The HP Envy 15t-3200 is the newest version of Hewlett-Packard’s 15-inch premium consumer notebook PC, packing the 3rd Generation Intel Core “Ivy Bridge” processors.
Design of the Envy 15 remained the same. The MacBook Pro-like Windows laptop has a slick silver aluminum body with a 1.1″ thickness, red-accented analog volume rocker housed on the right side, a red line surrounding the black chiclet keyboard with backlight, and a dark gray lid. Rounding off on-body bits, there’s also a spacious one-piece trackpad while the display is covered with edge to edge glass. So, the notebook still uses the design refreshed back in late 2011, as well as display options including a 1366×768 panel or a full HD IPS one.
Internal specs-wise, the configurable HP Envy 15t-3200 can be purchased with the 3rd-gen Intel Core i5-3210M with two cores or the quad-core i7-3610QM, i7-3720QM, and i7-3820QM. Graphics is powered by the 1GB Radeon HD 7750M GDDR5 and the system is backed by DDR3 1600MHz memory, up to 16GB. The i5 CPU is sufficient for day-to-day tasks and multimedia, with a Passmark score of 3,795, while for media creation and gaming we recommend one of the i7 chips scoring more than 8,300 points. Speaking of gaming, the Radeon 7750M is a mid-range GPU from the recently unveiled Graphics Core Next AMD line. According to multiple 3D Mark 11 benchmark tests, the GPU paired with one of the i7 “Ivy Bridge” chips scores between about 2,000 to 2,200 points. With these results, the 7750M deliver performance similar to the Nvidia GeForce GT 640M.
Internal storage consists of a single drive, either with up to 1TB of mechanical HDD capacity or up to 300GB in solid state drive variant. It’s weird that the Envy 15 as a top-of-the-line entertainment notebook by HP doesn’t provide any Blu-ray drive option. Customers are offered with DVD burner as the only choice.
However, the laptop packs a powerful internal sound system with six speakers, subwoofer, and Beats Audio technology, as well as a 720p web camera, Intel Wireless Display technology, and support for up to two external displays via HDMI and DisplayPort.
The HP Envy 15t-3200 currently starts at $1,100 and the company also offers a 17.3″ “Ivy Bridge” version for $1,250 and up.
HP Envy 15t-3200 Specifications
- Display: 15.6-inch 1366×768 Brightview or Full HD Infinity (IPS), glossy
- Processor: 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3210M (dual core, 2.5-3.1GHz, 3MB L3 cache), i7-3610QM (2.3-3.3GHz, 6MB L3 cache), i7-3720QM Processor (2.6-3.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache), i7-3820QM Processor (2.7-3.7GHz, 8MB L3 Cache)
- Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7750M with 1GB GDDR5 dedicated VRAM
- Memory: 6 – 16GB DDR3 1,600MHz, 2 DIMM slots
- Storage: Up to 1TB at 5,400rpm, up to 750GB at 7,200rpm, up to 750GB hybrid HDD at 7,200rpm, 256GB or 300GB solid state drive
- Optical Drive: DVD burner
- Webcam: 720p
- Audio: six-speaker sound system, subwoofer, Beats Audio
- Network: Wireless-N, Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth, optional Wireless Display
- Input: chiclet keyboard, auto backlight adjustment, no numeric pad, multi-touch trackpad
- Ports and Slots: 3 x USB 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort, dual headphone out, 2-in-1 card reader
- Battery: 8-cell Li-Ion, up to 10.25 hours according to specs, up to 9 hours according to product description
- Dimensions: 14.96 x 9.6 x 1.11 inches
- Weight: 5.79 lbs
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate
- Warranty: 2-year