HP ENVY 4 Review: Windows 8 TouchSmart Ultrabook Discussion

The latest member of HP's ENVY family features a TouchSmart display and Windows 8 combined with premium components. Is this an Ultrabook worth buying?

Read the full content of this Article: HP ENVY 4 Review: Windows 8 TouchSmart Ultrabook

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I cannot understand why touchscreen interface makes more enjoyable experience using Windows 8 than a Bluetooth mouse in a comfortable position without leaving fingerprints on screen, but I might should try a touchscreen Ultrabook...

 

I didn't think that keyboard-and-touchscreen-simultaneously would feel natural, but after 48 hours, I'm rapidly acclimating to it and enjoying it.

Your hand isn't moving any further from the keyboard than it would with a mouse, if you think about it. It's just moving a few inches forward instead of a few inches to the side.

 

$800+ for a crappy TN panel with a ultra crappy 1366x768 resolution???

Another solid laptop ruined by a POS screen.

 

I agree that the screen could (and probably should) be better when the laptop costs $800 or more but it is a touchscreen and there are other notebooks in the same price range with equally bad screens that don't even have a touchscreen for Windows 8.

I just hope that more notebook manufacturers offer matte touchscreens in the coming months (I know Lenovo is doing it with at least one Windows 8 offering) and I really hope that all notebooks with 14-inch or larger screens get a minimum resolution of 1600 x 900 unless they are low-cost budget systems (I'm talking about laptops priced at LESS than $700).

 

3.5 hours of battery life is a good thing?

 

Please note (as mentioned in the review) that we have changed our battery life test with the move to Windows 8.

We now use a more stressful battery test (Powermark from Futuremark ... the same folks who make the PCMark and 3DMark benchmarks). The "Balanced" test in Powermark runs a continuous stream of automated web browsing, word processing, video playback, and gaming workloads over and over until the battery reaches the point where Windows notifies the user that the battery is low and you need to either plug in the AC adapter or save your work and shutdown.

Our old test just simulated what the editors liked to call "Starbucks/cafe browsing activity" -- leaving your laptop essentially idle and loading a webpage every 60 seconds. That's still a valid way to measure battery life and accurately reflects the way some people use their laptops. However, most people use their laptops for more than just loading websites with mostly text; we also type documents, watch streaming video and play games ... essentially modern multitasking.

The other problem with our old battery life test is that it requires a multiple-step manual setup process and leaves more than a little room for human error.

The editors here at NBR have wanted to switch to a new battery life test for a while that would not only be a little more demanding compared to a mostly idle laptop but that would also be easy for anyone to repeat if they question our results. Now readers (and manufacturers) have an easy way to run the same battery life benchmark that we use in the same way that we use standardized benchmarks like wPrime, PCMark and 3DMark.

 

Why not do multiple tests doing different things?

 

Jerry,
You can turn off the touchpad by double-tapping the small square on the top left. A small light to its left will light up indicating that the toucpad is off.

Thanks for the nice review. I'm interested in this guy's bigger brother - the Spectre XT Touchsmart 15.6 inch that has a 1080p IPS panel. The screen on that one looked superb in videos. Requesting you to review that machine as soon as it is released.