Depending on your job, the time required in front of the computer, and the amount of multitasking, most people often come to a dilemma. Dual monitor setup or one big screen monitor?
Well, that depends. Some studies have come to some conclusions (perhaps hastily) that a two-monitor setup may be more harmful than a single monitor. The reasons are shifting attention, loss of productivity while multitasking, neck strains, and more.
Meanwhile, many users use multi-screen setups and argue that productivity is not affected. Most say it focuses on one monitor and the rest of the monitors are running tasks that need monitoring and constantly minimizing and maximizing them would create frustration and loss of productivity.
No matter which side you’re on, we’ll focus on a few different reasons why a single screen is a good option. First, it takes up less space: A huge desk with lots of monitors might sound appealing at a certain age, but if you have a smaller family or home, a single large monitor might be a better idea.
If you’re a gamer, a larger monitor often means higher frame rates, better 3D gaming support, and even watching a movie would be better on a larger screen.
So if you’re looking to buy a single big-screen monitor or build a multi-big-screen setup, we’re not judging you, the HP Envy 32-inch Monitor may prove to be a great choice.
Note: HP Envy is a product created from HP’s collaboration with Beats Electronics.
Design
The HP Envy is bigger and looks quite different than regular monitors. It features a semi-gloss finish, a matte screen (it does a great job with reflections), slim bezels, and there are two speakers on the sides of the screen. The monitor is 32 inches, and the side-mounted speakers further add to the wide-monitor impression.
On the right side of the back panel you can find 2 HDMI ports (one is MHL HDMI) and a DisplayPort; on the left side of the rear panel rest two USB 2.0 ports, a 3.5mm jack input, a DC power jack and an audio input.
On the right side of the monitor there are 3 OSD buttons: Menu, More (increases adjustment levels or opens the audio menu), Minus (decreases adjustment levels or selects the next active input port, such as HDMI, MHL/HDMI, or DisplayPort)
Below the monitor, to the right is the power button and to the left, there is a volume dial that features two actions, rotation to increase and decrease the volume and you can press the button up to mute or unmute.
A nice added feature is the remote control. It features all of the control buttons found on the monitor (Power, OSD, Audio) and overall we found it better and faster than the buttons built into most monitors.
The aluminum base stand has a sleek design, but it lacks adjustability. You can only vertically tilt the monitor from -5 to 25 degrees; there is no pivot either.
Note: The HP Envy can be mounted on the wall, being VESA compatible.
One of the main focuses of this monitor is obviously the speakers and they are really good. The sound is very clear, you can easily distinguish different instruments and we can definitely say that it can even be better than what you can find in more expensive TVs.
Still, it’s not perfect – the Beats Audio feature is nothing more than a software equalizer optimized for playing higher and lower quality sound – but it tends to ignore the middle ground. But let’s not forget that we are talking about monitor speakers.
Note: HP Envy is compatible with PC and MAC.
Display and image quality
The HP Envy features a 32″ QUAD HD AWVA+ panel display with 2560x1440p resolution, 16.7 million colors, 10,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and 3,000:1 static contrast ratio. Viewing angles are 178 degrees vertically and 178 degrees horizontally and the response time is 7 ms (we expected a lower response time).
Note: AMVA+ stands for Advanced Multi-Domain Vertical Alignment Panel.
If before calibrating some colors seemed unnatural and the gamma was too high for white, after calibrating the monitor to meet our needs, the situation changed.
We saw that this monitor can produce some pretty amazing images (even if it’s not an IPS). True, the contrast dropped to around 2300:1, but colors were consistent and clear and whites were brighter, but blacks could have been deeper.
While gaming, the fact that the refresh rate is 60Hz can make all the difference. Although fast-moving scenes rendered without too much ghosting or blurring, a higher refresh rate would have been better.
Still, the screen is pretty good, we liked the color accuracy, richness of detail, and while it’s not an IPS monitor, movies looked amazing and may even be enough for some graphic designers (although an IPS 4k is better).
power consumption
If the brightness is set to 150cd/m^2 (which is ideal), the monitors have a power consumption of 30w.
Conclusion
At first we were quite confused by the lack of attention this monitor has received, as the HP Envy is a decent monitor, offers good image quality, high-quality sound and is not too expensive, but historically speaking, HP has gained a rather bad reputation as the company made some bad decisions over the years, so people can be reluctant to buy an HP product.
Even if the HP Envy isn’t the perfect monitor, if you’re after a larger, high-quality monitor, then the HP Envy offers excellent value for money.
For more high quality reviews visit: http://www.mbreviews.com
