Construction
Exit the gold of the 13-inch version. That said, the 15-inch Envy x360’s chassis is nearly identical. We discover it this time with a black dress, still in anodized aluminum, accompanied by its hinges which allow the screen to be rotated 360°. It can thus be used as a tablet or in tent mode to play videos without bothering with the keyboard.
In tent mode: convenient for watching videos.
The touchpad is responsive, but we found a play of a millimeter or two that makes the click somewhat uncomfortable to the touch. Difficult to say if only our test model is the victim of this small defect; anyway, we didn’t have that problem with the 13-inch Envy x360. The keyboard is pleasant to use and the backlighting of the keys is adjustable on three levels. You will notice the absence of a numeric keypad despite the size of the chassis: the extra space is taken up by the loudspeaker grilles.
The touchpad is not very well finished.
A fingerprint reader is located next to the arrow keys, handy for unlocking the computer quickly. However, the webcam does not have an infrared module and is not compatible with Windows Hello. She films in 720p and it shows in the image quality, not very good in bright light and even less in the dark. A physical cache can be deployed by clicking on the appropriate key on the top of the keyboard.
The webcam has an integrated physical cover.
The connection is a model here since there is almost everything you could need: two USB-3.2 ports, an HDMI 2.0b port, a USB-C 3.2 DisplayPort port (which does not allow charging ), an SD card reader and a mini-jack socket. Wifi 6 is present, while Bluetooth is standard 5.2.
Access to the components is really not easy. It is necessary to remove two Torx screws, then the two rubber pads (at the risk of breaking them) to be able to unscrew the remaining Phillips screws. The RAM as well as the M.2 SSD are covered with a metal plate to limit the heating of the components and are both replaceable – a good point for the scalability of the PC. Also, the battery is easy to remove.
The PC is difficult to disassemble.
The fans are oddly close together, but the heat of the computer remains very contained with a peak of 38.8 ° C at the keyboard. The PC is not too noisy either, but its breath is clearly audible: we noted 37.1 dB emitted by the ventilation in full benchmark under CineBench.
Performance
With its six-core Ryzen 5 5500U clocked at 2.1 GHz, the Envy x360 can’t handle heavy-duty processing, but it’s still more than enough for office automation. Accompanied by 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, it scored 88 on our CPU performance index, making it more efficient than competing Intel Core i7-1165G7s. However, it is not at the level of the H series from Intel or AMD, which have much higher TDPs.
The built-in GPU makes it possible to play undemanding games like Diablo IIIat around 30 fps (high graphics), or Overwatch at almost 60 fps (low graphics). Finally, the SSD offers speeds of 1.8 GB/s in reading and 1.6 GB/s in writing, which is nothing extraordinary.
Screen
The touch screen of the Envy x360 displays a Full HD definition (1920 x 1080 pixels). Unfortunately, there are many problems to be faced. First of all, the color accuracy is frankly poor with a delta E of 7.6, even if the average temperature is decent (6190 K). The gamma is also mediocre and the mid-grays are underexposed, which could be annoying for photo or video post-production, for example. The remanence at 27 ms also turns out to be too high, but this is the case on most office laptops.
With an average reflectance of 52.6%, the coating of the slab is very bright, and it is unfortunately not the maximum brightness (291 cd / m²) that will catch up. Finally, only the contrast of 1320:1 is quite good.
Mobility / Autonomy
With nearly 1.9 kg on the scale and dimensions of 35.9 x 22.8 x 1.8 cm, this 15.6-inch Envy x360 is not the most transportable. However, it fits in a classic backpack and its tablet format allows it to be used without suffering on the knees. The charger is unfortunately still proprietary and weighs 281 g.
In terms of autonomy, this PC did not work miracles with its 51 Wh battery. In video playback on Netflix via the Chrome browser, volume pushed to 50% and screen set to 200 cd / m², it only lasted 7 h 30 min, which is correct, but far from the best students.
Strong points
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Very complete connection.
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Versatility of the 2-in-1 format.
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Good headphone jack.
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Scalable components.
Weak points
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Mediocre screen.
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Reflective tile.
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Difficult to disassemble.
Conclusion
How does grading work?
We appreciated the 13-inch HP Envy x360 and its Oled screen, but this 15-inch version is less attractive, in particular due to the absence of Oled technology. If the 15-inch 2-in-1 format is a key point for you, the HP Envy x360 (15-eu0027nf) may be a good option, especially since its office performance is very good. Otherwise, the computer is generally average and its screen clearly tarnishes the picture…