HP has always been at the forefront of providing simple yet great-looking convertible laptops for basic office use, and the ENVY 15 x360 is no exception.
Apart from the spec bump to an Intel 12th gen processor and a bigger battery, there haven’t been a lot of changes to the ENVY 15 x360.
This is good considering that some aspects of this laptop were perfect. And at the same time, there are some things that are in dire need of improvement. We will discuss both as we move forward with our review.
Specs at a Glance
CPU: Intel Core i7-1255U | GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics | RAM: 16GB | Display: 15.6” 1920×1080 touch supported | Storage: 1TB SSD | Battery: N/A | OS: Windows 11
Build Quality and Chassis
HP laptops may all look similar apart from a few characteristics, and the HP ENVY 15 X360 doesn’t look any different.
The silver metal premium chassis looks and feel great, and it makes you feel like you are using a premium laptop. You also get that minimal HP logo that is only to be seen on their premium lineup.
And unlike some laptops where only the lid is made of aluminum and the rest is plastic, the ENVY 15 X360 has an aluminum finish consistent throughout the laptop. This is as best as it can get when it comes a premium chassis.
Structurally, the chassis of the ENVY 15 X360 feels solid. You would only see the keyboard deck flex if you push with too much force. But in a normal typing experience, you won’t notice it.
The hinges on the ENVY 15 X360 feel solid and tight. There isn’t any wobble that could be considered concerning, and neither the hinge is tight enough to fail the one-finger lift test.
As for the weight, it’s definitely on the higher side when compared to other convertible laptops. And is pretty much the same as the Lenovo Yoga 7i at around 400lbs (1.8kg.)
I/O Ports
The I/O ports on the HP ENVY 15 X360 are quite decent. Here you get two full-size USB 3.2 Type-A ports along with dual Thunderbolt Type C ports. Apart from this, you have the usual audio combo jack and a full-size SD card reader. You also have an HDMI 2.1 port, which is usually absent from thin and light laptops.
As for the wireless comms, it’s what you expect. It has WiFi 6E along with Bluetooth 5.2.
Compared to the competition, the HP ENVY 15 X360 is on par if not better in terms of the I/O ports.
Keyboard & Touchpad
Keyboard
The keyboard is quite good on the HP ENVY 15 X360. The keys are squared and well-spaced. And every keystroke feels nice thanks to the tactile feedback. There’s plenty of travel so you won’t feel like your keystrokes end abruptly.
The keys aren’t loud either. You won’t disturb your colleagues if you are using this in your office while typing away on Microsoft Word.
Don’t be fooled by the fake speaker grills on the side. It blows my mind why HP would do this. They should have either included actual up-firing speakers here or simply removed these and included a Numpad.
Though I feel like the Numpad implementation would make the keyboard feel cramped.
I honestly would take a Lenovo keyboard if possible, and that is possible with the Yoga 7i which includes the signature Lenovo tactile and satisfying keyboard.
But that definitely does not mean that the keyboard on the HP ENVY 15 X360 is bad, it’s just I prefer Lenovo implementation.
It also feels weird that the variant I am reviewing does not have a fingerprint sensor. In other HP ENVY 15 X360 variants the fingerprint sensor is located beside the arrow keys. So keep an eye out for that.
Touchpad
The touchpad isn’t anything premium. Despite being a $1000 laptop, it has a plastic surface which ruins the overall premium feel of the HP ENVY 15 X360.
The button-clicking feedback is clunky. But it’s definitely serviceable and will work for day-to-day tasks.
Speakers & Webcam
Speakers
The sound quality on the HP ENVY 15 X360 is fine but not the greatest out there. The mids and highs sound quite clear with a noticeable amount of bass. And the speakers don’t distort at loud volumes.
As we mentioned earlier, it would have been nice if it had upward-firing speakers on the side grills of the keyboard.
The Lenovo Yoga 7i has an upper hand in this case, which has quad-firing speakers which offer much better sound stage and depth. So get the Yoga 7i if you really want a great speaker.
Webcam
The webcam is simply put, horrible. It’s shocking that HP decided to include a crappy 720p webcam that produces grainy and soft images. Though it will work fine for occasional zoom calls.
Display
When it comes to the weakness of the HP ENVY 15 X360, the display is where it’s at. Again, it’s surprising that HP decided to compromise on the display of a $1000 laptop.
To start off the color reproduction is awful, it only covers 56% of sRGB which is simply unacceptable in a premium laptop. This means that the display looks bland, washed out, and looks lifeless.
And to add insult to injury, it struggles to get bright too, Maxing out at 250 nits, the HP ENVY 15 X360 is simply unusable in bright environments or outdoors. And considering that the chassis of the laptop is shiny and reflective, that makes matters worse.
This is disappointing, considering that the competition offers color-accurate displays that also get quite bright. You can get the Acer Swift X which is $100-200 dollars cheaper than the HP ENVY 15 X360 and it offers a vibrant and colorful display. Though it lacks a touchscreen and it’s not convertible.
The Yoga 7i also seems like a much better convertible option considering it features not only a color-; display but a 16:10 one. This gives you much more room to work on especially when you are working on a word document.
Performance
The performance is pretty good on this laptop. Apart from the usual stuff like browsing the web, video playback, and working word documents, the Core i7 1255u is capable to do much more.
Though there’s not a major difference in single performance compared to the old HP ENVY, the Core i7 1255u shreds in multi-threaded workloads.
Minus the horrible display, you could easily do some light to medium video editing on this laptop with ease.
And if you are a programmer that wants a laptop that does great in code compiling, the HP ENVY 15 X360 won’t disappoint you, trust me. Especially when combined with its great keyboard, it’s one great machine for programming.
On the graphics side of things, it features Intel Iris Xe Graphics, so don’t expect too much from it. You can of course run old triple titles like GTA V at medium to low settings or eSports titles at playable framerate. But don’t expect to play the latest demanding titles on it.
The performance is more or less the same compared to the competition, you can get something like the Yoga 7i with a similar i7 SKU which has more or less the same performance.
Battery
HP ENVY 15 X360 is easily an everyday laptop, You can do moderate to light work on this laptop. Working with multiple chrome tabs, playing videos, and working on spreadsheets, all of this workload resulted in the HP ENVY 15 X360 lasting around 8-9 hours.
You might get something less around 4-6 hours if you are constantly doing something performance intensive such as code compiling or using photoshop.
But for the most part, the HP ENVY 15 X360 offers excellent battery life, and you could easily forget the charger at home with this laptop.
Expandability & Upgradability
The 16GB RAM is soldered onto the laptop, so choose your configuration wisely. We would recommend 16GB RAM minimum. And if you plan to do some video editing or code compiling work then I would recommend you go with the 32GB RAM config.
SSD is upgradable, so you can increase the 1TB drive when you feel like it’s small. Though you would also need to reinstall windows so keep that in mind.
Conclusion
The HP ENVY 15 X360 is a solid laptop for day-to-day use. It features an amazing keyboard, a premium chassis, and excellent performance.
However, the awful display and poor webcam make it harder to recommend, especially considering that the competition offers far better specs.
You can get the Yoga 7i which is just better than the HP ENVY 15 X360 in every other way. The Yoga 7i has a better display, a better webcam, and slightly better performance.
