HP Envy x2 review

The Intel Atom brand tends to find itself attached to bargain-basement hardware. But HP’s Atom-based Envy x2 is an upmarket convertible. It runs full Windows 8, sports an 11.6in detachable touchscreen, and supports both desktop and tablet-style apps.

In fact, at first glance the Envy x2 looks like a premium Ultrabook. The robust aluminium chassis measures a slender 19mm thick, and inside a solid, spacious MacBook-style keyboard bespeaks the Envy x2’s suitability for serious work. The assembly feels a little heavy in the hand, but that’s a trick of its compact frame: in reality, the keyboard and screen together weigh an eminently portable 1.41kg. In detached mode, the tablet part on its own comes in at only 710g – little more than the iPad’s 652g, despite the distinctly larger display area.

It seems quite nippy in use, despite its low-power architecture. Windows 8 is far more responsive than its predecessors on lightweight hardware, and the Atom Z2760 (codenamed Cloverview) is a step up from the netbook CPUs of yore. Full HD videos on YouTube and hi-definition iPlayer shows play without a hitch, and look great on the Envy x2’s 1,366 x 768 IPS panel, with its vibrant 416 cd/m2 brightness and solid 849:1 contrast ratio. The compact speakers set into the bottom of the tablet/display aren’t exactly loud, but they’re clear and balanced enough for music and movies.

To be clear, this still isn’t a system we’d recommend for 3D gaming – or for demanding desktop applications for that matter. An overall benchmark score of 0.21 confirms that the modern Atom remains nowhere near as powerful as even a budget Core i3. But for light media duties, everyday browsing and word processing it’s fine.

The upside of the Atom is great battery life. In standalone tablet mode, the Envy x2 achieved 10hrs 19mins hours of full-screen video playback. That compares pretty favourably to the nine hours achieved by the ARM-based Surface RT and the 9hrs 45mins of the fourth-generation iPad 4 – not bad for a full Windows 8 system. In its laptop-style configuration, the Envy x2 does even better, thanks to a second battery tucked away in the keyboard unit: in our standard battery test, the docked system achieved a terrific 20hrs 28mins of light use.

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.

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