Beginners Guide: AMD Laptops - Faster, Longer Battery, and CHEAPER!

Even with the knowledge of how good the Zen 2 was on the desktop, I was shocked at how well AMD's Ryzen 4000 series mobile series performed. Asus' Zephyrus G14 shredded its Intel competitors in both performance and battery life, while also being considerably cheaper. Now it looks like HP hopes to recreate that success with the Envy x360. And, spoiler alert, they did. This thing sips power, yet it has six cores and is $800 for a configuration that we can actually recommend.

What? You know? Like, what? Like, what's a segue? GlassWire lets you keep track of the weird stuff that's connecting to your PC, even when you aren't using it. You can see if a strange device joins your Wi-Fi, and block it instantly.

Our config of the HP Envyx360 sports a Ryzen 5 4500U, a 7-nanometer, 6-core, 6-thread processor that boosts up to 4 gigahertz. The last 6-core Ultrabook we looked at was the Dell XPS 13, a beast of a machine, except that it costs a casual 1,800 U.S. dollars, which is why we will not be comparing the Envy x360 to it. Instead, we'll be testing it against the HP Spectre x360 with an Intel Core i5-1035G4, a 4-core, 8-thread CPU onIntel's newish 10-nanometer node that you would hope would give the Ryzen 5 a run for its money, especially since it's in a machine that costs (clears throat) $250 more. 

But that maximum BoostSpeed of 3.7 gigahertz isn't a good first sign. A much worse sign is the performance tests we ran. In multi-core loads, the Ryzen 5 4500U is set to shred the i5 with a45% higher score in Cinebench. Like, I knew it was gonna win, just not by that much. And remember, guys, this isn't even the top-spec 8-core model. 

Even more surprisingly, though, the 4500U managed to dominate the single-threaded test as well, thanks to that higher boost clock. Now, although I don't expect anyone to be doing much hardcore gaming on either of these machines, the Ryzen 5 4500U was also 20% faster in 3DMark Time Spy, and I'm never gonna complain about a bit more GPU muscle. 

Thermals, unfortunately, didn't redeem the Core i5 version either. It immediately shot up to100 degrees and stayed there, managing clocks of only around 2.3 gigahertz, something we might have accepted if Intel was the only option in town because, I mean, in fairness, that is at least faster than the 1.5-gigahertz base clock. Thing is, Intel isn't the only option anymore, and our Ryzen 5 config-avoided thermal throttling, albeit barely, at 91 degrees, while keeping all six of its cores at a whopping 3.3 gigahertz. Look how thin it is, guys! 3.3 gigahertz! It's worth noting that you'll have to enable performance mode to get these kinds of speeds, but they're truly remarkable. 

Remember that Dell XPS 13 with a 6-core i7 that I mentioned at the start of this video? Yeah. In performance mode, this Ryzen machine is faster than that too. The thing is, performance matters a lot less than longevity in a thin-and-light than it does in a gaming laptop, and HP already has some of the best battery life in the biz with their Intel Core i5 model, managing nearly 13 hours on a single charge. That is gonna be hard to... And the AMD Envy x360made it almost 14 hours. 

That's the kinda battery life that not only gets you through the day, but maybe even the weekend. Like, you could just leave the power brick at work, without worrying that yourlttstore.com browsing session is gonna get cut short. - This is my whole weekend. - But that raises the question: Is this the kinda machine that you'd wanna take home with you anyway? One of AMD's big problems, for years now, has been not getting their CPUs into the premium designs, and this is no exception. The Envy line does sit below the Spectre line in HP's lineups. So has HP given their envy x360 enough love? Or should you just save up a bit longer for a Spectre x360 or an XPS 13?

Actually, I am pleased to report that HP has committed no such crime against AMD here. The Envy x360 has a premium look about it, from the super small bezels to the metallic accents on the hinges. The chassis stiffness might not quite hold up to top-tier laptops that are constructed out of carbon fiber or a solid milled piece of aluminum, but it's leagues better thana budget-focused machine-like Lenovo Flex 14. So I think it's fair to say that HP really nailed the balance here. The only thing build quality-wise that annoyed me was the screen, which wobbles a bit more than I'd like. But bearing in mind that, of course, I've got that tablet-convertible trade-off, I can accept it. 

