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HP Envy Move review: Personal computing on the go
Summary
The HP Envy Move is a portable, family-friendly personal computer perfect for daily work. But it has certain flaws that are hard to overlookI’m old enough to remember a time when we had a family computer, a Compaq Presario that had pride of place in my parents’ room, one which we took turns (or the occasional altercations) to use. Over the years, laptops came along, taking our computing along with us across the home. The idea of a shared family computer slowly started to gather dust.
All-in-ones like those from HP, Lenovo, Dell and Apple reignited interest in the shared PC concept, but all of them remained rooted to one spot, tethered to the power outlet like a relic from a time gone by.
Until the HP Envy Move ( ₹1,24,999) came along. This is an all-in-one in the traditional sense, packing in all the regular PC components and a soundbar behind a large display, but HP’s latest Envy truly goes rogue by including something that puts the ‘Move’ in its name – a 6-cell 83-watt-hour internal battery. It gives the Envy Move the flexibility to be set down just about anywhere there’s a flat surface, no matter whether there’s a power outlet close by or not.
Build and design
Helping its cause is its rather compact 21.74 x 14.43 inches dimensions, and while its 4.1-kg weight means smaller kids should be wary of moving it around, it’s no heavier than some of the larger 17-inch gaming laptops.
HP has kitted the Envy Move with an integrated handle that hangs off the top of the rear panel via a sturdy strap and handle, and this helps move the Move from place to place much like you would carry a large cloth shopping bag. Bonus: the handle doesn’t hang loose, attaching magnetically to the chassis when not in use. A fabric pouch on the bottom rear holds the bundled keyboard-trackpad combo when in transit.
But the real magic is how the Envy Move stands upright, and it’s a bit of design genius that elicits surprise and delight no matter how jaded you are by consumer technology. It’s the spring-loaded retractable feet that swing into action the moment you set the Move down on a hard surface and help it stand independently – and the moment you pick it up to move it elsewhere, the feet swivel and disappear under the base. The transition is simple and effortless and goes a long way in making the act of moving the all-in-one from room to room just a wee bit more frictionless.
Just remember – it works best on hard surfaces and not on softer surfaces like beds, where the feet may not engage, leading to an unfortunate topple.
Ports and connectivity
Port selection is a bit lacking, though with the bundled keyboard connecting over Bluetooth, most folks should be adequately covered by one full-size USB Type-A and one USB-C port, along with an HDMI-in port which allows the Move to act as a regular self-powered screen for connecting a streaming stick, a game console or a laptop.
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Connectivity is via Wi-Fi 6E or Bluetooth 5.3, no wired Ethernet port. You get a privacy shutter on the built-in 5MP webcam, though using it will disable Windows Hello face recognition for logging in to the PC and a rather nifty power saving feature that uses the camera to sense if you’re in front of the Move or not, dimming the display if you walk away, to conserve the battery.
Display
Of course, as an all-in-one, a large part of its presence is that 23.8-inch IPS LCD touch display packed into a chassis that’s not significantly larger than most regular 24-inch monitors.
The display pushes out a respectable 2560x1440-pixel resolution that allows for clearer text and images, and a 300-nits rated brightness that works in most indoor settings. It’s a lively, punchy display, aimed at casual computing, web browsing, lightweight productivity work or some serious Netflix binges. The latter is aided heavily by the powerful and full-sounding audio by a pair of 5-watt Bang & Olufsen speakers housed behind the fabric cover below the screen.
Oddly though, the Envy Move lacks an external audio jack, limiting you to the built-in speakers or Bluetooth audio.
Battery and performance
The Envy Move is firmly positioned as a family all-in-one that could potentially see some use on its built-in battery, so HP’s choice of power-efficient laptop components like the lower-power 15-watt 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U chip makes sense, even if that means that the Envy Move isn’t a workhorse meant for high-end gaming or heavy creative work. Lightweight image and video edits do just fine, but anything more is asking too much from the integrated Intel UHD graphics.
Day-to-day work isn’t compromised, with 16GB of fast LPDDR5-4800MHz memory and a high-end 1TB M.2 SSD for storage. Battery life is a decent four hours, which is just about enough for the longest of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. That is plenty time for a desktop to be away from its charger, for me at least.
Unlike most desktops in a power cut, this one keeps going long past the average UPS backup, and the 90W charger juices the Move up to 50 percent in a little over 40 minutes.
Verdict
There’s a lot to like about the Envy Move, and what HP has done to give the form factor a meaningful shot in the arm, but there are flaws you noticed once the novelty of having a carry-everywhere desktop wears off. To begin with, the integrated keyboard and touchpad match the color and design of the Move, and fit into the kangaroo pouch on the rear, but they’re strictly okay to use, with no backlighting on the keys and a rather plasticky feel to the accessory.
It is pricey when viewed in isolation, but it does have an ace no other AIO (or desktop) has. And finally, each time I moved it around, I did have to be very conscious of keeping the exposed screen away from sharp edges of tables, door handles and other furniture – not a ding on the Envy Move, but something to be careful about each time you move it which, trust me, will be a lot!
Even so, it’s hard to deny the appeal of this family-friendly device to young families. The Envy Move makes the whole experience of using the device just about anywhere you’d want so effortless. One just hopes customers don’t get adventurous and start carrying this to work out of coffee shops, that’s all. That would truly be taking it too far.
Tushar Kanwar, a tech columnist and commentator, posts @2shar.
