Images : HPH
P’s Envy line of laptops is
effectively the more
affordable alternative to its
premium Spectre line of
Ultrabooks. But, over the years,
more and more of the premium
features have trickled down into
Envy laptops, and the latest Envy
13t keeps that up with plenty to
offer at a more affordable price.
The unit we’re reviewing is
around £1,000 as configured, and
includes an 8th-gen Intel Core i7
quad-core CPU, 16GB of RAM and
Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics.
That puts it well below the £1,250
Spectre 13 with a slower Intel Core
i7 and half the memory. Meanwhile,
the £800 Dell XPS 13 may fit into
the same price ballpark, but the
base configuration is an Intel Core
i3 processor paired with just 4GB of
RAM and 128GB of storage.Looks and build quality
The HP Envy 13t readily fits into the
thin-and-light category at just1.17kg and 14.5mm thick. We’ve
been tossing the Envy into a
backpack that weighs more than it,
and it feels light enough on our
back that we have to double check
it’s even in the backpack before
heading out for the day.
The chassis is made from
aluminium. It’s sturdy with minimal
flex, but the screen portion of the
laptop is more susceptible to
bending and twisting. One
downside to the aluminium is its
softness. We managed to get a
small ding on the front edge of the
laptop which we consistently feel
with our thumb when using the
clickable trackpad.
Speaking of the trackpad, it’s
incredibly wide, offering plenty of
space. However, it feels short when
compared to how wide it is. There’s
also a small, square fingerprint
scanner we find rarely works on
the first try.
The keyboard is standard for its
size, and thankfully doesn’t doanything weird. There are no
shrunken Shift keys or oddly placed
arrow keys. It even makes the most
of its space to add Home, Pg Up, Pg
Dn, and End keys at the right.
The keys themselves are a delight
to use. They’re all wonderfully
poppy with minimal wobble and
even travel. Pressing on the very
edge of a key works as effectively
as pressing on the centre. They’re
also fully backlit, though a white
backlight on silver keys can actually
make it harder to see the characters
in certain situations.
Each side of the laptop includes a
USB Type-A port with an unusual
mechanism that partly closes the
port when not in use – it’s an
interesting solution for making the
laptop so thin while still including
full-size USB ports, though it can be
tricky to plug into. There’s also a
3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C
port on the left side. There’s also a
microSD card slot and a little
switch that physically disablesHP Envy 13t 2019
From £849 | $999 http://www.hp.com
An elegant Ultrabook with premium design and strong performance at a fair price
78 |^ |^ November 2019