There isn’t much to shout about when it comes to HP’s packaging. The Envy arrives in a standard looking box, with the only hint of special design the gleaming logo in the bottom-right corner.
On the inside, it’s packaged between slabs of dark foam, with the power pack and stylus sequestered in a small box on one side of the laptop.
Get beyond the box, though, and it quickly becomes clear that HP’s latest laptop is a good-looking bit of kit. The lid is decorated with a shining HP logo, the hinges are finished in the same chrome-effect metal, and the entire machine is made from smart-looking aluminium.
The same metal is used around the keyboard, and the screen has no visible break between the screen and its bezel. The wide trackpad has smart bezelled edges, and the speaker grille uses a stunning triangular pattern hewn straight out of the metal.
The wrist-rest features the Envy logo, and it’s hard to disagree with that sentiment.
The HP is no less impressive when you get hands-on. It’s extremely well-balanced, which means it’s possible to open the machine up with a single finger without the base lifting away from the desk, and the smooth hinges extend all the way around to the HP’s tablet position.
The metal used to build the base and screen feels rock-solid, so this is clearly a laptop that’ll survive being used on the road.
The HP weighs 2.16 kg and its body is just under 20mm thick. There are certainly slimmer and lighter laptops out there, but machines that cut down the size while maintaining this level of build quality tend to be far more expensive than the £1,149 HP system.
The HP’s left-hand edge serves up the power button, a USB port, the headphone jack and an HDMI output, while the right-hand side has another USB port, a USB 3.1 type-c connector, a card reader and a volume rocker.
That’s fine, but it’s worth noting that there isn’t a DisplayPort output, a third full-size USB port or an Ethernet socket. This laptop also doesn’t offer any internal access, but that’s a familiar price to pay for such svelte dimensions.
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