HP - ENVY TouchSmart 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive - Modern Silver

I've been looking for a new laptop to replace my old Dell Latitude D800. I was eyeing the Dell Inspirons for a while but this one was on sale at Best Buy. I am reviewing the |Model: m6-k025dx| This HP Envy TouchSmart Sleekbook is a high quality laptop. My personal opinion is that when a laptop is so thin that they have trouble fitting the USB ports in the thin build they have reached the thinnest it needs to be. It has larger than average beats speakers right in front of the screen so the sound is always great no matter where your hands are. It has a great backlit keyboard and number pad. The touch-pad, however is not the best. I always use a mouse, and when I don't have a mouse, I use the touchscreen and keyboard shortcuts mostly. It also has a beautiful screen with Full HD, however, from an angle the colors are really bad. Battery life is average, if not below average. It will last about 3 hours with the screen brightness all the way on, but up to 5 with it dimmed (continual use). But you can make it last a few days even if you set it to sleep every time the lid is closed. I also had to buy an external $30 optical drive, which was a small annoyance since I have had to use a bit, but it works great. The deal I got had 50GB free of "Box" free online storage and 7GB free of Skydrive. Along with Dropbox and Google Drive I can have about 70 free GB of free online storage. Another software bonus is "Power Director 10" video editing software, which is pretty powerful. It also has a free month of Norton and you can also add a free year of Webroot after that. Words of advice on Windows 8 (and how to upgrade to 8.1): When I first got the laptop, it had Windows 8.0. I wanted to upgrade to Windows 8.1 but it wouldn't show up in the Windows Store. I have seen lots of other reviews that had the same problem. The solution was actually pretty simple. You have to update Windows 8 (in the PC settings, then restart) before you update to windows 8.1. This will take a couple hours, and then it will take another few hours to run the actual 8.1 update. (After the first updates have been run, the 8.1 update will be found in the new "featured" section of the Windows store.) I actually love Windows 8.1. It is really customizable. It is really easy to use even without the touchscreen. In fact, when I have my mouse, I almost never use the touchscreen. (I even had buyers regret because there is a model that is $499 exactly the same as this one, but without a Full HD touchscreen) Everything is made for the mouse and touchscreen. The track-pad, however, is pretty bothersome. For example, when I am just trying to move the mouse to the left, it will bring up the charms bar instead of mover the mouse if your finger is too close to the edge. (HIGHLY RECOMMEND A MOUSE!) Another great thing about 8.1 is that you can make it pretty much behave like Windows 7, but I don't know why anyone would. Overall, this was a great deal when it was $699, but now that it is $799, they are probably just as good, if not better, options out there. This laptop shouldn't disappoint though. I'm hoping to get this laptop to last at least 5 years as my main laptop. I really like HP, But they have some crapware like HP connected music, games, etc.

This computer boots faster than any PC I have ever owned including various 3rd generation i5's and one i7. I love the backlit keyboard. There is a function key to turn it on and off, but it is great in low light work settings, using it in bed etc. There is a small amount of heat when it is resting on bare legs, but minimal and not annoying. The screen is perfect. It is the perfect size screen for just about everything from creating a database in Access to watching a movie. I do not think any touch screen I have tried with Windows 8 is any more perfectly responsive without being over or under responsive. My ONLY complaint so far after 10 days is that once in a while I'll move the cursor over something to click and it seems to move before I click on this. THIS ONLY seems to happen when the device is not on a table, so could be my bumping it. I might be able to fix this by reducing the mouse sensitivity. The sound from this computer is superb. I have only a limited idea of what "Beats" audio means, but it works well on this laptop. The keys type beautifully and I enjoy typing on this computer more than on my previously owned Thinkpad Convertible. It is almost as intuitive as typing on a full size keyboard. I should tell you I Aced High School Typing and am a touch typist and never rest my palms, no offense. This laptop has make me realize several things. First, Windows 8 is great. The ability to interact with the screen is wonderful and I almost never use the touchpad accept for highlighting and right clicking. I admit I am intrigued by the idea of tablets that fold back on themselves such as my previously owned Fujitsu Lifebook and Lenovo ThinkPad but for me, those screens are too small and I admit I rarely twisted or folded. Those were also earlier generation touch screens, mainly Wacom pen screens, but you could do some touch on them. The only think I would like to see different on this computer might be to make the screen lie back flat or be "tentable" like the Yoga. Overall I truly love this computer. Of note, it did come from Best Buy with a ding in the cover, but I had just returned an ACER R7 that died after a week and did not want to wait in line again.

