The HP Envy 16 is a stellar premium laptop computer that made me virtually fall in love at first sight. Spending extra time with the Envy 16 solely cemented my preliminary ideas that this could be among the best one-size-fits-all choices. For work, private use, or informal gaming, the Envy 16 has your again.
Inside, you’ll discover highly effective specs to match the smooth aluminum chassis, giving this laptop computer throughout premium vibes. There’s a twelfth Gen Intel Core i9 CPU, an unbelievable 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM that may run new video games with ease. After all, beefy specs are nothing and not using a attractive show, however fortunate for you, the HP Envy 16 checks that field, too, with its gorgeous 16-inch, 4K OLED show.
Is the Envy 16 one of many greatest gaming laptops? Nicely, possibly not, particularly when in comparison with laptops particularly designed for gaming just like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 — the Envy 16’s gaming competitor. However dealing with off towards among the greatest premium laptops made for content material creators, like Dell’s Precision 5470, the Envy 16 might simply idiot you into pondering it was made simply to play video games.
HP Envy 16 worth and configurations
The most cost effective HP Envy 16 you may get prices $1,399 at HP.com (opens in new tab) and comes with an Intel Core i5-12500H CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, an Intel Arc A370M GPU with 4GB of VRAM, a 16-inch, 2650 x 1600-pixel, WQXGA show with a 120Hz refresh fee, and Home windows 11 Dwelling.
Our evaluation unit, with a price ticket of $2,799, comes with an Intel Core i9-12900H CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, a 3840 x 2400-pixel UHD+ show with a 60Hz refresh fee, and Home windows 11 Professional.
If you’d like a configuration between these two worth factors, take into account the $1,979 variant that packs the identical RAM, OS and GPU as our evaluation unit, however downgrades you to an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU, a 512GB SSD, and a 2560 x 1600-pixel show.
HP Envy 16 design
At first look, the HP Envy 16 appears like one other snazzy, premium laptop computer with a smooth silver chassis. However if you dig deeper, you’ll discover out that HP’s Envy laptops embody sustainable supplies within the construct, like ocean-bound plastic and recycled aluminum. How superior!
It’s cool to the contact — sturdy, however not too heavy. It appears attractive on a desk and is sweet for the surroundings. It’s a win-win-win-win.
And similar to Billy Mays would say, “However wait, there’s extra!” Opening up the Envy 16 reveals a surprising 16-inch show with skinny facet bezels, other than the bigger backside bezel, which isn’t too terribly noticeable. The island-style keyboard is sandwiched between two audio system, and the phrase “Envy” is printed in a contemporary box-style font.
Flipping the Envy 16 over, there’s one lengthy fan vent that takes up nearly half of the laptop computer’s underside. Two elongated rubber strips — one on the laptop computer’s entrance and the opposite close to the hinge — elevate the laptop computer to present it some respiration room for all its scorching air. Then, on the entrance left and proper corners, you’ll discover two speaker grilles.
The HP Envy 16 measures 14.07 x 9.91 x 0.78 inches and weighs 5.1 kilos. The Dell Precision 5470, the Envy 16’s content material creator rival on this evaluation, measures 12.2 x 8.3 x 0.7 inches and weighs 3.3 kilos. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (this laptop computer’s gaming rival), alternatively, measures 15.6 x 11.1 x 0.92 inches and weighs 6.1 kilos.
HP Envy 16 ports
The HP Envy 16 lacks an Ethernet jack, nevertheless it makes up for it with loads of different ports, a lot of that are the most recent model.
On the correct facet, you’ll discover the next ports: two USB4 Sort-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 assist, HDMI 2.1, SuperSpeed USB Sort-A, and an AC energy port.
On the left facet, there’s one other SuperSpeed USB Sort-A port, in addition to a headphone/microphone combo jack and a microSD media card reader. Should you want extra I/O ports, try our greatest USB Sort-C hubs to develop your choices.
