[In-Depth Comparison] Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 vs HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000) – gaming in the office just got better

ThinkBooks have been really competitive in the mid-range and premium space, offering notebooks with quality and performance that is second to none. The ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 is a very good laptop with Tiger Lake H-series processors and pretty powerful discrete graphics, for an office and productivity laptop.

However, it’s got fierce competitors, as any laptop should. Today we have the HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000), which can go toe-to-toe with the ThinkBook when it comes to design and aesthetics, while not shying away from powerful hardware. We like seeing more of these Productivity/Gaming devices pop up as while not everyone who is into gaming needs the performance that large gaming notebooks offer, they can surely appreciate the slimmer design and more office-oriented aesthetic.

Today we are giving you an in-depth comparison between the Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 and the HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000).

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2: Full Specs / In-depth Review

HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000): Full Specs / In-depth Review

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 configurations:

HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000) configurations:

Contents


Design and construction

The ThinkBook arrives with an aluminum lid with a two-tone finish. The lid further bears the ThinkBook and Lenovo brand, being slightly more branded than their ThinkPad relatives. The base is made from plastic, while the bottom panel is from aluminum as well. This results in a very rigid laptop, rigid enough to pass the MIL-STD-810H certification tests, which basically put a device through hell and back, in order to assess durability. In terms of weight and height, the laptop stops the scales at 1.90 kg and has a profile of 19.9 mm.

On the side of the Envy 15, we don’t see a speck of plastic, as the whole body is made out of aluminum. Interestingly enough, it bears less branding than the ThinkBook, which is a first, since Lenovo devices are known for their lack of branding and for keeping their ears to the ground. The Envy 15 is a millimeter and a half thinner but does bear some more bulk, nearly 300 grams.

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)

Keyboard and touchpad

The base on the ThinkBook houses the power button, which comes with an embedded fingerprint reader, the keyboard, and a touchpad. The keyboard is very nice, offering a white backlight and spill-resistance, which is a staple for the ThinkPad and ThinkBook laptops. The experience itself is pretty decent, with shorter key travel than we would like and clicky feedback. The touchpad is both a hit and a miss. It gets the surface right, but the tracking and size can use some improvement.

On the Envy, we have a dedicated space for the fingerprint reader, left of the arrow keys. The power button is mushed together with the rest of the keys, but hey, what can you do. HP has utilized its base real estate well, placing two well-sized grills on the left and right sides of the keyboard. The unit boasts clicky feedback and long key travel, along with a white backlight, which looks very good at night. The touchpad is much better than the one on the Lenovo, with a glass surface, great tracking, and quick response times.

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)

Ports

The I/O on the ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 has a single Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 2) ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.0 connector, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and an SD card reader.

The Envy 15 brings one more Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an HDMI 2.0a connector, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and a MicroSD card slot.


Disassembly, Upgrade options

The ThinkBook is held together by 10 Phillips-head screws, while the Envy uses only 5 Torx-head screws, which is much less of a hassle. Then again you do have to get a Torx set of heads. In terms of upgradeability, both laptops come with two SODIMM RAM slots that support up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. Storage-wise, there are two M.2 PCIe x4 slots.

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)

Specs sheet


Display quality

Both laptops offer a base display with a Full HD resolution and an IPS panel. From there, the ThinkBook can be outfitted with a 4K UHD IPS panel. The Envy takes it one step further, offering a 4K UHD OLED display. In our testing, we used the 4K UHD panel of the ThinkBook and the Full HD panel on the Envy 15. Obviously, the former panel has a much higher pixel density, a lower pitch between pixels, and a lower Retina distance.

Both laptops bring great viewing angles. Here are images at 45-degrees to evaluate quality.

The display of the ThinkBook gets really bright, offering a max brightness of 675 nits in the middle of the screen, 679 nits as an average for the entire display area, and a max deviation of 4%. The contrast ratio is very good, at 1550:1, while the brightness uniformity is close to perfect, resulting in an evenly bright image throughout the whole display.

The Envy 15 has about half of the brightness, with 335 nits in the middle of the screen, 320 nits as an average for the entire display area, and a max deviation of 12%. The contrast ratio of 1210:1 is lower, but still pretty good. Its uniformity is similarly good. This is one of the first things you have to look at if you want a Creator laptop since even the best color coverage or accuracy can’t save you if the panel itself has poor luminance, which will result in colors appearing different than they actually are.


Color coverage

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows the color coverage of both the Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 and the HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000).

The Lenovo laptop shows 97% sRGB coverage and 88% DCI-P3 coverage, while the HP Envy 15 covers 93% of the sRGB gamut.


Color accuracy

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results in factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can check the results from the test of both laptops, with both the factory settings (left) and with our “Design and Gaming” profile applied (right).

The ThinkBook doesn’t really provide the necessary accuracy, even with our profile applied. The lowest that we could get the dE value was 3.5.

The Envy 15 does much better with our profile, managing to lower its dE value down to 1.2.


Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” methods from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

The panels are dead even when with their response time, giving us a Fall + Rise time of 23 ms.


Health Impact / PWM (Blue light)

PWM – Screen flickering

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable by the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Both laptops use no PWM across all brightness levels, meaning that the displays are comfortable to use, without presenting any excessive eye strain in this aspect.


Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 15.6″ UHD IPS LEN156UHD (LEN8C99): Buy our profiles

HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000) 15.6″ FHD IPS BOE BOE09BB: Buy our profiles

Sound

The ThinkBook relies on two bottom-firing speakers, while the Envy 15 has a quad-speaker setup with two units on the top and the bottom. In terms of quality, both laptops deliver good-quality audio with no deviations across the entire frequency range.


