HP Envy x2 review

Inevitably, though, there are compromises. The hinge to which the screen attaches feels solid, although it folds back to an angle of only around 125 degrees – there are no Yoga-type contortions here. The problem is undocking it: a small, fiddly switch at the centre of the hinge must be held to the left while, with your other hand, you manhandle the screen up and off its hinges. It’s far from elegant.

Connectivity and storage options are disappointing, too. The full-sized HDMI port at the left of the keyboard is welcome, but thanks to the technical limitations of the Atom platform, the twin USB slots positioned at the sides of the keyboard unit support only USB 2. The architecture supports a maximum of only 2GB of RAM, and since the Envy x2 is sealed firmly against user upgrades, you’re also stuck with a rather mean 64GB SSD (of which Windows 8 and HP’s recovery partition consume more than a third). Still, you do get both a full-sized SD card reader on the keyboard and a microSD slot on the screen.

Factor in the low-power processor and, despite the Envy x2’s outward similarity to a high-end laptop, it all ends up feeling merely like a regular tablet with an attachable keyboard. Not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with that – the Android-based Asus Transformer Prime has won plenty of plaudits by following the same formula.

But at £800, the Envy x2 is simply too expensive to get away with it. For £72 more you can buy the much more powerful Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 and an iPad – or, you could wait for Microsoft’s 10.6in, Full HD, Core i5-powered Surface Pro, which is expected to be priced similarly. HP’s offering aims commendably high in terms of build quality – and in itself it makes a very agreeable platform for all-day lightweight computing – but when you weigh up your options, its capabilities are clearly far too limited to justify the price.