HP Envy 16 show
The 16-inch, 3840 x 2400-pixel, multitouch-enabled OLED show on the HP Envy 16 is attractive, and regardless of boasting a decrease 60Hz refresh fee, all the things regarded and felt silky clean. I’ve reviewed laptops with a 4K decision earlier than, however none with a 4K OLED show that would really compete with my present each day driver laptop computer, the Lenovo Yoga 9i, which additionally has a 4K OLED show. The colours are so vibrant and vivid, you in all probability received’t even must max out the Envy 16’s brightness, which is nice information for its battery life.
I examined the Envy 16’s show by watching the latest trailer for Black Adam on YouTube. In a principally darkish trailer, the pops of vibrant inexperienced stood out when the digicam panned over a fort with a wonderfully manicured garden. The show struggled a bit with any shot involving fast, piercing bolts of lightning, however in any other case depicted each element flawlessly.
There’s a second the place the digicam zooms in on Dwayne Johnson’s face and you may see the person pores on his cheeks below his eyes. Different small particulars got here by means of nicely, too, just like the small scar on the bridge of Johnson’s nostril, beads of sweat, and the etched metallic letters with scratches and imperfections when the film’s title displayed on the finish of the trailer.
In our colorimeter take a look at, all three laptops reproduced a excessive proportion of the DCI-P3 shade gamut, however the HP Envy 16 blew its rivals out of the water. The Envy 16 registered a whopping 138.1% on the DCI-P3 shade gamut, whereas the typical premium laptop computer, the Dell Precision 5470, and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 reproduced 88.6%, 92.7%, and 82.5% of the DCI-P3 shade gamut, respectively.
Whereas the HP Envy 16 didn’t fairly attain its marketed 400 nits, it did emit 361 nits of brightness — although, that is nonetheless dimmer than the typical premium laptop computer (427 nits). The Dell Precision 5470 was far brighter (499 nits) than the Envy 16, and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 was considerably dimmer than all the things (263 nits). Although you in all probability might see the Envy 16’s display in daylight, it will be troublesome, although definitely not as troublesome as it will be with the Strix Scar 17.
With a Delta-E rating of 0.29 (nearer to 0 is a greater rating), the HP Envy 16 is much less shade correct than its rivals, however not by a lot. The common premium laptop computer has a rating of 0.25, whereas the Envy 16’s rivals, the Dell Precision 5470 and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, scored 0.23 and 0.21, respectively.
HP Envy 16 keyboard and touchpad
With audio system to the left and proper, this island-style keyboard appears spacious — and it feels prefer it too! I’m a quick typer and a pure at any keyboard positioned in entrance of me, however I’m at all times nervous there’ll be a studying curve with a brand new laptop computer’s keyboard. That was definitely not the case with the HP Envy 16.
Throughout the 10FastFingers.com typing take a look at, my common typing velocity went from 90 to 91 phrases per minute. Whereas that’s not an enormous distinction, it’s indicator that this keyboard feels pure — probably much more pure to me than my normal each day laptop computer. It doesn’t have RGB lighting, however you’ll be able to activate a white backlight — with two brightness choices — should you’re typing at midnight.
General, the HP Envy 16’s keyboard is laid out nicely, feels snug to kind on, and isn’t too loud. Plus, there’s one key specifically that I really like: the emoji key. To the correct of the ESC key, there’s a key with a smiley face on it, and if you press it, it opens a bit of pop-up window the place you will discover the proper emoji or GIF.
The 4.9 x 3.1-inch touchpad offers loads of house for Home windows 11 gestures. Two-finger scrolling, pinching to zoom, two-finger swiping to the left and proper — all of those gestures labored completely for me on this laptop computer. With three-finger tabbing, nevertheless, my ring finger stutters a bit as a substitute of easily gliding over the trackpad. Whereas I do use my laptop computer’s trackpad sometimes, I a lot favor utilizing a wi-fi mouse for higher management and luxury.
