The 13 Inch HP Envy x360: A Powerful and Portable Laptop

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel! Today I'm reviewing the 13 inch HP Envy x360 laptop, which has been making waves in the tech community with its impressive specs and unique design. In this video, we'll take a closer look at what makes this laptop tick.

The Envy x360 features a sleek and compact design that's perfect for those who want to work on-the-go without sacrificing performance. It boasts a 13.3 inch 1080p display, although there is also a 4K option available. The screen is pretty solid, but it does have some limitations - it's not the most color accurate thing in the world, and it can be a bit dim at times.

Under the hood, this laptop packs a punch. It comes with options for Ryzen 3, 5, and 7 processors, and paired with up to 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD. But while these specs are certainly impressive, they also come with some caveats. The laptop's cooling system is pretty basic, which means that it can throttle down the processor under sustained load. This can be a problem for gamers or anyone who wants to push their laptop to its limits.

One of the most interesting features of this laptop is its USB-C port. It's capable of accepting power from other USB-C devices, but I found out firsthand that not all chargers are compatible. I plugged in an HP branded charger, which resulted in a strange crackling sound and a faint smell of smoke. The laptop wouldn't turn on anymore!

Despite this issue, the Envy x360 still feels like a solid choice for anyone looking for a powerful and portable laptop. It's not perfect - the screen is a bit dim, and the cooling system could be better - but it does have some advantages. For example, since we finished shooting the video, the HP Envy found an early demise.

I've played a lot of games on this laptop, and while it does handle most titles fine, there are certainly limitations. The drivers for the graphics card can also be a bit behind, which is frustrating for gamers who want to push their hardware to its limits. That being said, I do think that the Envy x360 is still worth considering - especially if you're looking for a laptop that's both powerful and portable.

In terms of value, this laptop does seem like a decent deal at around $750 with 8GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. Of course, you'll have to weigh that against the potential drawbacks - like the throttling issues with the processor. I actually think it might be better to go for the slightly more expensive option with the Ryzen 5, as this seems to offer a bit more performance without sacrificing too much power.

