HP Envy x360 15 (Ryzen 5 2500U, Radeon Vega 8) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

A very rough gem. The performance-per-Dollar is easily the highlight of HP's first notebook centered around AMD's Raven Ridge platform. It's too bad that the software is still a buggy mess.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Envy-x360-15-Ryzen-5-2500U-Radeon-Vega-8-Laptop-Review.266614.0.html

[LL]

Well with  unacceptable problems it seems that 77% is too much, isn't it?

["Chief" Editor sure]

Under the title "Connectivity" just change pictures for Left and Right side of the case. It's the little things matter, also check on Dell Inspiron 15 7000 7577 article.

[BobD]

The AMD website lists this APU SKU's  cTDP at 12-25 Watts and with Laptop OEM's to blame more for performance that the makers of APU/SOC SKUs it would be more than advisable to reserve jutjment. That lack of options for the AMD APUs has a long history for Laptop OEMs and that's more on the majority market holder influnce among Laptop OEMs currently.

You really risk being thought of as disingenuous when you can come to a definite conclusion about a laptop APU SKU sample of only a single make and model when for laptops the OEM's can sometimes take the cost savings/profit margin option and not do a good job with their designs. Laptop APU/SOC SKUs are more dependent on what the Laptop's OEM designs in for thermals/battery life and memory/screen choice that the PC bulider's market where the end user has more choices in that can lead to better performance.

[flipacoin]

"Contrast ratio is also similar to last year's model at around 1100:1"
But the chart says 419:1?

[thx1138r]

Techreport also has a review of this laptop, but they reported the system as being very stable, i.e. no random crashes. Because they used a fresh install of windows this puts the blame for the random crashes firmly at the feet of HP. So please stop perpetuating the years-old meme that AMD have problems with their drivers when it's HPs installation of Windows that's the problem.

How about trying the system yourself with a fresh install to confirm the problem.

[jarder]

I don't understand why you say
"poorer-than-expected graphics performance when gaming"
The graphics performance of this laptop is excellent. Are you saying this because of the difference between the Synthetic gaming performance and real-world gaming performance? If so, they you're not taking into account the extra memory bandwidth that games use compared to synthetic benchmarks, this makes a particular difference with APU's with their shared bandwidth.

It's also very similar to the relative performance between real games and synthetic benchmarks that Intels IGP's demonstrate. Just look at the relative difference between them in your graphs.

[86lappytester]

Given my experience as an AMD user for both mobile and desktop.
Previously I did comment on another article on AMD notebook design.
Which I also highlighted that manufacturers should really step up
and update the graphic driver periodically maybe 6 months once or so.
Notebooks like Asus FX550IU with Dual Graphics, it is best to
have newer driver so the Dual Graphics or rather crossfire could work
preform properly applications without crashing not to mention newer games.
My experience was with Asus X550DP, it is frustrating even web surfing
the Dual Graphics keeps crashing.
As for this Ryzen 2500U, it seems like a half baked system which
I agree that it is not ready for prime time especially the drivers.
Hopefully manufacturer could release newer graphic driver soon but
I doubt they will.
Than again one could install drivers from AMD but those are generic it
might not be fully compatible with the notebook.
Usually once they realized a stable release they won't update it.
However the irony is Windows 10 will update it if it is outdated, by doing so it may cause even more problem especially if it is generic driver but not from manufacturer.
I think due to production cost that is why they didn't include a M.2 SATA SSD instead which should improve the system responsiveness as well as lower the heat.
Laptops with 7200rpm tends to be more warm than 5400rpm but the performance difference between the two RPM is very hardly noticeable.
To me is it AMD that disappoint?
For me it is manufacturers like HP that disappoint as they are still far from designing AMD notebooks as usually most are familiar with Intel based products. Especialy when comes to driver as Intel Graphics usually don't need to update since no one uses it for gaming but for AMD APU case it is different.
AMD newer graphic driver usually have bug fixes as well as app compatilbity.
I have been AMD user and tester since AMD Phenom II Mobile era which
hardly anyone touches or uses.
Irony is till today some still think AMD are hot like Thunderbird era.
Come on, get over it as AMD have change over the past few years.
Max Li

[Hashhakaj]

Great detail review for HP x360 with Ryzen 5U. AMD Always the tail of both Intel and Nvidia but The power consumption is great. Although I am not happy with 41-49 watt due 15 inch LCD with small battery capacity. This still makes a lot of customers not sure what Ryzen mobile for.

[Ashot]

Is it possible to replace the WiFi chip in this computer with a better one?

[Hashhakaj]

Ewe .. mafia 3 is not playable in low sitting with Vega iGPU. The gtx 950m is playable around 25 fps. That's sad and I definitely go to with Intel 8th gen and Nvidia 150mx as GPU replace.

