HP’s very light portable gives very good performance and very nice design.

Price: $1,899
Rating: 3 1/2 Stars
CPU: 2.13ghz Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
RAM/Expandable to: 3gb/5gb
Hard Drive Size/Speed: 250gb/5,400rpm
Optical Drive: External BD-ROM/DVD
Display Size/Resolution: 13.1 inches / 1600 x 900
Graphics/Video Memory: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330/512mb; Intel GMA 4500MHD
Wireless:802.11a/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1
Ports: 2 USB 2.0, HDMI, headphone and mic
Card Slots: 2-in-1 memory card reader
Size: 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
Weight: 3.8 lbs (5.2 lbs with the battery)
Warranty/Support: One-year/24/7 toll-free phone

HP Envy 13 is one of the Windows 07 to go against Apple’s design, HP Envy 13 challenges or surpasses all of the Windows competitors. But, the price of it is more than $500 than the 13-inch MacBook Pro. But, HP Envy 13 gives you a faster performance, changeable graphics, better brighter screen, and the life of the battery is about 14 hours. But, the HP Envy 13 has some disadvantages that prevent this notebook from being the very lightest and ultraportable notebook out there.

We start with the the lid that is metallic and the keyboard that is black island stylish style. The HP Envy 13 can be mistaken by the 13 inch MacBook Pro, it just that look similar. But, the HP Envy 13 has a darker aluminum and a magnesium alloy chassis, the palm rests are dimpled with the use of a metal etched. With the size of 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.8 in inches, it is a little smaller than the 13 inch MacBook Pro, the thing is that the Envy 13 doesn’t have the optical drive. But, it comes with a separate external Blu-ray reader and DVD burner. It only comes with just 2 USB ports. The weight is about 3.8 lbs, the HP Envy 13 is in the categogory of the very lightest portable laptops, by adding the battery, the weight goes up to 5.2 lbs.

The style of keyboard is islandish that gives smoothness and comfortable keys that snaps the keys back when pressed. They keyboard has no multimedia buttons. The touchpad is nice and large and it is friction free, unlike other HP touchpad that is glossy but resistant. You can find the two buttons at the bottom of the touchpad. With this it gives a nice and very sleek look, touchpad seems to be very precise. like when two fingered scrolling in wordpads or browsers rarely worked on first try. The touchpad should work flawless with the system that this expensive.

HP Envy 13′s bright and crisp at 13.1-inch display with 1600 x 900 pixels is one of the best feature of this system. It has a 410 nit brightness, and it displays 82% of the color gamut. Both features are doubled of the typical notebook screens. Even when the setting is at dimmest, you can still see clearly and watch videos that is streamed online.

The speakers are kind of depressing, it lacks of bass on some sounds. If you plugged the pair of Bose Quite-Comfort headphones, the sound is full and very well presented. Because HP has partnered with Beats by Dr. Dre that they customize the design of the audio subsystem.

The webcam is 1.3mp, it delivers accurate colors and a few motion blur when you chat with the use of Skype. HP has this unique Nighvision feature, that uses an infrared light to give a better and enhanced image when in low light rooms, it will make you look much brighter when the lights are off.

HP Envy 13 has an IOS that is Instant On Solution by Splashtop. With this, you can browse and surf the web, chat using SkyEnvy 1pe, listen on music, view pictures, check e-mails and calendar, chat with friends with the use of AIM, Google Talk, MSN, or Yahoo. It takes about 8 seconds to boot into IOS. If you launch the Splashtop Web browser, it will take about 12 seconds, then closing the browser, and launching it again will take about 6 seconds. The browser has already installed the Flash, so you can watch streamed videos on YouTube and Veoh.

Envy 13 has a 2.13ghz Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600 processor and 3gb Ram. The Toshiba hard drive 5400rpm was a little depressing. It loads to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit in 1 minute and 26 seconds, 26 seconds longer than the other notebookds. The transfer test is at about 17.7 MBps, it is about 3 MBps slower than the other notebooks.

The power test, you can switch the graphics of HP Envy 13 a feature of ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 GPU and the integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics. When the ATI chip is being use, the Envy 13 scored 3,088 on 3DMark06, it is above a good number of 13 inch system with nice graphics. When running Modern Warfare 2, the HP Envy 13 averaged 42 frames per second with 1024 x 768 of resolution and graphics, the 3DMark06 score is only 767, just a little lower than the ultraportable average of 886.

If the power cord is pulled, the HP Envy 13 swithces to a graphics mode. With the graphics mode Battery Test, the removable four-cell battery lasts about 4 hours and 20 mins, while with the added battery, the Envy lasts about ten hours.

Intel’s WiFi Link, the 5100AGN wireless card delivers about 20.9mbps at 15 feet and 16.8mbps at 51 feet, it is in the same category of the ultraportable that averages 19.8/16.9 mbps.

No doubt that HP Envy 13 is very light and very portable that gives the performance of a much bigger system. All from the Envy’s box packaging down to the display screen that it says this is a very elegant notebook. However, the problem is when you are paying a $1,899 that is $400 more of 13 inch MacBook Pro you will think twice why you want to get this. And also about the touchpad of HP Envy 13 issue is big to put aside. We want the battery to last a bit more without having to add the battery slice. HP Envy 13 is worth to get for those who are wanting to have the most powerful 13 inces notebook in a very ultraportable category.