The HP Envy 13 is the smallest model in Hewlett-Packards top brand and offers an impressive design and powerful graphics.
The Envy 13 is a 13.3inch laptop the screen delivers vivid, clear and crisp images and is large enough to multitask. However, the glossy coating makes the laptop highly reflective in certain conditions.
A great power saving feature of the Envy 13 is that you can switch between the integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD and the dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 card. However, if you use the latter, the dedicated graphics card, there's a surprising amount of 3D power for such a small machine and really does handle your older games and multimedia tasks without a problem.
However, the biggest downfall for such a portable laptop is its battery life lasting just mere 2.5 hours which certainly isn't fair when paying above £1,000.
Nonetheless, the keyboard is excellent with HP opting for the rather common, stylish and comfortable chiclet keyboard with each key protruding individually through a hole in the chassis. The touchpad is impressive too, large and easy to navigate but the integrated buttons are rather annoying as you have to firmly press to register.
The laptop includes 802.11bgn wireless as well as 2 USB ports, no optical drive (even though an external one can be purchased with it), a memory card and Bluetooth.
Overall, this laptop is rather amazing and features just about everything necessary for a stylish, powerful and portable laptop if we disregard the poor battery life. However, considering it costs nearly double a MacBook Pro 13-inch really lets it down and makes it highly difficult to sell when numerous other laptops sport better specifications or similar and yet at a cheaper and more reasonable price.