[Haris]

The crashes on the software will be fixed in a month or so.. This is the first ryzen laptop, so these are to be expected.
However, using a mechanical drive as the OS drive is totally unacceptable. The day-to-day performance on this machine will be much worse than the performance of an A6 laptop with a SSD. Also, installing a mechanical drive on a machine that is moved regularly and has an 360* hinge is the worse decisition tht someone can do. HDDs are vulnerable to movement, and may occur head crash when moved while in use.

[B1-66ER]

What is the maximum number of display supported?

[Technerd]

I just received my HP x360 15 with the Ryzen and I am pretty impressed. I have a model ordered from HP because I knew there was no way I would be upgrading the internals. My unit has 16gb ram and 256gb SSD and I am very happy with it. Besides the low brightness of the screen in my initial set up and use where I reset the pc and install latest drivers, yada, yada and I also have an Acer bought for my daughter with an Intel 8250u 256 gb ssd and 8gb ram and my previous two computers had quad core i7 skylake processors so I have a good idea of decent performance. I have also had my share of budget machines.

The volume rocker on the side is a nice touch. The windows facial recognition unlock the pc feature is amazing. I had a late 2016 MacBook pro with fingerprint reader and the Windows camera unlock is way better. It boots up and if I am just looking in the direction of the camera it unlocks in seconds. Maybe 8 seconds or less to desktop!!

The speakers are very nice and loud for a laptop. While the screen is not super bright I agree, the color and resolution are very nice. The glass screen is a big plus for a touchscreen. Also like touchscreen much better than Apple touchbar which was more of a gimmick than really useful. I really like the keyboard and with full number pad on the right.

The build quality is very good. I have a couple of very minor build quality or finishing issues that most people may not even notice. I am not saying excellent build quality like a MacBook pro but pretty close. In some ways I like the rough blasted finish much better than the Apple.

I can't speak to the battery yet but I can say the fan noise is relative to what you are doing and if it is plugged in or not. When plugged in and on performance mode or in performance mode in general the fan makes noise. It is not as loud as the Aorus 13" gaming laptops but it is noticeable under load. On the plus side when the fan is running so is the CPU and it runs fast. It was impressive resetting/installing Windows in under 10 minutes or just around.

So in my initial opinion this machine feels a lot like my Skylake cpu with 2gb dedicated radeon 450 GPU. It may not best the Intel 8250u but it is very close in my real world use. Web pages load super fast, multitasking is a breeze. I haven't yet played games.

Also while this particular model is not as cheap as the Acer model I bought my daughter at about half the price as my configured unit but the materials and build quality are very different. I really like the dedicated volume rocker and glass touch screen. I like the all aluminum build. So while it may not be a cheap pc it also doesn't feel like one. There may be better options and as more manufacturers add AMD CPUs to their notebooks we will see more competition and lowered prices with better specs. Until then if you want to be an early adopter this is a very nice machine and as other pointed out the Intel options cost more on the same pc.

As for crashes and stability issues I have not run into anything at all. I have only run Geekbench 4 but in all other use cases it has been very stable so far.

Finally I will say if AMD really puts a good software effort with better driver support than in the past and as we all know the platform is very new so as it matures hopefully the benchmark scores will improve. In real world use I don't think most users would notice much of a difference and might like the extra savings and better security.

[Davey]

My God this article is what should be the standard for reviews! Excellent work!

I bought the 2500u Envy x360 and took it to my college computer security class tonight. Fired up some Battlefield 4 in our down time and thats when heads started to turn. 'what are you running in that?' lol  I spent $630 on this laptop and can play BF4! (and network security homework of course).

Seriously the only negative of the laptop is the slow hard drive (easy fix with m.2) and weak display - NOW - the display is SHARP and wonderful to look at like most IPS display when reading, but eventually the colors will have you scratching your head. I put a SPYDER4 ELITE on it and fixed that. Now my display got a 69% sRGB, didnt check the nits. BUT its bright enough when your in an office using it all the time or dimly lit room as I am because the instructor has the lights down for the power points were supposed to be watching. I compared the laptops screen to my Threadripper powered desktop's 34"  Samsung QF791 Quantum Dot Ultrawide, with wide gamut and the weakest noticable color range is red. The red when compared with a monitor that can push blood red like your looking directly at a red LED is more burnt orange on the laptop. BUT... you gotta always come back to reality - this is a $630 laptop. Your display obsessive compulsiveness vanishes when your chewing up virtual machines (it supports VM mode in the bios fyi) and not breaking the bank. Ive watched some movies on it and it was more than acceptable. God - Ive never fell in love with a cheap laptop before - it does so much for such a low price but its pretty good quality too! The HGST hard drive is slow but it should last the life of the laptop their some of the best mechanical HDD's out there.