Proper Envy 6z review

Guess what finally came in the mail!

So far I must say this is one beautiful machine. Wish they had a 14" version.


Crappy Pic I know, I don't have a point and shoot. Off the cell

Mine was configured as follows:

HP ENVY 6z Sleekbook
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• AMD Quad-Core A10-4655M Processor (2.8GHz/2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache) + HD 7600G Discrete-Class Graphics
• FREE Upgrade to 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 320GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
• No additional security software
• 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 15.6" diagonal High Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768) SVA
• No Internal DVD or CD Drive
• Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)
• Backlit Keyboard
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Hopefully I'll have a SSD and another 4gb to compare it to in the future. Sub for updates
Overall Performance Review (More to come):

Unboxing the laptop was a treat when I opened the lid of the laptop. I was immediately greeted by a nice sleek laptop, with an oversize trackpad.

Display 7/10
Was actually surprised, it's a lot nicer than my old Toshiba L305. Viewing angles aren't the best, but a lot better than I was expecting. it is also very bright and clear. Still wish the resolution was 1600x900 at the least.

Keyboard 7/10
The backlit keys are amazing and I love them. Typing on them however, I do feel a bit of flex, especially toward the center of the laptop. I have my play/pasue and other media functions along the top which is nice. the flex is a little bothersome though

Trackpad 9/10
This is one sexy trackpad. The scrolling with 2 fingers is flawless, I love it. Wish it had the continuous scrolling when your finger is at the edge of it, although I'm sure this is a software limitation I can somehow get around. the touchpad is one big button it seems, although when I click on the right side of it, it does act like a right mouse button. Also you can just tap the touchpad instead of clicking it like a button to left click which is nice

Size/Weight/Portability 8/10
This is a little larger and heavier for a real mobile machine for me, but this is a standard for all 15.6" displays in my opinion. With that being said this is very sleek and slim for a 15.6" laptop. It is a little on the heavier side in my opinion.

Temperature 8/10
This is a pretty cool running laptop actually for the most part, I like. The hottest it has gotten was running 3DMark11, and that got up to 75C which I think isn't bad straight from the factory. Debating on replacing the TIM..trying to keep the warranty good lol..
Idle's around 45C, this is also on a flat surface. It does get warm, was not on my lap when running 3DMark11 though (It's such a slideshow I went and got a sandwich lol)

Customer Service 9/10
Their service has so far been outstanding for me. They sent me a black one instead of a silver one, and after asking, I was given a $25 discount. Every time I've called them with a question, I've had someone I could understand, and they've all been helpful. This is a big plus for them as their service in the past has been troublesome according to a lot of people.

Bloatware 8/10
There was a decent amount of bloatware, took me about 20minutes to uninstall everything from the Add/Remove programs, wasn't too bad. There was a bunch of games that was pre-installed as well. I didn't really know most of them, I skimmed through them, erased all of them, and noted Torchlight was one of them? Already owned on Steam, so I uninstalled that as well

Memory Installation 8/10
The bottom had 12 screws that came out easy, but to pop off the bottom, I had a realllly hard time putting my nail under the edge to pop it off. What's the point of having it snap on if your going to have 12 screws?? Took about 20minutes to get the damn thing off. Much easier the 2nd time. Once open, memory slots easily accessible.


Performance:
3DMark06

Single Stick Memory Performance
SM2.0 - 1284
HDR/SM3.0 Score - 1625
CPU Score - 1678
Total - 3710

Dual Channel Memory Performance
SM2.0 - 2500
HDR/SM3.0 Score - 2949
CPU Score - 2048
Total - 6490

Difference 75%



3DMark11

Single Stick Performance
Graphics Score - 607
Physics Score - 2132
Combined Score - 519
Total - P667

Dual Channel Performance
Graphics Score - 818
Physics Score - 1999
Combined Score - 798
Total - P895

Weird how Physics went down..

Difference 34%

 

this!

cheers for the review.

 

I posted a less refined version on the HP website. But since I cannot modify my own review there, I am posting it here again with refinements.

