HP Envy Rove 20 Review,Price,Biggest Tablet Screen: A tablet PC with Window Big screen, Low price

The good: The HP Envy Rove 20 costs a bit less than some other tabletop PCs, includes great audio, and runs long enough to watch a couple of movies without being plugged in.

The bad: It's heavier than some comparable big-screen systems, uses a lower-end CPU, and the 20-inch display isn't full HD.

The bottom line: HP's entry in the growing tabletop PC field, the 20-inch Envy Rove 20, is a fun family PC, but it really should have a full 1080p display.

HP joins the little however growing variety of computer manufacturers coming into what I decision the work surface computer house. that is shorthand for a big-screen all-in-one desktop computer that features battery for short-haul movableness, and a capability to lie flat on a surface, making AN ex gratia face-up read. These area unit basically megatablets with either inbuilt kickstands or desktop docks, and represent one in every of the sole really distinctive and attention-grabbing things happening in PC style straight away (at least till Apple's mack professional hits).

Sony's terribly similar Vaio faucet twenty offers basically an equivalent deal (including the one,600x900-pixel screen), though the Core i3 offered may be a last-gen chip, and upgrading to match the HP Rove's 1TB HDD brings that system up to $949.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

 

Other entries in this field are either larger or smaller, with the Dell XPS 18 dropping two inches from its screen size, and the Lenovo Horizon 27 bumping it up to, you guessed it, 27 inches. The Lenovo Horizon, while a favorite, is a much different animal just based on its size (and $1,500-plus price), but Dell's version presents an interesting choice.

A comparable model is $100 a lot of, $999, and incorporates a last-gen Core i3 computer hardware and solely 500GB of HDD storage, and, after all the screen in smaller (although it is a full 1080p screen). The fascinating half is that whereas the power unit Rove and therefore the Sony faucet twenty each weigh around twelve pounds, the XPS eighteen manages to be associate degree primarily similar machine at solely to a small degree on top of 5 pounds. If you place them aspect by aspect (as we have a tendency to did), it is a pretty beautiful distinction, creating one associate degree primarily desk-locked system you'll lug from space to space sometimes, additionally the} different a fairly transportable lap-size pill that may also stand upright once required.

I think this is often a really fascinating and growing field, with many sensible family and amusement prospects. The lie-flat work surface computer is a completely completely different animal, with options of a private pc, a bit of shopper physics instrumentation, and even living-room article of furniture. Not everybody desires a work surface computer on their table, and i would be inclined to lean toward the smaller, lighter hollow or the large 27-inch Lenovo, however HP's new Rove twenty conjointly gets a nod for providing the simplest worth, most hard-drive area, and therefore the latest Intel processors.

	HP Envy Rove 20	Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon	Sony Vaio Tap 20	Dell XPS 18
Price	$879	$1,699	$999	$1,349
Display size/resolution	20-inch, 1,600x 900 touch screen	27-inch, 1,920x1,080 touch screen	20-inch, 1,600x900 touch screen	18-inch, 1,920x1,080 touch screen
PC CPU	1.7GHz Intel Core i3-4010U	1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3427U	1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U	1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3337U
PC Memory	4GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	4GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics	32MB Intel HD Graphics 4000	2GB Nvidia GeForce GT620M	64MB Intel HD Graphics 4000	32MB Intel HD Graphics 4000
Storage	1TB, SSHD hard drive	1TB, 5,400 rpm hard drive	750GB, 5,400rpm hard drive	1TB, 7,200 rpm hard drive
Optical drive	None	None	None	None
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Windows 8 (64-bit)	Windows 8 (64-bit)	Windows 8 (64-bit)	Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)

Design and features

The Rove 20 is closest in design to the Sony Vaio Tap 20, so much so that the pair feels like an old Spy Magazine "Separated at Birth" column. Both models take a large 20-inch glass screen and match it with the kind of thick metal-backed body you'd see on a typical all-in-one desktop, then add a heady duty metal fold-out kickstand.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

 

It's that kickstand that certainly adds some of the thickness and weight to the Rove 20, and it serves to make the entire system feel very secure at almost any angle, even though it's easily adjusted with one hand. It's my favorite of the kickstand designs so far (I found the one used on the Lenovo Horizon clunky and hard to deal with), because once you reach behind the screen and depress a large hand-size trigger, the spring-loaded C-shaped hinge deploys and offers easy adjustment.

The hinge is stiff enough to instantly stay at any angle between fully flat and just short of 90 degrees, but also gives enough that you can push it back with the firm press of a single finger. The trade-off is that it weighs about double what the 18-inch Dell tabletop PC does, although that system has just two fixed-angle plastic flippers that are not nearly as secure.

The Rove 20 includes a matching wireless keyboard and mouse set. Both are fine but plasticky, and oddly, the designs of the two components don't seem to mesh perfectly -- the mouse is made of glossy black plastic, while the keyboard is matte black plastic. Unlike a lot of other pack-in keyboards, or most laptop keyboards, the keys here are deep and offer a satisfying click under the fingers. The curved mouse is ergonomically friendly and fine for casual surfing and even basic gaming.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

The 20-inch screen is AN LED-backlit IPS show, and appears nice, with bright colours and smart off-axis viewing. It's coated by edge-to-edge glass that extends across the thick black screen edge, and bit is, as on nearly each Windows eight machine to this point, terribly responsive.

The big grievance here is that the the screen's native resolution is barely one,600x900 pixels, and for such an enormous show, something but full one,920x1,080 feels out of place. Its still fine for Netflix and HD video viewing, however you will not be seeing the total resolution of 1080p content.

Like most midrange and up HP systems, the Rove twenty includes a Beats Audio technology, at the side of twin speakers and a subwoofer, creating it a great-sounding moveable computer that gets lots loud while not distorting, and with tight bass.

	HP Envy Rove 20
Video	None
Audio	Stereo speakers w/subwoofer, combo headphone/microphone jack
Data	3 USB 3.0, SD card reader
Networking	Ethernet (via USB dongle), 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive	None