hp envy 17 laptop

hp envy 17

hp envy 17

hp envy 17

hp envy 17

hp envy 17

As technology progresses we are finally seeing gaming laptops become serious competitors to gaming desktops, HP are hoping that the HP Envy 17 notebook does just this, recently Engadget reviewed this model and things sound promising.

If you would like to see Engadget’s full review check out this link, in this article we will raise some of the main points raised, but Engadget’s article is a lot more detailed.

The HP Envy 17 starts at $1,299, however if you choose a lot of the optional extras it is easy to bump the price up to $3,000 to $3,500. There are 6 processors to choose from, as standard you get an Intel Core i5-460M (Dual-core 2.53 GHz), however if money is no object you could choose the Intel Core i7-840QM processor (Quad-core 1.86GHz).

Other options include either 6GB or 8GB of DDR3, a range of hard drive configurations from a single 500GB drive to 800GB of storage via a 160GB SSD combined with a 640GB standard hard disk drive, you can find out more about spec upgrades here.

As standard you get a backlit keyboard, Intel WiFi b/g/n connectivity and 1GB of Radeon HD 5850 graphics, there are two displays to choose from, both of which have a 17.3-inch diagonal, the cheaper HP BrightView display supports a maximum resolution of 1600 x 900, whilst the more expensive HP Ultra BrightView display supports a resolution of up to 1920×1080.

As you can imagine the hardware allows great visuals, however how does it cope as a gaming platform? Well it is not perfect, as you would expect an external mouse is needed as using a touchpad with the W, A, S, D keys does not really work.

The great hardware within the Envy 17 does cause a few problems, the battery life from the standard 6-cell battery is not great, Engadget’s rundown test latest just 2 hours and 10 mins, however if this is a problem you could choose the 9-cell battery instead for an extra $75.

Finally all of this impressive hardware makes the laptop heavy and run quite hot, as you can imagine this heat can be felt on your palms when using the laptop, I suppose this will come in handy on the cold winters nights.

All in all HP has done well with the Envy 17, there are a few imperfections, but the graphics look great on the 17.3-inch display, and let’s face it anyone forking out this much on a laptop wants stunning visuals.