HP ENVY TouchSmart 17-j153cl 17.3 inch Touchscreen Notebook Review

17.3" HP ENVY TouchSmart 17-j153cl
via Amazon

Silver HP ENVY TouchSmart 17-j153cl is a 17.3 inch touchscreen laptop (certified refurbished) with a powerful 4th generation Intel Core i7 processor and a massive 16GB of memory, offering speed and performance, great image quality on its large screen along with superior sound- Beats Audio and quad speakers and two subwoofers, it is a well-built system with good quality components and comes with 90 day warranty and original accessories at a more affordable price.

HP ENVY TouchSmart has the very powerful quad core Haswell Intel i7-4700MQ processor with 2.4GHz base speed that moves up to 3.4GHz with turbo boost depending on tasks at hand, with hyper threading for four cores to handle eights threads in parallel to be able to get the most out of the processor in terms of overall performance, 16GB DDR3L SDRAM (2 DIMM) for super multitasking, 1TB Serial ATA hard drive at 5400rpm rotating speed to save all your multimedia and regular files plus HP ProtectSmart hard drive protection from accidents and Windows 8.1 operating system with additional more familiar functions for ease of use.

17.3-inch diagonal HD+ BrightView LED-backlit touchscreen display with a max of 1600 x 900 pixel resolution means very decent picture quality. Intel HD graphics 4600 with up to 1792MB graphics memory is about 30% faster than the Intel HD 4000 in gaming benchmarks so it can be compared to discrete GPUs like GeForce GT620M/630M and AMD Radeon HD 8650G. You’ll hear superior sound through its quad speakers, double subwoofers and Beats Audio and the HP TrueVision is a high definition webcam with built-in dual array digital microphone. This is a great multimedia hub with great sound, image and webcam but unfortunately not a high end gaming PC despite all that it offers as the weak link in this great package is the integrated HD 4600 graphics card that won’t let you play the latest games at higher resolutions or settings but you’ll be OK with the older titles- they will run fluently.

Silver HP ENVY 17-j153cl weighs 7.1 pounds with measurements of 1.16 x 10.83 x 16.38 inches, the full-size island-style keyboard is backlit for comfortable typing in dim light, with 10-key numpad for easy number crunching and Clickpad supporting multiple gestures. It has a 6-cell 62WHr 2.8 Ah lithium-ion battery but we’re not sure how long the battery would last in average usage- no info. Connectivity options are SuperMulti DVD Burner, 802.11ac wireless WLAN that offers more speed and wider coverage, Bluetooth 4.0 with WiDi technology, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connectivity, 2 memory slots that are accessible by the user, an HDMI port to connect to big screen HDTV or other displays, Multi-format Media Card Reader for SD cards, 4 x USB 3.0 ports for faster data transfers and 1 x Headphone-out/microphone-in combo jack.

Conclusion: Simplistic chic design HP ENVY TouchSmart 17-j153cl with Intel i7-4700MQ processor is a great desktop replacement laptop with a solid and durable build and a premium feel but is still portable so if you want both the large great quality HD+ screen and some degree of portability- is heavy but not really heavy for a 17.3 inch desktop replacement PC. This is a great multimedia centre with very decent sound and video but not suitable for hardcore gaming as it needs to come with at least a mid-range discrete graphics card, but is still a fast and powerful computer overall with high end technical specs and is loaded with modern day features. The i7-4700MQ has the Passmark benchmark score of 7893, which is very good and has a max power consumption of 47 watts. 16GB is quite a lot of memory to handle any kind of multitasking and it is the maximum amount supported. It comes with the Cyberlink Suite and HP Connected Photo and Music. Overall Great value for money both as a portable laptop and a desktop replacement with decent multimedia features.

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