HP Envy 13-aq1015TX and HP Envy 13-aq1017TX review

Specification

Last August, Intel introduced a new member of the 10th Generation CPU family, the Intel Comet Lake. As the successor to the previous generation, Intel Whiskey Lake and Intel Amber Lake, Comet Lake is here for thin and light laptops.

Comet Lake still uses the same architecture as the previous generation, which is 14nm. This means that there are not many changes that have been brought compared to the previous generation. Then what are the advantages? Yes obviously performance and some new features.

And this time, HP was the first to bring two SKUs with Comet Lake to Indonesia, namely the HP Envy 13-aq1015TX and HP Envy 13-aq1017TX. The difference is in the CPU, namely core i5 and core i7

Design

These two laptops have the same shape, design, and size. The only difference is the color. If the i5 has a silver color, the i7 has a gold color. The design is calm, plain and minimalist with an aluminum casing and the HP logo on the cover. The coating feels rough but doesn’t get dirty easily with oily fingers. The screen size is only 13.3 inches. To make it more concise, the bezels on the screen are made thinner. The same goes for the keyboard layout. The edges have a distance that is not too far from the edge of the laptop. For the hinge, when the screen is opened, the hinge will slightly lift the bottom of the laptop for the convenience of typing. Hinge it can be bent to a slope of about 125 degrees.

Dimension

Dimensions that are compact, thin, and light are indeed one of its advantages. It has a length of 30.7 cm and a width of 21.15 cm, its thickness is only 1.47 cm. Steady. This dimension is clearly more cool to carry or carry in a bag. So it’s not too heavy.

Screen

These two laptops both use panels made by AU Optronics with the AUO572D series. The specs are almost the same. Both have a size of 13.3 inches, sRGB 92%, NTSC 66%, and a refresh rate of 60Hz. But something is different. The i7 series already uses a touch screen and the i5 series doesn’t. The use of different screens is of course intended for different uses. With these specs, it is suitable for content creators/professional users who need a simple elegant laptop and a friendly price. The screen has a good level of brightness and does not tire the eyes quickly. The viewing angle is wide and pleasing to the eye from various angles. One drawback is that the screen does not have anti-glare. So if there is a lamp or light, there will be a slight reflection on the screen.

Keyboard

The keyboard has standard keys without any extras. The Power button is on the outside of the keyboard. There is also no numpad. The buttons are backlit in white with two brightness levels. There’s no problem when typing. The keys feel soft and the travel key is low, so you don’t have to press too hard.

Touchpad

The touchpad has a size that widens to the side. Mace of physical buttons for left and right click. Even though it’s quite comfortable to use, it feels good to use physical buttons. For the base is quite rough and good for navigation. Don’t miss it, this touchpad already supports gestures up to the use of four fingers.

Fingerprint

For added protection, there is a fingerprint sensor on the right side. It’s small, but it’s good enough to stick your finger in. Powered by WIndows Hello, this sensor makes it easy to log in to Windows. When we tried, the sensor was quite fast in detecting fingerprints and went straight to Windows.

Webcam

Still the same, the webcam has a resolution of 720p with standard quality. Although the image capture looks noisy, the movement of the captured object looks smooth and does not break. Especially when the room conditions are bright. What we like, this webcam can detect the presence of faces. The camera will automatically adjust the exposure when it is able to detect faces. This is useful when the webcam is used in a dimly lit room. Then there is something unique. It turns out that this webcam can be deactivated via the switch next to the card reader. This switch can be useful for maintaining privacy.

Battery

As a thin and light laptop that is easy to carry anywhere, long battery life is certainly an expected expectation. These two laptops are equipped with a 53 Wh battery. However, the benchmark results that we carried out resulted in sufficient durability in its class, although it did not satisfy our expectations, which may be high. If the i5 can last about 4 hours 39 minutes, the i7 only lasts up to 3 hours 15 minutes. The test itself uses the PCMark 8 Battery test and uses a scenario of power saver mode, lowest brightness and wifi is turned off. This scenario represents light to heavy computing activities, which are commonly used for daily needs.

I/O Port

At first we thought HP was quite stingy in providing connectivity. Look at it. On the left there is only an audio jack, USB 3.1 Type A and USB 3.1 Type C which support DisplayPort and can also be used for charging batteries for gadgets. On the right side, there is a USB 3.1 Type A and a microSD card reader. Next to it there is a switch to turn off the webcam function. Already? Turns out not yet. The problem is that this laptop provides a dongle with a USB type C connector that provides HDMI, USB type C and USB type A ports.

