SUMMARY: There is a LOT to love in this HP - ENVY 34" All-In-One computer including innovative features like wireless phone charging, convenient side stand ports, and a magnetic web cam with eight attachment points. The CPU and Graphics performance will power you through most creative tasks and games in style. The construction is solid and aesthetic. There are ports galore. But for most folks judging value, it’s going to boil down to the high quality, and therefore costly, huge 34” 21:9 ultra-wide screen. You are going to love or hate all that expensive space.
PROS:
-The Screen: High resolution (5120 x 2160), ultra-wide (34”, 21/9), bright (500 nits), vibrant color accurate, this is not your daddy's cheap build's screen.
- Less likely to need 2nd (or 3rd) side monitor. Great for multi-tasking.
-i7-11700 Intel CPU, above average benchmarks
-Discrete NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 graphics (4gb ram). Decent for an all in one.
-Wireless charging (phones) built into base
-EASY (no tools required) access to ram and storage to make swapping up trivial.
-Insanely great number of ports, wide variety, including 2 Thunderport 4's!
-Responsive wireless keyboard with decent key travel
- Magnetic high resolution web cam with a physical shutter that can be attached to 8 separate points along the screen.
- Quick and Easy one cord set up.
NEUTRAL:
- Bang & Olufsen Dual speakers - expected more given the pedigree.
- 16 GB DDR4 Memory. For a power-house CPU and graphics for content creation I will add more.
CONS:
-The Screen: Most are used to a 16:9 aspect ratio. This is WIDE. Con or Pro for you?
- Fan Noise
- AA Batteries for the Mouse and Keyboard. No way to connect by standard USB. 1990 wants its design back.
- RF Keyboard and mouse cannot be used with other computers, wirelessly keyed to this computer only.
THE SCREEN: For me, deciding on this particular computer is mostly about the screen. After all, when you sit down to a computer what is the first thing you see? The screen. And THIS screen is both amazing and controversial. Reviews that say the computer price is high, have not priced out what a 5k/2k 5120 x 2160 ultra-wide screen alone costs ($1000-$1500). The screen is top of the line quality, from its high brightness (500 nits), high resolution (sharp text), and vibrant accurate colors. The only monitor I have seen that competes with it is the LG line (like the new screen from Apple, $1600). BUT it is in that ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio (21 represents the width, 9 the height), which means it's really, really, wide. Most of us are used to a 16:9 ratio in our wide screen tv's and monitors (see attached pic), and most games, movies, applications semi-expect that. I found not all games supported the ultra-wide view, but those that did were impressive and meant less people sneaking up from the side. Likewise, some movies are shot in cinematographic format and look great with no 'black bars', but many 16:9 movies will now put the black bars on the side. For productivity, that extra wide screen meant I didn't actually need two side by side screens. I could easily have three browser tabs open side by side, multiple word documents, you get the idea, great for multi-tasking and productivity, especially for content creators. But, make no mistake, I had to look side to side, rotating my head a lot, with such a wide screen. And often that meant what I wanted to work in was dead center with a lot of blank space on the sides. I am still getting used to that, but I can 'see' the advantages to the ultra-wide format. Make sure it's the aspect for you. And not everyone will want to pay the price for high quality (and large size).
PERFORMANCE: With the wide screen, I was able to play a game on the left side, work on this review in the middle in MS WORD, and watch you tube on the right while photoshop sat in the background. It only started to thermal throttle when I started pushing around 61 MegaPixel raw files from my Sony A7 rIV. It ran Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop well. It has WIFI 6 for fast wireless connection, I was pushing over 350 Mbps which is as good as I get with any wireless system.
GAMING: Work hard to play hard right? It’s a 60hz display, so you know its not for competitive gaming, but gaming enthusiasts. The 4 gb ram on the video card is enough to allow you to run almost all games, though you might have to set the graphics settings to medium for some games. It ran Elden Ring well. So yes, playable for those times you take breaks.
BUILD QUALITY: Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but this is one sharp minimalistic design in gun metal grey. The bezels are small. The base is simple and functional with a tube design for lowering and raising and decent tilt. And it is SOLID with very little ‘wiggle’ like you will find in a lot of cheaper screens. Note, the stand cannot be separated from the screen, its permanently attached, and be warned, it is HEAVY, almost 25 pounds so you won’t be casually moving it around from location to location like you might a smaller All-In-One.
ACCESSORIES & PORTS: As noted, there are several innovations that are well designed and functional. In the flat of the base is room to lay down your phone for wireless charging. Along the side of the central stand are handy ports so you don’t have to reach behind to the back, a SD card reader for photographers, 2 USB-A ports, and a USB-C port. Speaking of ports, these are in addition to the ethernet port, 2 thunderbolt 4 ports, 4 USB-A ports, HDMI, and headphone jack on the back of the screen. So yeah, you got ports.
The included keyboard and mouse are okay. Functional and fit in well with the design look. But you might want to replace them with your favorites. Two things bug me about them, they are powered by regular batteries with no way to wire the devices to the computer for a charge or a connection. They connect to the computer via RF, which normally means a dongle, but in this case, it is built in. One less dongle is great right? Not if you want to use these devices with any other computer. Use them with this computer, or throw them away.
I was hoping for more out of the Bang & Olufsen Dual speakers, they are okay for casual use, but are muddy sounding, lack base and just are not great for movies and music. And this is a screen built for watching movies from time to time. This is a common complaint for screens, but given the size and B&O reputation, just think they could have been better. Lost opportunity to wow me like the screen itself does.
The web cam is external, magnetically attaching to 8 discrete points along on the screen so you can get the angle you want. Very clever. Its high resolution with 2 microphones for a superior web meeting experience. Finally, it has a manual privacy shutter to cover the lens so you don’t have to worry about who might be watching, no tape over the web cam for you.
FAN NOISE: Like most (all?) Intel based computers, this one gets hot, not so much during routine web browsing or even simple game play, but once it starts to heat up, that fan comes on and doesn't seem to want to go off. And unlike desktops that you can move further away, or even docked laptops, this one by default is right in your face with the monitor. It would come on during intensive graphics (photoshop with large RAW files or AAA games). Your tolerance to such will vary, mine is low but for the most part was okay with it. Only annoying at night for me.
SHOULD YOU OR SHOULDN’T YOU: It’s great for multi-tasking, works well for content creating, is easy to set up and use, and is a good multi-media entertainment center. The 21:9 ultra-wide screen is a matter of taste. Taking that high quality screen into account, the HP Envy is a good value and I give it five stars. But if you don’t care about color accuracy, just want a machine to play games on, you might want to find something cheaper with a 16:9 aspect ratio because if I was judging on pure CPU and GPU performance alone, I would be giving it 4 stars.