HP ENVY Sleekbook 6z Review

HP ENVY Sleekbook 6z Review

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This 15.6-inch AMD-powered notebook is 8/10ths of an inch thin, weighs less than five pounds and gets almost eight hours of battery life. That’s mighty impressive … but read our review to find out what we don’t like.

It’s impossible to discuss HP’s Sleekbook family of thin-and-light laptops without mentioning the obvious comparison to ultrabooks. Without getting too caught up in marketing details, the term “ultrabook” applies to a specific category of thin-yet-powerful notebooks that follow a very specific set of technical guidelines from Intel regarding components, physical dimensions, battery life, as well as startup and system resume times. The HP Sleekbooks might clearly have some design similarities to ultrabooks, but they are not ultrabooks.

The HP ENVY Sleekbook 6z (also called the Sleekbook 6z-1000) with battery like HP ProBook 470 G3 Battery, HP 805047-251 Battery, HP 805047-851 Battery, HP HSTNN-Q95C Battery, HP 805294-001 Battery, HP 811063-421 Battery, HP ProBook 640 G2 Battery, HP ProBook 650 G2 Battery, HP 801517-831 Battery, HP 801554-001 Battery, HP CI03 Battery, HP HSTNN-PB6K Battery is one thin and light notebook; it’s about two-thirds the height and weight of a normal 15.6-inch notebook at just 0.78 inches and 4.75 lbs. Despite that, it’s still a 15.6-inch notebook and therefore its portability is limited. This notebook is more about form than function.

I measured an even seven hours, 30 minutes on the Sleekbook 6z’s standard battery. This is an excellent time for a 15.6-inch notebook and adds a lot of value to this model; it also kind of negates the fact that the battery cannot be removed. The battery life was measured during our standard battery rundown test (Windows 7 Balanced power profile, 70% screen brightness, wireless active and refreshing a web page every 60 seconds).

The HP ENVY Sleekbook 6z is ultimately hard to recommend for a few reasons. The first of which is the abysmal keyboard: it has a poor, cheap feel and is not encouraging to use. Adding to the productivity problem is the low 1366×768 screen resolution; it suffices for basic tasks, but power users will be wishing for more space.

On the upside the Sleekbook 6z has a great-looking design, decent speakers, a good selection of ports, and an excellent 7.5-hour battery life. Its low weight and thinness do little to hide the fact that it’s a 15.6-inch notebook though, so the portability is still limited.

At $599 the price is a little rich, but if you make the mistake of configuring it yourself and pay $650, the Sleekbook 6z isn’t a great value by any means. For that price I am more inclined to go with one of HP’s 15.6-inch Pavilion notebooks; they offer a better keyboard and better screen options plus user upgradeability. The only downside is a little extra weight and thickness.