HP Envy x2 - Design and Build

As its name suggests, the Envy x2 is aiming for the premium market within its category, and this is reflected both in its £800 price (where direct rivals can be had for closer to £700), and in its design. While the Samsung Ativ Tab uses mostly plastic and the Asus Vivo Tab uses various shades in its brushed metal finish with plastic sections, the x2 sports an all-metal outer shell and offers a more ‘unibody’ look.

In fact, several people who saw this machine around the office asked if it was an Apple laptop. Mind you, with the Envy x2 closed you can’t miss the giant, shiny HP logo that dominates the lid’s centre. The webcam’s slight ‘hump’ is also something you’d never see in coming from the house that Steve Jobs built.

Another design feature we’re not too convinced about is how HP has decided to integrate the power button and volume rocker into its convertible; rather than putting them at the sides, it has made them part of the lid. This could have been very attractive, if only they had kept the same brushed finish as their surroundings. As is, they just break things up too much, and are just a bit harder to find. On the good side, they never catch the finger either, leaving the sides of the Envy x2 ‘tablet’ nice and smooth.

Having said all that, there’s no denying that the HP Envy x2 is a good-looking, stylish and well-built laptop/tablet overall, and its aggressive tapering makes it look like one of the slimmest Windows 8 hybrids on the market. While quite cold in the hand, that all-metal outer finish also gives an undeniable feeling of quality and avoids unsightly fingerprints.

Unfortunately, its lack of anodising or a tactile pattern makes the HP Envy x2’s tablet part slightly slippery. Also, HP putting the tablet’s headphone jack on the x2’s bottom (presumably for aesthetic reasons) is just a compromise too far – though you can still plug in some headphones with the tablet docked, as its keyboard base replicates the 3.5mm jack.

The protruding hinge that joins the tablet and dock raises the device’s rear up when in laptop mode. The dock’s hinge holds the tablet very securely and offers strong, nicely graded open/close action. The tablet part is easily released with a front-facing switch on the dock; though this mechanism was a tad stiff when first we played with it, it only required a little wearing in.

The 19mm-thick tablet part of the HP Envy x2 weighs in at 690g - heavier than the iPad 4 and Asus Vivo Tab - while adding the keyboard dock takes this to 1.39kg (the Asus is 1.35kg with dock). However, both the tab on its own and dock combo are lighter than the Samsung Ativ Smart PC by a few grams.

View Also: HP Envy x2 - Review