The old HP Pavilion dv7 is dead. Long live the ENVY dv7! This update to HP's popular 17-inch multimedia laptop might pack enough value to be a true heir to the PC throne.

Overview

The HP ENVY dv7t-7200 is a new Windows 8 laptop release that sports a 17.3-inch screen and comes in a wide variety configurations to suit almost any budget or performance needs.  If the ENVY dv7t looks strangely familiar, you're right, it's simply a rebranding of the 2012 Pavilion dv7t line but with the updated Windows 8 OS.  HP is now placing the ENVY label on any laptop it deems as being a performance machine or having premium design.  The company has also stopped producing the 15-inch ENVY 15 and 17-inch ENVY 17 models, citing the fact there was too much overlap between those machines and the equivalent dv6 and dv7.

Indeed change is afoot at HP, they recently lost their title as #1 PC manufacturer worldwide to Lenovo and so it's new innovative releases like the ENVY 4 TouchSmart and flagship models like the ENVY dv7t -- one of their best selling mainstream laptops, that will determine if they can recapture past glory.  Read on to find out if the ENVY dv7t is a keeper or another reason to consider HP a zombie of its former self cranking out uninspired laptops.

Build and Design

The ENVY dv7t-7200 is a 17.3-inch screen 7lb notebook that's squarely targeted at an audience looking for a desktop replacement style machine.  With all the rage about Ultrabooks, you might be surprised to know the desktop replacement segment of 15 to 17-inch laptops is still the top selling category.  The reason being that laptops like the ENVY dv7t offer a lot of nice features, excellent performance options and a price that comes in well under a lighter and sleeker looking but lesser powered Ultrabook.  People still want their notebook to look decent, no matter what the size and usage intention, HP therefore has paid attention to making the ENVY dv7t's looks appealing to a wide audience.  The lid has a subtle brushed metal skin with a midnight black color finish that is contrasted with a silver trim around the edges.  The HP logo on top is illuminated, this offers a pretty cool look, though it probably doesn't generate the same techno-lust as an Apple logo does.

Opening up the the ENVY dv7t reveals a continuation of the midnight black finish across the palm rests and around the keyboard.  The black metallic finished areas do a good job of hiding fingerprints, unfortunately the same cannot be said of the glossy bezel HP decided to use around the screen and in the keyboard tray area.  Wherever you grab the screen to open it or adjust the angle will likely be left with a greasy fingerprint mark, a matte finish would have been more practical.  Fortunately the keyboard keys themselves are matte, not glossy like the tray area, the keyboard uses an island style key design with flat tops.  As an added bonus for accountant types there's a number pad on the right side.

The side areas of the ENVY where the ports are found again use a silver trim made of a plastic material with a faux aluminum look.  Moving to the underside of the dv7, you'll find a thick plastic skin is used to reinforce this vulnerable area and protect its internals.  There is a panel that can be easily taken off with the removal of one screw and offers access to upgrade such things as the RAM, dual hard drives or wireless card.  The battery is removable and upgradeable, bucking the trend of sealed case designs.

Overall build quality is very good.  The ENVY dv7t uses an aluminum chassis internally to provide a solid frame that protects internals and provides resistance to flex from the outside.  The only area of flex we could find on the body was in the center of the keyboard, though only if extra pressure was applied beyond that of normal typing.  If you apply enough twisting force to the top screen area you can cause it to bend a few millimeters,  but this is of little concern as the screen is adequately protected, no ripples appear on the screen if you push in from the lid.

The ENVY dv7t-7200 comes by default with a 6-cell 62WHr battery, this size battery sits flush with the bottom of the notebook and can be easily removed and replaced if necessary. There is also an option for a larger 9-cell, battery that HP advertises as offering 50% longer battery life. The 9-cell sticks out from the bottom which raises the back of the notebook up this can have the side benefit of creating airflow underneath for better cooling and slants the keyboard for better ergonomics. Aside from the upgradeable battery, you can also easily upgrade memory, the PCIe wireless card and one of the two hard drive bays. With so many sealed notebooks on the market these days that won't even allow you to upgrade the battery, this level of upgrade ease is nice to see.

Ports and Features
The 17-inch ENVY dv7t has all the major ports you need and the average consumer will want, though it does lack some of the more specialty and business oriented type ports.  A majority of the ports are located on the left side of the laptop with just a few on the right.  There are no ports on the rear edge of the notebook and the front side only has a SDHC card reader. The rest of the ports are located on the left and right sides of the notebook and here is what you get:

Left: VGA, HDMI, Ethernet (covered), two USB 3.0, microphone in and headphone out

Right: Indicator lights, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, optical drive (Blu-ray or DVD), AC adapter and Kensington lock slot

While there is an abundance of ports available, there are some business oriented and specialty ports missing that some users might care about.  For instance, there's no DisplayPort video output, eSATA port, SmartCard reader or ExpressCard slot.  The faster USB 3.0 transfer rates should suffice for most users, but it might have been nice to offer DisplayPort and an ExpressCard slot given the size and amount of room available with the dv7t.

Screen
The ENVY dv7t-7200 comes standard with a glossy finish 1600 x 900 HD+ screen but can also come equipped with a Full HD 1920 x 1080 screen with matte finish for an extra $150.  While we could complain the Full HD should be standard for a premium laptop, the low price of the dv7t you can achieve by going with the standard screen ($649 starting) and the fact not all of us have young eyes and 20/20 vision makes it an acceptable starting point.  Those that just have to have more pixels per inch and value the anti-glare quality of a matte display will likely pay up for the higher resolution Full HD screen.

The dv7t under review comes with the default 1600 x 900 display.  Given the 1600 x 900 resolution, the ENVY dv7t has the same pixel density as a 15.6" screen laptop with 1366 x 768 HD resolution.  This screen uses TN panel technology found in a majority of laptops, not the more expensive wide angle viewing IPS technology you may have heard of that's used on theMacBook Pro with Retina display or Lenovo's ThinkPad X230.   This means colors will shift as you tilt the laptop screen back and forward, a straight-on view with the screen perpendicular to your eyes will offer the best experience.  There's not much else to write home about for the HD+ screen -- colors, contrast and black levels are all average.  Screen brightness is fine for indoor usage, but don't expect to be able to view the screen outdoors in the full sun.  The glossy finish screen does help to make colors more bold and brilliant and is nice for movie watching, but if you're working in a brightly lit room with a light source from behind and above you'll get a lot of reflection off of the screen.