Apples Envy?

The keys are lightweight and terribly dull. In fact,the keys are bordering on the el cheapo mode thanks to the slightly loose plastic clack. Plus,theres not a lot of push-back,making touch typing a bit unpleasant.
The trackpad is where you are likely to find similarities with the MacBook Pro. However,the Envys large multi-touch trackpad is anything but easy to use. While the left and right buttons on the ClickPad are good,it is tough trying out multiple gestures. Unlike Apple touchpads the gestures are activated by lightly touching two fingers on the pad. Once activated it does respond to pinch zoom,though the trackpad seems confused when it comes to two-finger scrolling. Moreover,when a thumb is present,it has a tendency to throw off the tracking of the index finger.

But there is some reason to cheer too. The display is stunningly rich and matches the MacBook Pro right down to the silver frame surrounding the black bezel. The 15.6 diagonal Full High Definition Hp Ultra Brightview Display 1920215;1080 does a sweet job of providing some extremely rich viewing styles. Compared to the MacBook Pro,the Envy looks crisper and more vivid as far as the display is concerned. Viewing movies using the external Blu-ray Disc player on the full HD screen was nothing short of pure unadulterated happiness.
Under the hood,the Envy touts a 1.73 GHz Intel Core i7820 QM processor coupled with 16 GB of RAM,500 GB 7200 RPM HDD,and ATI Mobility Radeon 4830 with 1 GB RAM graphics card. While it might not be distinctly faster than other i7 processors,it does put to shame the Core2Duo processors built into the MacBook Pro.

All the heavy duty performance does come at a fat battery life price tag. The built-in 6 cell Li-ion battery just doesnt make the cut,with the system wheezing out of life in just under two hours. Now wonder,HP has included a slim form factor 9-cell battery which can under normal usage circumstances boost the battery life to up to five hours,and if viewed on lower screen brightness and used without Wi-Fi give a good eight hours. But the Slim-Fit Extended Life Notebook Battery does not give 18 hours of digital indulgence as HP claims.

There is no separate Ethernet port,but the Envy does come with 3 USB 2.0 compatible ports of which two are Ethernet compatible and the third is shared with an e-SATA port,HDMI ports,and a combo Headphone-out/ Microphone-in jack. It also features a digital 2-in-1 media reader. But sadly,one has to order the optical drive separately.
The system comes with Beats speakers,but we only could distinguish a touch of difference between the sound of the Envy and the MacBook Pro. The Laptop comes pre-installed with the Windows 7 OS.

HP is yet to officially launch the Envy in India,but Internet rumours claim the laptop should be reaching our shores somewhere in mid-2010. While the base cost of a 15 HP Envy is 1400,the one we tested cost a cool 2,200,which means it is not going to go easy on the pocket for most Indian consumers. The 13 model which is actually the real competitor to the MacBook Pro,starts at a base price of 1500 and can go right up to 2300 after customisation.

Whether the Envy can live up to its hype in the price conscious Indian market is debatable as of now. When it does come to India,buy it if you are intimidated by the MacBook Pro,and want to outdo the former with the performance of the Envy. Otherwise,just wait for the world to come up with an innovative design that will for a change send Apple scurrying for answers.