HP Envy x360 13 vs. Apple MacBook Air M2 | Digital trends

HP’s Envy x360 13 is a great convertible 2-in-1 for not a lot of money. It’s extremely flexible, well-built, and offers solid productivity performance while being priced below the competition. This includes the Apple MacBook Air M2, an excellent laptop that is among the cheapest MacBooks.

If you’re considering 13-inch machines, these two laptops should be on your shortlist. They are quite different, however, and therefore the choice between them is not easy to make. We’ll try to make it a little easier.

Specifications

Prices and configurations

The Envy x360 13 retails for $900 for an Intel Core i5-1230U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB solid-state drive, and a 13.3-inch 16:10 IPS WUXGA display. The maximum you’ll spend is $1,300 for a Core i7-1250U, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 13.3-inch 16:10 2.8K OLED panel.

The MacBook Air M2 is a more expensive laptop, starting at $1,200 for an 8-core CPU/8-core M2 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. At the high end, the laptop costs $2,500 for an 8-core CPU/10-core M2 GPU, 24GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD.

The MacBook costs more across the board, and note that HP often puts its laptops on sale. When we reviewed the Envy x360 13, for example, the entry-level configuration was only $700, making it a real bargain.

Design

It’s hard to beat Apple’s build quality, and the MacBook Air M2 is no exception. Its unibody construction is exceptional, although the lid has some unusual flex thanks to the extreme thinness of the laptop. It’s only 0.44 inches thick, making it one of the thinnest laptops you can buy. The Envy x360 13 also benefits from an all-aluminum build, and it’s a solid machine too – arguably, it’s stiffer than the MacBook. Apple’s hinge is smooth and allows the lid to be opened with one hand, which HP’s hinge can also do, but without the same refinement. The Envy x360 13’s hinge, however, has to support the lid in four orientations, including clamshell, stand, tent, and shelf, so it’s more complex and heavier.

Both are attractive machines with minimalist designs. The MacBook Air M2 adopts the same blocky design as the more expensive MacBook Pro models, and it no longer sports the model’s iconic design. It comes in four colors, Midnight, Starlight, Space Gray and Silver, with matching MagSafe 3.0 charger cables. The Envy x360 13 has simple lines with a few angles that give it panache, and it comes in Natural Silver and Nightfall Black color schemes. The MacBook’s display bezels are slightly smaller, giving it a more modern look than the Envy, which also has a wider bottom chin to accommodate its 2-in-1 hinge.

When it comes to entering information, the MacBook Air M2 is the most comfortable laptop. Its Magic Keyboard remains among the best available on laptops today, with shallow but crisp switches and perfect key sizes and spacing. It is a real pleasure to use. The Force Touch haptic trackpad is also the best around, being precise and responsive across its surface with virtual clicks that feel better than the real thing. The Envy x360 13’s keyboard is also excellent, if slightly set back from Apple’s, with deeper switches with a slightly less precise feel. Its mechanical trackpad is a good example of the best Windows laptops, but it’s not as pleasant to use as the MacBook’s.

The Envy x360 13 benefits from a touchscreen that also supports an active pen for Windows inking. Thanks to a larger 16:10 display, the Envy provides a platform for digital drawing and fine note-taking, something the MacBook can’t match.

Another area where the Envy wins out is connectivity, thanks to the same number of Thunderbolt 4 ports to go with better legacy support thanks to USB-A, and it has a microSD card reader. It also has more up-to-date and faster wireless connectivity.

Finally, both laptops have high-resolution webcams, and HP is adding an infrared camera for Windows 11 passwordless login via facial recognition. The MacBook Air M2 supports a Touch ID fingerprint reader integrated into the keyboard.

Performance

Apple’s ARM M2-based processor builds on the excellent performance and efficiency of the M1. It features eight CPU cores and eight or 10 GPU cores, the latter including optimizations for creative workflows in applications such as Adobe’s Creative Suite. The Envy x360 13 we reviewed featured the 15-watt Intel Core i7-1250U processor, a 10-core/12-thread processor that aims to deliver excellent productivity performance. The Envy’s Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics aren’t as powerful in creative applications, which leaves it behind the MacBook in creative workflows.

Both laptops are excellent productivity machines and are well suited for CPU-intensive tasks. If you’re editing photos or videos, however, the MacBook Air M2 stands out.

Display and audio

The MacBook Air M2 features an excellent 13.6-inch Liquid Retina IPS display that runs at 16:10 and 2560 x 1664. It’s crisp, bright, offers great colors, and boasts deep contrast. Any productivity user will love the display, as will all but the most demanding creators. The Envy x360 13, however, offers a 13.3-inch 16:10 2880 x 1800 OLED panel that’s sharper, delivers even better colors, has incredibly deep contrast with inky blacks, and will delight any user. . Its only weakness compared to the MacBook display is its lower brightness, but it’s still more than bright enough.

The Envy x360 13 has two downward-firing speakers that are fine for YouTube and system sounds, but the MacBook Air M2’s quad speakers sound much better and play much louder without distortion. The MacBook is also fanless, meaning it’s completely silent, so there’s no fan noise competing with the speakers for attention.

Portability

As mentioned earlier, the MacBook Air M2 is incredibly thin at just 0.44 inches, compared to the Envy x360 13 at 0.63 inches. The laptops are nearly identical in width and depth, a feat for the MacBook given its larger screen, and the Envy is a few ounces heavier. Nonetheless, both are very portable laptops that slip easily into a backpack.

The most significant difference is in battery life. Apple’s M2 processor is incredibly efficient thanks to its ARM architecture, and that showed in our battery tests. The Envy x360 13 performed well for a Windows machine with a power-hungry OLED display, but the MacBook lasted much longer.

Two great laptops, but one is considerably more affordable

The HP Envy x360 13 is a more affordable laptop, especially when you increase its configuration. It’s well-built, offers great productivity performance and solid battery life, and boasts the flexibility of a 2-in-1 convertible. The MacBook Air M2, on the other hand, is the epitome of laptop thin and light today, offering an equally good build, excellent performance and even better battery life, and the overall excellence of Apple.

In the end, you have to give a nod to the Envy x360 13 given its lower price. You simply get more laptop for your money.

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