Gadgetory

hi I'm Scott Steen welcome to the future well the future as of October 2012 because the dream of Windows 8 has always been to take your tablet your laptop mix them together have some crazy touchscreen detachable futuristic device that's maybe a bit like an iPad Android tablet but still feels like a full laptop or PC well finally we're reviewing the HP Envy x2 which is one of this generation of what we call hybrids maybe we call them detachable x' their laptops that act that can detach and become their own tablets and have permanent keyboard bases that come with the systems it's a little bit complicated but I'm trying to differentiate between that and something like the surface pro that's gonna be coming out which really has a keyboard that's more like a cover well they're kind of similar except in this instance the keyboard also has extra battery space and ports so that's the advantage there it bumps up the battery life on the Envy x2 to a whopping 10 hours when it's connected like this like a laptop or about seven and a half hours with just the tablet this is expensive this is an $850 system now for a laptop that's not too bad but consider the fact that under the hood what you're getting here is an Atom processor now this is better than the addams of the old netbook days but still is a far cry from any of your basic ultrabook processors a lot slower also only two gigs of ram and a 64 gigabyte SSD that's better than what you'd find in your average tablet perhaps but a little low compared to most laptops it does have an 11 inch 1366 by 768 display it is full touch multi-touch and it feels really nice it feels as good as any tablet you'd expect to respond and you also have in your NFC I'm not sure when you would actually use that and a modest selection of ports you've got two USB ports HDMI SD card slot and that's it and there are no ports in the tablet itself it's really made to be used as a cover consumption tablet device not to connect anything so you'll need to plug it into this base the trackpad here is find the keyboard feels comfortable now consider that you get a super budget laptop and a really cheap tablet maybe something like a $200 Android tablet or even an iPad Mini at 350 and come to about the price that the HP Envy x2 is at and that's kind of the conundrum here is it really worth combining all of that and paying pretty much the same thing and hobbling your performance a little bit now this can run all Windows programs it's a full windows 8 experience so that's nice and the construction and design feel really good this is very key like although before warned that the way the hinge opens here it's top-heavy so you're gonna tip it over if you push it too far back but it holds its own when you stand it on a table if you put it on your lap it might feel a little bit awkward and detaching the screen it's hard to do with just yeah as you can see it's a little bit hard here and you have to pull it out so it's not really that elegant compared to you know sleek magnets like on the Smart Cover on the iPad or even the surface pro is type cover the tablet is 1.5 pounds there's just a little bit more than a nine point seven inch Retina Display iPad so it feels actually pretty comfortable in one hand and I found it great on a train so it's a fine tablet it's just not a superlative one there's a sort of laptop that is one of the better convertible devices that I've seen that has a detachable tablet but it's nowhere near as do-it-all powerful as something like a yoga 13 and you're paying a lot to get onboard this and this is no bargain but it is an interesting product that generally works as advertised as long as you're treating it like a fancy touch netbook I'm Scott Stein and that's the HP Envy x2