HP Envy 13: A MacBook In HP Clothing?

Newly arrived in our office: the HP Envy 13, a beautifully designed laptop that packs a lot of power under it’s subtly patterned lid. We were impressed with this system when we first saw it a few weeks ago (along with it’s 15-inch sibling) and have been eager to benchmark this powerful system.

The system starts at $1,700 — a hefty price. When HP set out to create a luxury laptop, they meant it. While it may share its name with its predecessor, the Voodoo Envy, this 13.1-inch system looks completely different. This 3.7-pound work of art is decked out in seamless aluminum body that reminds us of the 13-inch 4.4-pound MacBook Pro, but it comes with a magnesium bottom. The whole package measures a svelte 0.8 inches thick. That’s thinner than the 1-inch MacBook Pro, but the Envy 13 doesn’t include an optical drive. (HP does include a design-matched external DVD drive.) A slightly recessed island style keyboard sits above a spacious touchpad with integrated buttons.

The Envy 13 sports an edge-to-edge 1366 x 768 HP Radiance display that, at 400 nits, is twice the brightness of most notebooks. With a 1.86-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SL9400, 3GB of RAM, and ATI Mobility Radeon 4330 graphics with 512MB of memory, this system has equal parts power and panache. Plus, the Envy’s GPU dynamically switches between discrete and integrated graphics mode to help save battery life.

The replaceable 4-cell battery promises up to 7 hours of runtime. An optional 6-cell battery slice will only increase the Envy’s thickness to about 1 inch, yet deliver up to 18 hours of endurance, and it sits flush with the base of the notebook to keep the streamlined design intact.

Other highlights include Beats Audio, which is designed to deliver professional-grade sound when you output to speakers or headphones,, and HP QuickWeb for getting online without going through Windows.

Check out our hands-on video with the Envy 13 below and our exclusive interview with the Envy’s designer, Stacy Wolff. Our full review and benchmark results are coming soon!