As I mentioned last week, HP recently sent me an HP Envy Laptop with Beats Audio to try out, give my opinion on and hopefully not destroy in the process. In the spirit of the holidays and all that jazz (and because I am a cheese-tastic dork), I thought my first observations should have theme. And so I give you:
12 Days Of My HP ENVY LAPTOP
12. This laptop looks and feels awesome.
I am huge fan of black matte anything and this machine looks sharp. I love the red lettering on the keys. Not to mention that the whole thing just feels sturdy. I have had other laptops in the past that didn't feel like they could handle a strong breeze without chipping, cracking or falling apart - not the case here.
11. The HP Laptop is a little on the heavy side
(at least comparable to other normal laptops), and it's kind of bulky which is kind of a bummer for me. As a New Yorker I walk pretty much everywhere and lugging around heavy things is never much fun.
10. This laptop has a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5 processor
. In non-geek terms, translate to: THIS BABY IS FAST. I am a crazy multitasker with computers. Coworkers often marvel in awe/horror at all of the windows/apps I will have open and running at one time as I zip between them. For me, if a computer can't handle my personal speed (and admitted scatterbrained-ness), then it is not for me.
9. The Windows Live "Cloud."
One of my biggest pet peeves about being someone who works in tech and uses multiple
computers in multiple places is having to always remember make sure the files I need are somewhere online when I can easily grab them. This is a big problem for music especially since I DJ with a laptop but access music all over the place. My external hard drive has been a so-so backup but with the Cloud you can actually automatically synch up all of your computers no matter where you are - so if I really want to DJ the new Turbo Fruits song that is on my work computer but I'm already at a bar with my laptop and forgot to copy it? Problem solved.
8. IT HOLDS EVERYTHING.
500 GB hard drive. BOOM! I am someone who has a LOT of music. And I also take a LOT of photos. You know how big the hard drive was on the laptop I bought three years ago? 30GB. Yeah that lasted about three months before I had to pick up an external. Storage problems with the HP Envy? = dunzo.
7. Boo the track pad is kind of tricky to use (at least at first).
It is very sensitive to touch although sometimes I have to tap it really hard to make it do what I want (that's multi-tasker frustration!). And while you could of course attach an external mouse - in my mind that kind of defeats the point of the portability of a laptop. And I definitely wouldn't want to DJ with a mouse either... faux pas for sure.
6. The packaging is sweet.
Seriously, you would have thought I bought a designer purse that's how well presented everything was when unpacking the laptop - which even included a nice dust bag that covered the entire thing. It made me feel like I was unwrapping something very fancy and special, which is nice for gift giving too.
5. It doesn't come with the crazy face mask
that Dr. Dre wears in the commercial. Bummer.
4. Sound quality = bananas.
This is obviously a given since it comes with Beats Audio (which was created by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. The key is to listen with the Dr. Dre Beats Audio headphones which results in a sound quality experience that I have never had before with a laptop. I do think the sound is a LITTLE bass heavy, but I actually tend to like that.
3. Comes pre-loaded with a bunch of really useful programs
like Adobe Photoshop Elements and Hulu's desk top app (I didn't even know Hulu HAD a desk top app - it's great! I was watching A Charlie Brown Christmas in about two seconds today... don't tell my boss).
2. The webcam software it comes with is kind of hilarious!
I could probably spend hours playing with it. Please see the below example:
I am such a dork! Hooray!
1. Now that you're this far, and the holidays are near, maybe you are in the market for your own laptop but are worried about the cost. WELL the good news is that the HP Beats Envy retails at just above a thousand bucks, which is totally decent given the storage and everything that comes with it. But since I know we are all trying to save a little dough this holiday season:
HP has totally hooked me up with a promo code that will get you 100 dollars off an HP Envy Notebook. Just be one of the first 50 people to use it at HP Direct.com!
CODE: NBEY96723
Way better than a partridge in a pear tree, am I right? In the next installment of this series, I will likely try to play music from my laptop ON my TV (you can do this!) or something equally as crazy fun. Stay tuned...
Also I totally forgot, but the folks at HP did this interview with me recently, talking about blogging, jobs, vegan pizza, all kinds of fun stuff. Check it out.