Overall, the 13 inch HP Envy x360 is one seriously unique little laptop. It's not perfect, but it does have some advantages - like its powerful specs and compact design. Just be aware of the potential drawbacks, especially when it comes to cooling and graphics card drivers.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys, this is Austin.This is the 13 inch HP Envy x360.With Ryzen 7 inside this is eithergoing to be one of the fastest 13inch laptops you can pick up,or it's going to catch on fire.You may remember a few months agowe did take a look at abigger version of the Envy.It was cool,but it was not only goingto be a much larger laptop.It was also powered by Ryzen 5.Ryzen 7 on the other hand shouldbe a little bit more exciting.What really drew my attention to this isjust how much power you'regetting in such a tiny package.Not only is this goingto a 13 inch laptop,but it's going to be areally thin one at that.The first Ryzen laptops we tooka look at were fairly low end.Sorta aimed more at the budget marketwith stuff like mechanical hard drives,but now we're actuallystarting to see somethat are going to bemuch higher end with someproperly decent specs including an SSD.So I've been using the Envyx360 for a few weeks now,and I've gotta say Iabsolutely love this hardware.And nothing against the 15 inch version,but when you shrink itdown to a 13 inch laptop,this really does feel like thesweet spot of the Ultrabook market.The chassis is entirelymade out of aluminum,and it is seriously thin.At 15 millimeters andless than three pounds,the Envy really standsout as some of the nicestlaptop hardware that you can buy.You won't find Thunderbolt3 as this is an AMD system,but it does have a decentselection of ports.Including two USB-A portsas well as a full USB-C,which does support DisplayPort, video as well as charging.Although I will mention thatyou also do have a normalcharge port if you don'twant to take advantage USB-C.- Great us offir and grass shadings.- The speakers are straight up awesome.Now yeah they do take upa little bit of the space,but it is going to be totally worth it.So not only do you have Bang and Olufsonbranding on the top speakers,which are going to befacing directly toward you.But there's also going to be apair of speakers on the bottom,which helps to give you alittle bit more of that low end.Now no, it's not going to be quite as goodas something like a 15 inch MacBookthat's going to be much more expensive.And honestly for somethingthat is this smalland this tiny and thisportable and this lightand this thin and other acronyms.And adjectives and other things.It's great.It sounds really good.I'm gonna stop talking now.You're also going to begetting a touch screenas well as full two in one design.Now on larger laptops that's not alwaysgoing to be the mostuseful thing in the world,but considering howsmall and light this is Iactually did find myselfusing it in tent modeand some of the other modes fairly often.Now look, it's notgoing to perfect hardware.It would be nice if ithad a few more USB ports.Especially something likeThunderbolt would've been cool,but for the most part I'vegotta say I'm incrediblyimpressed with just howwell this is put together.Especially considering the price.Unlike basically every otherUltrabook on the market.This is going to be poweredby an AMD Ryzen Processor,and with this case it's goingto be the Ryzen 7 2700U.This is the top end modelwith four Zen cores,which all have Hyper-Threadingas well as the full Vega 10 GPU.Now no it's not going to be any kind ofinsane overpowered gaming laptop.What it is going to do is give youmuch better graphics performance thanpretty much anything onthe standard Intel side.The idea is in that same 15 Watt TDPyou're going to be gettingcompetitive CPU performanceand that much better GPU performance,but the issue here is that the last timewe took a look at a Ryzen 5 systemit was in a 15 inch chassis.So with a 13 inch model are wegoing to have thermal issues?Yes, yes we are.Now just purely taking a look at the CPU.If you run it throughGeekbench you'll see thatwhile no it's not going to be quiteon par with the latest8th Gen Intel Core stuff.It's not going to be that far off,and importantly in real world useyou're not going to noticea massive difference.The graphic side is where thingsget a little more interesting.So as you would expectwith those Vega GPU coresit is going to be more powerfulthan the UHD 620 integrated graphics,but what's also interestingis that it underperformsthe Ryzen 5 in the 15inch version of this laptop.Even this is going to be the higherend Ryzen 7 with even more GPU cores.Hmm...Look, this things straightup thermal throttles.Now considering that weonly have a 15 watt TDP.Of course there's alwaysgoing to be some degreeof that when you get intolong sustained loads.When you pair it next to the15 inch version with Ryzen 5this guy is going tobe significantly slowerand a lot of that is because thoseclock speeds have to come so far down.So technically this could berunning up to a gigahertz or so,but realistically under sustained loadI was seeing anywhere between350 and 500 megahertz on that GPU clock,and that's going to be a big problem.Now sure, for a quick burst it'sgoing to be completely fine.When it comes to longsustained loads such as gaming,which is going to bepretty common if you knowyou want to try to gamefor more than five minutes.The thermals and thechassis and how thin this isreally kind of hold back whatthat Ryzen chip is capable of.Open up the Envy and you're going tofind a very basic looking cooler.Now that is made worse by the factthat HP is pretty conservativewith the tuning on this guy.So once it hits about65 degrees on the GPUthe throttling is going to kick in.Now that's going to be great ifyou want a nice quiet and cool laptop.If you want to do anythingmore serious like gaming,it's going to mean you'regoing to be leavingsome serious performance on the table.There's also the issue of drivers.So unlike a traditional AMD graphics cardyou can't just downloadthem straight from the site.Instead the drivers shouldcome straight from the OEM.In this case HP.The problem is all these Ryzen laptopsthat are coming out are way,way behind on driver updates.This guy for example is usingdrivers from a few months ago,but there are stories thatare some other Ryzenlaptops that have six, seveneven eight month old drivers.That's just never going tobe a good thing for gaming.I've played a lot of games.I've done a lot of testing on this,and of course the second westart recording this happens.Why aren't ya gonna throwa little restart it's way.Um, okay so Fortnite not really a bigfan of running on the system right now,which is disappointing becausethis does legitimately evenwith all these issues have a lotmore power than other Ultrabooks.The issue is just that wellit kind of speaks for itself I guess.The screen is pretty solid.So my unit has a 13.3 inch 1080p display,although there is going to be a 4K option.Well it's not going to be the mostcolor accurate thing in the world.It's going to be a littlebit on the dim side,but my biggest issue is justit's going to be very, very reflective.Considering that a IntelUltrabook is generallygoing to be about a thousand dollarsor so for this level of hardware.You're actually going to begetting a pretty decent deal.The problem is is that you'regoing to be giving up some onthe CPU side and definitely on theyou know software working side.That's an important side.In case you were curious.HP sells this with Ryzen3, 5 and 7 as options,and based on the levelof throttling you getin this chassis I actuallythink it's better togo with the slightly endconfig with Ryzen 5.Eight gigs of ram and256 gig SSD for $750.The 13 inch HP Envy x360 is oneseriously unique little laptop.Now no it's not going tobe a great gaming machine,they've definitely tuned it a little bit moreon the cool and quiet sideversus raw performance,but I will say this good luckfinding a much more powerfullaptop than this in such asmall and thin form factor.Since we finished shooting the videothe HP Envy found an early demise.So what I did was I plugged in aHP branded USB-C charger to this guy,which apparently didn't play well with it.As I heard a little crackit started smelling bad,and not only does it not take any power,but it just straight upwill not turn on anymore.Now I haven't opened it up tofind out exactly what the issue is.I assume something fried,but what's weird is thisdoes accept USB-C power.So for example what Iplugged in earlier a 15 inchMacBook charger it had no issues,but apparently whatever thewattage or the amperage wason that other HP chargerwasn't compatible.So maybe stay tuned as I try toget this repaired or replaced,because right now kind of dead.