Envy, as you probably know, is HP's upscale-but-not-deluxe brand, positioned above its Pavilion PCs but below its Spectre models.
You can think of the new Envy 13 (starts at $749.99; $1,199.99 as tested) as a replacement for the much-missed Spectre 13 ultraportable—while it has a touch screen, it's a clamshell laptop that doesn't carry the x360 suffix of HP's 2-in-1 convertibles.
It's also one of the best bargains in the 13.3-inch class, at $350 under a comparably equipped Dell XPS 13 and $400 under a comparable Razer Blade Stealth.
Though not perfect, the Envy belongs alongside those ultraportables as an Editors' Choice.
Core i7 Across the Board
The $749.99 Envy 13 combines an Intel Core i7-8565U processor with integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB NVMe solid-state drive, and a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) non-touch display.
My $1,199.99 test unit (model 13-aq0044nr) had the same CPU but 16GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, and a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) touch screen backed by Nvidia's 2GB GeForce MX250 graphics.
The Envy 13 is a handsome, sleek machine, with the company's stylized logo centered in the lid.
Its anodized aluminum chassis in Natural Silver (HP's online configurator lets you choose Pale Gold for an extra $10) features a cantilevered rear hinge that props the keyboard at a slight typing angle when opened.
At 0.58 by 12.1 by 8.3 inches, it's a match for the Stealth but a fraction lighter (2.82 versus 3.04 pounds).
So svelte is the system that the USB Type-A ports on either side feature drop-down doors or partial covers, like those of some notebooks' Ethernet jacks.
Speaking of which, ports are scarce.
On the left edge, you'll find an audio jack, a USB 3.1 Type-A port, and a USB 3.1 Type-C port.
On the right are another USB 3.1 Type-A port (with device charging), the connector for the AC adapter, a microSD card slot, and a minuscule sliding switch that kills the webcam if you're concerned about online snoops.
Two obvious omissions are an HDMI port (HP sells a USB Type-C-to-HDMI adapter for $29.99) and a Thunderbolt 3 port.
Most of the Envy's competitors have Thunderbolt 3, whose absence is disappointing in an over-$1,000 laptop.
Thin Bezels, Elegant Features
The 720p webcam captures above-average images, sharp and well-lit with minimal grain or noise.
It's not a face-recognition camera, but Windows Hello fans can skip passwords using a fingerprint reader on the keyboard deck.
The sound is above par, too, thanks to four Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers.
They're loud enough to fill a midsize room, with no distortion at max volume; there's not a lot of bass, but highs aren't rough or buzzy, and music is clear without being hollow or tinny.
It's easy to distinguish overlapping tracks.
The backlit keyboard has one feature I always gnash my teeth over—HP's arrangement of the cursor arrow keys in a row instead of an inverted T, with half-size up and down arrows sandwiched between full-size left and right.
To its credit, there are dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys so those functions aren't double-teamed on the cursor arrows.
Travel is somewhat shallow, but the typing feel is quiet and snappy; I was maintaining a good pace with just a little practice.
The wide, buttonless touchpad glides and taps smoothly and clicks almost silently.
Something else I always do is wish for more screen brightness, but the Envy's 4K panel is satisfyingly sunny if not dazzling—it's dim if turned down more than a couple of notches, but it didn't leave me mashing F3 repeatedly in futile hopes of brightening it further.
Contrast is good, and backgrounds are white instead of off-white; colors don't pop like poster paints but are clear and saturated.
Fine details are crisp and well defined.
The touch overlay, like most, is mirror-glossy when the system's switched off but free from glare during office operations.
On a Silver Streak (Well, Sort Of)
For our performance benchmarks, I compared the Envy 13 to four other 13.3-inch Core i7 ultraportables—not only the Razer Blade Stealth and Dell XPS 13 but the Acer Swift 3 and Huawei MateBook 13.
You can see the contenders' basic specs below.
The HP proved a solid choice for the productivity work for which most ultraportables are destined.
Its graphics and gaming scores, though better than those of rivals with integrated graphics, were underwhelming (as we've seen with Nvidia's MX series GPUs before).
Productivity, Storage, and Media Tests
PCMark 10 and 8 are holistic performance suites developed by the PC benchmark specialists at UL (formerly Futuremark).
The PCMark 10 test we run simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows.
We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet work, web browsing, and videoconferencing.
The test generates a proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are better.