Since there are not many useful reviews for the HP ENVY Sleekbook 6z-1000 I hope that this review will aid other buyers in their decision making process. First things first, because this laptop line can be customized, it is important to establish a baseline. My review is solely based on the following configuration:

Purchase Price (including tax, shipping, CA recycling): $668 (cheap price due to July 4th sale)
AMD Quad-Core A10-4655M Processor (2.8GHz/2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache) + HD 7600G Discrete-Class Graphics
FREE 4Gb (I took the free module out (11-11-12 timings) and added 2x4Gb AData 1600 Mhz sticks with 8-8-9 timings at 1333 Mhz.)
500 Gb HD with 5400 rpm
Normal keyboard
802.11b/g/n WLAN

Important Criteria and Use Scenarios:

For work and outside of work, I was planning on using this laptop for: web-surfing, watching movies, office work, programing, and some 3D gaming. There were a couple of must have criteria for me. Those include:

1. Weight: The laptop should be a 14" and/or weigh less than 5 lb.
2. General use: In non-game use conditions (like coding and office work with light media use (music), performance should be responsive.
3. Gaming use: The ability to play Guild Wars 2 on medium settings with FPS that are "smooth enough" is essential. This is the reason I decided to upgrade from my current laptop.
4. Battery use: The battery should last more than 4 hours as this is the amount of time I take sometimes to travel from one place to another.
5. The laptop had to be affordable. For me this meant less than $750 including everything.
6. As a bonus, I wanted a computer that had the highest EPEAT ratings.

With these criteria, let's see whether the laptop fulfilled these minimum requirements.

Design and Build

The black brushed metal and red soft-touch bottom combined with its thinness nicely give the laptop a refined accent while feeling very robust. Aesthetics aside, minor marks off are given for the fact that the black brushed metal finish attracts fingerprints. Nevertheless, a metal top and rest area is a plus because it gives this laptop a sense of sturdiness. The overall build of this laptop is good.

The keyboard which is in the Chiclets-style format feels comfortably firm. I did not detect flex as described above. If it is present it is not very noticeable. I rate this keyboard as good.

Upgrading from the DM3Z to the ENVY 6z, the touch-pad was also a definite upgrade in that it does not attract fingerprints, is nice and large, and responsive.
Multi-touch gestures work much smoother compared to my current DM3Z. I personally liked the feel of the touch-pad. I found pressing buttons on the touch-pad just firm enough and not at all too firm like some other reviewers on the 6t model pointed out. For me, the touch-pad gets a very good rating.

Cautionary note on the design of the laptop: The bottom of the laptop is one continuous piece. This certainly increases aesthetics which gives bonus points in that department. Since I wanted to upgrade the memory, I encountered that this is not quite as straight forward. With the Sleekbook 6z (and also 6t), 12 screws all over the bottom have to be removed. This in itself is not a problem. But in addition to that, one needs to carefully pry the bottom from the top because small plastic hooks keep the laptop snugly together (6 in the back and front, 4 on each side). One needs to be careful not to break the plastic hooks or create scratches in the laptop in the process. This can take some effort but with care and enough time it is doable. One also needs to note that because of the build, the battery in this laptop cannot easily be changed on the fly. Fortunately, battery life is good to very good but a battery change will be a bit of a pain (see below).

Form-Factor and Weight

The form factor of this laptop is 15.6". I consider the absence of a 14" option with the A10-4655M processor a major omission by HP (Samsung does offer such a model). I would have normally not considered a 15.6" laptop because those also tend to be heavier than I wanted (5.5-6 lbs) and are more bulky. But the Sleekbook is extremely light for its size: At about 4.75 lbs., which I can easily pick-up and carry with one hand, it is only 0.25 lbs heavier than my 13" DM3z laptop which this laptop was replacing. Therefore, despite the less preferred form factor, in my book this Sleekbook still passes my requirement for a solid laptop that can easily be taken on the go. I want to emphasize that I would have much preferred a 14" laptop still, and that the 15.6" is still not quite as portable as my 13" or a 14" would have been. The Samsung model only weighs 3.99 pounds - almost a pound lighter. In the end, due to time pressures, the weight, design and execution outweighed concerns about the form factor and disadvantages that come with hiding everything behind a slick bottom. Overall, weight and mobility are somewhere between above average and good.

Non-gaming Performance

When it comes to performance, the chipset used, and configuration become much more important. Technical reviews are starting to crop up all over the internet concerning the AMD A10-4600M but reviews on the AMD A10-4655M is still scarce at the time of writing. Without looking at how many tenth of seconds an application needed to load-up, my impressions were that browser, office products, virus scans were quick and responsive. Media programs also started up quickly and were able to play back 1080p media without stuttering or taking much CPU resource due to hardware acceleration by the GPU part in the APU.

