HP Envy dv7-7202eg Notebook

The HP Envy dv7-7202eg we have put through its paces represents the flagship model from the dv7-7200 series which comprises eight notebooks in total. The currently 1200 Euros expensive 17.3 inch juggernaut with a Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) houses an Intel Core i7-3630QM quad-core processor and a total of 12 Gigabytes of DDR3 RAM. Concerning graphics processing the choices are either the Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics chip integrated into the processor, or the Nvidia GeForce GT 630M GPU. The HP Envy dv7-7202eg stores its data onto two 750 Gigabyte capacity hard drives and also has a Blu-ray burner. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4340s

In order to determine the relative performance of the notebook in the bigger picture, we compared the Envy dv7-7202eg with some of its other HP colleagues, including the Envy dv6-7202eg, the Pavilion g7-2007sg and the Pavilion dv7-7000sg; as well as with three other models: Lenovo IdeaPad G780, Toshiba Satellite P875-30E and the Wortmann Terra Mobile 1773Q. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4341s

The midnight black case of the Envy dv7-7202eg makes a good impression visually: The back of the display and the base unit are both covered with a matte aluminium layer which is surrounded by silver colored plastic around the edges. One other exception to the almost entirely black notebook is the HP logo on the lid which illuminates white when the notebook is switched on. Together with the rounded edges of the case and the perforated speaker panel above the keyboard, this provides for an altogether classy appearance. The metal look hasn't been rigorously adhered to by HP however, since the display frame has a shiny surface which doesn't evoke a particularly qualitative impression. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4440s

We couldn't find any reason for criticism when it came the the thoroughly successful manufacturing quality. The case of the Envy dv7-7202eg is very stable and can only be warped marginally thanks to the solid aluminium elements of the case. All the components are precisely made and fit together exactly, while only denting marginally when pressure is applied. Due to the rigidity of the hinges it is necessary to use two hands to open the notebook, but the display is held firmly in place. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4441s

Performance

The HP Envy dv7 series is altogether composed out of eight high performance multimedia notebooks, whose performance should be more than enough for daily use including internet browsing, video playback and word processing. Thanks to its good display and its other hardware components the Envy dv7-7202eg also still has ample performance reserves for significantly more demanding applications, which allows it to also be used for graphics intensive games and video editing. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4445s

Performance

The HP Envy dv7 series is altogether composed out of eight high performance multimedia notebooks, whose performance should be more than enough for daily use including internet browsing, video playback and word processing. Thanks to its good display and its other hardware components the Envy dv7-7202eg also still has ample performance reserves for significantly more demanding applications, which allows it to also be used for graphics intensive games and video editing. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4446s

System Performance
As can be expected from a notebook in the desktop replacement segment, the HP Envy dv7-7202eg provides a swift pace in Windows 8. With the PCMark 7 benchmark our reviewed notebook reached a score of 2645 points, and is thus level with the Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 (2646 points) and the Acer Aspire S3-391-53314G52add (2656 points). Juxtaposed to its predecessor our reviewed candidate isn't able to set itself apart considerably though - something that isn't surprising since both devices have the same CPU and GPU configuration. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4540s

The Envy dv7-7202eg certainly isn't lacking storage capacity: The notebook has a total of two 2.5 inch Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547575A9E384 hard drives with 750 Gigabytes each of capacity. One of these contains the operating system and the recovery partition, while the second drive is completely empty. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 has an 8 Megabyte cache and operates with a rotational speed of 5400 revolutions per minute. It connects using the SATA-II interface with a nominal bandwidth of 3 Gb/s, and should be more than enough for most applications. Compared to notebook hard drives that operate at 7200 revolutions per minute, the Hitachi drive may be slower but is by no means out of place in the dv7-7202eg: The CrystalDiskMark benchmark ascribes the HTS547575A9E384 a read speed of 93.53 MB/s and HD Tune reports an average transfer rate of 75.2 MB/s. Considering the 1200 Euro price tag an SSD instead of one of the hard drives could also be a welcome change though. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4545s

For the sake of protecting the two 2.5 inch hard drives HP has pre-installed the software 3D DriveGuard, which monitors the accelerometers of both drives and thus recognizes sudden shocks, in which case the tool parks the read and write heads of the Hitachi HDDs in order to avoid them getting damaged. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 4740s

