HP Envy 4 review

Even with smaller dimensions, the Envy 4 manages to fit in the same connectivity as the 15in Envy 6: three USB ports, a multi-format card reader, HDMI, Ethernet and twin 3.5mm audio jacks are all present, with two of the USB ports being faster USB3 variants.

The internal components haven’t changed either, suggesting Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors are excellent at dealing with heat. The dual-core i5-3317U runs at 1.7GHz and 2.6GHz using Turbo Boost. The 4GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD cache helped it score a fairly average 39 in our multimedia benchmarks, as well as boot into Windows in around 15 seconds. The 500GB mechanical hard disk still has plenty of room for all your files. Away from the mains, the Envy 4 is just as impressive as its bigger brother. In our light-use test, it managed a sterling eight hours on battery power.

Graphics performance comes from Intel’s HD 4000 processor-integrated GPU. It’s almost capable of playing modern games, although you’ll need to turn down detail settings and disable anti-aliasing – our Dirt 3 test produced 17.9fps.

The Envy 4 costs the same as the larger HP Envy 6, so choosing between the two will depend on whether you want optimum portability or a larger screen. With only minor differences in performance, battery life and usability, it’s really up to personal preference – for that little bit of extra power pick the Envy 6, but for portability choose the Envy 4.