HP Envy 14-1196ea

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Reviews for the HP Envy 14-1196ea

60% HP Envy 14-1196ea review
Source: CNet Archive.org version
The HP Envy 14-1196ea laptop sports the Beats by Dr Dre colours and packs some potentially powerful components. Sadly, we didn't find the sort of performance we were hoping for. If you want an angry-looking laptop that's straight outta Compton, the Dr Dre-inspired HP Envy 14-1196ea is your tool, but it lacks firepower for the price.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 10/31/2011
Rating: Total score: 60%

Comment

Series:

With everything getting slimmer, HP's Envy 14 Spectre is one of the reincarnations of ultrabooks by HP. Previous laptops which fell into Intel’s specification for ultrabooks were enclosed in either a 11” or 13” inch body. Only recently, we’ve been seeing new variations of these premium laptops.

The unique touch to this 14” HP envy Spectre would be its tough glass-covered design, which makes it not only stylish but also stays cool. Whilst Dell has used the Corning's scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass for the display of its XPS 13z and 14 ultrabooks, HP has goon a step further by covering the entire display, lid and arm rest with this glass. It feels durable and sleek at the same time. However, all this comes with a price, which is the slightly heavier feel to it but still remains lighter than many other laptops.

For a slim 14-inch ultrabook body, it comes with most requirements that are expected for a regular 14 “laptop. The available ports and the Beats powered audio system is certainly sufficient to cater for a regular mainstream use. Another major feature which sets it apart from the rest is it’s built in NFC chip. The near feel communication technology has already made its way through smart phones and it could potentially facilitate laptop users as well for wireless data transfer purposes. The multitouch touchpad also feels very responsive for a Windows laptop by far. The only downside to this ultrabook would be the asking price. A similarly equipped Dell XPS 14 ultrabook would cost at least €200 lesser.

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650: Middle class DirectX 11 capable graphics card with a power consumption of about 15-20 Watt. Supports Eyevision (up to 6 monitors)

Non demanding games should be playable with these graphics cards.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

Intel Core i7: The Intel Core i7 for laptops is based on the LG1156 Core i5/i7 CPU for desktops. The base clock speed of the CPUs is relatively low, but because of a huge Turbo mode, the cores can dynamically overclock to up to 3.2 GHz (920XM). Therefore, the CPU can be as fast as high clocked dual-core CPUs (using single threaded applications) but still offer the advantage of 4 cores. Because of the large TDP of 45 W / 55 W, the CPU is only intended for large laptops.  

720QM: The Core i7-720QM is the slowes Core i7 Quad Core in 2009 and clocks between 1.6 and 2.8 GHz (due to the Turbo Mode). Therefore, it combines the advantages of a slow quad core CPU with a fast single core one. Compared to the faster Core i7 mobile CPUs, the 720QM only features 6MB L3 Cache.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

14.50":

This display size represents a treshold between the small sizes of subnotebooks and ultrabooks and the standard-sizes of office- and multimedia laptops on the other hand. Laptops with that size are somewhat rare, nowadays.

2.6 kg:

In former years, this weight was representative for laptops with a 14-16 inch display-diagonal. Nowadays, 17 inch laptops weigh less than that.

HP: The Hewlett-Packard Company, founded 1935, commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in California, United States. HP specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, storage, and networking hardware, software and services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise servers, related storage devices, as well as a diverse range of printers and other imaging products. Other product lines, including electronic test equipment and systems, medical electronic equipment, solid state components and instrumentation for chemical analysis. HP posted US $91.7 billion in annual revenue in 2006, making it the world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales. In 2007 the revenue was $104 billion, making HP the first IT company in history to report revenues exceeding $100 billion. 

Up to 2015, the company was named Hewlett Packard Company. After a split, the computer range was renamed to HP Inc.

In the laptop segment, HP was the world's largest manufacturer from 2014 to 2016 with a market share of 20-21% from 2014 to 2016, but they only exceed Lenovo by a small margin as of recently. HP is not present in the smartphone sector (as of 2016).

60%: Such a bad rating is rare. There exist hardly any notebooks, which are rated worse.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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