HP ENVY 17t Review: Enviable Look with Great Power

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HP ENVY 17t: At First Glance

HP originally launched the ENVY series in October 2009 as a high-performance lineup. Since then, more powerful models have been released and even redefined.

One of such release is the HP ENVY 17, which performed well in most areas. Meanwhile, HP has now refined the HP ENVY 17 into the HP ENVY 17t.

Unsurprisingly, as a redefined version, the HP ENVY 17t cost a few dollars more than its predecessor. Specifically, at the time I wrote this review in March 2022, HP ENVY 17t had a price tag of $1,380.47 on Amazon.

But then, how redefined is the HP ENVY 17t from its predecessor? Find out in the subsequent sections of this article.

HP ENVY 17t: Design, Dimension, and Weight

The HP ENVY 17t looks strikingly sleek with a sturdy impression all over. In fact, “huge”, “sturdy”, and “smooth” are some adjectives for describing the laptop’s exterior.

More precisely, the laptop’s body is aluminum with an anodized finish which hides fingerprints nicely. Supposedly, the aluminum body should give the HP ENVY 17t a longer life span.

Regarding color, the chassis is silver in color, both on the outside and inside. Additionally, the lid looks gorgeous, like a floor tile, with only a gray “hp” logo at its center.

Impressively, the lid sits firmly on two hinges which open to about 120 degrees maximum. Meanwhile, the hinges are pretty stiff; hence, one cannot open the laptop’s lid with just one hand.

However, by the time you pull the lid up, this laptop’s 17.3-inch edge-to-edge display welcomes you first. Speaking of an edge-to-edge display, this is a type of display that has no other bezel apart from the glass that covers the inner screen.

However, there are narrow black borders behind the edge-to-edge glass and around the HP ENVY 17t’s display. This helps to accommodate the laptop’s HD camera, which is located at the top of the display.

Sadly, the image quality from the HD webcam is not satisfactory. On a better note, the camera has an automatic privacy shutter that closes the camera at the press of a button.

Thankfully, when it comes to the risk of webcam spying, the privacy shutter shields you from that.

Furthermore, the bottom border of this laptop’s display also houses a white “hp” logo which adds to the laptop’s glamour.

At this point, let us get back to the display features. In that regard, the HP ENVY 17t offers three display options which we will discuss below.

I will begin with the similar features between the three display options before I proceed to their differences. To start with, all three display options use IPS panels which gives them an excellent viewing angle.

Hence, with this type of display, the HP ENVY 17t’s graphics should look vivid even when you view it from a corner. Another similarity between the three display options is that they are WLED backlit.

For clarity, a WLED (White Light Emitting Diode) display is similar to a standard LED display. The name is just a marketing trick; it doesn’t necessarily make the image quality from the white LED display any better than the LED display.

Having talked about the similar display features between the three options, let’s talk about their unique features. Starting with the resolution, the first and second display options have an FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution.

Meanwhile, the third display option has a higher UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution. Hence, the image quality of the third display option will be better than that of the first two.

However, that does not imply that the image quality of the first two display options is poor. In fact, they produce decently sharp images.

Meanwhile, despite having the same resolution, what makes the second display option different from the first one is that the second option is touch-enabled.

Hence, the second display option supports multi-touch gestures. For example, you can pinch the screen to zoom an image or move two fingers in a clockwise direction to rotate an image.

Having said much about this laptop’s display, let’s get down to the laptop’s base.

Here, you will find a sturdy keyboard with a perfect array of keys. Everything comes in silver color except for the gray text, which poorly contrasts with the silver keycaps.

Nevertheless, the key travel is good with springy feedback. By key travel, I mean the distance that keys get depressed when they are pressed.

In addition to the decent key travel, the distance between the keys on the keyboard is also enough to make your fingers stretch freely when typing.

Another interesting feature is the keyboard backlight feature, although it is not very bright. At least, it helps make it easier to type at night.

Overall, the keyboard on this laptop is satisfactory. However, one thing you should note is that the right ctrl button has been replaced by a fingerprint scanner.

The fingerprint scanner works well and allows quick and secure login to Windows.

Furthermore, on the laptop’s deck, you will also find two top-firing speakers with decent sound performance. In addition to that, the HP ENVY 17t comes with Bang & Olufsen (B&O) audio-tuning software.

Despite the full equalizer effect of the audio-tuning software, it doesn’t significantly change the speakers’ sound.

That said, let’s now move on to the ports available on this laptop. Sadly, there are just a few of them.

