HP ENVY 14 And ENVY 17 Hands-On [Video]

HP's ENVY range has been updated, with the existing ENVY 13 and ENVY 15 replaced by a new ENVY 14 and ENVY 17 with, as you could probably guess, 14.5- and 17-inch displays.  We grabbed some hands-on time with the new notebooks, and the good news is that what were decent machines have now become even better systems, packing Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, new slot-loading optical drives and a better array of display connectivity.  More specs and first-impressions after the cut.Updated with video after the cut

The HP ENVY 14 kicks off at $999.99 and has a choice of Intel Core i5 processors, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 graphics, a battery good for up to six hours runtime and a backlit keyboard.  Switch off the discrete graphics (and rely on the integrated Intel HD GPU) and you can stretch runtimes out to up to eight hours.  There's also Beats Audio and a display backlighting technology that, HP reckon, is 59-percent brighter than comparable machines.

As for the HP ENVY 17, that has a choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors paired with the same ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 graphics and up to 2TB of storage.  It also delivers ATI Eyefinity for running multiple displays off a single notebook, and as well as Beats Audio gets a separate subwoofer.  Each machine has Mini DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA, and the ENVY 14 also has optional 3G/WWAN.

HP Design Ethos:

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Hands-on, speed is impressive and the ENVY notebooks feel more of an all-round package than the last-gen models.  It feels like HP really took away the feedback, and brought back some truly capable MacBook Pro alternatives.  While it's easy to criticise them as Apple clones, if you're going to copy someone then we can think of plenty worse choices than Cupertino's finest.

The HP ENVY 14 will start shipping on June 27th, priced from $999.99, while the HP ENVY 17 will arrive on May 19th, priced from $1,399.99.

HP ENVY 14 and ENVY 17 hands-on video:

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