HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) review – a great little machine for Web and interior design

Ultimately, the Envy series can be viewed as a somewhat budget-friendly HP Spectre. And today, we have a 13-inch convertible that looks simply stunning. Its touchscreen is compatible with dedicated pens and it has an interesting, but expected trick up its pocket. Of course, its name is the HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000).

You know, convertible devices don’t only work for professionals. Their versatility is such a regarded feature that practically everybody can take advantage. No matter if you’re watching a video, browsing the Web, or you just want to take some notes. In fact, the last thing we mentioned is something that makes this notebook especially appropriate for students, and more specifically – art students.

But wait, there is more. Professional apps for architects are usually extremely demanding on the hardware. That’s why very few 2-in-1 laptops are actually capable of providing you with enough performance, so you can make your sketches and render them on the same piece of machinery. However, AMD Ryzen 4000U is here to change that. Onboard, you can have up to the Ryzen 7 4700U, which is an 8-core processor with a 7nm architecture, that promises something extraordinary. Now, let’s start with the looks, and we will slowly drift towards the specs, the display, and what you should expect from this notebook when it comes to performance.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-envy-x360-13-13-ay0000/

Contents


Specs Sheet

HP ENVY X360 13 (13-ay0000) - Specs

  • Innolux N133 HCG-GF3 (CMN139D)
  • Color accuracy  2.0  0.6
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 M.2 NVMe slot 
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home, Windows 11 Home, No OS
  • Battery
  • 51Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 306.5 x 194.5 x 16.5 mm (12.07" x 7.66" x 0.65")
  • Weight
  • 1.32 kg (2.9 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • Sleep and Charge
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort, Sleep and Charge
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Integrated Dual Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2 Speakers with Bang & Olufsen
  • Optical drive
  • optional
  • Security Lock slot

All HP ENVY X360 13 (13-ay0000) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found some paper manuals, a 65W charger, and a dedicated Pen.


Design and construction

It is clear to everybody, that the Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) looks beautiful. It has a matte black finish on its aluminum body, which feels really nice to the touch. Additionally, the structural integrity of the laptop is fine. It weighs about 1.32 kg and has a profile of just 16.9mm.

Interestingly, the lid opens with a single hand. This is something really unusual for a 2-in-1 laptop. Moreover, its lid is very hard to twist, but this is mainly because of the glass cover of the screen. By the way, there is a Web camera above the display.

How about the keyboard? Well, this unit has pretty big keycaps, considering the size of the notebook, and they feel clicky (and quiet), while the key travel is reasonably long. It also has a decent backlight, but we still have some issues with the deck. First of all, the Power button is in the same bizarre position we saw on the HP Omen 15 2020. It is just too close to the “Backspace” and the “Delete” keys. Additionally, the laptop features a fingerprint reader, which is placed in between the right Alt and the “Left” Arrow keys. That’s a bit of an unusual location, but we didn’t find it problematic, whatsoever.

Then, there is the touchpad. It has decent gliding and tracking properties, and the lack of dedicated buttons means it relies on embedded ones. And while using them is comfortable, when you manage to click in the bottom part of the area, moving a few millimeters upwards, results in significantly higher resistance.

And if you take a look at the bottom panel, you can see the ventilation grill and the speaker cutouts. Here, the hot air escapes from the back of the laptop.

Ports

This laptop has a very interesting I/O layout. Even though its profile is really thin, there are two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports. And the smart thinking of HP is that they included a “Drop Jaw” similar to how most RJ-45 connectors are executed these days. Additionally, there is an audio jack to the left, as well as a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port that can be used to charge the laptop and output a DisplayPort signal. On the right, there is the charging plug and a MicroSD card reader.


Display quality

HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) is equipped with a Full HD IPS touchscreen panel, Innolux N133 HCG-GF3 (CMN139D). Its diagonal is 13.3-inch (33.78 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 166 ppi, their pitch – 0.153 х 0.153 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 53 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

The maximum measured brightness is pretty high – 450 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 423 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 10%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6500K – right on spot with the 6500K temperature for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 45% Brightness (White level = 139 cd/m2, Black level = 0.076 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1830:1.