I was particularly impressed by the fact that I could run a virus scan, and download Windows updates in the background, while surfing the internet, streaming an HD Youtube video (720p) on silent, installing programs, letting Python scripts process large datasets in the background and video Skyping - all at the same time. My DM3z, to give an example, breaks out in a lot of sweat trying to just run a virus scan and do a video Skype session (90-100% CPU utilization). With the AMD-A10-4655M all of the activities mentioned above took only about 25-50% (it fluctuated) of the CPU performance.

A friend of mine bought a slightly more expensive but similarly equipped 6t version of this Sleekbook (3rd generation Intel Core i5-3317U Processor(1.7 GHz) + Intel HD Graphics 4000 + 8 Gb, 320 GB at 5400 rpm). We put our laptops side-by-side (we have to be careful not to mix them up in the future when gaming because they look identical from the outside). The 6t felt notably faster was during start up due to its 32 SSD Cache. In general, applications start up and run at almost the same speed (the 6t might have been slightly faster in some apps, but it was hard to distinguish most of the time), and performed without any noticeable differences once the programs were loaded. The difference in application start-up was less than a second on most applications. We did not measure exact start times or performance here though but just wanted to get a general feel.

Gaming Performance

To pass this category, the laptop has to be able to play Guild Wars 2 on medium settings at native resolution without much stuttering. Other games (Starcraft II, and Civ V) I play are not nearly as graphics intensive. During my initial beta-testing, the FPS ranged from 21-121 FPS at medium settings as measured with FRAPS. Most often while in the game world, the FPS hovered around 21-24. Personally, I was hoping for a few more FPSs (around 25-28 FPS) but this is nit-picking. If one considers that this is a thin-and-light, this is a quite respectable performance. And 21-24 FPS actually felt still smooth enough for me.

I have run other games on this laptop. League of Legends runs at high settings with 58-60 FPS. Mass Effect also runs smoothly on high (though I do not have FPS yet).

To give another anecdotal example, the same friend who bought the 6t version of this laptop can play Starcraft II on low settings and gets between 30-90 FPS (30 FPS in busy situations). I can play the game on medium settings and get similar results. I personally think that anything above 30 FPS is indistinguishable, but to have additional eye-candy is a big bonus for me. A serious gamer, may need to consider higher voltage CPUs/APUs with dedicated graphics cards that will run a higher price to get satisfactory experience. But as a casual gamer, according to the above criteria, the A10-4655M APU passes my requirements for gaming performance.

Battery Use

At this point, I have not tried to fully drain the battery. What I did do is play music, surf the internet and type in Words or code in Python. After 3 hours, the battery still had 5.5 hours of projected battery life left. This is not a comprehensive test as I do not unnecessarily stress the battery (created by completely discharging the battery). However, it indicates to me that 4 but even 6 hours are easily attainable during light-use times with a dim screen. The Sleekbook therefore also passes this criteria.

It should be noted that I could not find any HP documentation that would hint to battery-life extending technologies being incorporated into this laptop that Samsung laptops come equipped with. This is important because the battery in this laptop is a bit more complicated to exchange (see above).

Additional Criteria and Information:

- Heat: Unlike many previous versions of HP latops with AMD chips, this laptop did not emit exorbitant amounts of heat. In general use, the laptop stayed cool and quite throughout my initial installation and work frenzy. During gaming, the front of the laptop still stays cool. The back where all the exhaust fans are gets warm but not broiling hot. Thus, the heat profile in both non-gaming and gaming use, is a very positive bonus.
- The environmental conscious buyer should note that the Sleekbook 6z has a silver EPEAT rating - no progress from silver ratings that my DM3Z has. Considering today's advances, I would have hoped for better. There are other manufacturers (Samsung) who produce gold EPEAT rated thin-and-light laptops with the AMD A10-4655M APU in it and would come in the right form factor as well (14"). But alas, at the time I had to make the purchase, the option was not available.
- Sound: The beats audio speakers have some real oompf. I have taken this laptop to an exercise class. The full sound (including base) could be heard throughout the large exercise room. Sounds on this laptop are a big bonus. I would rate the sound on this laptop as very good.
- Screen: At 1366x768 the screen does not have amazing screen resolution. It simply serves its purpose. Colors are bright and brilliant though black tones are not completely black. The viewing angles are relatively tight though. Colors start looking a bit washed out when more than 45ish degrees to the side or 40ish degrees from the top. This adds a small negative point to this laptop (and the 6t). I would rate the screen slightly below average.
- My Windows Experience Index (WEI) on high performance is broken up as followed: Processor (6.7), Memory (7.1), Graphics (6.6), Gaming graphics (6.6), Primary hard disk (5.9).

