HP Envy 14-2000ea review

The screen itself has a 1,366×768 resolution that’s just about large enough to work on two documents side by side – if you need more screen space, there’s a choice of HDMI and Mini DisplayPort outputs for connecting an external display. The glossy finish picks up a fair amount of light reflections, but there’s a decent amount of screen tilt to stop it becoming a problem. Picture quality was certainly above average, with both text and images looking sharp, but colours were slightly muted at the default settings.

The large Chiclet-style keyboard is well suited to typing in low light, thanks to the bright white LED backlight, and although there’s no separate numeric keypad, we had no trouble typing at full speed thanks to the full-size, comfortably-spaced keys. Unfortunately, the integrated touchpad was more of a disappointment – the buttons are integrated into the touchpad, so you sometimes have difficulty knowing where the touchpad ends and the buttons begin.

It’s a shame the touchpad is so fiddly, as otherwise the Envy would be a desirable laptop. With two USB ports, a single USB3 port and a multi-format card reader, it’s well equipped for all your peripherals, but you shouldn’t need to sacrifice a USB port for a mouse just because the touchpad isn’t up to scratch.

This issue aside, the Envy isn’t particularly good value – the Asus N55SF has a more powerful processor and graphics card, more memory and storage space, an internal Blu-ray optical drive and a higher resolution screen for the same price. It might not have quite such drop-dead gorgeous looks, but it’s definitely better value.