HP Envy 16 audio
Nobody expects laptop computer audio system to sound any good, however in a pinch, the HP Envy 16 has an honest speaker system that’ll allow you to jam out to your favourite songs and listen to nearly each element. There are two Bang & Olufsen-tuned audio system to the left and proper of my island-style keyboard, in addition to two audio system on the laptop computer’s underside within the entrance corners.
Set at 50% quantity, the audio system have been loads loud sufficient to fill my medium-sized testing room with Taylor Swift’s newest hit “Anti-Hero” streaming on Spotify. Turning the quantity a lot increased than that makes for a not-so-enjoyable expertise (except you’re in a bigger room or an open house).
Swift’s vocals got here by means of silky clean, however sure atmospheric components have been muddied behind an excessive amount of treble. On a implausible pair of audio system, I can clearly hear each defining element of the devices and the melody behind Swift’s voice, however on the HP Envy 16’s audio system, a lot of that was misplaced.
There’s a Bang & Olufsen Audio Management app that comes already downloaded to the laptop computer. Right here, you’ll be able to swap between three totally different audio presets — Music, Film or Voice — or customise the degrees of bass, treble, and dialog readability to your private preferences. Simply as a warning, don’t maximize the bass stage as a result of it sounds downright terrible. Apparently the track is taking part in from the underside of an empty tin trash can with the lid on — not nice, in any respect.
With dialog specifically, the HP Envy 16 appears to don’t have any issues. Whereas watching a YouTube trailer for Black Adam and listening to mission dialogue from Borderlands 3, all of the voices sounded crisp and clear. Any in-game capturing or explosions inside Borderlands 3 sounded okay, however let’s be trustworthy, should you’re gaming on a laptop computer, you’re in all probability going to need considered one of our greatest gaming headsets for the last word immersive expertise.
HP Envy 16 efficiency
As a refresher, the HP Envy 16 is supplied with a twelfth Gen Intel Core i9-12900H CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM — plus 6GB of devoted VRAM — and a 2TB TLC M.2 SSD.
With a whopping 32GB of RAM, it’s no shock that the Envy 16 dealt with all the things I threw at it. I launched YouTube and Netflix on Google Chrome and performed a video on every, and in addition opened up about 30 different tabs from totally different web sites. The followers have been barely audible, the laptop computer wasn’t scorching in any respect, and I used to be nonetheless capable of kind in a Google Doc with no hesitation or lag holding me again.
The Envy 16 scored tremendous nicely on the Geekbench 5.4 general efficiency benchmark, with a rating of 11,621, although not in addition to the Strix Scar 17 (13,209). Dell’s Precision 5470 had a reasonably related rating to the Envy 16 (11,040), however the common premium laptop computer scored about half of that (5,895).
Throughout the Handbrake take a look at, the Envy 16 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in solely 6 minutes and 10 seconds, beating out the typical premium laptop computer’s time of 9 minutes and 58 seconds. The Dell Precision 5470 required an additional 18 seconds (6:28); the Strix Scar 17 outshone the Envy 16 with a outstanding time of 4 minutes and 42 seconds.
Lastly, the Envy 16 matched its rivals fairly evenly with the file switch take a look at, which measures how lengthy it takes to duplicate 25GB of mixed-media information. It took 16.2 seconds for the Envy 16 (2TB SSD) to duplicate 25GB at a fee of 1,656.24 megabytes per second (Mbps), which is quicker than the typical premium laptop computer’s fee of 1,174 Mbps. The Dell Precision 5470 (1TB SSD) and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (1TB SSD) achieved the identical process in 15.8 seconds at 1,698.9 Mbps and 17.6 seconds at 1,522.6 Mbps, respectively.
