HP Envy TouchSmart m7-j020dx Touch 17.3″ Quad i7 Laptop

The HP Envy TouchSmart m7-j020dx is a desktop PC replacement laptop, offering a big 17.3-inch Full HD screen with touch input support, great performance, quad speaker system, and ample of storage space. The m7-j020dx is a real multimedia powerhouse, encased in a 1.3″ thick and 7.1 heavy chassis made of glass-fiber material and with silky soft-touch surfaces. Besides watching movies in 1080p resolution on the anti-glare screen, you can interact with Windows 8 by touching the display, and even play some 3D games at lower settings at acceptable frame rates thanks to the new Intel HD 4600 graphics built into the quad-core Intel Core i7-4700MQ processor. The CPU will allow you to finish your ordinary day-to-day tasks quickly and also flawlessly do some advanced stuff like video editing. It’s one of the fastest laptop processors on the market at the time of this writing. Other important core components are large RAM and HDD: 8 Gigabytes and 1 Terabyte, respectively, and there’s also an optical drive for reading and writing DVDs and CDs.

HP Envy TouchSmart m7-j020dx

For a rich audio experience, the HP m7-j020dx sports four speakers plus a subwoofer for stronger bass.

Besides the multi-touch display panel, you can interact with Windows 8 and programs via a chiclet-style backlit keyboard with numeric pad and a decently-sized trackpad. A built-in fingerprint reader is there to help you with saving and securing your passwords and easy log-ins to apps and websites.

For expandability, the HP Envy TouchSmart m7-j020dx provides a total of four USB ports, all with fast 3.0 speed support, as well as HDMI video output, headphone-out/microphone-in combo jack, and a multi-format media card reader. Alongside ordinary features like built-in 720p web camera, and Wi-Fi and Ethernet LAN connections, the notebook PC provides Intel Wireless Display (Wi-Di) technology and Bluetooth 4.0.

HP Envy TouchSmart m7-j020dx Back Panel

The battery inside is a 6-cell 47WHr lithium-ion unit. According to the video review of the very similar m7-j010dx embedded below, the battery life on the m7-j020dx should be about five hours on “normal” usage, which is quite good for a large-screen quad-core notebook.

As a side note, the m7-j010dx in the video has glossy display coating, while the m7-j020dx has an anti-glare panel.

To conclude, the HP Envy TouchSmart m7-j020dx delivers a plenty of screen real estate, touchscreen input, powerful sound system, clean design free of excess ornamentation, and top-tier computing speed for $1,000. Is it a good deal? If you’re sure you need the quad-core i7 CPU for heavy tasks and large touch display, the laptop offers enough value to justify the somewhat high price for a Windows laptop. If you can live without the touch-enabled screen, Toshiba has a better offer. It’s the Satellite P75-A7200 with similar specs, aluminum chassis, and an $800 price tag. On the other hand, if you don’t want to make compromises on touch input, but don’t plan to do demanding video editing and other heavy tasks, the 880-dollar Dell I7737-4340SLV with a Core i5 is an option worth considering.

However, the tables will turn during Black Friday sales, because Best Buy will offer the m7-j020dx for $800, a price which will make your choice much easier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD3JeHKlbss

1 thought on “HP Envy TouchSmart m7-j020dx Touch 17.3″ Quad i7 Laptop”

  1. It’s a really good laptop, but should probably mention that the touchpad makes it impossible to game with. Clicking and right-clicking is a pain. I connected a usb mouse instead.

    Reply

Leave a Comment