HP Envy Sleekbook 6-1010us

If you are one of those who do not agree that it 's what 's inside that counts , then the metal - bodied HP Envy Sleekbook 6 - 1010us ( $ 699.99 list ) should be on your radar . Envy is a stylish metal body and looks awesome when you take it out on your commuter bag , but its mediocre screen , lagging performance , do not want to add - on software , and other factors spoil the initial glow when take home system . Sure, it is a lower priced alternative to Intel - certified Ultrabooks , but unfortunately we can even recommend it to bargain hunter .

Design and Features
The Envy 6 - 1010us seems like a larger version of the HP Envy 4 - 1043cl , with a similar metallic finish and larger 15.6 - inch screen ( compared to the 14 - inch screen with Envy 4 - 1043cl ) . The concept of a 15 - inch ultrabook or sleekbook seems like an oxymoron . A slimmer laptop is always welcome , although in recent years the system likely would have been called " thin and light " or ultraportable . It measures about 0.8 by 14.75 by 10 inches ( HWD ) , so it corresponds to 21mm thickness spec for Ultrabooks . It does this by eschewing the optical drive typically found in 15 - inch laptop . The system weighs 4.48 pounds alone and about 5 pounds with the AC adapter . It is still very portable : the current 15 - inch entry -level desktop replacement laptop Editors' Choice Sony VAIO E15 ( SVE15116FXS ) weighs 5.97 pounds .

The Envy Sleekbook 6 - 1010us has a 15 - inch screen with a 1,366 -by - 768 resolution . This is a much lower resolution than say 14 - inch 1,920 -by - 1 , 080 resolution screen visible Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A - R5102F . You get less screen real estate of your Sleekbook cheaper , but then again you're saving $ 300 . While the 1,366 -by - 768 screen is chosen to save money , do not excuse the fact that you'll see a screen door effect while using the Envy Sleekbook 6 - 1010us . A screen door effect is similar to how it sounds : it seems like you're watching thought the display screen door . It makes everything you see blocky and ill-defined . You can see it when there are lots of solid color on the screen , like the green background before a movie starts trailer or the white background of a website . You can pick out the individual pixels , as well as a consequence text looks blocky and jaggy . The effect is like trying to read the text and view the characters in an 8 - or 16 - bit game console . We understand that building a laptop budget necessitated the use of a panel that budget , but anyone with a critical eye will have trouble in this screen . Any decent screen tablet - the quality will look better than one green 6 - 1010us .

The standard full - size chiclet - style keyboard is comfortable to type on , except for one thing: there was a problem registering typed spaces if you tapped the extreme left or right of the space bar Our evaluation unit : you had to hit the exact center of the space bar each time . This slowed touch typing down to a crawl . The keyboard on the HP Envy 4 - 1043cl and an HP Envy Sleekbook 6z - 1,000 review unit does not share this problem , so we hope this is a sample defect . The black aluminum lid and red soft touch magnesium base is pleasing to the touch , but the same surface and the keyboard showed fingerprints and smudges quite easily . Typing on the keyboard often resulted in unwanted input touchpad , so you may want to take advantage of the " button " in the upper left corner to disable the touchpad when you double - click it . Speaking of which, the touchpad Envy 6 - 1010us 's a gentle bear bull's-eye pattern , which introduces slightly more drag your finger in a traditional smooth touchpad .
There is good selection of ports in this green 6 - 1010us . It has two USB 3.0 ports , one USB 2.0 port , a full - size Ethernet port ( no dongle required ) , and an HDMI port . This means you should not have any problems connecting the system to an external display . The Envy 6 - 1010us have a standard built -in 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi - Fi . You also get 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive ; although this combination seems to be sufficient , the system of dual - core AMD A6 - 4455M Accelerated Processing Unit ( APU ) is a strike against the system . The benchmark numbers tell part of the story (more on that later ) , but the system may start feeling slow the first time you boot up . Viewing 720p HD video in a new laptop should not be a problem , but critical users can see dropped frames and stuttering some titles featuring heavy action or encoded with an older or better - codec . We watched the video trailer from the upcoming Wreck - It Ralph movie as well as other HD video system with Wi- Fi , component video and either slowed down or lost sync including audio . Older Web videos such as 2009 Star Trek trailer also exhibited occasional slowdown during playback . It is not our Internet connection : Our office has at least 40Mbps of throughput . That said , most other 720p and 1080p videos played fine we viewed , and any - was almost imperceptible .
Because the system has a slower 5,400 rpm hard drive , booting and launching apps is noticeably slower than the newer SSD powered Ultrabooks like Asus Zenbook Prime twins , Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A - R5102F and Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A - DB51 . The Envy 6 - 1010us is not as bad as the single- core Atom powered Netbook from a few years ago , but the performance is still disappointing right out of the box .

A lot of bloatware is preinstalled with envy 6 - 1010us . In addition to the shortcut to eBay , HP Games , and Office Starter 2010 on the desktop , you can see the taskbar shortcuts servants programs , Windows Live products , and an ad for Blio ( an ebook store ) . All this should be arranged in the Start menu ( and credit HP , it is mostly organized into categories there ) . Internet Explorer has three extra toolbars : Bing , Norton Internet Security , and HP SimplePass identity protection app . Add the fully populated bookmarks bar ( with ads for eBay , Amazon , and Games HP ) , and you're looking at a 1.75 inch 7.75 - inch ( vertical ) screen destroyed by bookmarks and taskbars . This is a case where the presence of lower - resolution screen is a major drawback . Sure, you can hide all the toolbars and return the screen space , but it will be a hassle trying to explain procedures to a relative on the phone . The Envy 6 - 1010us have Beats Audio and a built - in subwoofer . The sound is not blight the house , but the audio enhancements help when listening to music and watching movies . We 'd recommend adding a pair of headphones for the best audio experience . The system has 60 days of Norton Internet Security updates , better than the 30 days free you want to get online , but far too short to pay any real protection . The Envy 6 - 1010us have a standard one- year limited warranty and one year of technical support .