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

Purchased the HP Envy Smart Touch about 1 month ago, so I am still learning each day about the computer. I really like the keyboard, the beats audio is really great, and I like the touch screen. The complete look of the computer is awesome. At first I was a little unsure about the computer and asked my manager and a couple of other computer smart co workers and they all agreed that it is a really good computer. So yes, I think the computer is a great computer for anyone!

The touchpad IS infuriating. The wireless speeds ARE slow. The silver plastic, simulating aluminum, looks cheap. The hinges needed to be stronger so there's less flex when using the touchscreen. The lighted keyboard is nice, but perhaps TOO bright. USBs don't insert ALL the way in. For the money, it should have come with 8 gb. RAM, not just six gb. The FX chip and R7 may graphics MAY be enhancing game play as advertised, as all Steam games are playing with little to no lag. Without a comparison laptop, it's hard to know if the extra money spent on the FX upgrade is paying off. Perhaps I should have stayed with the on sale A10/Radeon 8560 version that was $129 cheaper. HOWEVER, customer service in the BestBuy store was EXCELLENT, so there's that.

I bought this product for my school and it is good to use

I'm going to switch the usual review order and start with the bad on this laptop, then get to the good, since I like dispensing with short lists before tackling long ones. The bad. -When you first start using this laptop, some of the bloatware that comes pre-installed on it can make it perform slower than one would expect from a processor of this caliber. Uninstall this--though there's surprisingly little of it compared to many machines--and it will start to run like a scalded dog. -Also, the WiFi transceiver in it seems a bit on the weak side. -And, finally, the Beats Audio bit really doesn't impress me. My old Compaq Presario with its Altec Lansing speakers produced comparable sound, and the Beats Audio software seems to do some downright weird stuff to the sound, especially noticeable when using headphones. I have to wonder how much less money this laptop would've cost had it not been for the licensing fees to use the Beats Audio name. Now, for the good. -The AMD FX-7500 processor is quite a little speed demon. I'd readily compare it to an upper-midrange Core i7 processor, but with a good $200 lower price tag. -The integrated R7 GPU stomps pretty much every Intel HD integrated GPU I've used. It performs much more like a discrete GPU than an integrated one, and considering about the only way to get comparable graphics performance from an Intel-based system is for it to have a discrete AMD or GeForce GPU, the processor in this laptop makes it an even better deal, since a discrete GPU only drives up the price of Intel-based systems even more. -The styling is quite sleek. It's comparable to the MacBook pro. In fact, I'm convinced the design is an unabashed attempt to reflect the stylings of Apple's flagship laptop. And, considering this laptop costs only about 1/3 as much, yet it seems to have faster overall performance, it's easy to see why HP chose the name Envy. -Though it's just over 6 lbs, it's thinner than many laptops, because they eschewed an internal optical drive (but if you buy a USB optical drive with it, you get a decent discount on that device), and the overall heft, which still isn't too bad, seems to be a sign of its substantial build quality. It feels like it's built for the long haul and not just as a throw-away plastic thing like most less-expensive models. -The touch screen is responsive and bright. The colors are a little muted, but I've seen far worse, and laptop displays that are better cost a lot more...much more than I think they're actually worth. The display on this laptop offers great all-around performance for the price. -The track pad is just as responsive as the touch screen, and it comes with some nice features. It also clicks like the track pads on MacBooks, without separate buttons. It's roomy and offers plenty of space for multi-touch gestures. Though, I still prefer to use a mouse, so I set the track pad to automatically turn itself off when a USB pointing device is attached (also a nice feature). -The backlit keyboard is pretty. Though, its usefulness as more than just eye candy is questionable except when the display brightness is turned all the way down in the dark. Unless this is the case, the display's light seems plenty bright to make the keyboard easy to see even without the backlight on, since the keyboard is the same silver finish as the rest of the laptop, which is reflective enough to see in the display's light. But, if nothing else, the keyboard does look nice when lit up. -The battery life is about average for a machine with this laptop's specs. If you create a custom power plan for running on the battery, you should be able to squeeze out around 6 hours under light duty. I was able to get about 4.5 hours with a mix of web-browsing, video-watching and document-creation. It could be better, but it could also be worse. -The cooling fan is quiet. Though the laptop can produce a bit of heat when playing games, because all of the processors and other gadgets in it ramp up their output, the fan itself never gets above a whisper. I was impressed by this. -Built-in Bluetooth. I'm surprised this isn't standard in all laptops these days, but, alas, it's still limited to the mid-to-upper-level models. This one has it. Overall, I'd say this laptop provides everything you'd expect for a machine with its price, and perhaps a bit more. It holds its own against some of the better Core i7 processors, and it mops the floor with Intel GPUs (also holding its own against discrete third-party GPUs in Intel-based systems), and it does it for hundreds less than these comparable machines. Though it would've been all too easy for HP to put in another 2GB of RAM for pretty much the same price, 6GB seems ample for most of what you're likely to do with it (I'm a photographer and graphic designer, and it has so far handled everything I've thrown at it in this category with aplomb, and it's done so without having to switch to excruciatingly slow virtual memory). Gaming on it has so far been decent. It can handle Crysis 3 on low settings, which might sound like a disappointment, but if you've played Crysis 3 on low settings, you're familiar with just how good this game still looks even then. And it plays Tomb Raider on high settings quite well. Skyrim plays on ultra settings without issues. Though I've used laptops with even better specs (I use one at my job with an Intel Core i7-4600M with discrete AMD Radeon HD 8790M GPU), those machines cost much, much more than this one, and their build quality generally isn't even as good. For its price, I can't think of a better overall machine from both performance and style perspectives than this HP Envy. And, if HP would forego the whole Beats Audio thing, which I feel is completely overrated, it could cost even less, which would make it a downright phenomenal deal.