Like other reviews have said, the touchpad feels lopsided and uneven. Upon closer inspection though, I realized that it is not the touchpad but the area in front of the touchpad is sloped by design. Thought it would bother me but it hasn't. I did have to go into the touchpad settings and adjust them to my liking because the double finger scroll and swipe right were finicky. I don't like the feeling of the touchpad at all. That took the longest to get used to. In the center area that you use mostly to move the cursor around, there are a bunch of concentric, circular grooves. I don't know what their purpose is: maybe they are meant to provide resistance, maybe improve accuracy or maybe just to indicate where the Windows 8 gestures stop and the normal usable area begins. Either way I would prefer a smooth surface because it felt a bit little nails on a chalkboard to me. I LOVE the touchscreen even though I try not to use it all the time because I end up with horrible fingerprints over the screen which is a bit mirror-like. The back-lit keyboard is fantastic and the extra numeric keys are great because I use them all the time. The pc ran very fast on first setup and is even faster now that I got rid of all the unnecessary apps and programs. Even after installing Adobe CS4, it still runs like a dream. The WiFi was a really bad problem for the first 3 weeks. It would not stay connected for more than 3 minutes even though I was sitting in the same room as the router so I found myself having to push the WiFi button to turn it on and off to reconnect. I tried uninstalling the driver and re-installing but it kept putting the same driver back until I used the Intel updater which seemed to take care of the problem. It cured my remaining touchpad glitches too. Battery life is incredible and is such an improvement over the days of the DV4 which I would get at most 2.5hrs out of with light internet use. I easily get 9 hrs with this thing going back and forth between the internet, Office and the occasional hulu/netflix viewing. I optimized the settings and adjust stuff like the backlight, wifi and brightness which seem to prolong battery life. On one of my heaviest days of use I still got 5.8 hrs so I am satisfied. The design makes it feel lighter than it is at 5 lbs and the material they used on the underside feels luxurious and silky to the touch especially when sitting on my legs. Cool sense keeps this baby nice and cool ... have sat with in in my lap for hours comfortably. All in all a great piece of machinery for the price and it packs in quite a few desirable features.

I will start off by saying I am a college student who does daily surfing, write papers, watch videos, listen to music, etc. The computer can be a little heavy carrying around campus but when you add on books to that, there are not many computers that would be in my opinion very light. Pros: I really like the touchscreen, it helps out tremendously with Windows 8, and is more convenient to use than I originally thought. The back lit keyboard is great in the dark. I enjoy the sound quality. When I plug my earphones in it almost feels as if I am at my favorite music group's concert. I personally like Windows 8 more then I don't like it. People will always complain about it because they do not like change, but I can understand the difficult adjustments, and inconvenience at times. When properly working it runs very fast, and has wonderful battery life. I have gotten well over six hours out of it when adjusting the battery life settings. Video quality is great. If I watch baseball I can see blades of grass on the field! Cons: While this computer has many pros, the cons can make me a little angry. For example the wifi connection can be flat out bad every once in a while. My old computer which was a Compaq CQ60 did a lot better in terms of picking up wifi, and not cutting out on videos, and it is over five years old. Like I said the picture quality is great on this computer, as I watch a lot of YouTube, Netflix, and MLB.TV, but if I am in the middle of watching a game the connection will just randomly disappear, and the game screen will go blank GRRR!! Also I will be on YouTube at times, and the video I am trying to watch won't buffer; I mean when is the last time that's happened 2006? Another thing is I will go to click on something with the mouse pad, and the computer will freeze for a little bit. All of these things happen separately but will happen at least once or twice in a day but at least the start up time for the computer is great to compensate. Conclusion: Although this computer has its ups, it also has its downs. I enjoy many aspects of this computer but other parts make me want to kick myself in the forehead at times and scream while I am in the middle of the library. With a few things to fix, this computer could be a wonderful value and top notch product on the market as I give it a comparison of a poor man's mac when running well. I would suggest looking into this computer as well as other hp products or brands like ASUS ( just personal preference). There were many laptops in the 500 and less range that would be good for college student and daily surfing needs, just keep looking around! Hope this helps!!!

I purchased this computer on sale just before Christmas, I had researched this model as well as others and have always had good luck with HP, until I purchased this one. The computer performed great, looked great, I liked so many things about it. Here is what went wrong. When I got it home I updated the latest windows 8 updates, then I downloaded the 8.1 upgrade. After 45 minutes the screen went black so I thought it was finished and was restarting but it never came back on. I powered it off and then on and it said it could not install 8.1 and rebooted back to windows 8. I tried upgrading again and watched it the whole 45 minutes to see what went wrong and it would fail at "installing devices 31%." I tried upgrading 2 more times and it would stop at the same point each time, and then reboot back to windows 8. The last time it rebooted it would not turn on so I took it back and had Geek Squad look at it and they said the mother board went out. So I was going to exchange it but they did not have the same model so I returned it. Two days later I decided to try another one so I purchased one from a different location. I was excited to give it another try and it turned out that this one also would not upgrade to 8.1. It would fail at the same point so I brought it back to geek squad and told them about the problem and they said that this model could not be upgraded to 8.1 and to return it and they would help me find another one that either had the upgrade installed or they would try to install it. I was suspicious what the Geek Squad told me so I checked with HP and they said the computer was capable of being upgraded and gave me the number for Microsoft. I called Microsoft and spent an hour on the phone with them while we tried to upgrade and it failed at the exact same point as it had before. The man said he would have someone more experienced call me back the next day. They called be back at exactly the time we had scheduled and I watched as he went through the registry and it turned out the down load had corrupt errors, so he installed a different 8.1 upgrade and I watched as it froze at the same point as previous but after a few moments it completed the installation and it worked fine. I used it for a few hours that night and when I went to shut it down it installed updates before shutting down. Two days later i turned it on only to find the screen stayed black. I checked my sales receipt and found this was the last day I could return it to Best Buy so off I went. I had the Geek Squad check it out and they said it would turn on but there was a problem with the display . I am very disappointed by my experience with this product and also with Best Buy and still cannot find the model that I can trust to last more than a few weeks.

