HP Envy 15 - 15 Inches of Envy
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.
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.