Pros: Core i7 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 940M with 4 GB, Full HD 17 inch touchscreen, heavily discounted price.
Cons: Hard Drive instead of an SSD unit.
Finding a great gaming laptop that doesn't drain our bank accounts can be a hard task to muster. However, today we're going to do just that by introducing you to one of the best 17 inch laptops up to date; the HP Envy m7-n011dx.
This laptop is not only a gamer's dream but it's also a huge powerhouse for any demanding user. With 16 GB of RAM, an Intel Core i7 CPU and a dedicated graphics card with 4 GB of dedicated RAM there's not much that this laptop CAN'T do. We know you're dying to know all the details as well as the pros and cons so we won't keep you waiting, here's our full review of the HP Envy m7-n011dx. Enjoy!
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HP Envy m7-n011dx Review of a Spectacular Powerhouse Laptop
Full HD Display on top of a polished design
This laptop is not just brains. No, it's a laptop that's dressed to impress from the moment you lay your eyes on it. The first thing that strikes us is its 17.3 inch Full HD IPS LED touchscreen display. As if a Full HD display just wasn't enough the company wanted to make sure no one was left out when it designed this beautiful piece of hardware.
The brushed metal surface give it a distinguished as well as elegant design that immediately sets it aside from other potential contenders. As for the keyboard, aside from being very comfortable to handle during the day, it's also very comfortable during the night thanks to its backlit keys that provide us with a much needed feature when we want to type in bed with our significant other sleeping beside us.
The weight of this flagship is the only con we can actually find, but it's a necessary evil considering the size of the notebook. To this point, we're looking at 7 pounds of hardware on a body that registers 1.2 inches. Not the most portable machine in the world but then again; which 17 inch laptop is?
The performance of a lifetime
If you though a Core i5 processor was good you haven't seen nothing yet. The HP Envy m7-n011dx houses an Intel Core i7 5500U processor of the broadwell family. It's true that it's not the latest generation but quite honestly we do not care when the performance is unhinged.
Spec-wise, this CPU offers up two cores that work at a phenomenal 2.4 GHz and go up to 3.0 GHz when the task demands it. We've got 3 MB of cache and upon using this laptop it feels like there's nothing it can't do. An incredible processor at this price? Seems like an april fools joke!
As for the RAM, we mentioned previously that this was one of the best attributes and we stand by that. To be precise, the new HP flagship simply stuns with 16 GB of DDR3 SDRAM. For most of us mere mortals 8 GB is more than enough for our multitasking needs so 16 GB is just more than we would ever need. However, it does serve the purpose of future-proofing the HP Envy m7-n011dx, for at least 5 years at that.
All in all, with an incredible processor and more RAM then we would ever need there's virtually nothing you can't throw at this laptop and that's an incredibly freeing feeling.
Get ready to play games
While this isn't strictly a gaming laptop, the graphics card in the HP Envy m7-n011dx is certainly not kidding around. Specifically, we're looking at an Nvidia GeForce 940M with 4 GB of dedicated vRAM. If you're a fan of benchmarks, this GPU is just below the latest GTX 950M but still pretty good for titles of the 2014-2015 circuit.
Games like Fifa 16 and World of Warships will perform very well on medium to high settings. However, higher end titles such as The Witcher 3 and Evolve will struggle a bit more to reach a decent frame rate when played on high settings to exploit the Full HD display.
A solid battery life but a standard storage
When it comes down to battery life on 17 inch laptops we're not that picky. Honestly, chances are we're not gonna move that laptop quite as much as we would with a 13 inch model.
That said, it's always wise to have your bases covered and that's exactly what HP's done by endowing this particular laptop with a battery life that can almost achieve the 7 hour mark.
To this point, while battery life might be above average, storage is more on the "standard" side of things with a 1 TB hard drive working at your typical 5400 rpm.
It should be noted however that storage may be upgraded through some back-end work to place an SSD, something we highly recommend on a laptop as full blown such as this one. Particularly when they've become so much cheaper as of late to the point where you can purchase a 250 GB SSD for less than $100.
A good webcam and more stuff to consider
Finally, as we approach the finishing line on this HP Envy m7-n011dx review it's time to take a quick look at some of the extras. Specifically we really like the quality webcam which allows for Full HD video over an optical structure that uses 4 lenses. This goes above and beyond your standard webcam and it's certainly a plus for all those who spend a fair amount of time skyping. Also worth noting are the Bang & Olufsen speakers which make the highs pitch perfect and the lows very low.
In terms of connectivity, a high end laptop like this one couldn't miss out on placing a dual band WiFi ac antenna or Bluetooth 4.0 support. It's also noticeable the 4 USB 3.0 ports which offer quick speed data as well as the ethernet and HDMI ports.
As for the OS, it's worth mentioning that this laptop does in fact comes with Windows 8.1. However, upon first set up you'll be advised to do the free upgrade to Windows 10 and we also encourage that.
Wrapping things up: Is it worth my money?
With nothing more left to say on our review of the HP Envy m7-n011dx we only have to say that we truly love this laptop. The only feature we would upgrade off the bat is the storage to an SSD unit because it's simply better. That said, everything else in this laptop is dream worthy.
It's not precisely a gaming laptop but it does deliver for the not exceedingly demanding gamers out there. Also its 16 GB of RAM offer more than enough for our multitasking needs and the processor delivers performance that's on a whole other scale if you come from a Core i5 processor or less.
Overall, it's one of the best choices you can make in the current laptop landscape, especially when priced as competitively as it is (you can look up the price over here).
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