HP Envy Rove 20 review: A tabletop PC that costs less, weighs more 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: Its heavier than some comparable big-screen systems, uses a lower-end CPU, and the 20-inch display isnt full HD. The bottom line: HPs 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 small but growing number of PC makers entering what I call the tabletop PC space. Thats shorthand for a big-screen all-in-one desktop PC that includes a battery for short-haul portability, plus an ability to lie flat on a surface, creating an optional face-up view. These are essentially megatablets with either built-in kickstands or desktop docks, and represent one of the only truly unique and interesting things going on in desktop computer design right now (at least until Apples Mac Pro hits). The HP Envy Rove aims to bring a big 20-inch tablet/desktop to the masses at a very mainstream price. It does this by keeping the CPU on the low end, with a new fourth-generation Intel Core i3, and restricting the 20-inch display to a middling 1,600x900-pixel native resolution (some competing systems have full 1,920x1,080-pixel screens). Sonys very similar Vaio Tap 20 offers essentially the same deal (including the 1,600x900-pixel screen), although the Core i3 offered is a last-gen chip, and upgrading to match the HP Roves 1TB HDD brings that system up. 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 but Dells version presents an interesting choice. A comparable model is more expensive and has a last-gen Core i3 CPU and only 500GB of HDD storage, and, of course the screen in smaller (although its a full 1080p screen). The interesting part is that while the HP Rove and the Sony Tap 20 both weigh around 12 pounds, the XPS 18 manages to be an essentially similar machine at only a bit above five pounds. If you put them side by side (as we did), its a pretty stunning difference, making one an essentially desk-locked system you can lug from room to room occasionally, and the other a reasonably portable lap-size tablet that can also stand upright when needed. But if weight isnt your main concern, the HP Rove does has some serious advantages. The built-in kickstand is rock-solid and adjusts to different angles easily, while the Dell XPS 18 relies on a couple of wimpy plastic fold-out fins (or you can buy a metal docking stand). The Rove also features HPs standard Beats Audio subsystem, more USB ports, and a clever on-demand screen rotation button that keeps Windows 8 from flipping the image around every time you jostle the screen. I think this is a very interesting and growing field, with plenty of practical family and entertainment possibilities. The lie-flat tabletop PC is an entirely different animal, with features of a personal computer, a piece of consumer electronics equipment, and even living-room furniture. Not everyone needs a tabletop PC on their coffee table, and Id be inclined to lean toward the smaller, lighter Dell or the massive 27-inch Lenovo, but HPs new Rove 20 also gets a nod for providing the best price, most hard-drive space, and the latest Intel processors. 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 youd see on a typical all-in-one desktop, then add a heady duty metal fold-out kickstand. Connections, performance, and battery Thanks in part of its hefty size, you get a very comparable set of ports and connections on the Rove 20 to what youd find on a standard all-in-one desktop, including three USB 3.0 ports and an SD card slot. I wasnt a fan of offloading the Ethernet jack to a USB dongle, but I liked the easy to access volume up/down rocker on the right edge, and the manual screen rotation button on the left. Like the most recent Apple MacBooks, the Wi-Fi is of the newer, faster 802.11ac variety, although youll need a new router to take advantage of that. HP only has a single configuration available right now, which includes a fourth-generation Intel Core i3-4010U processor, 4GB of RAM, and a sizable 1TB HDD with an 8GB SSD cache. In our benchmark tests, the Rove 20 was slower than each of the other tabletop PCs weve tested, all of which use an Intel Core i5 CPU, although those are from the previous generation of Intels Core i-series chips. Despite that, the Rove 20 felt perfectly fast when used for everyday tasks such as Web surfing, social media, video playback, or work processing, and it should handle any task youd use a mainstream all-in-one for without slowdown or stuttering. One issue is that these tabletop PCs, especially when folded down, are great for tabletop gaming. But, with a slower CPU and no discrete graphics card, theres very little serious gaming youre going to be able to do on here. A few built-in apps, such as a visually bland chess/checkers/backgammon app, at least give you something to do for family gaming, and the Microsoft App store can give you casual games, including the new Halo: Spartan Assault, that work well. While these tabletop PCs are not intended to run all day away from an outlet, its nice to be able to carry one to another room and have it last long enough to watch a film or to set up in the kitchen as a virtual cookbook. By those standards, the Rove 20 did very respectively, running for 3 hours and 47 minutes on our video playback battery drain test. The very power-efficient new Intel generation of CPUs helps with that, no doubt. Conclusion The HP Rove 20 doesnt break much new ground in the newish tabletop PC category, but its built like a tank, has a great adjustable kickstand hinge, and gives you a full 1TB of hard drive space for less than anyone else. That said, Id be tempted to spend some more on Dells 18-inch version -- despite having a slightly smaller screen, the Dell version includes a full 1080p display and weighs half as much as the Rove 20.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 05:43:35 +0000
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