Caught this one on sale for $50 off. The FX processor intrigued me, I have an 8 core FX desktop that I game with, so I grabbed this one. Four processing cores and 6 graphics cores. It was a little poky, once I got it setup and patched, but 6 GB of ram is an odd number.Went to grab an 8 to swap out for the 2 GB stick that was in it (yes you can easily get to the ram) and brought it home. Matched all the specs for what was in it stock. The machine saw the ram, but refused to use it. A bit more digging showed that this machine needs LOW VOLTAGE ram. It will see other ram, even in the bios, but wont use it. Lucked into a sale on 16GB of Crucial, LOW VOLTAGE, on sale the next week and grabbed it. Dragon Age Inquisition and Evolve, on high settings, play flawlessly now. Does get a little warm, after a 3+ hours of playing, but nothing a standard cooling mat can't handle. It's not a gaming rig with the proper venting. But it's definitely worth the coin. I believe my son will be taking one to college with him next year. Yup, ,I'm that old!

It's a 'good' computer but I'm not convinced that it's a 'great' computer! The touchpad seemed to be super sensitive when I first started using the computer. Just getting near it seemed to send the curser to some other area of the screen. I could not figure out how to dial it down or disable it with out calling for technical support and even then it took two people to get to the control location and disable it. This should be straight forward and simple to toggle on/off. With less than one months use I began experiencing a black out of the display while on the internet which lasted only a second however when it came back I had a "display driver failure" message. Shortly thereafter when waking it wouldn't power back on until I completely cut power from the computer. After a couple hours with the tech support people and having all the drivers reloaded the problem seems to have been resolved. However I was told that this has happened with others and on one occasion a the display board and mother board needed to be replaced. I'm not feeling very confident in my purchase but am willing to give it time. Unfortunately when the techs reloaded the drivers and did their work the touchpad was toggled back on. Still not being able to determine how to turn it off I called again and the tech I talked to this time merely decreased the sensitivity. This has helped - however there are occasions when I still have to look to see where the curser has disappeared to! I would prefer it be turned off again! Otherwise the system is functioning flawlessly and seems to be a pretty nice computer. I especially like the back lighting on the keyboard. I use the computer a quite often during the night and appreciate not having to turn on lights just to be able to see the keys, I would recommend this to any one - but with the caution that while it hasn't been the rock solid computer I had hoped for, it has been doing all that I need it to do and appears to be working as it should be. Hopefully it will continue to work properly and that I can gain some confidence with it. Then I will feel a lot more comfortable with my purchase!

We bought this laptop to replace a similar model from a few years back. We were not sure about the touchscreen nature of Win 8.0. Well, my wife is elated we bought this model. She is able to use the computer in places she never imagined because of the ease of using the touchscreen. The HP performs well and even the reticence of buying an AMD chip set has been alleviated. Works much better/faster than the prior Intel as well as some newer Intel sets we've used.

I purchased the HP Envy Touch Smart laptop to replace an older laptop and while I am mostly satisfied with the laptop, it does tend to cause some issues from time to time. The touch pad and the touch screen on the laptop can be a little oversensitive, and the slightest speck of dust or smudge can cause the mouse icon to go a little haywire. I find myself wiping down both the screen and the touch pad at least once a day to keep things going smoothly. While the touch screen issues tend to drive me a bit crazy, I am, for the most part, satisfied with the laptop, as long as I remember to wipe the screens down. Processing and internet speeds work great, and I never have any issues with freezing programs. The laptop starts up fast and without incident. The HP Envy is the very definition of a middle of the road machine, with just as many high points as low. My issues may be solved by using an external optical scan mouse instead of the touch screens, which I have yet to try, but who wants to use a mouse when you get a touch screen laptop? I wouldn't return the laptop, but I'm not sure I would go out of my way to promote it, either.