I did a lot of research before settling on this laptop. I determined my key requirements were: 1) you really need a touch screen for 8.0 (and boy am I happy with that decision. There are so many times when it's way easier to touch an icon or position the cursor with touch rather than a tracking pad). 2) 4th generation i5 processor or better, 3) min 6 GB memory, expandable at least to 8 GB, 4) a numeric keypad (just makes numbers so much easier to enter for spreadsheets, web forms, etc.), 5) keyboard and overall build quality, and 6) battery life (wanted 6 cell). Things I didn't prioritize were hard disk space, screen resolution, sound quality, cd/dvd drive (bought a Samsung external), and backlit keyboard (though I did think this would be nice). Well, this laptop met all my requirements, plus had the high resolution, Beats audio, backlit keyboard, and plenty of hard disk space. The only thing I didn't get was the 6 cell battery. I got this for $699 at local Best Buy and having reviewed the market extensively, I'd say this was a very fair deal, not a screaming deal, and was satisfied with the purchase. The only negative thus far has been the inability to update to 8.1. Talking to HP tech support, I believe it is a known issue. I've started a thread about it in the microsoft community forum - search for this specific model number along with "8.1" . I've tried to update a couple times with no luck, so hopefully it will be resolved soon. In the meantime, I'm getting used to 8.0 and so far I really like it - I think the people who complain are mainly without touch screens, or have quirky convertibles or too-small screens to work touch in 8 effectively. I think MS is really on the right track here and Apple is missing the boat. The only thing they may want to consider is using their mobile version of 8 for the smaller laptops/convertibles, rather than trying to squeeze the full 8 on there.

I am a medical student and I bought this laptop specifically for school. I'll discuss the pros and cons of this device. PROS: The touchscreen is great and pairs well with Windows 8 and Microsoft OneNote (a note-taking program#. The screen is responsive and allows me to write with my finger quite accurately and legibly. I love it. The screen is big and seems wide, which is great for watching movies or studying with a video on the left and a OneNote document on the right for taking notes. The screen resolution is good. The keyboard works well and feels nice. The number pad is convenient. The battery life is good so far. I actually like Windows 8, so the operating system on this laptop is perfectly satisfactory. The audio quality is good. The overall design of this laptop - aluminum, glass, sleek profile, less than an inch thick - is awesome. But this design has drawbacks #see below#. CONS: The obvious downside is the lack of a disc drive. That means no CDs, games, or DVDs. For some people, this won't matter at all, as they'll be able to stream media or watch it on another device. But, if you plan to use this laptop as an "all-in-one" #i.e., you want to play movies on it and you want to rip music onto it# then you'll be disappointed. The touchpad #touchpad, not touchscreen# is acceptable, but it makes an annoying tapping/clicking noise at times. That's a small complaint, however. The performance of this laptop is good - usually - but OneNote freezes if my file is too large. Other than that, it's a pretty fast computer. My last gripe is that this laptop is heavy! It's 0.9" thick yet weights about 5 lbs. Not a huge deal, but for a laptop that's supposed to be "portable" it's awfully hefty. SUMMARY If you absolutely do not need a disc drive, and if you don't mind a little extra weight, this is the perfect laptop for you!

First off, I would like to note that the touch screen feature is great, and I have had no problems with it working properly as others have mentioned. The overall look of the laptop is attractive, and people have even commented on this. However, I have had many issues with this laptop within the first few weeks of having it. For one, it really is not that fast. No where near how fast it is supposed to be. I actually got this as a replacement for a junked out laptop. It is supposed to be the same speed as my old one, but is no where near as close. The biggest complaint is my inability to stream videos. And no, it is not my internet that is the problem. I have very high speed internet, no one else in my house has this issue, and neither did my previous laptops. This is very frustrating because streaming videos for music and the like is one of my favorite things to do online, and I can't anymore. I have had geek squad ( I am under their warranty) try three times to fix this problem, and it only remained fixed for about a day. Then its back to being unable to play a video for more than about thirty seconds, or it just stops constantly through out the video if it does. Who wants to listen to music that stops and starts constantly. I sure don't. I also miss watching news videos. I also want to note that my old hp had many problems as well. While I didn't have video problems with that one, the fan broke, it had many software problems, and the hard drive broke twice. Maybe its just a bad experience for me, but I sure haven't had luck with hp laptops. Also, geek squad gave me it back to me with another broken hard drive, and when I told them it constantly clicked, they just told me it was the fan.. yeah it wasn't. Finally, they acknowledged that the new hard drive installed was defective, and instead of trying to fix the laptop for the fourth time they would just replace it. It was only ten months old. I was always careful with it and didn't do anything that could have caused these issues besides use it like a normal person. I am sorry but HP has caused me nothing but problems. Never again am I getting one.