However, the few numbers of ports are not even the major problem. The problem is that the spaces between the ports are too close, which means that a device on one port can block another port.

Speaking of the ports, on the left side, there’s one USB 3.2 Type-A port, one HDMI 2.0 port, a headset jack, and one USB 3.2 Type-C port. Thankfully, the USB Type-C port is also a DisplayPort 1.4, which can connect this laptop to a second screen.

Over to the right side, there’s an SD card reader, two USB 3.2 type-A ports, and a charging port.

That said about wired connectivity, for wireless connectivity, there is Bluetooth 5.0 and either Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) or Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax). The WiFi 5 card delivers high-speed communication, while the WiFi 6 technology adds multi-connection management to speed.

To round up this section of the review, let’s talk about the dimensions and weight of this laptop.

Precisely, the HP ENVY 17t measures 399.0 x 259.1 x 19.3 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 2730.6 g. This makes it smaller and lighter than the HP ENVY 17, which measures 405 x 266 x 22 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 2780 g.

However, comparing the HP ENVY 17t with some other 17-inch laptops proves that it is less portable. For instance, the LG Gram 17Z990 measures 381 mm x 266.7 x 17.8 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 1338.1 g.

In conclusion, the HP ENVY 17t looks really sturdy and attractive. Additionally, its good look is accompanied by three decent display options.

Therefore, I will rate the HP ENVY 17t a nine out of ten in this section.

HP ENVY 17t: Processor (CPU) Performance

The HP ENVY 17t runs on a quad-core Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor with 12 MB of cache memory.

The Core i7 processor has a base frequency of 2.80 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.70 GHz. Certainly, this processor should be capable of running heavy applications.

For a better analysis, let’s discuss this CPU’s performance in real-life situations. To deliver on this, We’ll be focusing on this laptop’s Cinebench R15 test result from notebookcheck.net.

First of all, let me tell you what this test does.

A Cinebench test evaluates a processor’s capability by subjecting its cores to some stressful workloads. By CPU cores, we mean separate processing units, each of which can execute program instructions.

Moreover, a Cinebench test can be a single-core or a multi-core test.

On a single-core test, only one processor core is used to execute these stressful workloads. Meanwhile, in the multi-core test, all the processor cores are utilized.

For metric purposes, a higher score in this test shows a better performance of the CPU. That said, the HP ENVY 17t recorded 187 points in the single-core test and 836 points in the multi-core test.

In comparison, the LG Gram 17Z990, with a less powerful Intel Core i7-8565U CPU, scored 165 points in the single-core test. Meanwhile, it scored 529 points in the multi-core test, thereby putting the LG Gram 17Z990 below the HP ENVY 17t.

For further comparison, the ASUS VivoBook 17 got 131 points single-core score and 622 points multi-core score. However, the VivoBook runs on AMD Ryzen 5 3500U CPU.

From the test results, we see that the HP ENVY 17t’s CPU is at the forefront. Therefore, I will be rating it a nine out of ten in this section.

HP ENVY 17t: Memory (RAM) Performance

The HP ENVY 17t has two RAM slots. The type of RAM it uses is DDR4 SDRAM, with a clock speed of 3200 MHz.

By default, this HP laptop comes with 16 GB standard RAM size but supports up to 32 GB of RAM. Therefore, adding another 16 GB of RAM in the second slot puts the laptop at its maximum multitasking capability.

In that case, the ENVY 17t should be able to run any modern app for office use and multimedia. Nevertheless, even with the standard 16 GB RAM, this laptop can open 40 Chrome tabs, including 5 HD videos simultaneously.

To fully grasp this RAM’s capability, let’s look at the laptop’s results in a PCMark 10 productivity test. In a few words, PCMark 10 benchmark is used to evaluate the memory performance of a computer.

Just like the Cinebench test considered before, a higher score on PCMark test 10 denotes better performance.

Commendably, the HP ENVY 17t performed better than the HP ENVY 17. The former got 6847 points while the latter got 3524 points in the test.

Also, the ENVY 17t outperformed the ASUS VivoBook 17, which uses 8 GB RAM. Specifically, the ASUS Vivobook 17 scored 5840 points.

Meanwhile, the LG Gram 17Z990 with the same RAM as the ENVY 17t sits at the top of the performance chart with 6948 points.

All put together, I will rate the HP ENVY 17t a nine out of ten. This rating is due to the laptop’s standard and max RAM capacity, along with its excellent benchmark test result.

HP ENVY 17t: Storage Options and Performance

The HP ENVY 17t has a PCIe NVMe SSD storage drive and can take up to 1 TB of this storage. So, we have two reasons to admire this laptop’s storage configuration.