Conclusion and Summary:

I consider myself to be somewhat technically knowledgeable and to be a casual gamer. From this perspective, the laptop has passed all my core criteria I consider to be important. I have been very happy with the performance of this laptop thus far. To summarize, the ENVY Sleekbook 6z-1000 CTO with the AMD A10-4655M APU is a good balance between performance, mobility and price. It will be able to handle all every-day usage scenarios the average user throws at it - even in parallel - and all that while staying responsive and cool. It will also allow for 3D gaming of modern games at medium to high settings as a bonus which for me represents a first any laptop was able to do so in a low-voltage scenario and slim-form-factor. For less than $700, I have not found another system configuration that gives me as much well-rounded performance and allows for gaming as the Sleekbook 6z specifically with the AMD A10-4655M APU.

 

Thanks for the reviews, both of you.

Funbun, it appears you are kaivorth from overclock.net? Am I correct? Thanks for testing the dual-channel RAM configuration. I've linked (both) your review in The Ultimate AMD Trinity Notebook List. Its nice to see what the A10-4655M can actually do.

 

Nice reviews guys, thanks for posting. For those that haven't seen it the NBR editors posted a review of the Envy 6z as well:

HP ENVY Sleekbook 6z Review: Is Being Thin Enough?

The one major beef Charles had was with the keyboard, rating it as poor. I like the keyboard backlighting but have to agree the key travel is very shallow on this and could be an issue for some. Other than that there's a lot of positives, just wish there was a 1600 x 900 screen upgrade option. You can't beat the price though.

 

I saw that review as well. My impressions of the review somehow are that the evaluation period was somehow...for the lack of another word...superficial.

In the bright side, it gave a review of the A6 version. However, many aspects that should have been considered (like dual channel vs not) were not. Also, opinions of the A10 versions were given without actually trying the A10 version. The A10 version was only mentioned in the passing. It might be good to emphasize the differences between these different APU versions a bit more.

The absolute lack of official reviews on the 6z with the A10 was what drove me to spend some time writing a consumer review of it. Perhaps Notebookreview.com could consider revisiting the A10 version of the 6z?

 

I think real user reviews like yours are often as helpful and sometimes more so than a "professional" editor review. You're right, they do only get a couple of weeks to use the laptop before having to send it back and it's a part of a job with other demands so the focus is sometimes just on getting a review turned around as soon as possible while still trying to provide honest feedback, sometimes that's tough to do within a limited time frame. I don't think we'll be seeing another review with a different configuration on NBR, but your insights on the A10 should fill in the gaps for those left wondering.

 

Yup! Reppin overclock.net here. I was on these forums when I was doing research on the laptop for me, figured I'd contribute a bit as well.

Yeah scores shot through the roof with dual channel config.

And yes, the bottom of the laptop was a bit troublesome to get off, more or less had to be patient and pry it off.

Loving this laptop so far though, you guys would KILL me if I told you how cheap I got mine from HP...

 

How much? The lowest I've been able to configure it was like $638 shipped a few weeks ago with a $100 off coupon.

Good to hear you're enjoying your Sleekbook. I'd consider one for myself if I had the money.

Sent from my SPH-M580 using Tapatalk

 

my end cost was $495. Had to pull some strings though, so not everyone will get it this cheap.

 

I seen the ENVY 14" Ultrabook today. Its a shame that the 14" Sleekbook wasn't made. I don't get it. What a dumb decision.

 

"I consider the absence of a 14" option with the A10-4655M processor a major omission by HP"

Oh how true!

 

Does anyone has a clue if the screen would be upgradeable to a 1080p (FHD) like the dv6t? Maybe we can also exchange the cable and swap out the screen. I like this notebook but not with this screen...

 

make sure you use dual channel 1600mhz memory! as the onboard gpu uses it.

 

I know that it doesn't come with one, but is there a slot open for a msata ssd in the 6z?