Product Listing

HP Envy 15 - 15 Inches of Envy

By Leo Boon Yeow - 10 Mar 2012
Launch SRP: S$1999

Battery Life and Portability Index

Battery and Portability Index

When it comes to 15-inch notebooks, we find that they aren’t exactly very mobile, but they are are still aren't overly huge and bulky like 17-inch class notebooks. The 15.6-inch HP Envy 15 is more of a workhorse that you’d carry twice a day. To work/school, and back. Nothing more, nothing less. But of course, there might be times when you need it to be untethered from the wall for some impromptu presentations or something, so battery life does play a part in the overall performance of the HP Envy 15. For comparison, we’ve gathered the same machines we used to make performance comparisons -- the Samsung Series 7 Chronos, which has a similar battery capacity, and the Samsung RF 511 and Toshiba Satellite P755, which have similar performance, but much smaller battery capacities.

Multimedia Notebooks Specs Compared
Specifications/Notebook HP Envy 15 Samsung Series 7 Chronos Toshiba Satellite P755 Samsung RF 511
Processor  Intel Core i7-2670QM (2.2GHz)  Intel Core i7-2670QM (2.2GHz)  Intel Core i7-2630QM (2.0GHz) Intel Core i7-2630QM (2.0GHz)
Chipset  Intel HM65 Express  Intel HM65 Express  Intel HM65  Intel HM65
Memory  8GB DDR3  8GB DDR3  8GB DDR3  4GB DDR3
HDD  1TB  750GB with 8GB ExpressCache  640GB  500GB
Video  AMD Radeon HD 6750M  AMD Radeon HD 6750M  NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M  NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
Battery 72WHr 80Wh  48Wh  48Wh
Dimensions  380 x 244 x 28.3mm  362.1 x 238.5 x 23.9mm  380.5 x 254.0 x 30.0 - 37.6mm  378 x 254 x 31 - 36mm
Weight 2.63kg  2.32kg  2.6kg  2.6kg

 

Battery Life

The machine with the best performance here, is the Samsung Series 7 Chronos, with the HP Envy 15 very close behind. This is definitely due to the two machines sporting very similar hardware specs. The only difference here is that the Samsung Series 7 Chronos has a slightly higher capacity integrated battery which can’t be easily removed like the one found in the HP Envy 15. The machines were tested by running a DVD video loop (with screen brightness and volume at 50%) to see how long it can last in this power draining task.

The HP Envy 15 managed to stay alive for a good 193 minutes, which means it can last for about 3 hours, or the equivalent of two movies which is good if you have to travel a lot. Having said that, you can expect the machine to last quite a bit longer if you are just surfing the web, or doing productivity tasks that involve nothing more than Microsoft Excel. 

 

Power Consumption

When it comes to prolonging battery life, it would be advantageous to understand just how much energy the machine draws when performing tasks, like the DVD loop used to gauge the battery life of the machine. In our tests, the HP Envy 15 drew about 21.9 watts of power, making it the second most efficient machine in the line-up. It’s quite impressive given how bright the HP Envy 15’s screen actually is, or how powerful the built-in speakers are, and finally that it is running a fairly powerful quad-core processor. 

 

Portability Index

Our unique portability index is based on a mathematical formula that indicates whether or not it is worth your time to carry the HP Envy 15 around. The better the machine scores here, the more portable it is in its class of notebooks. Elements that get rolled into this formula include the machine’s battery life, weight, volume and battery capacity. Basically the lighter the machine, the longer the battery life, the better its portability index.

Here, the HP Envy 15 has a score that is quite typical of multimedia machines. It’s somewhat behind the Samsung Series 7 Chronos only because its battery life isn’t as good, nor is it as light and compact. However, as a machine that is geared towards the family, we find its portability ratio to be acceptable (though not great). As far as home oriented multimedia machines go, there really isn't a need for that much portability. If it was your prime priority, you should have been looking at Ultrabook options. 

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8.0
  • Design 8.5
  • Features 8.5
  • Performance 8
  • Value 7.5
  • Mobility 7.5
The Good
Beats Audio jog dial
All aluminum exterior
Full HD screen
Good audio quality
Removable battery
The Bad
Quite heavy
Expensive
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