The first reason is the storage type, and the second is the storage size.

As for the storage type, SSD storages offer the fastest read and write speeds compared to other storage types. Nevertheless, they usually come in small storage sizes and this takes us to the second reason for admiring this laptop.

Fortunately, the 1 TB maximum storage size on the HP ENVY 17t means a lot for many users. Significantly, this means a combination of decent space for all your files and the SSD’s fast speed.

Meanwhile, you should note that the model of this laptop I’m reviewing uses 512 GB of SSD storage. To discover how good or poor this laptop’s storage performs, let’s consider its CrystalDiskMark test result.

Simply put, this test measures the read and write speeds of a storage drive. For better understanding, the read and write speeds are just how fast a storage drive can open or save files, respectively.

Thus, higher read and write speeds surely indicate better performance.

In the test, the HP ENVY 17t gave a read speed of 1160.7 MBps and a write speed of 809.23 MBps.

In comparison, the LG Gram 17Z990’s 256 GB SSD gave a read speed of 454.47 MBps and a write speed of 460.96 MBps. It is easy to see that both scores are significantly below that of the ENVY 17t.

Furthermore, the ASUS VivoBook 17’s 512 GB SSD recorded a 1591.56 MBps read speed. Also, it recorded a write speed of 900.47 MBps which indicates better storage performance over the two laptops above.

In conclusion, the HP ENVY 17t offers a massive and fast storage configuration. Furthermore, its read and write speeds from the benchmark test are quite decent.

Therefore, I will rate this laptop a nine out of ten in this section.

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HP ENVY 17t: Graphics Card Performance

The HP ENVY 17t features an integrated Intel Iris Xe GPU, which is fairly powerful.

In particular, this GPU is powerful enough for most multimedia, and light graphics design works. However, because it employs an integrated interface and has no dedicated VRAM (Video RAM), its graphics ability is limited.

For that reason, I’ll advise you not to play intensive 3D games with the HP ENVY 17t. This is because such heavy games will cause overheating and possible malfunctions to the card.

Nevertheless, this GPU’s clock speed is quite high. It has a base frequency of 400 MHz, and you can overclock it to a maximum of 1300 MHz.

Even without overclocking, this GPU’s base frequency will play light games smoothly. For example, it can play Zuma Sparkle, GTA SA, and the like.

At this point, let us discuss this laptop’s result in a 3DMark test.

As part of our tech jargon breaker, 3DMark is a set of games played on a computer to evaluate how well it can render 3D graphics. These games include the 3DMark Fire Strike graphics test, 3DMark Cloud Gate, and 3DMark Ice Storm.

In these tests, achieving a high score indicates better graphics performance.

That said, the HP ENVY 17t scored 15,382 points on the 3DMark Cloud Gate test, while the LG Gram 17 scored 8,468 points. Probably, the Gram 17’s low performance could be due to its less-powerful Intel UHD Graphics 620 card.

So, once again, the ENVY 17t outperformed its closest competitors. Hence, my reason for rating it an eight out of ten in this graphics review section.

HP ENVY 17t: Battery Life and Performance

The battery on the HP ENVY 17t is a 4-cell, 55 Wh Li-ion battery. Thankfully, these specs are attributes of a strong battery.

Furthermore, HP said that this battery supports fast charging and is also an ENERGY STAR product. This means that a 45 minutes charge will put the battery at a 50% level, and it will not consume much electricity for charging.

However, one thing that HP did not mention is how long this battery lasts per charge. For such a big laptop, we need to be sure of its battery life and not rely on assumptions.

To be sure of the battery life, we will consider this laptop’s battery rundown test result from laptopmag.com.

This test involves surfing the web using a WiFi connection and the screen brightness set to 150 nits. Disappointingly, the HP ENVY 17t lasted for 6 hours and 12 minutes before shutting down.

In the same test, the LG Gram 17Z990 lasted for 7 hours and 10 minutes, indicating better performance.

Based on this test result, I, therefore, rate the HP ENVY 17t’s battery an eight out of ten.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The HP ENVY 17t lives up to its name by having an enviable appearance. However, it has a lot more than just an enviable look.

In the sections above, we have seen that this laptop outperformed some of its competitors in many areas. These areas include CPU, RAM, storage, and GPU performances.

Thus, for most computing works excluding intensive graphical ones, you’ll find it cool to use the HP ENVY 17t. However, for most 4K resolution display laptops, including the HP ENVY 17t, a poor battery life sets them back.

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