REVIEW: HP ENVY x360, 13.3″ convertible with AMD Ryzen 5 2500U APU

HP ENVY x360 13.3″ with APU AMD Ryzen 5 2500U is the convertible model of which today we present its review, a very interesting device by design and specifications.This model mounts one of the latest AMD Mobile APUs combines an AMD Vega 8 GPU, a product superior to the Intel integrated GPU that has a reduced consumption.This convertible has a touch screen that rotates 360º which allows us to use it as a tablet, a very interesting point for a varied use. Let’s see in our review how this product behaves and how it works against the competition.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Description

The convertible HP ENVY x360 it’s made of aluminum and has a very careful design, weight and very contained dimensions make this product very pleasant in daily use. This convertible model allows us to mount them in different positions which gives many possibilities of use. The hinge system is solid and has details of engravings that give it an elegant touch.

• Materials: Aluminum and plastic.
• Interfaces: 2x USB 3.1 gen1 / 1x USB 3.1 gen1 + DP 1.4 / microSD / audio jack / DC-IN.
• Cameras and audio: 2MP camera with IR sensor / 2x micro / 4x Bang & Olufsen speakers.
• Sensors, LEDs and vibration: Cap closing detection / No light sensor / Charge and keyboard LED / No Vibration.
• Measurements and weight: 12.1 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches (30.67 x 21.46 x 1.49 cm) / 2.8 lbs (1.3 Kg)

In the back we have two rubber strips to prevent slipping, on the sides we can see the main connectors, we also have lock buttons and volume for tablet mode. On the left side we have an air outlet for the internal fan that is best not to block to keep the temperatures controlled.

Screen

The screen of the HP ENVY x360 has a diagonal of 13.3 inches IPS and is laminated, has a resolution FullHD 1920 x 1080 pixels. A screen that is perfectly indoors, outdoors is where it suffers because in addition to the fair lighting power has a gloss finish that has enough reflections.

• Size: 13.3″ IPS OGS FullHD with 16: 9 format / Brightness finish / Touch compatible with HP Tilt Pen
• Light power: Right indoors, just outdoors / Manual brightness / No light leakage.
• Viewing angles: Very good IPS OGS type.

Keyboard

The keyboard of the HP ENVY x360 has a very nice design, the keys are large and these have a quite effective backlight system that we can disable from a shortcut key. On the side of the keyboard we have several editing keys that we have to get used to. The trackpad in this model behaves normally and has a gesture system to perform fast functions, the touch is good and it is precise.

Cameras, speakers and microphone

The HP ENVY x360 camera are quite simple, the maximum resolution is 720p, a camera that allows us to make videoconferences without problems and that has an IR sensor for unlocking with Windows Hello, next to us we have a dual matrix digital microphone compatible with Cortana. The speaker system have four Bang & Olufsen speakers has a pretty good sound.

• Camera: Front 720p, muted colors. 720p in photo and video in 16: 9 format.
• Speakers: 2 rear speakers and 2 front speakers on keyboard, powerful and clear sound for a laptop.
• Microphones: dual matrix digital front microphones, pretty good audio quality.

START UP

System and user experience

We turn on the HP ENVY x360 by pressing the side power button, the system Windows 10 Home to 64bit moves smoothly thanks to the APU AMD Ryzen 5 2500U Quad core with Eight threads. We can use applications of all kinds with this processor or when navigating with many pages of the web browser open at the same time since we have 8 GB of DDR4 RAM at 2400 MHz, the unit NVMe with 256GB has an excellent speed and it is noticeable when loading any content from disk.

• OS Version installed: Windows 10 Home
• Software pre-installed: We found HP Audio Switch, HP CoolSense and HP JumpStart apps.
• Tutorials: Control the laptop with your Smartphone Android or iOS / Download, install or update Windows 10 from a USB drive

Support, BIOS and other OS

The HP brand offers us excellent support and we have a product website with all the details and drivers, we can also use the HP Support icon in the Windows 10 taskbar. We can access the BIOS by pressing ESC, it has a BIOS Simple AMI without special options or overclocking capabilities. The system automatically updates the BIOS of the computer when applying the Windows patches.

