Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Please note, this is a very rough, wordy draft, with tons missing.. I’ll clean it up and add to it as I learn more about the unit and have more time. I went ahead and rushed this up for those of you considering purchasing a unit now.
Specs
Im reviewing a unit with the following specs:
HP ENVY 4t-1200 Ultrabook
• • midnight black
• • Windows 8 64
• • 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3337U + Radeon(TM) HD 8750M Discrete-Class Graphics w/ 2GB DDR3
• • 14.0-inch diagonal High Definition BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366 x 768)
• • 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• • 500GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
• • 32GB mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache
• • Microsoft Office Trial
• • No additional security software
• • 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• • No Internal DVD or CD Drive
• • Backlit Keyboard
• • HP TrueVision HD Webcam with integrated dual array digital microphone
• • Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth + WIDI
Packaging
Just a note, when I make my comparisons and comments on size, this is my first ultrabook. The size of this laptop did not really hit me until the UPS guy dropped off my package; which seemed way too small at the time to be a laptop! Contained in a package only a few inches thick, and extremely light; the size of the package left me giddy in excitement to open up the box and see the laptop for the first time!
The packaging is small, but nothing fancy at all. Its quite possibly the plainest packaging I’ve ever seen for a computer. Unlike most laptops that I have ordered, the outside box with the shipping label on it is the only box; it the laptop is placed inside this box with two pieces of foam, a cardboard spacer, the power supply, and a few user guides and manuals. Pretty standard all in all, not much else to say.
Design
Upon unpackaging the laptop, you will find a slim and sexy black and red ultraportable. This laptop makes a great first impression; its going to be the laptop that catches everybodies eyes while walking by. The lid and inside chasis is sleek black brushed aluminum, which looks great, but is a horrible fingerprint magnet. It’ll only win a beauty contest until you touch it.. The bottom of the laptop is ade of a red soft-touch like plastic, making for a very gripable, great feeling laptop.
The overall build quality is excellent! Nothing feels like it could pop off, or break. The lid is very resistant, it takes a suprising amount of force on the lid before the screen distorts; something you can’t say about many computers in this form factor. The area where the red plastic and metal meet is very tight, it would easily be mistaken as one solid piece if it wasn’t made of two different materials.
Ports
For an ultrabook, there is a wide selection of ports available. There are 2 USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, Ethernet port (which is missing on many ultraportables!), a headphone jack as well as a separate microphone jack, and a card reader.
Keyboard and Touchpad
For anyone following my previous posts, you know what I’m gonna say here.. For reference, I am coming from a 12 inch HP 2760P, so im used to a significantly smaller keyboard. I think part of my problem is that I am not used to the spaced out keys on this keyboard; but this is not the sole contributor to my troubles with it. The M key is unresponsive if i press the left side of it. anything to the left of center does not read. I've confirmed this to be a bad part that needs replacing. Some other keys are slightly less responsive than others, but they don't give any issue, and pressing anywhere works on them.
I'm fairly certain this is due to a faulty keyboard, i'll be mailing it in for repairs this week.
Enough bashing, I’ve made it sound significantly worse than it is; I’ve typed this entire review on this keyboard and have been making significantly less typos as the review progresses. I simply have to hit the right side of the M button.. The keyboard is very useable and comfortable. (or it would be if not for my problem)! Typing is quiet, the keys are well spaced, and all the important buttons are full sized except for the up and down arrows. The keys are flat, and have low travel. Some may love it, others may hate it.
For a mere $20, you can get a backlight keyboard! Well worth the upgrade, however be cautious, the f5 button never cuts off, and can be an annoyingly bright light on the computer in a dark room when you are watching a video and not using the keyboard. I think this is a small sacrifice to pay for the usability enhancements from a backlight keyboard in the dark! I actually resulted in popping the key off, and placing a small piece of duct tape on the bottom of the key to significantly dim the light. Still seeable in the dark but not bright enough to bother me anymore. Its a little spongier now, but being the f5 button, i never use it aside from the backlight anyways.
