Credit: Ben Patterson/IDG
Battery life
We test a laptop’s battery life by looping a 4K video using the stock Windows Movies & TV app, with screen brightness set at about 250 nits (which, in the case of the HP Envy 13, meant turning the brightness down to about 91 percent) and with the sound dialed to 50 percent, headphones on.
Ben Patterson/IDG
The HP Envy 13 turned in a solid performance during our battery drain test, especially given its bright, battery-hogging 4K display.
With its 53-watt-hour battery, the HP Envy 13 lands roughly in the middle of the pack, separated from its two closest competitors by only a few minutes. The similarly slim-and-trim Dell XPS 13 squeezed another hour out of its slightly smaller battery, but it also costs a good $500 more than the Envy 13, while the chart-topping Acer Aspire 5 is considerably thicker and heavier.
Of course, one of the Envy 13’s key selling points—its bright, gorgeous 4K display—happens to be its biggest battery drain. If you’re looking for an Envy 13 model with better battery life, consider a configuration with a scaled-back 1920x1080 (Full HD) display resolution.
Bottom line
Peppy quad-core processor? Check. Bright 4K display? Yup. Slim and light? Double-check. We’ll also go ahead and check off discrete graphics, the comfy keyboard, and more important, the reasonable price tag. So yes, this configuration of the HP Envy 13 has a lot going for it, making it a great companion during a demanding trip to Las Vegas for CES. That said, the niggling trackpad was an annoying pebble in my shoe, and we're anxious to hear what HP's investigation turns up.
