HP Envy x360
The 13-inch HP Envy x360 is a hybrid ultraportable that can be used in tablet mode thanks to its 360° screen. It is also Intel Evo certified and therefore promises a great performance.
Presentation
The HP Envy x360 (13-bd0055nf) may not be as high-end as its cousin the x360 Spectre that we tested, but it still has some solid arguments for a much lower price. Adorned with a 13.3-inch touchscreen convertible into a tablet, it also offers a refined design and an Intel Evo certification that normally ensures quality components, good autonomy, thin edges and Thunderbolt 4 ports. We put the PC on our test bench to make sure of all this. Here is our verdict...
Construction
The lightly gilded aluminum chassis gives this PC a somewhat different, but rather refined aesthetic. The hinges that allow the screen to rotate 360° look solid and the switch to tablet position is quite smooth. The HP Envy x360 can thus be used as a classic PC, as a tablet or in "tent" mode to play videos or present projects.
The touchpad is very responsive and the keyboard is pleasant to use. The backlighting is adjustable on three levels and we find fairly classic keys with a function to cut the microphone and another for the webcam, a small cover coming to cover it in case of activation. This one only films in 720p and its image quality is really limited, especially in low light. It is unfortunately not Windows Hello compatible, but an efficient fingerprint reader is embedded next to the arrow keys on the keyboard.
Thanks to the thinness of the chassis (1.6 cm), HP has chosen two "retractable" USB-A 3.2 ports on the PC's edges. Next to them is a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, as well as a microSD card reader and a mini-jack socket. The use of the microSD reader is very "situational" and you will need an adapter to have HDMI connectivity. The wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 are supported by the way.
Access to the components is complicated, which is a shame. You have to remove the long rubber bottom pad underneath the PC to reveal three Phillips screws, while the two screws already apparent are Torx types. Once the adhesives are peeled off the components, we see that the RAM is soldered, but the M.2 SSD can be replaced. It is protected by a metal plate to contain the heat. The battery is easily replaceable once the crosshead screws are removed.
Despite the presence of a single fan, the heating is well contained since we only noted a maximum of 39.3°C in the center of the keyboard, the whole remaining cool. The noise emitted by the fan during heating is also limited. With 34.8 dB on our sound level meter, it remains largely acceptable on a daily basis.
Performance
The 13.3-inch HP Envy x360 is "powered" by an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor, a model we have tested many times. With a thermal envelope (TDP) of 28 W and clocked at 2.4 GHz, it is supported by 8 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. No surprises with this CPU, the performance is more than enough for office work. It is obviously not as fast as its cousin the Core i7-1165G7, and you should not expect too much from it for heavy photo or video processing applications, for example.
The integrated Iris Xe GPU doesn't allow you to play big recent games, but it will be able to run titles that are not very demanding or a bit old. We were thus able to enjoy Diablo III at 28 fps with graphics pushed to the maximum and Overwatch in low quality at 50 fps. Not optimal, but playable.
Screen
The screen of the Envy x360 has a very classic Full HD definition (1920 x 1080 px), but it is adorned with an Oled panel (60 Hz). A technology that is increasingly common in laptops, but for the moment clearly a minority. It brings some significant advantages with an infinite contrast rate and zero remanence. On the other hand, the accuracy of colors is not there: the delta E noted at 5.2 exceeds the recommended threshold of 3. It will thus be necessary to calibrate its screen using a probe for better results. The average color temperature of 6300 K is close to the video standard.
Good point for the maximum brightness of 426 cd/m² which exceeds the value announced by HP and remains very correct in absolute terms. The relatively thin edges of the screen give it an occupancy rate of 82.2%, above our average. Unfortunately, the touch panel is very reflective (51.9% reflectance on average), which is a bit detrimental to its rating.
Audio
The speakers are located on both sides of the PC, under the chassis. You shouldn't expect much from them, as is often the case with ultraportables. No bass is detectable when listening, the midrange and treble are mixed up and the whole thing is rather shrill, but it helps.
The headphone jack is surprisingly good with an output power of 255 mVRMS that will allow the use of some monitoring headphones. The distortion at 0.01% remains low, the dynamic range at 99 dB is in the ropes, while the crosstalk noted at -61 dB is imperceptible.
Autonomy
The HP Envy x360 in 13.3-inch format is an ultraportable. Its total dimensions of 30.65 x 19.46 x 1.64 cm allow you to take it everywhere without any problem. Being convertible into a tablet, it is very versatile and can be used on the move. Its charger weighing 286 g does not take up too much space, but it is proprietary, which is a bit unfortunate.
In terms of battery life, the PC does well, as it lasted 8 hours and 40 minutes of video playback on Netflix, with the screen set to 200 cd/m² and headphones at 50% volume. It's clearly not the best in this category either, with other computers easily lasting another hour.
Conclusion
The HP Envy x360 13-inch (13-bd0055nf) is a computer for those who need a PC that can be taken anywhere. Light, neat and convertible into a tablet thanks to a screen that rotates 360°, it is in fact versatile, although its use is limited to office work. It is also equipped with an appreciable Oled panel, even if it is not very well calibrated when it leaves the factory. It is therefore a good ultraportable in absolute terms, but with a small downside in terms of the difficulties encountered in accessing the components when needed.