• BIOS: Without remote start options, we can change the boot unit.
• Other OS: LibreELEC for PC NO compatible / Ubuntu NO compatible

HARDWARE TEST

Storage, RAM and Ports

We perform speed tests of the installed storage by default, also of the RAM that comes standard and check the speed and functionality of all its connection ports.

• USB ports: 3x USB 3.1 Gen1 2x Type-A + 1x Type-C up to 10 GBps / Test SSD Disk with USB 3.0 250/220 MBs Read/Write.
• SD Cards: MicroSD reader reaches up to 87/23 MBs Read/Write.
• Video outputs: DP 1.4 output through the USB 3.1 Type-C port, normal behavior.

The speed of the SK Henyx NVMe 256GB disk installed by default gives us excellent performance figures within this category, the HP ENVY x360, does not give options to expand the system because it is not designed for it.

• Tutorials: Migrate Windows from one disk to another in a simple way

We have integrated 8 GB of SDDR4 RAM works in Dual Channel at a speed of 2400 MHz, the performance is quite good and it is necessary to be so since the Vega GPU uses this memory for graphics.

Battery and temperature

The HP ENVY x360 laptop has a 4-cell lithium-ion battery with 53.2 Wh, in our test unit the battery had a discharge problem and we could not test the values personally, calculating by components and experiences of the users we have made some approximate calculations.

• Battery recharge: 2.5 hours.

We perform several types of tests to check the performance in each use scenario, with this data we can make an idea of the overall real performance that the system will have during its useful life. In general thermally we have a good performance, we have not noticed loss of performance due to heating.

• Continuous extreme performance: Temperature 68ºC Max. / CPU 1.51 GHz / No thermal throlling but very limited CPU.
• Performance in gaming: LoL 62ºC / CPU 1.6 GHz media.
• External temperature: 38ºC at the bottom of the screen.

We perform several types of tests to check the thermal performance in each use scenario, with this data we can make an idea of the overall real performance that the system will have during its useful life.

The behavior of the temperatures is very good and it shows the good work of AMD in this Ryzen generation. On the other hand the fan is audible in work scenarios, it shoots at maximum speed playing heavy games.

• Continuous extreme performance: Temperature 63ºC Max. / CPU 1.6 GHz / No thermal throlling, limited CPU.
• Performance in games: Fortnite 60ºC / CPU 1.6 GHz media.
• External temperature: 37ºC in the central and lateral zones.
• Noise: Silent desktop / Playing when it reaches 60ºC is quite audible with 53db.

Wifi, Ethernet and Bluetooth

In the Wi-Fi connections the HP ENVY x360 tablet has a Wifi AC Realtek RTL8822BE MIMO 2×2 adapter with Bluetooth 4.2 integrated with which we connect to an ASUS RT-AC1200G+ Router, a mid-range device. We perform tests on the use of streaming using the iPerf measurement tool to see the maximum performance of each network adapter.

• Results: Correct speeds for this type of adapters. Good wifi range.
• Bluetooth: Works correctly and connects without problems.
• Tutorial:  SAMBA networks, performance and trouble solutions

PERFORMANCE TEST

Processor

The performance of the HP ENVY x360 is very good thanks to the APU AMD Ryzen 5 2500U Quad Core with Eight threads, a processor that serves us perfectly for any task. As we see in the performance values we an APU very similar in performance to the desktop APU Ryzen 5 2400G but with limitations in the speed of the GPU and the maximum of the CPU to control consumption, values that we can not change in the BIOS. A hardware that has an excellent performance in multitasking thanks to the eight threads of execution but that is something below in mono thread against the gross power of the Intel. On the other hand as we will see in the games tests the GPU leaves much behind the integrated Intel HD low-end and rubs shoulders with the Iris, even so the GPU AMD Vega have much more modern instructions and are compatible with much more demanding 3D games .

Benchmarks

Games

We perform our test with games on the HP ENVY x360, the results are in line with this type of product, the AMD Vega 8 GPU, a superior model compared to the Intel integrated solution that allows us to play quite demanding titles if we adjust resolution and quality settings. A problem that we have detected is that the Vega Mobile GPU drivers depend on laptop manufacturers and are not directly available on the AMD website, something that implies always being late compared to normal drivers.