Upgradeability

This laptop is designed for users who just use it and don’t need to upgrade. This can be seen from its very limited upgradability. The i5 series has 8 GB of RAM and the i7 has 16 GB. But both are configured dual channel. These two laptops also don’t provide space for a 2.5-inch drive to pursue thin dimensions. There is only one m.2 SSD slot and it is already filled with 512 GB. If it’s not enough, it’s better to use an external HDD / SSD.

Storage

For storage, these two laptops provide a slot with a 512 GB neme m.2 ssd. If it’s for work, it’s enough. It supports M.2 NVMe PCIe x 4, the performance of this SSD is quite fast. From the benchmarks we did, it turns out that the reading and writing performance is quite fast above the 2500s even though our expectations are above the 3000s. but still this SSD is still much better than HDD.

Audio

The audio already uses four speakers from Bang & Olufsen. The sound is good enough for a thin laptop. The sound does not break, the volume must be set to the maximum. The treble sound is clear and the bass is still felt even though it’s not dominant. This quad speaker effect also makes the sound sound wider. For those who are not satisfied, HP provides settings from Bang & Olufsen Audio Control. The contents are standard, there are preset settings for music, movies, and vocals. This is still coupled with an equalizer that can be set manually and also several available preset options.

Temperature

90% of thin laptops are definitely prone to heat. But from the solutions offered, it looks like HP is playing safe with the power limit, not the cooling. There is only one fan on the inside, and only 1 heatpipe. As for the airhole, there is one on the back side that is blocked by the screen, when it comes to the air hole, just like other thin laptops, the air hole is blocked by the LCD and the air that comes out is not smooth, the only hope is that there is a loud fan, but it causes a noisy sound. . While the airhole at the bottom where the source takes air, but the air hole is not that big to keep dust from getting in easily.

In the stress test, the CPU temperature had reached 90 degrees and finally dropped to around 70 degrees. But this is because the clock is also lowered. While the keyboard area, especially at the top, is also affected by the heat. Based on temperature monitors, the area is in the 40s. This clearly makes it less comfortable when the laptop is used with high load conditions for a long time. But when the load is light of course there are no complaints.

Performance

Talking about performance and temperature on a thin laptop can’t be separated. On the one hand, the laptop should not be hot, but on the one hand, the performance must also be optimal. At certain temperature conditions, the CPU clock will drop to reduce the temperature.

In the stress test on a laptop using an i5, the clock shows a stable 1 to 1.3 GHz, which means it’s below the base clock. And it is also seen that the CPU is experiencing power limit throttling. The i5 CPU itself has a clock range of 1.6 GHz to 4.2 GHz.

Meanwhile, during a stress test on a laptop that uses an i7, the clock is stable at 1.4 to 2 GHz. Which means sometimes still close to or above the base clock of 1.8 GHz. This clock reduction is indeed one of them to avoid overheating.

Both laptops use an additional GPU chip, the GeForce MX250. Although not for gaming, this GPU can still be invited to play games with an adjusted resolution. Based on our tests, triple A games like Assassins Creed Oddysey or Far Cry 5 can still be played at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels with Low detail. As for lighter games like Dota2, CS: GO, and PUBG, you can still play in full HD resolution. For more details, can be seen from the following table.

Conclusion

As the first laptop to use Intel Comet Lake CPUs in Indonesia, these two HP Envy 13 series offer the latest specifications. Both of these laptops are quite cool for school and office matters. With a compact form, so easy to use anywhere. Also suitable for those who like to type in cafes or other hangout places. The shape is minimalist, but it also makes it look elegant.

In terms of performance, for a thin laptop class that pursues productivity. Can these two HP Envy 13 series be an option. For the standard, you can choose the one using the i5 processor. But for those who want to be more productive thanks to touch screen support, and superior performance, the i7 series can be a consideration. Not only for serious business, the MX250 GPU can still be invited to produce creative content or play games with medium to low graphic presets.
We all know that thin laptops are usually minimal for the connectivity provided, but both of these laptops have provided dongle for HDMI, USB type-C, and USB type-A, this is a plus point for us.

But there are also some things we don’t like. Call it the temperature problem. In addition to causing CPU performance to drop, the heat that affects the keyboard area and the bottom of the laptop also makes it less comfortable. The option to upgrade is also not available, except for the SSD.

For the price, the HP Envy 13-aq1015TX which uses the i5 CPU is priced at 14,999,000 rupiah. If you want to use an i7 CPU, bigger RAM, the same as a touch screen, the price is 5 million more expensive, which is 19,999,000 rupiah. In our opinion, the price difference is not too high because the features provided add quite a lot.