HP Envy x360 13-ar0118au Laptop (AMD Ryzen 5/ 8GB/ 512GB/ Win10)

HP ENVY x360 is designed to perform and it does not disappoint. Running on a complete AMD drivetrain, the HP ENVY x360 has an AMD Ryzen 2500 at its core. For those who are Intel users, the AMD Ryzen 5 2500 is equivalent to an 8th Gen Intel i5 core. The AMD Ryzen 5 2500 has a clock speed of 2 GHz and easily stomp through your regular office tasks. Making documents, running presentations, opening more than ten Chrome tabs, nothing seems to faze the HP ENVY x360 when it comes to performance. The only drawback is improper ventilation. The internal temperature is also poorly controlled by the software and this significantly heats the laptop even with small tasks like typing a document.

To handle the graphics on the HP ENVY x360, you get Radeon VEGA 8 GPU graphics that are satisfactory if you do not have any plans to play hardcore games. The Radeon GPU has a 1 GB VRAM and can handle 2K movies with ease. You get a standard 8 GB DDR4 RAM with a maximum of 256 GB SSD internal storage.

The HP ENVY x360 promises a lot for its battery but offers very little. The makers at HP wanted to keep their ultrabook thin and light, this has come at the expense of the battery. The battery is a 52.3 Whr Li-ion cell and offers around 5 hours of continuous usage. Given all the gimmicks in the laptop, you should be carrying your charger at all times. You get an inbuilt internal microphone and a webcam that supports the recording of video definitions up to 720p. You also get dual speakers to produce crisp and immersive sounds. The speakers are tuned by Bang and Olufsen and can easily handle a huge room. There is no optical drive though which is common in the laptops of today. You get a sleek backlit QWERTY keyboard and a touchpad that supports multiple gestures and has multi-touch capabilities. The only problem is that the touchpad is so small, scrolling huge text through it becomes an arduous affair. In terms of ports, you get one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C port along with 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports and a headphone/microphone jack. The HP ENVY x360 supports WiFi capabilities of v.802.11ac and Bluetooth v4.2.

The HP ENVY x360 has a 13 inch IPS LED screen that supports a touchscreen. The color tones are on the warmer side but not distort so much as to lose originality. The screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and produces vibrant colors. Having a Full HD screen means that images are sharper and the contrast is adequate without being overwhelming. The only drawback is that the screen loves to reflect light. The reflective screen can be a nuisance when using outdoors so better to use it indoors. The brightness levels are also good but could be better. The viewing angles are wide and this offers a blissful experience when using it in tablet mode. Touch is super responsive and given the small trackpad, the touchscreen will be your go-to for navigation.

HP is known for building performance laptops and this puts the laptop’s exterior on the backseat. But with the HP ENVY x360, things are different. You are paying a huge sum for this laptop and the HP ENVY x360 offers in return a look that is premium and modern. Right out of the box you will notice its metallic exterior body that makes it look strong and sturdy. You might think that the HP ENVY x360 may be heavy but it only weighs in at 1.3 kgs making it featherweight light. You get a stylish chrome HP logo at the centre with wooden detailing at the borders of the laptop casing. Under the screen, you get a backlit keyboard that is efficient but the keys are too low for comfortable typing. At the bottom is the touchpad that is too small to be efficient. The major drawback with its design is the improper ventilation that causes the device to heat up even with minimal usage. You should stay near a desk while using this laptop if you have plans to keep it on your lap for long durations.