HP ENVY 15 latest notebook reviews, specs, prices

HP ENVY 15 latest notebook reviews, specs, prices:

HP ENVY 15 has a LED-backlit screens offer superior brightness and contrast ratings to traditional LCDs and many consumers mourned the day HP stopped making them an option on the ENVY lineup.This dial actually sticks out from the plane of the notebook's edge eeeeever so slightly. It's just enough for you to be able to spin the dial without it actually detracting from the elegant designs. While it may bring to mind Toshibas (et al.) of old, which actually used a potentiometer dial to regulate audio levels, this is strictly a software solution - it won't work outside of Windows (or presumably Linux). 

On top of the volume dial is a capactive button that, when tapped, launches the Beats Audio control panel plug-in. We'd like to see HP let repurpose this button to toggle the mute status in future ENVY iterations; chances are you'll use that a heck of a lot more than you would the Beats Audio control panel levels. The keyboard looks much the same as it did in previous generations, but the backlighting setup is new; in an attempt to minimize light bleed, most keys on the keyboad have individual LEDs responsible for their illumination.This prevents light from spilling from in between all of the keys. The trackpad isn't too much changed, and, like most HP notebooks, can be completely disabled with a quick double-tap in the upper-left corner.Speaking of 3D, however, it works, and it works well, or at least as well as you'd expect it might. A pair of active shutter glasses gets tossed in the box of every 3D ENVY notebook, and they're nice, too, like the ones we got with the new HP TouchSmart 620 3D desktop. As part of the AMD graphics that power the 3D effects, HP has leveraged that company's Eyefinity graphics technology to enable multiple screen support - up to three external displays can be hooked up to the new ENVY computers, with the notebook panel itself acting as a fourth. 

ENVY 15 Specifications:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i5-2430M
AMD Radeon graphics
500GB 7200RPM hard drive
Beats Audio with 6 speakers + subwoofer
Slot-loading DVD+/-RW
HP Radiance backlit keyboard + proximity sensor
76 WHr, 1000-cycle battery
6GB DDR3 SDRAM
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.0 and WI-D