HP’s ENVY x360 15 has recently been released in several new 2021 versions. The convertible laptop is designed for designers and comes in various configurations. The tested version (15-es0570nd) is one of the top models and is equipped with a 15.6-inch OLED screen.
HP ENVY x360 15-es0570nd
Price € 1599,-
Processor Intel Core i7-1165G7
RAM 16GB
Graphic Nvidia GeForce MX450 (2GB)
Screen 15.6″ OLED (3840×2160)
Storage 1TB SSD (NVMe 3.0 x4)
OS Windows 10 Home
Dimensions 32.3 x 22.4 x 1.8cm
Weight 1.8 kilo
Battery 51 Wh
Connections Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB 3.1 (Gen 2 10 Gbit/s), HDMI 2.0b, 3.5mm audio jack, SD card reader
Extras Fingerprint Scanner
wireless Wi-Fi 6, bluetooth 5.2
Website www.hp.com
7 Score 70 
- Pros
- OLED screen with good colors
- Webcam privacy slider
- Nice keyboard
- Thunderbolt 4
- Negatives
- Poor battery life (and relatively small battery)
- Housing somewhat flexible
HPs ENVY x360 15 is a sleekly designed laptop whose housing is made of aluminum. With a weight of 1.8 kg, it is not a very light laptop even for the 15-inch size, but the whole is quite portable. In terms of construction, the housing is slightly less rigid than we would like. You can bend it a bit and there are parts of the laptop that can be pushed in a bit. The ENVY 360 15 is a convertible laptop that you can also use as a tablet. That is a hefty and heavy tablet. Thanks to the 360-degree hinge, you can also set up the device as a tent, useful for situations where there is little space in the depth or if you want to work with a separate keyboard.
In terms of connections, you get a useful selection. The laptop features a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 4 support and two regular USB ports that support the faster Gen2 speed. In addition to peripherals, the Thunderbolt connection also supports connecting a screen and charging the laptop. For normal charging, there is a separate charging connection to which you connect the supplied 90-watt charger. In itself, that could also have been done via USB-C. In addition to the Thunderbolt connection, an HDMI port is also available for connecting a screen. An SD card reader and 3.5mm headset connection completes the picture.
Just like on HP laptops tested recently, it is noticeable that a relatively large amount of unnecessary software is installed on the laptop, including McAfee Antivirus and ExpressVPN, which regularly ask for your attention with pop-ups. Windows is set in the dark theme with mostly blacks. This is probably because the laptop uses an OLED screen that consumes more energy when displaying lighter colors. In addition, an OLED screen can theoretically also burn in, perhaps also a reason for a somewhat darker theme. If you don’t like this, you can of course set Windows to the normal light theme yourself.
Specifications
HP has equipped the ENVY 15 with an Intel Core i7-1165G7, a quad-core processor with a maximum clock speed of 4.7 GHz. This is combined with 16 GB of RAM. A 1 TB SSD is provided for storage, in the test sample a WD PC SN530. On the laptop is a sticker from NVIDIA next to the Intel sticker, but that may be less exciting than it seems. The additional graphics card is a GeForce MX450, a stripped-down version of the GeForce GTX 1650. It is therefore not a gaming laptop, the card is mainly intended to speed up graphics programs such as Photoshop. According to the specifications, the laptop is equipped with memory slots, a removable M.2 SSD and a removable WiFi adapter. So you could upgrade the laptop itself. It turns out to be very difficult to open the laptop. According to the service manual, you need a special tool for this.
Brilliant OLED screen
HP has equipped the tested version of the ENVY x360 15 with a 15.6-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. It is a screen that combines good brightness with vibrant colors and thanks to the OLED technology an impressive contrast is also achieved. Black is really black. The uniformity of the panel is also excellent. The screen has a touch layer and is therefore finished with a glossy Gorilla Glass NBT. In addition to operation with the fingers, the screen also offers support for HP’s Rechargeable MPP 2.0 Tilt Pen, which you can buy separately for 80 euros. However, I did not have the pen available during testing.
An OLED screen such as the one used on this laptop offers many advantages, but also has an important disadvantage. The OLED screen technology used uses pulse widh modulation (pwm) to dim the OLEDs similar to how OLED screens on smartphones are dimmed. The OLEDs are constantly switched on and off in order to achieve (the illusion of) a lower brightness. The PWM frequency is relatively low and easy to see with a camera. Some people can’t handle this well. Although they may not consciously see the blink, their eyes do suffer. Something to take into account if, for example, you know through an OLED smartphone that you are sensitive to this.
