Today we're finally looking at another Ryzen Mobile laptop, the second e'er system nosotros've had proper hands on time with. Despite a few difficulties finding these systems on the market place, HP has pulled through with their brand new Envy x360 13-inch, and this – spoiler alert – is a fantastic system. The level of performance you make it this form cistron, and at a sub-$700 toll betoken, is hard to pass upward, and that'southward without mentioning numerous other features HP has managed to cram into this auto.

The Envy x360 13 besides provides usa with a platform to come across how Ryzen Mobile fares in a xiii-inch course factor for the first time. When nosotros initially reviewed Ryzen Mobile in the fifteen-inch Envy x360, it was good but we idea the real strength of this APU would be in ultra-compact notebooks pitted directly against Intel Kaby Lake Refresh systems without detached graphics. Subsequently all, we know how disappointing Intel's integrated graphics is, so to go an APU with a more powerful GPU in the exact same form cistron is a very attractive proposition. I'll talk a bit more about the operation later on.

If you weren't aware of the price tag, it'd be piece of cake to mistake the Envy x360 thirteen for a high-cease system. The pressed aluminium shell with an anodized grey finish looks incredible for a mid-range device, with elements like the patterned spine and deep blackness glass bezels adding to the premium terminate. The newer HP logo on the lid combined with expansive slabs of metal and relatively few seams or changes in materials delivers a minimalist blueprint that nosotros love.

The thirteen-inch Envy x360 is also super compact. There's pretty slim bezels around the 13.3-inch 1080p display, not the slimmest I've seen, but it's hard to mutter well-nigh. The wedge design is reasonably sparse at 15mm and despite having that 360-degree hinge, the whole unit weighs simply 1.27kg which is slightly under the average I'd expect for a laptop this size.

But on the 360-degree hinge, once more it's not a characteristic I personally utilise a lot, though some people may find the tablet and stand up modes useful in some situations. The i affair I love about these convertible designs, though, is that having these extra modes does not compromise the laptop feel in any fashion: you still get a great keyboard and trackpad, with the power to use it on your lap with ease. The more tablet-focused devices like the Surface aren't nearly as good in that regard.

HP includes a pen in the box, which supports Windows ten's native inking functionality and packs 1024 levels of force per unit area sensitivity, though HP tells me a pen with 4x the sensitivity is available as an optional extra for those that require it. The pen works actually well, and it'due south great yous get information technology in the box for those that want to annotate or draw; no need to spend $100 on an accompaniment merely to become the functionality.

I/O is decent, y'all become two full-sized USB 3.1 gen 1 ports plus a USB-C 3.1 gen 2 port, no Thunderbolt 3 here but yous tin charge the laptop through USB-C if you take a charger that supports the appropriate amount of power output. Otherwise, the Envy x360 also chargers over a proprietary connector and that'due south the charger included in the box. There's besides a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD menu slot.

The sides also include the power button, book buttons, and a sizeable fan vents so there wasn't a whole lot of extra space for farther I/O, but what has been included is sufficient, especially every bit y'all tin plough the USB-C port into a variety of display outputs through a dongle. This laptop is simply also sparse for something like full-sized HDMI.

The keyboard is as proficient equally e'er, borrowing the exact same design as other Envy and Spectre devices. The clicky tactile response is one of my favorites among ultrathin laptops; each cardinal is extremely stable and the layout is decent so y'all get an crawly typing experience. The trackpad isn't so proficient, it'south fine, but information technology could do with a chip more than vertical height and information technology doesn't take quite the same responsiveness or accuracy equally the best trackpads I've used.

A large department above the keyboard is used for the speaker assortment with Bang & Olufsen branding, and the sound quality they produce is pretty decent for a laptop. Nothing amazing, they lack low-end punch like nearly laptop speakers, but at least they tin can go pretty loud without epic distortion. And I wouldn't depict them as super tinny either.

The display, at least in my review unit, is a 13.3-inch 1080p IPS LCD with performance that fits this laptop's mid-range toll. Effulgence is average, topping out at simply 250 nits, every bit is the contrast ratio which falls a touch on below 1,000:1. Viewing angles, though, are outstanding and equally you lot might await for a convertible, there's a touchscreen included that works well.

In terms of color performance, we're looking at 89% coverage of the sRGB gamut, which is a little below what I'd normally similar to run across, but significantly ameliorate than the xv-inch Envy x360 that supported only 67% coverage. Looking across the accuracy charts and information technology'south all very boilerplate again, with deltaEs in the 4.0 to half dozen.0 range. The display looks fine from an initial glance just it's not something y'all'd want to employ for any serious color piece of work, at least without full calibration.