I love my tech gadgets, and I’m always excited to try a new computer or tablet. I was doubly excited to try the new HP Envy x2 PC because it is both a laptop and a tablet! This 3.1 lb computer is small and sleek and perfect for taking places, and its portability increases when you detach the screen and it becomes a stand alone tablet.
HP Envy x2 PC Specifications:
- Ultra-thin with a sleek aluminum finish
- 11.6-inch diagonal HD display
- Vivid colour HD touch screen
- LED-backlit display
- Beats Audio and dual speakers
- Windows 8
- 8 MP rear facing camera, and a front facing camera too!
- Slides from notebook to tablet
- Two batteries…one in the keyboard base and another in the tablet
Since I am new to Windows 8, this has been a bit of a learning curve for me. The whole setup is a little daunting at first, but once I figured out the basics I was able to find some pretty handy tools. I love the HP Pagelift for documents. With this app, you can use the tablet to take a picture of a document and the app will flatten it to look like a scan. I created this Valentine’s Calendar using the tablet camera and the HP software that came with the Photosmart printer, and then I snapped a picture of my printed calendar using Pagelift. The end result is the image on the left. I think it worked great and will come in handy for contracts and other documents.
My husband is particularly impressed with his ability to control the Xbox using the Envy x2. The Smartglass app opens up your Xbox and you can look at the games you have, watch Netflix (providing you have it on your Xbox like we do), and surf through You Tube videos.
HP offers a huge number of apps for the Envy including games, entertainment, productivity, and many more apps. The kids found several games and activities that they love, as you can see below. I really like the flash card game that Kellen is playing in the middle picture. They can have fun and learn at the same time!
Overall I am really impressed with the HP Envy x2. The sound and graphics are excellent, the system is so light and portable and there is a lot to offer in terms of apps. There is a headphone jack in the tablet and the keyboard, as well as USB ports in the keyboard. There is no disk drive, but I didn’t find that to be a problem. The memory is just 64 GBs, so if you store a lot of images, etc on your computer like I do, you will need a back up drive for storage.
The perfect partner for the Envy is the HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-one printer. This machine prints, copies, scans and faxes and it can all be done through a wireless connection. I was not looking forward to setting up the wireless connection on the printer, because that is something that has caused me some headaches with past printers, but I had nothing to dread! It took a matter of minutes for the printer to be on the network.
HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One Printer Specifications:
- Print documents and photos, make copies and scans, send faxes, access the Web, and print on the go
- 4.33-inch (10.99 cm) color touchscreen
- Scan everyday documents and photos straight to email, and scan multiple files to a single document
- Print and copy on both sides of a single page
- Print lab-quality, fade-resistant photos
- Memory card slots or easy-access USB port to print photos
- Print from a smartphone or tablet with HP ePrint
- Easily print and share, using built-in wireless
- ENERGY STAR® qualified
I really like the software that came with the printer. I have been using HP Photo Creations to put together some photo book pages, to make the calendar above and I am going to make some photo collages with it as well. The printer itself prints beautiful pictures. I printed out some of my favourite photos of the kids and the quality is just as good as I would get having them printed in a lab.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, my daughter and I put together some Valentine’s Day crafts that we could make using the HP Envy 2 and the Photosmart 7520. She designed some Valentine’s bookmarks and a really cute Valentine’s card that looks like a real vase holding a lollipop bouquet. I made some custom messages and glued them to the bottom of Hershey’s Kisses, and I printed off some photos that I plan to frame. There are so many Valentine’s crafts we could do, and it’s a great way to spend some time together.
One of my lucky readers is going to win an HP Envy x2 PC and an HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-one printer!
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