The option came back briefly in January, and we were then told that the Radiance display was sold out for good. Unfortunately, that screen is no longer available.īack in September, we heard whispers that the screen was sold out, and HP removed the option from the Envy 14 ordering system. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the highest contrast ratio we’ve seen on any notebook screen to date. The first time I saw that, I ran the numbers through the calculator a second time to make sure that was actually right. That works out to a contrast ratio of 1018:1. The max brightness is 331 nits, with a black level of 0.325 nits. HP’s 1600x900 Radiance display is a revelation, no way around it. But the best part of the entire package is the screen. You get used to the touchpad in the Envy, but it can be aggravating. Far too often, you move the cursor to where you want it, and when you go to click in the designated part of the touchpad, the cursor ends up on the other side of the screen. Unfortunately, HP still hasn’t figured out how to make a buttonless trackpad work. If you’ve used a unibody MacBook Pro, you know that’s a good thing. The backlit chiclet-style keyboard looks and feels nearly identical to the MacBook Pro’s keyboard. That’s a pretty common theme with the Envy 14-it’s like HP’s take on the Apple formula. It’s not quite on the level that Apple has reached with the MacBook Pro line, but it’s getting there. Overall, the industrial design is quite good, and the build quality is just as good as one could expect from an aluminum-bodied notebook. The textured aluminum on the lid has an interesting, swirled pattern, and the slightly convex palm rest is rendered in the same material. But while the lines are similar from afar, up close the Envy isn’t actually as close to the ever-popular Apple portable as it first seems. So here's the part we all know-the styling is pretty derivative of Apple’s MacBook Pro line. Unfortunately, that screen isn’t available anymore, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Inside, we find Intel’s first generation Core i5 and i7 processors, ATI’s HD 5650 graphics card, a minimum of 4GB RAM, and the best screen of any notebook on the market. And as we’ve mentioned previously, it’s a decently powerful notebook. It slots in nicely between the first gen 13” and 15” Envys, replacing both in one go and creating space for the range-topping Envy 17 we reviewed recently. The Envy 14 is part of the second generation of Envy notebooks. It just goes to show how great our readership is-seriously, we love you guys. HP never managed to get one to us for review, so Khoa coming through for us was an awesome move. I’d like to put a huge, huge shout out to Khoa Tran (theguynextdoor on the AT forums), who sent us his personal Envy 14 system for a couple of weeks just so that we could review it. HP’s Envy 14: An LCD That Was Too Good to Last?
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