HP Envy Rove 20 review

Portable all-in-one PCs that resemble a large tablet computer are becoming much more common. The HP Envy Rove 20 is one of the latest examples of such PCs, and it’s equipped with a dual-core Intel 1.7GHz Core i3-4010U processor and a 20in touchscreen display. As is typical with this type of all-in-one PC, the processor is a mobile chip such as you’d find in a laptop. It’s also one of Intel’s latest 4th-generation Core processors, so you’re getting the latest processor technology with the Envy Rove 20.

The mobile components that the Envy Rove 20 uses helps reduce the Envy Rove 20’s size, conserve its battery life and prevent it from overheating. Although many portable all-in-one PCs are light, the Rove 20 is a little bulkier than most and its 5.4kg weight feels significant when you move it around. A sturdy stand on the back lets you prop the Envy Rove 20 upright. You can also fold the Envy Rove 20 flat so you can lie it down on a desk or table. Unlike some rivals, such as the Dell XPS 2720 it’s not intended to be particularly easy to open up, although you can get at the memory slots by removing the back panel.

BOARD GAMER
Although the Envy Rove 20 isn’t particularly svelte, it is certainly portable enough to move from room to room, so you’ll have no trouble streaming your favourite drama series when in the bedroom or displaying recipes when in the kitchen. You can even gather friends and family around the Envy Rove 20 and keep them entertained with onscreen board games. The Envy Rove 20 even has a manual rotation button to make multi-person gaming easier to manage. The manual rotation button lets you flip the screen’s orientation when it’s the next player’s turn so that you don’t have to turn the entire PC.

The Envy Rove 20’s built-in battery means you can unplug it and move it from one part of your home to another without having to shut it down first. In our standard light use battery test, the Envy Rove 20 lasted three hours and 40 minutes. That isn’t particularly long, so you’ll keep it plugged in if you want to use it for a long time. However, you’ll have no problem unplugging the Envy Rove 20 so that you can take it downstairs to show something to your family or browse the web while sat on the couch for an hour or two.

The Envy Rove 20 is reliant on the Intel HD Graphics 4400 graphics processor that’s built into its Intel Core i3-4010U CPU. The Envy Rove 20’s 3D gaming performance leaves quite a lot to be desired, as is demonstrated by the 18.4fps average frame rate it produced in our Dirt Showdown benchmark test which we ran at a resolution of 1,280×720 with graphics quality set to High. However, the Envy Rove 20 is more than up to the task of running retro and casual games, such as Plants vs. Zombies.

FAMILY FRIENDLY
The Envy Rove 20 isn’t exactly overburdened with raw processing power, and only has 4GB of memory installed. The PC produced an overall score of 32 in our multimedia benchmark tests, and struggled with our demanding multitasking test in particular. However, the Envy Rove 20 is designed to be a simple, general-purpose home PC, and on that score it would certainly meet the requirements of the average family. If you primarily use your PC to write letters, browse the web, watch movies and play casual games, there’s no point investing in a super powerful, super expensive gaming PC.

The Envy Rove 20 has a 1TB hybrid hard disk that provides quicker boot-up speeds than you’d expect from a regular mechanical disk as well as a large storage capacity. Indeed, the Envy Rove 20’s disk is large enough to store a fairly large media collection as well as your documents, which is great if you have a lot of family movies and photos you want to store locally for quick access.

An SDXC card slot is inconveniently located on the bottom front edge of the PC, which makes it difficult to access the slot when the Envy Rove 20’s propped up like a monitor. A 3.5mm headset port on the Envy Rove 20’s right-hand side. A dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi adaptor is built-in, and the PC also has a Gigabit Ethernet dongle that lets you turn one of the USB ports into a fast, wired network connection. There’s no optical disc drive but there are three USB3 ports, so you shouldn’t have any trouble connecting an external DVD or Blu-ray drive. Happily, the mouse and keyboard that come with the Envy Rove 20 are wireless and communicate with a receiver built into the Envy Rove 20, which means they don’t tie up any of the USB ports.

The mouse and keyboard aren’t particularly remarkable, but both do the job. The mouse is a glossy black curved affair with surprisingly angular edges, but it’s not awkward or uncomfortable to use for standard desktop tasks. The keyboard is rather spacious, with a full numeric keypad and plenty of room between the fashionable Chiclet-style keys. The hard edges of the keys take some getting used to, but touch-type accurately.

The keyboard has an extra function key wedged between the Ctrl and Windows keys, and this function key can be used to perform keyboard shortcuts that control Windows 8.1. You can, for example, use the function key to open a search bar or cycle between active screens.

The 1,600×900 resolution of the Envy Rove 20’s 10-point touchscreen display may disappoint those who prefer 1,920×1,080-resolution Full HD screens, but we had no problem with its resolution. The screen itself is excellent. Dark tones are rich and deep, as shown by the black measurement of 0.21cd/m2 and contrast ratio of 1167:1 measured by our screen calibrator. The Envy Rove 20’s display is accurate, and we measured an sRGB gamut coverage of 93.3 per cent. The Envy Rove 20’s display certainly looks good, but it’s a glossy display which means you can potentially see unwanted reflections. Sadly, the Envy Rove 20 doesn’t have a graphics output with which you can connect an additional monitor, but it does support Intel’s WiDi wireless display standard, so you can wirelessly connect the Envy Rove 20 to compatible TVs.

Although the Envy Rove 20’s internal speaker is fairly loud for something that comes built into an all-in-one PC, it’s otherwise poor. We could hear hardly any bass at all, while high frequencies sounded harsh and brittle, even simple acoustic guitar music.

CONCLUSION
It’s not a powerhouse system, but the HP Envy Rove 20 is a very well-balanced family PC. Unfortunately, its £799 price makes it at least a hundred pounds too expensive for what it is. The all-in-one has a great touchscreen, but provides the performance of a much, much cheaper laptop. If you want a portable all-in-one PC that you can use anywhere in the home, the Dell XPS 18 is both lighter and a much better deal.