Review: HP Envy Rove 20

€1200

Let’s get one thing clear: the HP Envy Rove may be a portable all-in-one PC, but the extent of its roving is limited. If you are idly entertaining the idea of ditching your laptop, don’t. This machine is designed to be carted around the home, not on your daily commute to work.

The Rove look like a cross between a tabet and a desktop, although it’s not really one or the other.

It’s Windows 8, designed for touch interface, so if you have never used the new version of Windows before, get ready for a baptism of fire. Windows 8 on a touchscreen device is far superior to using it on a regular laptop or PC, and the Rove in particular, with its large screen, makes it easy to navigate.

Because it’s just a screen, the first thing you’ll deal with is likely to be the stand. It took me a good minute to get the kickstand out of the back of the device. That’s because it’s not a flimsy piece of plastic that will be easily toppled; with the Envy Rove’s 20-inch screen to support, you’d expect a bit more muscle. It took me a few minutes to realise that the panel that appeared to do nothing actually popped out the kickstand when you push it hard enough. Once it was fully deployed, the Rove was a sturdy upright screen that didn’t move, even when I stabbed at a game a bit too enthusiastically.

Lay it flat to play board games, prop it up to watch media content or read (on a very big screen). You can adjust the angle in between the two extremes to suit your own preferences.

The initial Windows 8 set up aside, the device is ready to go in a few minutes. There are no peripherals to plug in or speakers to worry about; it’s all there in front of you. You have the option of Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but you can get by without either.

It comes with a Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM, which isn’t the highest spec in the world, but for the majority of family usage, it’s fine. It’s quick enough to switch between and apps and the desktop, as long as you don’t tax it too much. Beats Audio, if you like that sort of thing, is built in, along with the speakers.

For small speakers, the sound is reasonably powerful, so it’s unlikely you’ll need external speakers to boost the audio. There is a 3.5mm jack in the screen surround though, allowing you to use headphones if you wish.

Ramming home the selling point that this is a family device, the Rove comes with games and family-focused content built in: classic board games, puzzle games designed for multiple players, Monopoly and a limited version of a Disney Fairies hidden object game were some of the preinstalled content.

The screen’s 16:9 aspect ratio is more suited to watching movies and multimedia content than previous HP all-in-ones. The resolution isn’t full HD, but it is crisp and bright.

However, the Rove doesn’t have a DVD drive, so unless you shell out extra for an external one, you are limited to either cloud content or USB storage. There are three USB ports on the device, so there are enough to go around should you need to hook up an external device or two. There’s also a lot of room on the hybrid 1TB hard drive to store multimedia content, and a secure digital card slot tucked away in the base.

Windows 8 has a native Netflix app too, which could be a useful source of content for movies and TV shows, if you are already paying out for a subscription.

In the interests of being portable, there’s a rechargeable battery built into the Envy Rove, which should give you about three hours of battery life on a full charge. That, of course, will depend on what you use it for; more power hungry applications will wind it down that bit faster. But given that you won’t be slinging this in your bag and taking it on the bus with you the battery life is more than adequate.