The HP Envy x360 13 – starting at $679.99 – blends a high average computer capacity with an elegant, thin, light weighted body, one of the first laptops for AMD’s new 4th generation processors in the Ryzen U-Series. Includes an automated, simple privacy filter for webcams, a high-quality display, and a pleasant keyboard. The Envy x360 13t is a nice deal, bringing our editors’ choice prize to a 2-in-1 convertible laptop in the best midrange category, at $887.99 in our Ryzen 5 test model with each of these features.
The Envy series by HP has always been one of our favorites. Envy is known to be the mid-range series of laptops. Sandwiched in between the Spectre series, which is the flagship line of the laptops, and the Pavilion, which is known as the entry-level laptop by HP. HP’s Envy originally is available in the market in 2 variants. You can opt for a traditional design with the clamshell chassis, or you can go for the HP Envy x360 13 models, it all depends upon your preference, of course. The swaggy feature that comes with the HP Envy x360 13 allows you to use the laptop in a typical laptop manner or you can flip it with the help of a 360-degree hinge and use it as a tablet.
The HP Envy x360 13 has a thick and heavy chassis which in turn provides flexibility to the laptop. But, this thickness does not burden you up when and if you carry it in your backpack. Talking about the dimensions specifically, the HP Envy x360 13 is about 0.65 by 12.1 by 7.7 inches (HWD) and weighs about 2.82 pounds.
It is also very cool to see the small and lightweight chassis. We loved the paint scheme; Nightfall Black gives your laptop a refined look. The non-convertible version of Envy is not as whimsical or rare as the walnut paneling, but it is a refreshing break out of the sea of silver and grey equipment that makes up most of the ultraportable luxury laptops industry.
Moreover, the HP Envy x360 13has an arsenal of AMD Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 7 processors for you to choose from. You can also choose the memory options too as the laptop comes with 8GB, 16GB, and even up to 1TB. Also, don’t worry about the graphics output as every laptop is equipped with the AMD Radeon graphics unit which is built inside the Ryzen processor.
High Definition Display
As mentioned before, the Envy x360 13 comes with a touch-sensitive screen. The diagonal length of the screen is 13.3 inches. This is the common screen size for laptops that are known as ultra-portables. The Envy x360 13 has an on-screen pixel resolution of only 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. This pixel resolution is considered as the full HD.
The screen display is perfect for a lot of tasks, but sometimes, the text may get blurry or fuzzy but that is obvious because the Envy x360 13 is a mid-range laptop so it does not have those pricey 4K pixels resolution or the OLED display. However, if you want a laptop with elite display output, you can certainly opt for a pricey lineup of Spectre x360 13 by HP.
While looking at the display’s brightness, the Envy x360 13 that we tested had an LED backlight with an intensity of 400-nits. This amount of brightness is perfect if your usage is indoors. The lowest costing models by the HP have a 300-nits capacity, which is dimmer than the Envy x360 13.
If you sensitive about your data or perhaps you work with confidential information, you can get yourself the Envy x360 with a 1000-nit display. This variant also offers a factory-fitted privacy filter. However, it will be harder for you to read the text sometimes, but it will fulfill its purpose.
The edges of Envy x360 13 are extremely thin. The display area covers almost every edge of the laptop. The topmost bezel of this laptop contains a 720p webcam with an exclusively built privacy shutter, and that is the reason behind the topmost bezel being slightly thick. The auto privacy shutter, in our opinion, is a very useful feature. It can save you from a lot of embarrassment like if you leave your webcam open – the shutter will close the camera. To manually use the shutter, you need to press the key on the right side of the power button. As soon as you press it, you will hear a faded click sound and a white cover will shut off the camera.
This shutter just looks exclusive for the laptop. Now, the days when you used to place a piece of tape on the webcam or place a slider on the laptop are long gone. It looks sleek and elegant. However, this feature takes up enough space that the face recognition and IR sensors can’t be installed in the top bezels. But, the Envy x360 13 comes with a fingerprint scanner that lets you log in without typing your pin through the keyboard. The fingerprint scanner can be found on the keyboard surface.
Cramped Touchpad, Unique I/O Parts
With a more pleasant typing experience, and very well-spaced keys, the Envy x360 13 also gives you satisfaction when you press the keys while typing – that comfy thud of the keys is everything! We also liked the way HP has given over-size fonts for labeling the keys. Thank God, the exclusive Home, End, Page Down, and Page Up keys are fitted – on the right side of the keyboard. Moreover, the whole keyboard is backlit too.
While the keyboard is comfy, the touchpad is cramped up. We are not a big fan of cramped touchpads. Even while testing it, the touchpad was surely accurate but it was not comfortable. Your fingers will keep slipping away from it – to the upper edge hitting the spacebar key. You’ll need to get used to it. The reason that we deduced this cramped touchpad is the keyboard size. The keyboard is huge and takes up all the space on the base surface, hence, the touchpad had to be cramped up.
HP has lately been unorthodox in placing input and output ports on its laptops. The Spectre-x360 has ports built-in at the back, a wise means of ensuring the cables plugged in are attached to the sides and that tablespace is not unnecessary. Both ports of Envy x360 13 are on the sides of the laptop and are not quite per the USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports. HP uses the jaw-style drop hinges, which are usually used only on much bigger Ethernet jacks. The way Apple & Dell did with their flagship laptops is different from merely omitting the USB-A ports because it does not have any risk. Because the drop hinges have moving pieces, they can break or become weary with time.
HP has also installed a single USB type C port, a port for power, a headphone jack, and a Micro-SD card reader. Talking about the wireless connections, the HP Envy x360 13 comes equipped with 802.11-ax Wi-Fi 6 and 5th gen Bluetooth.
On the bottom of the laptop, right through the grilles, the dual speakers are present in Envy x360 13. These speakers work like a charm and have the best sound quality especially when the laptop is used in a propped-up position.
Performance and Power
The HP Envy series has a lot of competitors in the market. This hybrid 2 in 1 laptop market is full of laptops flooding in from Dell, Acer, Asus, and Lenovo. The closest laptop to the HP Envy x360 13 is the Lenovo in terms of price and performance specs.
The Dell Inspiron 14 7000 should also be listed to compare computing results. In the setup we have checked, it is a traditional clamshell portable, but the Inspiron 7000 series is also available in a 2-in-1 feature with a screen size of 13 inches.
We expected the HP to do very well both during our testing and in everyday usage based on the success of the Idea-Pad Flex 5 14 with the same Envy x360 13 CPU. In daily computer jobs, such as web surfing, editing, and video conferencing, our PCMark 10 test, tests the results. In this test, the IdeaPad Flex 5 14 and Envy x360 13 are grouped closely, with outstanding results and a comfortable lead on the rest of the field.
To test storage performance, we used PCMark 8. SSD laptops all appear to end with a fast storage drive in the same region.
The efficiency benefit of the Envy x360 13 also includes video editing tasks. In workflows such as Adobe Photoshop editing of a file, Maxon Cinebench 3D-graphic rendering and handbrake transcoding, the Envy x360 13 commends a significant increase in efficiency over the two Yogas and Inspiron.
Did you notice that a slight but significant discrepancy between the IdeaPad Flex 5 14 and the Envy x360 13 is seen in the Cinebench and Handbrake samples? Most of the dominance of IdeaPad here is probably based on an increased RAM of 16GB, but the larger physical scale of Lenovo may also be important by giving cooler spaces under extreme workloads that generate heat.
A related tale tells our Game Simulation benchmarks. The IdeaPad Flex 5 and Envy x360 13t all control significant advances over the two Yoga laptops in our 3DMark and Superposition Tests thanks to the superior Radeon Graphics featuring the Ryzen processors. These two benchmarks include a panorama of the 3D game type, 3D graphics in-depth, and system compatibility. The Yoga laptops have humble graphics embedded with Intel UHD.
For casual players at low resolutions like 720p, Radeon Graphics’ advanced silicone capability shows good efficiency. The results of the superposition demonstrate that Envy x360 13 can reach frame rates under the right conditions of around 40 frames per second. That is not as good as a standalone GPU on the Inspiron 14 7000, for example, the Nvidia GeForce MX250.
Long Battery Life
We looped a 720p video locally stored with screen brilliance set to 50 percent and volume set to 100 percent for measuring laptop battery life before the device stops. This test took 13 hours with the Envy x360 13’s three-cell, 51-Watt-hour battery. It’s on the bottom side of an ultra-portable one, which can be seen over the 20-minute evaluation of the Inspiron and Yoga C640.
But you’d need 13 hours longer than an intermittent relaxed workday and indeed we barely had to charge it overnight over the few days we’d have been using Envy x360 13. HP also advertises a fast-charging feature for the laptop that can take about half the battery from empty to 30 minutes.
Need 2-in-1 Flexibility? It’s an Enviable Choice
The Envy x360 13 has what we want from HP’s Envy brand, including a strong combination of standard functions, superior computing efficiency, and a nice price. The 2 in 1 convertible is at the forefront of models with Ryzen U- series processors from the newest 4th-generation AND that offer stronger muscle computing than their Intel counterparts for CPU-intensive tasks without significant negative improvements to the physical appearance of a laptop or too much effect on battery life.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 offers a modest rise in value seekers for several hundred bucks, while the Envy X360 13 is an outstanding option in the middle of the 2-in-1 convertible ultraportable segment. However, the so-called display is less than the Envy sunshine screen.
In its crowded sector, the Envy is soon going to face several challenges. Ryzen U-series processors of the fourth generation have been available in some Dell Inspiron models already and we predict that this year they will feature on many more laptops. But the HP Envy x360 13 is the best mid-range 2-in-1 laptop you might purchase at this time.
What we liked
- Above-average output
- Comfortable keyboard
- Neat automatic camera shutter
- Reasonably priced, considering the components and build quality
- Thin, light, and slick-looking
What needs to be improved
- The cramped touchpad. HP needs to change this as soon as possible.
Overall Specs offered by the HP Envy x360 13
Laptop Class | Convertible 2-in-1 |
Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 4500U |
Processor Speed | 2.3 GHz |
RAM (as Tested) | 8 GB |
Boot Drive Type | SSD |
Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 256 GB |
Screen Size | 13.3 inches |
Native Display Resolution | 1920 by 1080 |
Touch Screen | Yes |
Panel Technology | IPS |
Variable Refresh Support | None |
Screen Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
Graphics Processor | AMD Radeon Graphics |
Wireless Networking | 802.11ax, Bluetooth |
Dimensions (HWD) | 0.65 by 12.07 by 7.66 inches |
Weight | 2.92 lbs |
Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
Tested Battery Life (Hours: Minutes) | 12:58 |