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 in 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 HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 96% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, providing a punchy and vibrant image.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

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 at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

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

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 26 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 to 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.

HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000)’s backlight flickers only up to 112 nits. Moreover, the frequency is high enough, so it doesn’t present any harm 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.

Conclusion

HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) has a touchscreen display with an IPS panel, a Full HD resolution, high maximum brightness, very good contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. It also doesn’t use PWM above 112 nits (below that value the frequency is very high and generally safe). Also, the laptop covers 96% of the sRGB color gamut, and our Gaming and Web design profile greatly improves the already decent color accuracy. Designers will be happy for sure.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) configurations with 13.3″ Innolux N133HCG-GF3 (CMN139D) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000)’s speakers are loud but when they are near the maximum brightness there is some noticeable distortion.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-envy-13-ay0000-x360-convertible-laptop-pc-series/32552483

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook comes with a 51Wh battery. It can last about 12 hours of Web browsing, 9 hours and 20 minutes of video playback, and no more than 2 hours of gaming or running high-demanding programs.

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

We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.

Lenovo Yoga C940 14 60Wh, 4-cell

CPU options

As of the moment of writing this review, the Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) comes with the six-core AMD Ryzen 5 4500U and the eight-core Ryzen 7 4700U.


GPU options

Respectively, the graphics cards of choice are the integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 and RX Vega 7.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS87 fps62 fps46 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS103 fps65 fps37 fps

Temperatures and comfort

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.

AMD Ryzen 7 4700U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000)2.87 GHz (B+44%) @ 60°C2.63 GHz (B+32%) @ 71°C2.13 GHz (B+7%) @ 69°C

Although this is the first laptop we test with this processor, we can say that the cooling solution does a pretty good job handling the Ryzen 7 4700U. It never throttles below the base 2.00 GHz mark and the temps at the end of the torture test remain below 70C.

Comfort during full load

Interestingly, the laptop is not that loud under extreme load, and the external temperature is kept just below 40C.


Verdict

Let’s just quickly get out of the way the frustrations we had with this unit because we have a lot more to talk about. So, what we didn’t like is that you need to remove the rubber feet from the bottom panel in order to get inside of the laptop. And the only thing you can upgrade is the storage – that means, soldered memory. Another underdesigned feature is the location of the Power button – just above the “Backspace” key.

Now, while the Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) lacks some ports, like an RJ-45 connector and an HDMI connector, it is really refreshing to see the USB Type-A ports sticking around. And this is done with the help of some clever engineering. HP has used a “Drop Jaw” mechanism, similar to the one on the Ethernet ports.

HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000) has a touchscreen display with an IPS panel (Innolux N133 HCG-GF3 (CMN139D)), a Full HD resolution, high maximum brightness, very good contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. It also doesn’t use PWM above 112 nits (below that value the frequency is very high and generally safe). Also, the laptop covers 96% of the sRGB color gamut, and our Gaming and Web design profile greatly improves the already decent color accuracy. Designers will be happy for sure. And it comes with a dedicated stylus inside the box.

Combine all of this with the extremely powerful and efficient AMD Ryzen 7 4700U, and you get a laptop that artists would fight for. You can edit your photos, videos, create vector works, and even handle some minor architecture/interior design projects right onto it.

Pros

  • Sleek aluminum design with a great feel
  • Covers 96% of sRGB colors (Innolux N133 HCG-GF3)
  • Very high color accuracy when Gaming and Web design profile is installed (Innolux N133 HCG-GF3)
  • Good battery life
  • A dedicated pen inside the box
  • There is a fingerprint reader
  • Monstrous performance form the ULV chips


Cons

  • Horrendous position of the Power button
  • Memory is soldered to the motherboard

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-envy-x360-13-13-ay0000/

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David
David
3 years ago

It has been out of stock on the HP site for ages now. It doesn’t matter if you have an outstanding product if there were only so few units. It is almost like they didn’t test the product before to see it would obviously be a hit.

Pedro F
Pedro F
2 years ago

side bezels too thin, holding it and using it´s touch screen can be challenging as windows do tend to close by inadvert touch. Otherwise a great machine only let down by the dumb, stupidifying and increasingly intruding Windows OS