3 ports, as well as two USB 3 ports, HDMI, and a multi-format media reader. Wi-Fi 6 is available as well, and HP has a new QuickDrop app which allows you to directly transfer files from your iOS or Android smartphone directly to the laptop via Wi-Fi. HP rates the ENVY 15 at up to 16.5 hours of battery life, so despite the performance under the hood, the 4.74 lb laptop should be able to last all day on a charge when needed.
The new ENVY 15 will be available in June starting at $1349.99.
ENVY 13
HP’s ENVY 13 is one of the company’s gems, offering a thin and light Ultrabook built with premium materials for a very good price. For 2020 the refresh moves to Ice Lake processors up to the Core i7-1065G7, and optional NVIDIA MX330 graphics. The laptop offers an 88% screen-to-body ratio, optional UHD display, and up to 19.5 hours of battery life. It will be available in May starting at $999.
ENVY x360 13
The convertible version of the ENVY 13 offers the same 88% screen-to-body ratio, but moves to AMD’s new 4000 series APU, with up to 17.5 hours of battery life. It will be available early May starting at $699.99.
ENVY x360 15
The larger convertible offers a choice of 10th gen Intel Core coupled with NVIDIA MX330 graphics, or the AMD Ryzen 4000 APU. Buyers can also opt for the OLED UHD display, and this model is rated for up to 18.5 hours of battery life. Unlike the non-convertible ENVY 15, this model will be the 15-Watt range of CPUs. It will be available early Mat starting at $699.99.
