HP ENVY TouchSmart Ultrabook 4t-1100 Pro Reviews

At 4.5 pounds, the HP Envy TouchSmart 4 isn’t the most portable ultrabook on the market. In fact, I’m not sure why Intel insists on grouping notebooks with 14 and 15.6 inch screens into the ultrabook category in the first place, but that’s Intel’s decision, not mine. What you do get with the Envy TouchSmart 4 is a reasonably fast, reasonably affordable notebook with Windows 8 and decent, but not spectacular battery life. You also get a touchscreen display -- which turns out to be a pretty useful feature on a notebook. Not only is Windows 8 choc full of menus and apps that are clearly designed with touch in mind, but reaching up and touching the screen comes in handy more often than you’d think even when you’re running traditional desktop apps. Sure, if you’re used to a keyboard and mouse or touchpad, you don’t need a touchscreen to get things done in Windows. But sometimes it’s faster to just reach up and tap the screen to launch a program, open a menu, or drag-and-drop than it would be to move your hand to a pointing device, slide a cursor around, and then click a few times. We’ll probably see many more notebooks with touchscreens in the coming months. But if you’re looking for one right now (and touch and price are more important to you than portability), the HP Envy TouchSmart 4 is a decent choice.

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, then the Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook is nicely priced, sturdy and all-around pleasant way to get the full Windows 8 touch experience.

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, then the Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook is nicely priced, sturdy and all-around pleasant way to get the full Windows 8 touch experience.