Battery life

The ThinkBook has a modest 57Wh battery unit, while the Envy 15 relies on a larger 83Wh pack. The HP device lasts for 2 hours and 6 minutes more in Web browsing and 1 hour and 42 minutes in video playback. For our battery tests, we use the Windows Better Performance setting turned on, set the screen brightness to 120 nits, and have all programs closed except the ones that we test the laptop with.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.


Performance

In terms of hardware, both devices offer the same family of processors, with the Tiger Lake H45-series being just what the doctor ordered. Both laptops offer the Core i7-11800H, with the ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 also sporting the Core i5-11400H. In terms of graphics, the laptops share the RTX 3050 and the RTX 3050 Ti. The ThinkBook comes with the GTX 1650 as the entry GPU, while the Envy 15 gives us the 1080p king – the RTX 3060.

CPU benchmarks

Here we tested the Core i7-11800H inside both laptops, which trade victories, with the Hp Envy 15 being significantly faster in 3D Rendering with Cinebench 20, 41% to be exact. On the other hand, the laptops were pretty evenly matched in Photoshop, but the ThinkBook was still a tad quicker, finishing the 2D benchmark 0.2 seconds quicker.


GPU benchmarks

Here we tested the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti inside both laptops. This time, the HP Envy solidifies its performance gap, scoring 15% higher in 3DMark Fire Strike and 13% higher in Unigine Superposition.


Gaming tests

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)

Metro ExodusFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 – RTX 3050 Ti (50W)101 fps45 fps21 fps
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000) – RTX 3050 Ti (80W)106 fps (+5%)47 fps (+4%)22 fps (+5%)

Borderlands 3Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 – RTX 3050 Ti (50W)89 fps61 fps46 fps
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000) – RTX 3050 Ti (80W)96 fps (+8%)63 fps (+3%)46 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)
Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 – RTX 3050 Ti (50W)93 fps76 fps59 fps
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000) – RTX 3050 Ti (80W)139 fps (+49%)81 fps (+7%)72 fps (+22%)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 – RTX 3050 Ti (50W)83 fps75 fps65 fps
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000) – RTX 3050 Ti (80W)86 fps (+4%)77 fps (+3%)66 fps (+2%)

Temperatures and comfort

The ThinkBook feels like a letdown when compared to its competitor, sporting only two heat pipes with two fans that are connected to each other. They cool both the CPU and GPU. The Envy is much more prepared, coming with a large vapor chamber with two fans on the left and right sides.

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-11800H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 minMax Fans
Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 23.45 GHz (B+50%) @ 84°C @ 90W3.41 GHz (B+48%) @ 96°C @ 86W2.80 GHz (B+22%) @ 77°C @ 55W
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)3.46 GHz (B+50%) @ 96°C @ 78W3.14 GHz (B+37%) @ 96°C @ 61W2.80 GHz (B+22%) @ 95°C @ 49W

Wow, despite everything that was said about the cooling on the ThinkBook, the CPU inside reached the same or even higher clock speeds, while also being much cooler around the later stages. We still don’t know what caused the lack of 3D Rendering performance though.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 TiGPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max fan)
Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 21539 MHz @ 69°C @ 50W1536 MHz @ 69°C @ 50W
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)1681 MHz @ 87°C @ 75W1376 MHz @ 74°C @ 48W

The vapor chamber seems to retain more heat even if the part itself has already stopped generating that much heat, similar to water cooling in desktop PCs, as, despite the drop-off in clock speeds, the 3050 Ti inside the Envy 15 maintains a higher temperature. On the other hand, the ThinkBook has really reliable performance maintaining a clock speed of more than 1500MHz and a temperature of 69°C (nice).

Comfort during full load

The cooling failure of the Envy can be seen (or in most cases felt) on the outside as well, with the laptop having a 7°C higher temperature.

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)

Verdict

Both of these productivity/Gaming notebooks deserve consideration, as they are treading new ground, that was previously unreachable, thanks to the limits of past years’ technology. However, hardware has gotten powerful enough so that you can have your cake and eat it too. It won’t be the best cake, but it will satisfy you 90% of the time.

Both the ThinkBook and the Envy bring stylish designs to the table. Their bodies are very durable, with next to no flex from both the lid and the base. With that said, the Envy 15 does carry some more bulk equal to 300 grams, crossing the 2.00kg mark. The two of them also bring pretty good keyboards with clicky feedback, and while the key travel can be better, the spill-resistance in the case of the ThinkBook makes it worth it. When it comes to touchpads, the Envy is better with its glass-covered unit.

The I/O is full on both machines, with the ThinkBook coming with one less Thunderbolt 4 port than the Envy 15 but offering a LAN port, a tradeoff that many people will be glad to make. Upgradeability is the same with two RAM slots and two SSD slots to be found inside the devices. The HP device steals the show with its 83Wh battery pack, lasting for up to 2 hours more.

While the display on the ThinkBook is as bright as the sun and has pixels for days, its accuracy struggles even with our Design and Gaming profile applied. On the other hand, the Envy 15 has a much more balanced panel, with good colors, albeit lower brightness, which might affect you if you like spending time working outside.

It’s also the better performer, with its CPU being more powerful in 3D Rendering, while the Photoshop results were pretty similar. The RTX 3050 Ti inside also scores higher in synthetic benchmarks and brings higher FPS in the gaming tests. Lastly, cooling is a mess, with the vapor chamber having less of an ideal effect on the hardware, which means that HP has to go back to the drawing board and see what went wrong.


Why choose the Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2?

  • + Spill-resistant keyboard
  • + Lower temperatures
  • + Display with higher brightness


Why choose the HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)?

  • + Longer battery life
  • + More performance
  • + Front-firing speakers
  • + Better color accuracy

Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2: Full Specs / In-depth Review

HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000): Full Specs / In-depth Review

All Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 2 configurations:


All HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000) configurations:

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