PCMark 8, meanwhile, has a Storage subtest that we use to assess the speed of the laptop's boot drive.
The result is also a proprietary numeric score; again, higher numbers are better.
Four thousand points is an excellent score in PCMark 10, so any of these lightweights will be a first-class productivity partner.
Similarly, their solid-state drives got top marks in PCMark 8's Storage test.
Next is Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads.
Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image.
The result is a proprietary score indicating a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads.
After some woeful initial runs in the mid-200s, the HP was revitalized by a BIOS update and posted a competitive score.
None of these machines is quite up to workstation-style 3D rendering or video editing, but those aren't really ultraportable apps anyway.
We also run a custom Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark.
Using an early 2018 release of the Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, we apply a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image.
We time each operation and, at the end, add up the total execution time (lower times are better).
The Photoshop test stresses the CPU, storage subsystem, and RAM, but it can also take advantage of most GPUs to speed up the process of applying filters, so systems with powerful graphics chips or cards may see a boost.
The Envy was just slightly off the pace of the leaders here, but its attractive screen makes up for that.
It's a good pick for managing a photo collection.
Graphics Tests
3DMark measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting.
We run two different 3DMark subtests, Sky Diver and Fire Strike, which are suited to different types of systems.
Both are DirectX 11 benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to laptops and midrange PCs, while Fire Strike is more demanding and made for high-end PCs to strut their stuff.
The results are proprietary scores.
With their integrated graphics, the Acer and Dell predictably brought up the rear.
Based on model numbers, I expected the HP's GeForce MX250 to edge the GeForce MX150 silicon in the Razer and Huawei, but it turns out I was wrong.
Next up is another synthetic graphics test, this time from Unigine Corp.
Like 3DMark, the Superposition test renders and pans through a detailed 3D scene and measures how the system copes.
In this case, it's rendered in the company's eponymous Unigine engine, offering a different 3D workload scenario than 3DMark, for a second opinion on the machine's graphical prowess.
We present two Superposition results, run at the 720p Low and 1080p High presets.
The results here mirrored those from 3DMark.
The Swift 3 and XPS 13 are strictly for casual or browser-based games; the other systems can play slightly more challenging games at low resolution and detail settings, but that's about it.
Battery Rundown Test
After fully recharging the laptop, we set up the machine in power-save mode (as opposed to balanced or high-performance mode) where available and make a few other battery-conserving tweaks in preparation for our unplugged video rundown test.
(We also turn Wi-Fi off, putting the laptop into airplane mode.) In this test, we loop a video—a locally stored 720p file of the Blender Foundation short film Tears of Steel—with screen brightness set at 50 percent and volume at 100 percent until the system conks out.
All five ultraportables showed decent stamina, but the HP narrowly came out on top.
Getting through a workday plus an evening Netflix movie should be no problem.
This Price Is Right
Most of the laptops HP has been loaning us for review lately have been convertibles, so it's refreshing to see that the company still knows how to make a first-rate clamshell.
It's also possibly no coincidence that, during the time it took me to test the Envy 13 and write this review, Dell and Razer took several hundred dollars off the price of the XPS 13 and Blade Stealth respectively—the Envy is that competitive.
Could it be better? Sure.
Power users will gripe about the lack of a Thunderbolt 3 port, and I'm famous for griping about HP's arrangement of the cursor arrow keys.
But the Envy 13 rates near the top of a crowded field.
If you want to keep your briefcase as light as your wallet, don't overlook this one.
The Bottom Line
If you can live without a Thunderbolt 3 port, you'll find HP's Envy 13 a stylish alternative to 13.3-inch ultraportables costing hundreds more.
HP Envy 13 (2019) Specs
| Laptop Class | Ultraportable |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-8565U |
| Processor Speed | 1.8 GHz |
| RAM (as Tested) | 16 GB |
| Boot Drive Type | SSD |
| Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 512 GB |
| Screen Size | 13.3 inches |
| Native Display Resolution | 3840 by 2160 |
| Touch Screen | Yes |
| Panel Technology | IPS |
| Variable Refresh Support | None |
| Screen Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
| Graphics Processor | Nvidia GeForce MX250 |
| Graphics Memory | 2 GB |
| Wireless Networking | 802.11ac, Bluetooth |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 0.58 by 12.1 by 8.3 inches |
| Weight | 2.8 lbs |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes) | 11:34 |
