HP Envy Beats by Dr. Dre Commercial

Dr. Dre and a slew of other artists have spent the summer promoting Beats Audio and the HP Envy line. Commercials are now airing on cable lifestyle channels, including MTV, FUSE and BET to raise raise awareness of notebook audio quality. HP’s Envy notebooks feature Beats audio, a combination of hardware and software that results in cleaner, crisper audio.

The vast majority of PC buyers simply do not currently consider audio when comparing computers. HP is trying to change that by featuring well-known musicians in its promo material and emphasizing the audio experience.

The commercial above is an exaggeration of what’s actually inside of HP’s notebooks in terms of audio hardware, but the fact is that the HP Envy puts out the cleanest audio signal we’ve ever heard on a notebook. Audio files come to life, even with mediocre headphones.

Even compressed and streamed audio, such as music from Pandora and Slacker, sound fantastic when using headphones with an HP Envy notebook. In fact, it can be difficult to listen to music on an iPhone or MacBook Pro after being spoiled by Beats audio. If you’re serious about music, we highly recommend bringing your favorite pair of headphones with you when you go notebook shopping. If you can afford it, pick up a pair of premium on-ear or over-the-ear headphones for the best results.

Beats is a premium audio brand and is only available in HP’s high-end Envy notebook line. Dolby also offers audio technology that’s a cut above most other notebooks in terms of audio clarity. Dolby’s audio technology is available in several HP consumer notebooks, Toshiba’s premium notebooks and others.

Features including size, speed, battery life and the quality of a notebook’s display will have a greater impact on most people’s buying decision, but premium audio, such as HP’s Beats system is icing on the cake.

Beats Audio is available on the HP Envy 14, HP Envy 15 and HP Envy 17.