HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx: Our Take (Mini Review)

 
The 17.3-inch HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx is a large desktop-replacement-style laptop with powerful hardware. At 7 pounds, it's more at home on your desk than in your bag or on your lap, but it promises enough performance to make you ditch your tower.

Although we have not tested this model, we can draw some conclusions based on the Envy 17's specs, comments from product owners and evaluations from other professional reviewers. For a list of our favorite laptops that we have tested, check out our Best Laptops page.

From $1029.99

Bestbuy

Who's it for?

The HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx is best suited for those who are looking to do some major-league media consumption, gaming and content creation. Mini moviemakers (think GoPro enthusiasts), and photographers who rely on Photoshop to quickly touch up photos will benefit the most from this unit.

Key Specs and Features

The HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx has a 17.3-inch, 10-point multitouch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Users who still like to burn media to DVDs or CD-ROMs will be happy with the included optical drive. Furthermore, the laptop features impressive Bang & Olufsen quad speakers with a subwoofer. The Envy 17 is also one of the few laptops that come with an Intel RealSense camera, which allows users to create 3D avatars of themselves or replace the background behind them while videoconferencing.

The HP Envy 17 is powered by an Intel dual-core i7 6500U CPU clocked at 2.5 GHz, a discrete Nvidia 940M GPU and 16GB of DDR3L RAM, which is excellent for rendering large HD video files. However, gamers will want a laptop with a more powerful graphics card, such as an Nvidia GTX 970M or higher. The unit comes with a 1TB HDD, offering plenty of space to save multiple projects. However, its 5,400-rpm speed is rather disappointing considering the high-end components included with this laptop.
Connectivity options include 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and Gigabit Ethernet. There are four USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, an SDXC card reader and a microphone jack. The laptop ships with the 64-bit version of Windows 10 Home.

What Owners Say

According to reviews on Best Buy, the HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx offers a tremendous amount of performance relative to its price. Users love the design and build quality, commending it for the superb backlit keyboard with a 10-key numeric keypad. The Bang & Olufsen quad speakers provide an amazing audio experience, and the RealSense 3D camera really impresses those who try it out. They also describe the screen as being bright, colorful and easy to view, with the touch capability making it that much more pleasurable to use for simple tasks.
However, some users criticized the touchpad for being "finicky," and some were dissatisfied with the machine's battery life, which they said is only 3 hours. Overall, though, most commenters said the Envy 17 is a good value for the price, noting that comparable systems start at several hundred dollars more and offer the same hardware.

What Reviewers Say

Not many expert publications have reviewed the HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx. Top Laptops wrote that the laptop's screen provides a great viewing experience, with its rich and vibrant colors, and that its backlit keyboard provides hours of comfortable typing.
However, there are a few alleged shortcomings. The laptop's "big and bulky design" and its heavy weight were viewed as negatives. Top Laptops claims that the touchpad is glitchy and the battery life is less than 3 hours, which is poor but not unexpected for a laptop with a screen this size.

Upshot

If you want a powerful laptop with a big screen, the HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx promises strong performance for video editors, creative professionals and movie mavens. At its $1,029 MSRP, this notebook is reasonably priced but hardly a bargain, as you can find similar laptops for around the same cost, including the Lenovo Y70 Touch. Also, if you're really a creative professional, you probably want to spend more for something with a higher resolution and better graphics, like a MacBook Pro. However, if you find it at a good price, the Envy 17 m7-n109dx is worth considering.