I’m a huge fan of the touchpad on this laptop! Gestures read extremely well! Two finger scrolling is almost never missed; neither is side scrolling. Pinch to zoom is smooth. In the top left of the trackpad there is a square symbol representing a button to quickly disable and enable to touchpad by double clicking. The trackpad is all one piece, which I don’t typically care for. This design results in some right clicks being red as a tap for a left click. This is not due to the quality of the touchpad, but by this type of design. By default edge swiping is enabled. This feature allows you to swipe the left edge of the toupad left to right to rotate between open apps and programs. I’d recommend disabling this feature because its extremely easy accidently cause, and its extremely frustrating. Again this is not a problem with this specific touchpad, but a windows 8/ Synaptics setting. Once disabled I have no gripes with this touchpad at all. In fact I can’t praise it enough! As far as gestures are concerned it’s the best touchpad I’ve ever used to date.
Display
Another forwarning; I typically buy budget performance machines such as this, and as such, I don’t deal with extremely high end panels often. With that said, this laptop’s resolution is only 1366 x 768. I’d like at least a 900p panel, but this is sufficient. The screen is glossy, enough to only be comfortable enough to use with the brightness all the way up. I previously owned a Timeline 3820TG for comparison, this screen is probably slightly below the quality of that one, and slightly more glossy. From what i remember this one gets slightly brighter making up for the lower quality and glossiness, but personally with it that bright i tend to get a headache with prolonged use Most people point to the screen of this laptop as the deal breaker, claiming that it is unusable, but that’s not the case in my opinion, unless you are used to a high end setup, its sufficient for most. Vertical viewing angles are great; nearly 180. Horizontal viewing angles, not so much. You maybe have a 30 degree window before some distortion takes place. But this is enough to move the laptop from your lap to a table or desk without having to readjust the screen, so in my opinion its passable!
Cooling
On a table this laptop stays pretty cool; it only tends to get warm in the back middle where the vents are located. When placed in a lap, especially over a blanket or something, its gets warm enough to make your legs a little sweaty. Part of the reason for this is how low the fans stay. When only word processing or internet surfing, I had to place my ear against the laptop before I could tell that the fans were in fact running. I’ve yet to stress test the machine with any games, itll come in the next few days/weeks.
Portability
Coming in at right under 4 lbs. this laptop is extremely light and portable! Very happy with the form factor. However, this is considered heavy for an ultrabook by today’s terms. I feel the wheight is well justified when you consider the price, great build quality, and the inclusion of a Mid range Discrete graphics card!! You rarely find that kind of power in an ultrabook, especially at this price range.
Price
To make this machine worth owning, you need to upgrade the base model to the i5-3337U + Radeon HD 8750M graphics card. This along with the $20 backlight upgrade brings the total to over $900 after taxes. At this price You would be far better off purchasing the Sony s13, or Gigabyte U2442 (for 1088 on amazon right now!!)
With that said, what makes purchasing from HP great is the ability to negotiate, there great coupons, and there excellent student discount. You can almost always find a $50 off coupon code with a quick google search, and lately students can get a $100 off coupon code the same way. Additionally, you can get a base discount for being a student by signing in though there HP Academy (HPA) of around 10%. Additionally HP regularly has 50-100 off discounts on various models at any given time. At the time of my purchase, hp had a regular instant $50 off, I used a student $100 off coupon, got an additional 10% off for being a student through HPA, and received an additional $59 refund on the day of deliver by negotiating for free two day shipping ($39 value), and an additional $20 off due to the long building process. This brought my total to only 658.45 all inclusive with two day shipping and the upgraded processor as well as the backlit keyboard. That’s nearly or over $300 off. Nothing else is comparable to this machine in this price range. NOTHING!
Envy 4t-1200 Owners guide
Discussion in 'HP' started by ctenc001, Mar 3, 2013.