And the I/O is really good. The Envy x360 has two USB Type-A's with the little hinges pull-down bit. Oh, it turns out you can put a type-A in a superthin laptop. How nice! It's got a Type C with charging, and it's got an SD card reader. I do wish that, instead of the barrel power connector on the right side, we got another USB Type-C port with charging, but presumably, that would've brought up the price, and I think they found a great balance here. One place HP fortunately didn't cheap out is the display. With 300 nits of brightness and excellent colors, I think anyone short of a professional photo editor is gonna be pretty happy with it. My only complaint here is the 16x9 aspect ratio. 

These days, many of HP's competitors are making the jump to 16x10 or even 3x2, and this is even in the lower price ranges, with the Acer Swift 3 leading the way. Staying with 16x9 while chasing small bezels has to be HP's most obvious error with both the Envy and Spectre x360s, because it means that some folks are actually gonna struggle touse the devices comfortably. - There's just no way for me to type comfortably on this. My hands are just simply too big to rest on the palm rest, making it, unfortunately, just a straight-up no-go for me. And it's going to be a no-go for 68% of males, and half of the females as well. I also constantly use my right thumb on the trackpad while writing in Word documents, and the fact that keyboard and the trackpad aren't centered on each other means that I'm only using a small portion of a trackpad that's already very undersized by today's standards. 

To be clear, the switches are good, but maybe try it out at about Buy or Costco first to make sure that the ergonomics work for you. - If you are able to get comfortable, though, you'll have an excellent time typing on the Envy x360. I personally didn't have an issue with my tiny hands, and the switches offer plenty of travel while delivering a satisfying snap when you press them. 

Key consistency and stabilization was also uncharacteristically good for a laptop in this price band, so I don't think you're gonna have trouble getting up to full speed. As for the trackpad, it's less of a highlight. The tracking is still pretty good despite the lack of a glass top, but the small size keeps it from being exceptional, or even very good. You will be able to get used to it, but I'd personally be much happier with a bigger bottom bezel, or better yet, a taller screen and a larger trackpad. Now, to be clear, there are a number of areas where the Spectre x360 is superior to the Envy. Windows Hello facial recognition is a real-nice-to-have, although the fingerprint reader on the Envy is still quite snappy for logging in. 

And the Spectre also comes with a pen included, with the option for LTE, which could easily sway someone who is constantly on the go. But then again, if you're gonna be on the go, with how much better the core performance and battery life are here, I feel like until HP puts an AMD processor into a Spectre notebook they have unintentionally killed their flagship lineup right here. For the vast majority of people, the HP Envy x360 is gonna check all of the important boxes for an ultrabook. It's super powerful, especially for the price, it feels excellent in the hand, and aside from the screen aspect ratio, I just have no real complaints about it. I can't even remember the last time that an ultrabook came through the studio here that was under $1,200 and managed to get a full-blown, no-caveats recommendation from me. 

But this one certainly does, and I hope that as more companies take AMD's mobile chips seriously, we're gonna see more excellent performers at great prices, like this one. Speaking of excellent performance at a great price, our sponsor Drop.com is featuring the Koss GMR-54X-ISO gaming headset. It's audiophile-approved and based on a popular Koss headset, and the custom-engineered acoustics for immersive 3D sound allow you to get positional cues to hear where your enemies are coming from. 

There are some changes made from the original, including reduced tension in the lightweight headband for extend comfort, and it includes a cord splitter, inline microphone with remote, and a detachable boom mic. The boom mic works with the PlayStation 4, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, and more, without hassle, and you can grab yours today, with new users who sign up on Drop.com getting $20 off this headset. If you guys enjoyed this video and you just can't get enough AMD domination, check out our full review of the Asus Zephyrus G14. It really is a lesson on how to build a compact high-performance gaming notebook. Put AMD in it.

I hope that you must have liked this post and this post will also be helpful for you. This is exactly the same in today's post. Stay connected for other similar information with the softexe10 website.

If you liked this post, then definitely give your valuable suggestions in the comment box, and do share this post with your friends.

 Thank you.

Raj Malhotra