Culture & Living
From its design to performance and appearance, Vogue India's digital graphic designer gives you her take on the gadget
Smartphones, tablets and an increasing amount of image and video editing apps may have taken over as most people’s go-to when it comes to meeting their digital design needs, but nothing speaks better to a designer than a big screen, 4K display and a fast-performing machine. The new normal work from home life has also made it abundantly important to having a great laptop to maintain an efficient workflow.
For most users, a basic laptop is good enough for emails and presentations. As a resident graphic designer for Vogue digital though, it is of utmost importance for me that my laptop is equipped with the right tech and a brilliant user experience. So when the opportunity to test drive the new HP ENVY 15 came to me, I was excited to give it a go.
At first glance, I love the way this laptop looks. It’s classy and elegant. The HP ENVY 15 is sleek and polished with a matte silver finish. The metallic HP logo on its display lid makes it all the more appealing. I especially like the minimalist keyboard with the simple bouncy white backlit keys and speaker grills on both sides. The big touchpad and a fingerprint reader within the keyboard makes it user-friendly and modern. It even has the option to enable touchscreen.
I like my coffee strong and my screen big! Once you get used to working on a big screen, there is no going back. While the office did provide me with that privilege, it is a challenge to get the same experience in the confines of home. The 15.6-inch display screen is a huge win and saved me from my usual squinting and bending over into a tiny screen (bonus points for helping with a better posture). The 4K OLED display looked great with bright, vivid colours and deep blacks, making just about any image look amazing.
Let’s face it, nobody likes a frozen screen. With a high resolution and a high powered processor, this laptop is perfectly capable of handling the workload of a video editor and designer. I was able to switch between tabs and work on softwares and apps like Photoshop, Slack, Chrome, Illustrator and After Effects all at the same time. The audio is loud and clear with stereo speakers tuned by Bang & Olufsen, which is ideal when it comes to video editing, but works just as well for when I’m listening to music during my downtime.
If anything, this year has taught us the importance of a good laptop—one that’s self-sufficient and comes with the least IT hassles. A large-sized screen, power, and speed—all the right boxes get checked with the HP ENVY 15. For anyone who deals with a fair bit of image and video editing, this machine is perfect—whether you're working from the office, a coffee shop, or your couch.