HP Envy 15 (2012)

 

The Envy 15 tends to fall into the prosumer category, which is aimed a little more at content creators than the average laptop is. None of this is emphasised more than in the IPS (although HP locally would only commit to "IPS-equivalent") "Radiance" screen, using an LGD0323 panel. At 1920x1080, its colours are richer and its viewing angles wider than the vast majority of the pantheon of laptops. 

Connectivity

Network interface

10/100/1000 LAN, Bluetooth, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n

USB ports

3

HDMI

Yes

DisplayPort

Yes

Display

Natural resolution (max)

1920 x 1080 pixels

Diagonal screen size

15.6 inch

Drives

Optical drive

DVD-RW

Primary hard drive

1000 GB

General

Dimensions (H x W x D)

25.5 x 381 x 243.8 mm

Laptop type

Midweight

Weight

2.68 kg

Graphics

Graphics hardware

AMD Radeon HD 7690M

Memory

Amt of RAM

8GB

Processor

Processor type

Intel Core i7

Processor speed

2.2 GHz

Software

Operating system

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Gigabyte S1080

 

If you're not patient enough to wait for Windows 8 and the ensuing tablet rush, there are a few options already on the market. One of those that caters to a budget audience is Gigabyte's S1080.

Despite the 1080 moniker, it sports a 1024x600 screen. This isn't a good start, as quite a few interfaces we've seen over the years require a vertical height of at least 768 pixels for all elements to fit on a screen.

Network interface

10/100/1000 LAN, Bluetooth, 802.11n

USB ports

2

VGA

Yes

HDMI

Yes

Display

Natural resolution (max)

1024 x 600 pixels

Diagonal screen size

10.1 inch

Drives

Primary hard drive

64 GB

General

Dimensions (H x W x D)

14.94 x 270 x 173 mm

Weight

0.79 kg

Graphics

Graphics hardware

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150

Memory

Amt of RAM

2GB

Processor

Processor type

Intel Atom

Processor speed

1.66 GHz

Software

Operating system

Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit