HP Envy 17 cg1356ng: A multimedia office allrounder

The HP Envy 17 has already been sold for a while under various model designations with a visually unchanged case. All of them have the robust case and high-quality workmanship in common. The slightly limited amount of connections can also be found in each of the models.

The maintenance options of the HP laptop should really be good, since once you have access to the insides, you can expand or replace the working memory in two slots and also replace the SSD. In addition, there is a free slot for a 2.5-inch storage drive. However, since the bottom of the case is held in place very tightly, it can only be removed with great effort.

In our current Envy 17 cg1356ng test unit, an Intel Core i5-1135G7, which is well-suited for extensive office applications, ensures a good system performance. Graphically demanding applications such as image and video processing are supported by the built-in Nvidia GeForce MX450. Although a weaker variant of it is used here, you can still play games smoothly in Full-HD resolution at medium to low graphics settings.

The HP laptop delivers a good battery life.

All of the image content is displayed on a 17.3-inch IPS panel that offers a good brightness with a maximum of 347 cd/m². However, the reflective display makes it practically impossible to use the laptop outdoors, and even inside, it is difficult to read the display contents if there is a window or artificial light source nearby, for example.

Those who can live with this limitation will profit from a good battery life that, at almost 8 hours in our realistic WLAN test with capacity of 55.67 Wh, turns out significantly better than that of most other 17-inch laptops.

You can find out in our extensive review what else the HP Envy 17 cg1356ng is able to do.