HP Envy 16 graphics and gaming
The HP Envy 16 comes with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop computer GPU with 6GB of VRAM. This laptop computer shouldn’t be essentially marketed as a gaming laptop computer, nevertheless it does have a discrete GPU that makes it a succesful possibility for informal avid gamers. Truly, that doesn’t even do the Envy 16 justice. You possibly can run triple-A titles, and so they really appear and feel fairly superior on this snazzy OLED show.
With eight out of the 9 whole video games we examined, the Envy 16 vastly exceeded our 30 frames per second (fps) at 1080p playability threshold. The one holdout? Metro Exodus: Enhanced Version on the Excessive setting, which averaged 28.72 fps — simply barely beneath 30 fps. Metro Exodus: Enhanced Version on the Extremely setting and the Excessive setting, hit 42 fps and 59 fps, respectively.
Many of the different video games we examined at 1080p resulted in an fps fee of just about 60 or over. With Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, Borderlands 3, Far Cry New Daybreak, and Grand Theft Auto 5, the Envy 16 reached 63, 60, 103, and 82 fps, respectively. The common premium laptop computer hit 40 fps for Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, 64 fps for Borderlands 3, 65 fps for Far Cry New Daybreak, and 80 fps for Grand Theft Auto V.
As a result of the Dell Precision 5470 isn’t a gaming laptop computer, the one recreation examined was Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p), which hit 76 fps. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, nevertheless, is a unique story. Giving the Envy 16 a run for its cash, the Strix Scar 17 averaged 77 fps for Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, 85 fps for Borderlands 3, 112 fps for Far Cry New Daybreak, and 114 fps for Grand Theft Auto 5. It’s additionally price mentioning that though the Strix Scar 17 dealt with Metro Exodus: Enhanced Version at its Excessive setting higher than the Envy 16, it nonetheless solely managed to hit 42 fps.
On the 3DMark Hearth Strike Extremely graphics take a look at, the Envy 16 reached 4,650, which is decrease than the typical premium laptop computer at 5,535. Its gaming rival from Asus additionally surpassed the Envy 16’s rating with an superior rating of 6,947. We didn’t do a 3DMark Hearth Strike Extremely graphics take a look at on the Dell Precision 5470.
The Envy 16’s take a look at outcomes have been decrease than the typical premium laptop computer and the Strix Scar 17, however nonetheless increased than many different laptops, and taking part in video games on it was a blast. Realizing that this laptop computer isn’t significantly a “gaming laptop computer,” I didn’t have excessive hopes for my gaming expertise with Borderlands 3. However I used to be delightfully stunned!
It positively can’t run — at the least, not enjoyably — at 4K, however that’s most video games. After setting my decision to 1920 x 1200, downgrading the graphical settings from Badass to Excessive (skipping over Extremely), and turning V-Sync on, my playthrough felt extremely clean and the basic comedian e-book animation model regarded implausible on the OLED show.
The followers weren’t that noisy in any respect, and I used to be absolutely anticipating them to throw a match after merely loading the sport. It wasn’t till I plugged the laptop computer in to cost whereas taking part in Borderlands 3 that the followers massively kicked up. So you would simply get an hour or two out of a demanding recreation like this with out the Envy 16 plugged in, or drown out the loud followers with noise-cancelling headphones and recreation to your coronary heart’s content material.
HP Envy 16 battery life
With the HP Envy 16, you’ll be able to have your cake and eat it too. By that, I imply you’ll be able to have highly effective specs that carry out nicely and fairly dang good battery life. On the Laptop computer Magazine battery take a look at, which includes steady net browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the Envy 16 lasted 9 hours and 21 minutes.
Though the Envy 16’s battery life is longer than a full day of labor, it’s barely beneath common in comparison with different premium laptops. The common premium laptop computer lasts 10 hours and 35 minutes. The Dell Precision 5470, the Envy 16’s content material creator rival, lasted even longer than that, at a whopping 11 hours and 38 minutes.
