HP ENVY m4 First Look

The HP Envy m4 is an upcoming laptop release that will likely go on sale to coincide with the Microsoft Windows 8 release in late October.  The Envy m4 will be a blend between the Envy 4t Sleekbook and Pavilion dv4t-5100 that are currently available from HP.  It’s a 14-inch premium style laptop that comes with a 3rd generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, built-in optical drive and all aluminum shell body.  In terms of design, the look is much like the Envy 4t, however unlike the Envy 4t it has a removable and upgradeable battery, standard voltage processor and the ability to easily upgrade memory or the hard drive via a removable panel on the bottom.

Before we go any further, we’d like to thank the HP Academy program for sending us the Envy m4 to evaluate.  This Envy m4 model will undoubtedly be appealing to the student crowd given the portable size and weight, you’ll be able to get a discount on the Envy m4 via the HP APP (Academic Purchase Program) when it goes on sale this Fall.

The specs for the Envy m4 we have on hand are as follows:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-3520M 2.90GHz
• Graphics: Intel HD 4000
• Screen: 14.0” 1366 x 768 resolution, BrightView (glossy)
• OS: Windows 8 64-bit
• Storage: 1TB 5400RPM HD
• Ports: Media card reader, three USB 3.0 ports, RJ-45 Ethernet LAN, headphone/microphone jack, HDMI, VGA monitor out
• Battery: 9-cell (6-cell standard), removable and upgradeable
• Optical Drive: DVD Burner
• Weight:

The body of the Envy m4 features an all silver look with brush metal aluminum finish.  The screen has a black glossy bezel around it, the bottom area of the bezel is particularly thick.  Given the thickness of the bezel, you might wonder that HP couldn’t have reduced the overall size and footprint of this model.  The ENVY m4 model number is printed on the top right side of the screen:

The keyboard uses a chiclet style design and comes equipped with a fingerprint reader on the right side.  The touchpad has a metallic shiny finish, it’s slippery making it easy to guide your finger across and do gestures.  Given the number of multi-touch gestures that Windows 8 supports, that characteristic might be helpful in navigating the OS.  Speaking of Windows 8, that will be the default OS loaded on the Envy m4 when it launches in October.

As mentioned earlier, the Envy m4 isn’t going to get the Ultrabook or Sleekbook branding that the recently released Envy 4t and 5t have received, but it is still quite thin and light for a 14” screen laptop.  Without a battery in the Envy m4 weighs in at around 4.4lbs with a 6-cell battery and 4.8lbs with the 9-cell.  The thickness ranges from 1” at the front to 1.25” at the back, again that’s with the 6-cell battery.  When the 9-cell battery is installed it elevates the Envy m4 at the back to make it thicker.

The selection of ports is fairly standard, on the left side you get a VGA monitor out, HDMI, two USB 3.0 ports and a dual headphone microphone jack.

The right side has a USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 Ethernet jack and power jack.  You also get an optical drive on the right side, a DVD Multi-burner in our case.

You’ll see that the Envy m4 has a proper fan and vent on the left side, this allows it to house a standard voltage processor with better performance than the undervolted processors found in Ultrabooks.  In fact, the Envy m4 can be configured with up to an Intel Core i7 processor such as the Core i7-3520M 2.90GHz variety in our model.  Graphics are provided by the Intel HD 4000 integrated GPU.  For the student set just looking to get some work done and not interested in gaming, this is more than enough power.

The screen on the Envy m4 is a pretty standard 1366 x 768 resolution glossy display variety.  There’s nothing to write home about here, the viewing angles are so-so but at least the colors and brightness are good.  It’s uncertain whether HP will provide any resolution upgrades but that’d sure be nice!

Stay tuned as we’ll have a more complete review of the Envy m4 coming up in the next week or two.  Until then, you can see more of this laptop by watching the following video: