Table of Contents
Last Updated on March 29, 2020
Design
The HP Envy x2 puts itself as a 2-to-1 unit, but certainly its layout is closer to the tablet design. The keyboard is simple to remove, leaving the screen to function as a 12.3-inch Windows 10 laptop. The width is 29.3x 21x 0.69 cm, making it around the same size as an iPad Pro which measures 30.5x 22x 0.69 cm. HP Envy x2 weighs just 0.7 kg in tablet mode.
It leads to a tablet mode which is really a phone. You can be impressed by HP Envy x2 if you’ve never been afraid of a2-in-1 device which has a Tablet mode that’s essentially a large, thick laptop screen with your keyboard plied back. Whilst the HP Envy x2 is sleek and lightweight, someone who was on this kind of keyboard for a long time may know that it is not the most comfortable experience. Although the keys of HP Envy x2 are nice and broad, the superficial travel may confuse the user. The trackpad of this model is an upgrade, but if you work for extended periods, you can look for a laptop with a stronger keyboard.
In addition, unlike many laptop keyboards these days, the keyboard is not backlit. It’s a little bit tricky in the big scheme of things, but it makes writing more difficult in dark environments. Bang & Olufsen perform audio tasks. The respected brand partnered with HP to tune the two speakers of the HP Envy x2, which HP is obviously proud of, with the brand name on the left.
Display and Audio
The 1920x 1280 screen is bright and vivid, although the uncommon size means the display is smaller than a Full HD 1920x 1080 standard monitor. This means that 16:9 aspect ratio widescreen clips do not fill up the entire screen and instead have vertical lines on each side. This is annoying when you watch television, but it offers you a broader productivity workspace. The keyboard that attaches to the screen by means of a magnetic connection gives little extra weight, with an overall weight of 1.21 kg. The frame of the tablet is made out of aluminum and is coated in durable and hardened Gorilla glass. We consider the panel to be very nice and natural to use given the not spectacular resolution. Color depth and contrast as well as brightness and viewing angles were excellent, although, as you would expect from a bright screen, direct sunlight glowed pretty strongly.
In terms of touch inputs, both with finger and with the HP virtual pen, the latter allowed drawing and writing with style on the Evy x2. However, when scraping and scribbling at speed, I’ve noticed a small amount of delay, which is tied to the above mentioned hardware pairing. Audio tasks are handled by Bang & Olufsen. The famous company has partnered with HP to tune the two speakers of HP Envy x2, and HP is clearly proud of this fact with its brand name put on the body’s right side. There are also two volume control buttons, a headphone jack on that side.
Performance and battery life
This is the same processor as the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium, which was used in 2017’s flagship phones. And the mobile enheritance of this processor gives the Envy x2 some very useful features, including instantaneous stand-by and a design that no longer needs a fan.
However, the Snapdragon 835 CPU is the an Achilles heel of the HP Envy x2. In tandem with the S version of Windows 10 (more on the Windows 10 S later), the Snapdragon 835 processor is a big part of why this laptop has a battery life of north of 20 hours. But the Envy x2 can not supply the same sort of quality a hybrid with the 1.9 GHz Intel Core i7-8650U quad-core processor in the new Surface Book 2 can. As you might have understood from this summary, the HP Envy x2 is an infuriating unit at times. There’s lots of good things to it, particularly how comfortable and easy it is to carry and its fantastic battery life, but all that good can’t shadow its cost.
Should you buy the HP Envy X2?
We would be more accepting of its poor performance if this were a budget tool. If it was a few hundred dollars, we might even recommend that you use it as a backup tool, something that you can take out if your laptop battery dies.
But it would probably have to be your main device because it is so expensive. The battery life is fantastic, of course, but you could buy a cheaper laptop and a replacement tablet for less than the HP Envy x2 and use the tablet once the laptop’s battery is exhausted. Many people can argue that this is a tool for light computing purposes only. Get a Chromebook in that case and then invest your remaining money on something else.