The Envy 16’s gaming rival, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2022) G733Z, didn’t even come shut to actually competing in net browsing battery life. The Strix Scar 17 lasted a mere 6 hours and 20 minutes, a complete three hours lower than the Envy 16. Nevertheless, we additionally examined the Envy 16’s battery life whereas gaming (PCMark 10). It lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes whereas the Strix Scar 17 survived for 1 hour and 10 minutes. With each laptops, it’d be a wise thought to depart it plugged in whereas gaming — however should you do that, anticipate extra fan noise.
HP Envy 16 warmth
Should you use the Envy 16 for something moreover gaming, you’re golden. However should you’re pondering of gaming on this laptop computer, anticipate some scorching, scorching temperatures.
On our non-gaming warmth take a look at, which includes operating a fullscreen HD video for quarter-hour, the Envy 16 reached 78.4, 90.7, and 93.7 levels Fahrenheit for the touchpad, keyboard middle, and underside, respectively. The most popular spot was the laptop computer’s underside at 93.7 levels. All of those temperatures stayed beneath our 95-degree consolation stage, although the underside temperature simply barely made the minimize.
On our gaming warmth take a look at, the one space that remained beneath our 95-degree consolation stage was the touchpad, which measured 74.7 levels. The keyboard middle climbed to 110.3 levels, and the laptop computer’s underside equally reached 109.6 levels. Throughout the take a look at, the most popular half on the keyboard, above the F6 and F7 quantity management keys, reached a scorching 121.3 levels. Fortuitously, your fingers are doubtless nowhere close to this space whilst you’re gaming.
HP Envy 16 webcam
Most laptops have fairly terrible webcams. Even with extra individuals working or education from residence nowadays, laptops have mediocre 1080p webcams or painfully outdated 720p webcams — or worse, no webcam in any respect. That’s why I used to be completely delighted to see the specs for HP Envy 16’s webcam: True Imaginative and prescient 5MP infra-red digicam with a shutter, temporal noise discount, and built-in dual-array digital mics.
Wait — what?! Sure, you learn that proper. This laptop computer has a 5MP digicam that captures insane element. Nicely, at the least for a webcam. I might see the person wispy flyaway hairs on the highest of my head and distinct strains on the metallic portion of my mattress body behind me.
For reference, the Google Pixel 6a — a finances telephone recognized for its sharp pictures capabilities — has an 8MP front-facing digicam. So whereas the HP Envy 16 won’t have the ability to compete with the greatest webcams on the market, its 5MP digicam is a stable win.
HP Envy 16 software program and guarantee
As with all laptops, you’ll discover some bloatware on the HP Envy 16, together with McAfee Private Safety and Solitaire Assortment, however the system is generally stuffed with proprietary HP apps and your customary Home windows 11 apps.
From HP, probably the most helpful built-in apps are Bang & Olufsen Audio Management and the Omen Gaming Hub. In the meantime, the Home windows 11 working system consists of its typical apps like Microsoft Workplace, Microsoft Information, three totally different Xbox apps, and Cortana.
The HP Envy 16 comes with a one-year restricted guarantee. See how HP carried out on our Tech Assist Showdown and Finest and Worst Manufacturers rating.
Backside line
The HP Envy 16 packs all types of energy and carried out swimmingly on most of our checks, even when it got here to taking part in video video games. So long as you anticipate some fan noise and know that your video games received’t run nicely at 4K — which shouldn’t actually be a shock to anybody who performs video video games on a laptop computer — the Envy 16 is ideal for informal gaming. If you’d like a stronger gaming laptop computer, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 has a slight edge on the Envy 16.
Should you don’t play video games in any respect, the Envy 16 shines in all different efficiency facets, making it the proper companion for skilled or private use. Should you’re watching something on YouTube or Netflix, you’ll be able to anticipate vibrant, vivid colours that improve the entire expertise. And should you’re merely searching the net, checking emails, or typing up a faculty paper, you’ll discover virtually zero lag and clean crusing general.