• GTA V / Overwath / Fortnite, low settings, 720p resolution and no VSync.
• LOL / WOT, ow settings, 1080p  resolution and no VSync.
  *On models with powerful discrete GPU settings in medium and 1080p resolution

With the HP ENVY x360 we have performed a performance test with the adjustments we have indicated in the previous graph, with the game League of legends (LOL) that is quite light we can play at about 54fps, its rival DOTA 2 is more demanding and we usually have 10fps less. We also do a special test with CS:GO and we see that we stay at 16fps in 1080p, only if we lower the resolution to 720p we can play minimally at 52fps but it is not very playable. We have not been able to capture videos due to incompatibility with our PVR.

• NOTE: The speed of the GPU is limited to 200MHz and the RAM to 1GB, can not be modified in BIOS.

VIDEO AND AUDIO TESTS

Video playback test

In the multimedia section the HP ENVY x360 has a VPU with hardware support for decoding the h.265 and VP9 codec, this model also has support for DP 1.4 video output in 1080p resolution. As a mediaplayer works correctly with any 1080p or 4K video, in the performance tests you can see that we have support for all types of files in the most powerful codecs, we are limited only in extreme files. In the control panel of AMD we have several image quality settings.

• Ports: DP 1.4 to 1080p
• Tutorial: Playback 4K videos with HEVC and VP9 seamlessly on Android and Windows
• If we are interested we can use KODI with add-ons or we can test the LibreELEC operating system for PC

Video results

Streaming services

We perform performance tests on the HP ENVY x360 mini PC in the most popular streaming services such as Youtube, Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime Video and others with their native apps or using the most compatible browser. You can consult our guides where we explain in detail all the best known streaming services, how to configure them and what requirements are necessary to see content in HD or 4K quality

• Performance: This GPU has no hardware acceleration for VP9 4K codec on Youtube, we can use this add-on for Chrome to force h.264

• Guide Amazon Prime Video on PC
• Guide Netflix in HD or 4K on PC

CONCLUSIONS

Score

HP ENVY x360 13 2500U _

8

DESIGN AND CONNECTIVITY

9.0/10

HARDWARE

8.5/10

AUTONOMY

7.0/10

SUPPORT

8.0/10

PRICE/QUALITY

7.5/10

Pros

• Design, weight and dimensions
• Convertible
• APU AMD Ryzen with GPU Vega
• Fast NVMe disk
• Quality screen and speakers

Cons

• Basic webcam

Opinion

After pass our tests in the convertible HP ENVY x360 13.3″ with APU AMD Ryzen 5 2500U the set has left us good impressions. It’s a shame to have a failure in the battery of the test unit to check 100% performance at the level of autonomy. In terms of general performance at the hardware level, the device behaves excellently, both the processor and the memory and the very fast NVMe disk works to give a good performance at the user level.We can work with it perfectly in any application without problems of system slowdowns, we also have multiple options with its convertible system and touch screen.

On the other hand as we have seen at the peak performance level the HP ENVY x360 with APU AMD Ryzen 5 2500U allows us to play quite demanding games by adjusting details down, it is not a Gaming laptop, its strong points are others like his weigh and his compact design. The general design and the screen with very good angles are also remarkable, if you have to like the finish in brightness that makes you have some reflections. In general, a very interesting device for those looking for a convertible with enough power to perform the most common tasks in a very fluid way and with an extra graphic bonus regarding solutions with integrated GPUs less powerful.

WHERE TO BUY

HP ENVY x360 13 2500U _

8

DESIGN AND CONNECTIVITY

9.0/10

HARDWARE

8.5/10

AUTONOMY

7.0/10

SUPPORT

8.0/10

PRICE/QUALITY

7.5/10

Pros

• Design, weight and dimensions
• Convertible
• APU AMD Ryzen with GPU Vega
• Fast NVMe disk
• Quality screen and speakers

Cons

• Basic webcam