HP - ENVY TouchSmart 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - AMD A10-Series - 6GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive - Natural Silver

AMD A10 operartive system is very fast and the resolution of the touch screen coupled system is excellent

This is a great computer for the money. I chose the AMD over the Intel because it is a true quad-core and about 100 dollars less. The onboard Radeon video chip is great and hasn't had any issues with video or games. Doesn't seem to get hot unless you open multiple programs with video. The Beats music setup is nice but don't expect much in the way of low end sound with these speakers. What you do get is a crisp music experience that can be well tuned through the beats equillizer.The only negative that I have noticed, the keyboard flexes in certain areas when typing. The future will tell if it will be a problem. I do recommend buying the extended warranty and you get a new battery and charging cord after a year.

i haven't bought a laptop in awhile, i have been putting it off...but i did a lot of research and i am very happy with the speed and features of this laptop. ONE IMPORTANT THING, other reviewers mentioned the finicky mousepad. this is true, but in order to circumvent it, go to the HP Control Zone on the tile screen, go to the options and take off all the mousepad functions OTHER than tap, click, and two finger scroll. with all of the mousepad features on, it tends to get "confused" and it does all these goofy things on its own, and you lose control of the mouse...trust me, don't frustrate yourself. you only need two finger scrolling, tapping, and clicking and you shouldn't have problems. just reach up to the screen for everything else. also make sure you have the drivers up to date, Windows 8 is not bad at all, if you are the kind of person that can pay attention and figure things out. VERY pleased!

This is my first Windows-based laptop and my first Windows-based computer in 7 years. Most of my previous computers have been HPs and I've been happy with them. I like this computer. I don't need the fastest out there with all the bells and whistles. I just wanted something new that I could use for work and home. This was perfect for me. The only down side is that the touch pad and touch screen can be tricky at times. I bought a wireless mouse and it really seems to have helped out the situation.

I've had this computer a little over a month and haven't had any major problems. The mouse pad is somewhat annoying to use but that's easily bypassed with a wireless mouse which truthfully since it's touchscreen you don't even really need that. I mainly use the screen. I rarely even have to mess with the pad. That's the only even slight problem I've had. Everything else about it is great. I do a little bit of everything on it and haven't ran into any problem with it yet. The speakers are amazing. I read a lot of reviews that complained about the built in Beats speakers being loud and having poor sound quality that hasn't been true of my experience with them yet. I love the fact that they placed the exhaust fan on the side I don't know how many computers have that feature but it keeps it from overheating if you spend a lot of time on it. Which was a problem with my old computer. I would spend so much time on it and the exhaust fan was on the bottom and before I knew it I would overheat it. Actually with this one the air coming out hasn't ever really even got hot. It's been warm a couple times but the computer has some sort of built in program that helps keep it cool which as far as I can tell actually does do something. The touchscreen is very responsive I haven't had any problems with it lagging or anything. I've read and heard a lot of complaints about how horrible Windows 8 is to use but again that hasn't been a problem for me either it only took me a day or so and I can do everything I need to do. The keyboard has a really nice feel to it and I love that it's got a backlight option. I do wish there was a way to adjust the brightness of the backlight though. It's very, very bright but still a very useful feature especially if you use it a lot at night like I do. I'm not a big fan of the keyboard on the touchscreen. Which is mainly just the fact that I never use it but I always use the screen instead of the mousepad so it's always popping up but it's really not a big deal. I did a lot of research before I went to buy this laptop. Which I didn't when I bought the Dell I had before and regretted it for years. I know a couple other people that I have classes with have the same computer and they have nothing but good things to say outside of the slightly annoying mousepad which shouldn't deter you from buying this computer. I am extremely satisfied with this computer and would recommend it to anyone.