Webcam with slider
A webcam is placed above the screen and it is equipped with a trick that HP has already used. By pressing the function key with the camera icon, the camera is turned off and a physical slider slides in front of the camera with a clearly audible click. In addition, the laptop is also equipped with a button to switch off the microphone. Both keys have an orange light to indicate that the devices are turned off. So you have a double indication that the webcam is off. The webcam itself is nothing special, it is a 720p camera whose image quality can be described as acceptable. The camera has trouble with conditions with slightly less light and then quickly shows some noise.
Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard is the same as we saw earlier on the HP Envy 14 and is one that taps pleasantly. There is almost no movement in the laptop itself when you tap, only if you press very hard the whole bends slightly. The backlight can be set to two brightness levels. It is nice that the rightmost key at the top is the delete key, you can easily find it blind. The on-off switch is located to the left of this. A row of keys has also been placed on the right for functions such as home, end, page up and page down. The only feature that is awkwardly placed is print screen. This is the second function under the shift key. In addition, you will find a fingerprint scanner in the place of the right ctrl key. That can be inconvenient if you just use that key. However, I only use the left ctrl key and this didn’t bother me. HP also offers comparable laptops with a numeric field. There is a range of ENVY X360 15 laptops with type numbers that start with ed instead of es, an example is the HP ENVY x360 15-ed1550nd. The glass touchpad is quite large with a size of 12.5 x 8 centimeters. It also works very smoothly and the integrated button has a pleasant click.
A striking design element are the ‘speaker grilles’ to the left and right of the keyboard. These appear to have nothing to do with the speakers, but serve as ventilation openings. The sound comes from the bottom of the laptop and that’s where we find the real speaker grilles. Not bad in itself, but the grids next to the keyboard naturally suggest otherwise. The sound quality is okay, the sound is full and can be quite loud without distortion. Incidentally, the speakers were made in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen and Bang & Olufsen software was installed on the laptop with an activated equalizer. If you turn off that equalizer, the sound immediately sounds a lot less full.
Performance
In PCMark 10, this laptop scores 5203 points. That is a socre that suits the processor, but in HP’s own ENVY 14 the processor scored even better. WD’s SSD has a read and write speed of 2452.78 and 1960.40 MB/s. Not the fastest ssd available, but a fine example nonetheless and in practice you don’t notice much from a slightly slower ssd.
In combination with the GeForce MX450, the laptop achieves 2223 points in 3DMark Time Spy, while with the Intel Iris Xe Graphics it is 1121 points. The additional NVIDIA chip is therefore a lot more powerful than the integrated solution, but at the same time certainly not powerful enough for serious gaming in Full HD. On the other hand, it is possible to play games in Full HD if you reduce the graphics settings a bit. The separate GPU is more intended to speed up programs such as Photoshop.
The battery has a capacity of 51 Wh, which is relatively little, as the previously tested HP ENVY 14 has a larger battery. In the PCMark 10 Modern Office battery test that simulates office use, the laptop achieves a battery life of only 6 and 18 minutes. In practice, you can count on a maximum of six hours of working time for office work. That is on the low side for a modern laptop. It is in line with the battery life of 5 hours and 45 minutes that HP states for this model. That seems to be due to the 4K OLED screen, because there are also variants of this laptop with a normal Full HD screen and, according to the specifications, they offer almost twice as much battery life with the same battery. According to HP, the variant with Full HD screen and a GeForce MX450 (15-es0560nd) has a battery life of 10 hours and 30 minutes, while the versions with Full HD screen without extra GPU (15-es0540nd and 15-es0650nd) 12 hours. and get 30 minutes.
Conclusion
HP’s ENVY x360 15 mainly relies on the OLED screen, which combines vibrant colors with excellent contrast. It is a nice laptop to look at, but the housing could have been a bit more sturdy. The performance is okay and you get a handy selection of connections. The biggest drawback of the tested version is the battery life. The combination of the 15-inch 4K OLED screen with a relatively small battery ensures a working time of up to six hours, which is short for a modern laptop. It is a clear compromise that you have to make for the OLED screen, because variants without this screen offer a much longer battery life, according to HP’s own statement.
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