HP is freshening up its Envy laptop line with upgraded hardware and a few design changes. While not built to compete with the best laptops for gaming, the Envy 17 in particular is equipped to handle some lighter weight gameplay, and can even accommodate your collection of discs (if you haven't already repurposed them as coasters).
The Envy 17 pairs an 8th generation Intel Core i7-8565U processor with 12GB of RAM and a discrete Nvidia GeForce MX250 GPU. It also boasts a respectable 512GB-capacity solid state drive.
Granted, you're not going to push demanding games with all the settings cranked up on a GeForce MX250. However, it's certainly an improvement over Intel's integrated graphics. Launched in January of this year, the MX250 is one of Nvidia's newer mobile GPUs. It's based on Nvidia's Pascal architecture, just like the MX150, but with slightly faster clocks. Performance should be roughly equivalent to that of a GeForce GT 1030 graphics card.
Port selection consists of a USB-C port, three USB 3.1 Type-A ports, HDMI output, and GbE LAN. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD card slot.
HP says the 17-inch 1080p laptop offers a better screen-to-body ratio than the previous generation, courtesy of a 45 percent reduction in the top bezel. It's also fairly thin and light for a 17-inch laptop, measuring 1.9 inches thick and weighing 6.4 pounds.
There's also a smaller 13-inch model available that's been refreshed with the same Core i7-8565U processor, though it features toned down specs across the board—it has 8GB of RAM, integrated Intel UHD 620 graphics, 256GB of storage, and one less USB 3.1 port. HP claims users can squeeze up to 19 hours of battery life on this one.
Both the Envy 17 and Envy 13 will be available in April starting at $899.99.
In addition to clamshell laptops, HP updated its Envy x360 13 and 15 laptops. These models sport AMD processor options, in addition to Intel. On the 15.6-inch model, users can select between an Intel Core i7-8565U or Core i5-8265U processor, or AMD Ryzen 7 3700U with Vega 8 graphics or Ryzen 5 3500U with Vega 10 graphics.
All four of those options use the same 1080p IPS panel and have 8GB of RAM. The AMD models come with a 256GB SSD, while the Intel configurations add a 512GB SSD + 32GB Optane memory option. Pricing starts at $799.99.
As for the Envy x360 13, can be configured with up to a Ryzen 7 processor, 1TB of SSD storage, and 16GB of RAM. Pricing will start at $699.99 for an undoubtedly tamer configuration.
