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HP just released the perfect Windows laptop for almost anyone

Updated Oct 10th, 2019 10:16AM EDT
HP Envy 13 2018 price, specs, release date
Image: HP

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While MacBooks and fancy Windows gaming PCs get all the attention these days, the harsh reality is that most people still buy laptops that cost less than $1,000. At that price, it’s a struggle to make something with a good physical design that can also do more than handle 10 Chrome tabs at once.

Dell dominated the affordable-but-desirable space with its XPS laptops for years, but HP has been on a tear of good design for the last 12 months. The latest change is to the mid-range Envy lineup, and based on the specs and price alone, it looks like HP has designed a winner.

HP released a bunch of new consumer and business devices today, but I’d argue that the most interesting is the Envy x360 13. It’s a 13-inch fully convertible laptop that weighs less than a 13-inch MacBook Pro, comes standard with premium specs like 256GB of fast M.2 SSD storage, and doesn’t require a dongle to connect your USB drive. Best of all, it starts at $759.99, which is a fantastic price for a versatile laptop with good specs, even on the base model.

Those specs? An AMD Ryzen 7 2700U, which benchmarks similar to a last-year Intel Core i7, and is supported by AMD’s Vega 10 Graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of M.2 SSD storage. That’s a faster interface than the older SATA storage, which makes a noticeable difference in boot-up speed and opening files on your device. It’s also expensive, which makes it unusual on such a cheap laptop. The screen is also solid, with a 13-inch 1080p IPS touchscreen with Gorilla Glass on the front, the same durable covering you find on the best smartphones. It’s built on an all-metal chassis, which should make it durable, and the ports include a USB-C for charging and two normal USB ports.

If you’re more a fan of Intel devices, the non-convertible Envy 13 is a little more expensive, but comes with an Intel Core i7-8550U and costs $999.

There’s also 15-inch and 17-inch versions of both laptops available, if you need more screen real estate. and they should all be released this month.

Chris Mills
Chris Mills News Editor

Chris Mills has been a news editor and writer for over 15 years, starting at Future Publishing, Gawker Media, and then BGR. He studied at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.