HP Envy Touchsmart 15 J000 (4700mq, fhd, gt 740m) Review

So, I just got delivery of my 15t-J000, 4700mq, GT 740m, 8gb RAM, 1080p touchscreen, mssd cache, and I thought that I’d provide some first impressions, and a quick benchmark. My impressions are a little different from the esteemed T2050, so one question for the prospective buyer is whether this is down to differing expectations, or is there actually a fair amount of variation in the quality of production units?

First, it feels well built, if a little heavier than I expected. As has been noted before, it’s heaviest at the hinge end. The wrap around alloy palm rest looks really nice, but I actually find it a little sharp – not a finish issue, but a design one. Then again I only feel it when my elbow is lower than the keyboard, and it’s not great form to type whilst lying on the couch anyway… 15.6 inch is a little larger than I thought, but the quad-core makes a lot of sense for my application (audio DAW), and it seems very unlikely that the 14” will carry the quad.

The upside of the large screen is that, to me, it seems pretty nice. Crisp, colourful, and with none of the vertical banding that was mentioned in another review. It is somewhat sensitive to vertical angle, and because the maximum tilt of the screen is not massive, one doesn’t necessarily get the precise optimum view angle when typing with the unit actually on ones lap. However, it would be misleading to say that that angle impairs functionality in any way. We all know that one shouldn’t really type with the keyboard so low anyway – bad for the neck and back! Horizontal angles are really fine. Certainly good enough to allow a few people to stand around and admire your excellent taste in cat videos.

The sound is pretty good, for a laptop. Certainly louder than most, with no really horrible distortion. You will no doubt not be surprised that the ‘sub-woofers’ really only extend down to the lower mid-range, upper-bass frequencies. To the extent that it presents a little more bass than other systems, it is probably down to a little distortion of the bass (which creates some harmonic overtones in the more audible range), and – and this bit is nifty – by giving some feedback through the palm rest. The vibration actually allows you to feel when a bass note or kick drum hits, which is enough of a cue for you to distinguish those notes more clearly. In some ways, that is part of what a true sub does also, but at much lower frequencies. I’m happy with the audio, but let’s not get carried away. This is a laptop computer, and the sound is brittle, and honky like always. It’s just a bit better than usual.

On the input side, the keyboard is much better than I had expected. Most of the keyboard is flex-free, with a little showing up in the bottom left hand corner, and rather more on the number pad. If I had to type on the number pad, then I might notice the flex, but the overall impression is solid with very reasonable travel, and a little clickiness on each key, for those who like a little audible feedback.

The trackpad is growing on me. It’s a little grippy at first, but that seems to be easing up, presumably as it gets greased up from finger-oils. It’s large, but I still had to increase pointer speed to get it to feel right. The mechanical clicking works fine, it’s easy to distinguish right from left, although I feel like it needs a little too much force to depress. If you’re like me, you’ll simply use the light tap method –one finger for left click, two for right click.

The touchscreen works well, but again has a bit too much friction. I hope that this improves. If not you can always use the old squirt-of-PAM trick. kidding.

I haven’t done anything graphically demanding yet, but I did run 3dmark11, and scored a cool P2029, with graphics at 1863, which seems to put it in the same ball park as the gk107 variant of the 740m.

One consequence of the discrete gpu is the ma-hoo-sive 120w psu. I’m very interested to find out if I can get away with a lower wattage unit when I’m out and about it, and not needing the discrete gpu. Anyone know?

 

Can you post a picture of the power brick, like with something next to it ?

 

Is there a plastic band that's higher than the glass around the touchscreen ?

 

A picture of the power brick would be great.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Not sure if this has been asked before... Does the touchscreen comes with some sort of screen protector pre-installed? If so, is it hard coated, as in, how do you think it can resist scratches?

I have already ordered the laptop, not sure whether to get a screen protector...

 

Also could you do a benchmark of the iGPU vs. the 740m to see if it's worth the upgrade .

I know the 750m is look pretty big compared to the iGPU .

 

You can use a smaller one, but while playing it might discharge the battery some instead of running exclusively off a/c. At least, that's how my old laptop works.

 

I also would like to see this benchmark comparison.