Gaming Performance
Thanks to its Nvidia GeForce GT 630M GPU the HP Envy dv7-7202eg can also be used to play up to date games. These were almost all smoothly playable without any judders during our test with medium quality settings and a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Especially demanding games such as Battlefield 3 do however force the dv7-7202eg to its limits, since the game already starts to judder with medium details settings and resolutions. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 6475b

Temperature
Day to day tasks don't even make the dv7-7202eg break a sweat, since the case surfaces on the top and bottom sides hardly get warmer than 25 degrees Celsius. Thanks to this it is also possible to use the notebook on your lap without any problems. When fully utilized with Prime95 and FurMark during our stress test the reviewed notebook did start to get into its stride though, and we measured a maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius on the top surface, and up to 48 degrees Celsius on the bottom. The HP Envy dv7-7202eg does however remain substantially cooler than its dv6-7202eg predecessor, whose case reached temperatures of 61.7 degrees Celsius. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 6470b

Battery Life

Power Consumption
Despite its good performance the HP notebook still proves to be relatively frugal in an idle state, with an idle power consumption between 10.4 and 17.9 watts, which more or less the same as similarly equipped rivals. When fully utilized the power consumption increases considerably, and reaches up to 84.2 watts during the 3DMark 2006 benchmark. Theoretically the notebook would be able to cope with a higher power consumption, since HP have provided the dv7-7202eg with a 120 watt AC adapter. The Lenovo IdeaPad G780 is much more economical in this respect with a maximum power consumption of 62.9 watts when fully utilized. Replacement battery for HP ProBook 6570b

Battery Runtime
During ideal conditions (idle state, all power saving options enabled, WLAN and Bluetooth off, minimum display brightness) the HP Envy dv7-7202eg manages to stay on its feet for 3:26 hours. Considering the measured power consumption the notebook therewith falls far short of our expectations. Thus our reviewed candidate is not only less enduring than its Envy dv6-7202eg predecessor (7:44 hours), but falls behind into last place compared to the other rivals. The closest contender is the HP g7-2007sg with 5:38 hours, while the Wortmann Terra Mobile 1773Q lasts the longest with 10:06 hours. Even a repeated iteration of the test with checking of the settings didn't yield any better runtimes. Replacement battery for HP EliteBook 2170p

When fully utilized the battery runtimes do however start to converge: In this case the HP Envy dv7-7202eg manages 1:41 hours (HP g7-2007sg 0:46 h, HP Envy dv6-7202eg 1:25 h, Wortmann Terra Mobile 1773Q 2:30 h). Replacement battery for HP Folio 13

During our practical WLAN test the notebook held out for 3:13 hours (Lenovo G780 2:22 h, HP Envy dv6-7202eg 4:17 h, Wortmann Terra Mobile 1773Q 7:48 h). During this test a website is refreshed every 40 seconds while the power saving profile is activated and the display brightness is reduced to 150 cd/m². Last but not least came the playback test which we carried out with a Blu-ray disc to represent optical media. Too long movies probably shouldn't be on the agenda though, since the battery is empty after 2:01 hours (HP Envy dv6-7202eg 3:20 h, Toshiba Satellite P875-30E 3:34 h, Wortmann Terra Mobile 1773Q 4:26 h). Replacement battery for HP Folio 13-1000

A very good display, more than enough performance for applications of all kinds, and a correspondingly appealing appearance and haptics - for the official retail price of 1200 Euros the HP Envy dv7-7202eg provides a lot of value. Positive aspects of the reviewed notebook furthermore include a Blu-ray burner, three fast USB 3.0 ports, the integrated fingerprint reader for additional security, and the two 2.5 inch hard drives with 750 Gigabytes of storage capacity each. The other models from the Envy dv7 series may be more affordable, but also have less potent CPU/GPU combinations. Replacement battery for HP Folio 13-2000

The HP Envy dv7-7202eg starts to fall short when it comes to the gaming performance though, which starts to reach its limits with particularly hardware intensive games due to the Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics card. We were also a bit disappointed with the comparatively short battery life, and the relatively loud system noise when fully utilized. In cases when a notebook with a long battery life is important the Wortmann Terra Mobile 1773Q, which also has a somewhat more powerful GPU (Nvidia GeForce GT 640M), would be a better choice. Replacement battery for HP EliteBook Folio 9470m

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