HP Envy 4 TouchSmart Series

Overview

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 12 expert reviews

Excellent:

1
Good:

1
Average:

6
Bad:

4

Pros:

Good touchscreen responsiveness; respectable parts; affordable price.
The touchscreen will make you a believer in Windows 8, Excellent keyboard and trackpad; great for heavy typists, Excellent price for the available components, Audio quality is superb, Includes Ethernet port and HDMI out
Attractive design, Excellent touchpad, Good performance

Cons:

Weak screen; touchy touchpad; almost heavy for this class.
Large; it's the biggest ultrabook ever, in size and weight, Battery life is significantly less than advertised at 5.5 hours, Available upgrades are limited and expensive; no SSD upgrade

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Last revision on June 18, 2014

Reviewers Liked

Good touchscreen responsiveness; respectable parts; affordable price
The touchscreen will make you a believer in Windows 8, Excellent keyboard and trackpad; great for heavy typists, Excellent price for the available components, Audio quality is superb, Includes Ethernet port and HDMI out
Attractive design, Excellent touchpad, Good performance
Excellent touch experience, Few potential dealbreakers, Decent array of ports
Great Windows 8 touchscreen experience, Good price/performance ratio, Excellent battery life
Slick design; Solid performance; Fast boot time

Reviewers Didn't Like

Weak screen; touchy touchpad; almost heavy for this class
Large; it's the biggest ultrabook ever, in size and weight, Battery life is significantly less than advertised at 5.5 hours, Available upgrades are limited and expensive; no SSD upgrade
Heavy for an Ultrabook, Lots of bloatware, Narrow viewing angles on display, Unimpressive battery life
Uninspired design, Ugly screen, Unimpressive battery life
Dim display; Mushy keyboard ; Below-average battery life

Expert reviews and ratings

This we know: Windows 8 is more usable with a touchscreen, plain and simple. Whether that’s a practical scenario for tower-and-monitor setups is arguable, but it turns out that using touch on a laptop comes pretty naturally—even more so than we...

By Maximum PC on April 24, 2013

The HP ENVY Touchsmart 4 is an excellent laptop for business or personal use. The touchscreen and...

By GadgetReview on February 04, 2013

When it comes to the features offered by the HP Envy TouchSmart 4-1102sg we're talking about a powerful mix. The touchscreen, the included external DVD drive and the speakers with a subwoofer lift the notebook distinctly above other media-laptops....

By NotebookCheck on December 21, 2012

The addition of the touchscreen drives up the Envy's price, drops the battery life, and makes the Ultrabook heavier than before. None of these trade-offs seem worth it. Touch does make the Windows 8 experience a little more enjoyable on laptops that...

By Digital Trends on November 27, 2012

The chief issue, as mentioned, with the Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 is its weight. To be fair, HP is hardly alone - I've seen a number of Ultrabooks, including older, non-touch based systems come in at over four pounds. If the heft doesn't bother you,...

By PC Advisor on November 13, 2012

It's getting hard to tell HP's thin and light consumer laptops apart: from the upcoming $1,399.99 Envy Spectre XT TouchSmart to the lowly $579.99 Envy Sleekbook 6, they all share extremely similar chassis. Only the quality of the materials and...

By The Verge on November 05, 2012

The HP ENVY 4 TouchSmart Ultrabook might not be the least expensive Windows 8 laptop that you can find but it is one of the most affordable Windows 8 notebooks that offers a great Windows 8 experience complete with a touchscreen. Yes, you are almost...

By Notebook Review on October 30, 2012

HP's first Windows 8 notebook offers an attractive design and a touch-screen display, but skimps on the battery...

By LaptopMag on October 24, 2012

The HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 is a good gateway to the Windows 8 experience with a responsive touch screen in a traditional laptop...

By CNET Australia on October 23, 2012

The HP Envy Touchsmart 4-1102ed is a touchscreen Ultrabook. It has an energy-efficient Intel Core i5 processor and a TN screen with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. It's a powerful enough 14-inch Ultrabook, with as only drawback the relatively high...

By uk.hardware.info on March 10, 2013

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