HP Envy Rove: A movable (if underpowered) all-in-one PC

HP Envy Rove $980.00 Home users who like the idea of being able to lug a computer to different rooms and want something bigger than a laptop will find the Envy Rove useful as long as heavy-duty computing isn’t involved.

Is the HP Envy Rove a supersized tablet or a portable all-in-one desktop? You can make an argument for either case, but at the end of the day, the Rove’s 12-pound-plus weight precludes serious consideration as a portable in the traditional sense of the word.

Rather, HP's designers view this Windows 8 Home–based system as an all-in-one desktop that users can haul around the house as needed—hence the name, Rove. Its sturdy hinged prop-up stand works as a handle. And because the Rove can operate for nearly 3 hours on internal battery power (one of its tabletlike features), you don’t necessarily have to bring along its power cord. You can even lay the machine flat to use its 20-inch multitouch display as a gaming platform, something HP encourages by bundling several games that take advantage of multitouch support.

HPThe HP Envy Rove's spring-loaded hinge lets you set it to almost any angle.

The Envy Rove isn’t the first system we’ve seen that straddles the desktop-tablet divide. The Sony Tap 20, which we reviewed last year, boasts strikingly similar specs, starting with the 20-inch touchscreen display. And like the Tap 20, the Envy Rove is based on Intel's mobile technology, although HP opted for a less powerful CPU—the Core i3-4010u, which along with the Envy Rove’s skimpy 4GB of RAM probably accounts for the machine’s dismal performance on our benchmarks. Its WorldBench score of 78 is pretty poor for any system, but especially when compared against conventional desktops you might be considering. Even the Sony Tap 20 did a lot better (it earned a score of 95), thanks to an older but higher-end CPU and an additional 4GB of system RAM.

The HP Envy Rove's Intel Core i3 processor limits its performance.

On the other hand, you don’t really need great number-crunching power in a general-purpose home computer, and the Envy Rove is perfectly up to the tasks it’s more likely to face: managing email, checking Facebook, watching YouTube videos, and calling friends on Skype. True, the 1600-by-900 resolution doesn’t look especially fine on the 20-inch screen, but its colors are crisp and bright, and the integrated 720p webcam produces acceptable if unremarkable video. Beats-branded audio from speakers embedded in the bottom of the display is also decent.

HP provides a wireless mouse and keyboard that exemplify the quality level you’d expect from a midrange notebook: They’re certainly usable, but they have no particular design finesse. Still, I was happy not to have to deal with cables for these peripherals. I also commend HP for providing the latest in fast Wi-Fi (802.11ac, which is backward-compatible with both 2.4GHz and 5GHz legacy standards).

The Core i3 processor in the HP Envy Rove delivers better battery life than the Core i7 in Sony's Tap 20.

Connectivity options are basic: You get three USB 3.0 ports (two on the left side, one on the right), a headphone/mic jack and volume-control rocker on the right side, and an SD Card slot. If you want to plug in to a wired network, you must use a USB-to-ethernet dongle. You’ll find no built-in optical drive, either. The system has a button for changing the display orientation, but setting up the Envy Rove in portrait mode would block some ports.

HP does give you plenty of storage space for the games and multimedia that the Envy Rove is clearly designed to accommodate: The system holds a 1TB hybrid drive (a small solid-state portion helps with speedy boot time).

The HP Envy Rove is neither outrageously expensive nor a fabulous deal: At this writing, it’s listed at $980 with an instant $100 rebate. That’s more than I’d like to pay for a system with mediocre performance numbers, but the Envy Rove isn’t about performance. It’s about an unusual design for households in search of a PC that’s larger than a laptop but not quite as heavy as a conventional desktop.

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Review: HP Spectre XT TouchSmart is a sweet-looking, underpowered laptop in an Ultrabook’s clothing

I was a big fan of Ultrabooks—or at least the concept of Ultrabooks—when they first debuted in 2012. After all, who doesn’t like the idea of sliver-thin laptops that run Windows?

Unfortunately, it seems like the definition of an Ultrabook has since expanded to include any relatively sleek-looking ultraportable laptop—other specs be darned. HP’s latest Spectre XT TouchSmart shows how the definition can stretch in awkward ways. It’s got the look of an ultrabook—and it’s a great look. The touchscreen display is awesome. But the weight puts it closer to a mainstream notebook computer, and it suffers from the shorter battery life (but not the higher performance) of a desktop replacement. It's a luxe-looking laptop for your living room, which may be all some people want, but it's not really an Ultrabook.

The Spectre XT TouchSmart still (barely) meets Ultrabook standards. It’s under 0.9-inch thick, it’s got an Intel Core i7 processor and an SSD boot drive, and so on. But it weighs in at almost five pounds--4.96, to be precise, which is a half-pound heavier than a 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s trying hard to be an Ultrabook, but it’s too heavy to qualify.

It sure looks good, though. HP may have dropped the “Envy” moniker from its Spectre line, but this is still an eye-catching computer. The Spectre XT TouchSmart (we reviewed the 15-4010nr model, which starts at $1400) has a brushed-aluminum cover with lightly tapered edges and a soft-touch, rubbery bottom. Inside, the keyboard deck sports the cover’s same brushed-aluminum pattern. The backlit, island-style keyboard sits behind a large glass trackpad.

The Spectre’s biggest win is its display, which is a 15.6-inch IPS touchscreen with a native resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. The screen looks awesome, with bright, crisp colors, excellent contrast, and decent off-axis viewing angles. The display isn’t quite as bright as I’d like, and the glossiness can cause some issues in bright sunlight, but these are minor issues. This is also one of the best touchscreens I’ve used: it’s responsive, gestures are smooth, and touch is very accurate.

The rest of the Spectre’s input options—that is, the keyboard and the glass trackpad—are also very good. The keyboard’s island-style keys are a tad on the small side, but they offer decent feedback and are easy to type on quickly and accurately. The trackpad is smooth and accurate, if a little overly sensitive at times. Luckily, the trackpad has a small box in the upper left corner that you can use to toggle it on and off.

General prettiness aside, this Spectre has some problems that I just can’t overlook in an Ultrabook.

First of all, it’s got terrible battery life. In our lab tests, we managed to eke out two hours and 52 minutes worth of battery on HP’s recommended settings. To put this into perspective, most of the Ultrabooks I’ve seen get around five (or more) hours, while most of the desktop replacements I’ve seen get around two and half hours.

It’s not particularly fast, either. While the Spectre does perform fairly well for its class (it scored 61 out of 100 on WorldBench 8), it’s nowhere near desktop-replacement status.

The other real issue I noticed with the Spectre was its audio playback. HP has been working with Beats Audio for some time now to boost the quality of its laptop speakers. For the most part, this partnership has been yielding excellent results. Sound from the Spectre’s native speakers is tinny and grinding, however, with no bass to speak of. It’s actually kind of painful to listen to, and there’s clearly no Beats Audio enhancement at work. The Beats Audio is there—you’ll hear it when you plug headphones into the laptop. But really, don’t even think about playing audio over the laptop’s native speakers.

HP is clearly marketing the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart to the Ultrabook-cool crowd, but it doesn’t quite fit. It looks great when it’s sitting here on my desk—hooked up to external speakers and a power block—but it’s hardly something I’d want to tote around with me on a regular basis. And it would definitely need to have better battery life, speaker quality, and weight before it could really be called an Ultrabook.

Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy."
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