I do not often write reviews but after seeing some mixed impressions of this machine on the reviews i felt i had to add my experience with this machine to the fray. I have owned this machine for a little over one month now. It has SHOCKED me at every single turn!! 1st Build Quality: Good/not perfect. the build is a combination of plastic and what might possibly be aluminum? In truth i am quite certain that it is all plastic but the wrist rest/deck of the unit has a pleasant/subtle texture that will make you second guess the material. pleasant and stays cool to the touch whatever it might be. the screen is mounted by 2 pretty good hinges. a small amount of bounce when using the touch screen but rigid/strong enough to convince me that it will stand the test of time. the only minor actual "flaw" in the build is the keyboard deck itself, there is noticeable flex. I am a fairly heavy handed hammer fingered typist so i do notice some movement when typing. your experience may differ if you have a lighter touch. overall i would rate the build a solid 8.5 of 10. 2nd Everyday use: I use this laptop for my catch all, everything under the sun, on the go machine. (originally intended for light web surfing/word processing) as i write this review i have a video playing from an external dvd player using cyberlink power dvd, i have 4 chrome tabs open, and a small handful of windows apps running in the backround (weather/email/antivirus) There is no slowdown! this is a relatively light workload for my average usage scenario and i have yet to find any combination that makes this machine feel as though it has bogged down even slightly. I would like to address the complaints i have seen in other reviews of the "control zone" touchpad. i have seen other reviews that say "unresponsive" "mind of its own" "opens random apps" i have experienced none of this. i do wonder though have any of those reviewers taken a moment to understand that there is software optimization at work for this particular touchpad, firstly that it has a variable delay (which can be manually set to preference) to help to keep the user from activating the mouse cursor while typing. this is extremely useful being that the pad is quite large at the bottom of the keyboard. secondly i believe that some of the claims of opening random apps or it has a mind of its own is a lack of understanding that the edges or "control zones" are optimized to be used for the side swiped "charm bars" within windows 8.1 OS. swipe on the right zone and the charm opens and the cursor disappears running your finger vertically in the zone scrolls through the options. you can open this charm and the same on the left and bring the cursor back by simply moving your finger back in the normal touchpad area the charm bar will remain open until swiped away or a selection is made. it is an adjustment, this is a new idea to control a relatively new part of the windows OS. but i would say that the responsiveness and utility of the touchpad (once set to your liking) are outstanding, multi-touch and and accurate cursor control are highlights here. I would say daily use gets a 9 of 10 3rd Gaming: yes really, gaming. this is where this machine absolutely shocked me. i figured with an integrated graphics chip rather than dedicated gpu this would never rise much above the mid tier windows store games. i was DEAD WRONG! for a laugh i installed steam and loaded a favorite "old title" the original Borderlands. once installed the only adjustment i made at first to the graphics settings was to bring it to the native 1366x768 res of the screen the rest of the setting were defaulted to mid. the game loaded quickly, there was zero lag, no frame dropping, no image tearing at all! i amped it up, high settings and turning the anti aliasing on to 2xaa average frame rate at theses setting was still a very playable 35-40. i have since loaded Borderlands 2 and Mass Effect 2 onto the machine, each of these plays well at mid settings with the res set to the native 1366x768. i would give gaming performance a 4.5 out of 10 (keep in mind this is NOT a gaming machine) credit goes to the AMD A10 "richland" APU, which provides a boost to the integrated graphics by sharing system ram and using the APU to boost graphics performance to well beyond what would usually be expected! The Rundown: overall good build quality, Fantastic daily use experience, Unexpected gaming ability. every time i lift the lid on this machine i find something else to enjoy. in the month or so i have owned this unit i have felt like the value for money ratio has grown with each day of use and each pleasant surprise.

The overall build of this laptop is what really makes it appealing. With an almost apple quality appearance if not better, it really captures the eye. For a total price with tax of 650 dollars and for gaming performance beyond intel igpus you cant go wrong with it. With that being said there are of course numerous things that draw me away from fully recommending this laptop. This apu can actually take advantage of ram speed up to 1866 mhz, which is a pretty good sweet spot for these apus. And while 6gb is great to have, i feel like if it were to have a 4gb stick of 1866mhz ram over the 1600mhz it would help performance as far as gaming goes. However this is not a gaming laptop so that would be an upgrade that should be done outside the factory model that is purchased. As is it is definitely worth the money and should definitely be purchased.

The only bad thing I can say is that windows 8 can be challenging but you kinda have to learn it. I'm used to simple government computers I feel that I'm behind with technology in that aspect or I've been too busy to keep up with the latest fads in software. Other then that awesome computer just takes time to learn. Swipe here and this angle, say a command with dragon thing, then swipe there lol.