Windows all-in-ones have largely stayed the design course for the recent past, kitting modest components behind a large screen and calling it quits. HP’s latest Envy Move is about as adventurous as I’ve ever seen all-in-ones get, reimagining the product with an inclusion most laptop users would be familiar with: a battery. Part desktop, part portable — HP plays fast and heavy with the puns, calling the new PC a ‘real pick-me-up’, but is it?
Yet, it’s not just about the battery — the unusually slim and compact all-in-one measures in at 21.74 x 14.43 inches, a little less than 40mm in depth, and weighs just a shade over 4 kg. You can pick it up with the integrated carrying handle, somewhat like a large shopping bag, and carry it around the home from room to room. Set it down on a flat surface and two concealed feet swivel 90-degrees into place so that the Envy Move can stand by itself, and they disappear in a single springloaded action as soon as you lift it up. Very nifty, though I do hope the mechanism holds up over months of picking the Move up and setting it down in a different place… something I did a lot. It’s oddly liberating to have the big 23.8-inch screen experience anywhere you want it, without having to tether it down by a power outlet.
Beyond this novelty, the Envy Move has a capable set of specs — a 2560x1440-pixel resolution IPSLCD that’s good for the Netflix binge sessions, thanks in no small part to the solid, full-sounding audio by Bang & Olufsen that is housed below the display. Connectivity options are limited — a single USB Type-C 10Gbps port, a USB Type-A port and a HDMI 1.4 input, the latter enabling use as a portable, self-powered monitor. To its credit, HP bundles a slimline keyboard with an integrated trackpad that fits into an integrated fabric pouch on the rear of the screen to carry around safely. For something this untethered, no surprises that HP didn’t add a wired network port!
For what is positioned as a family all-in-one, performance is par for the course, with a 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U chip that’s originally designed for power-efficient use in laptops, 16GB of LPDDR5-4800MHz memory and a 1TB M.2 SSD for storage. It’s fast enough for everyday duties, like making presentations for homework assignments or watching TV shows or lightweight image or video edits. This is not one for serious gaming with its integrated Intel UHD graphics. The battery runs for a little over four hours of use, which is handy in all manners of scenarios, not to mention during power cuts. There’s a neat power saving trick too — the integrated 5MP webcam uses the camera to sense if you’re in front of the Move or not, dimming the display if you walk away to conserve the battery. It’s a well-executed and rather unique take on the all-inone, and even though it may only appeal to a niche, these are the sort of experiments I’m happy to see a brand taking.
Rating: 8/10
Price: INR 1,24,999