ENVY 15-kXXX / ENVY 15-qXXX / ENVY 17-kXXX Notebooks (2014)

Its definitely worth the $70. You wont regret it. The 850m is faster than the gtx760m last year. Get the 850m

 

Yeah if you got CTO then it's spending an extra $70 on the upgrade is a sure fire thing to do. The 850M is a very nice piece of brand new technology.

Although debatable if the 850M with DDR3 is faster than a 760M with GDDR5 when it comes to 1080p with texture settings near their highest settings.
DDR3 lacks the bandwidth, and the 850M is tapping into Maxwell 2MB frame buffer to try and get the job done.
That said there was no 760M for the HP and last year the best there was is the 750M which the 850M is abosulutely slaughter.

 

Ok bought from hp since today was the last day for the deal . The i7 4510 and 850m combo . Added backlit keyboard and Bluetooth. Total with tax came to $850. Let's see how it goes . If any one finds a better deal please let me know

 

Sounds like you got the best deal. Let us know how it goes.

 

HP is possibly making a gaming Laptop.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq/756908-hp-rentering-laptop-gaming-market.html

 

Sounds reasonable priced at $850

The best discount I could get on a quad core model (i7-4712HQ) with 850M, 16GB RAM, 1.5TB HDD, 1080p touch, 1x1 Intel AC which discount with 25% off was going to be $1775

 

Would you mind posting the link to the quad core model? The only ones I could find on their site were the dual core ones.

 

Not available in the USA yet. Probably will be in a month or soo.

 

So the highest end models are the ones with 850m ddr3 version?

Sigh, why is MSI the only one investing in gddr5 850ms.

 

No CTO option, there is only a single pre-built model HP Envy 15-Q005TX -Laptop - Lowest price, test and reviews

 

Is there any sort of video review anywhere of these new Envy 15ts? I would really like to see one in a video. These pictures don't do me justice.

All the Google searches point to the old 2013 models (damn naming conventions).

Also, does anyone know whether or not you can put in an msata for a boot drive in these laptops?

 

I have seen it in person and I rejected it, mostly because if poor customer service otherwise I would of walked out with it. However I did have a good look over it and it is exactly the same as the 2013 model with the addition of an improved touchpad. That's is really, the GPU is much improved maxwell.

 

Can anybody confirm there's only room for ONE hard drive in the 17" models? The salesman I talked to said so when I asked.

He also said no high performance processors (4800mq/4810hq/4900mq/4910mq/hq)

He mentioned they are soldered processors which cannot be upgraded.

I also noted the batteries are much smaller, maybe 4-cell? I think around 41Ah & an optional one in the 44-48Ah range for $10 more.

 

all right i got it after a loong time yesterday. the HP 15T in my sig. i haven't had a chance to play around much but if there is anything in particular u want to know, tell me. i wont be able to load up any newer games for at least a few weeks cause im quite busy but ill try to load up something in a few days. 1st impressions is that everything is quite average. build quality is very plastick-y . the chicklet keys feel loose. good things r that its nice and light, power brick is small and doesn't get even warm during normal use. beats audio is a nice touch and u can configure sound with included software. screen is passable. colors seem a bit dull. viewing angles are not great.

 

Hey. Thanks for answering my curiousity questions.

Do you know if you can slap on an msata as a boot drive on that thing, following the linked topic below?
Reference: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...a-ssd-hdd-fresh-install-msata-boot-drive.html

Is the RAM/HDD/etc easily accessible from the bottom?

Is the whole chassis made of plastic?

How's the touchpad?

 

I haven't been able to verify if the mSATA slot is present, but going on the shape of the access panel it should have it. Unless HP have stripped the connector from the motherboard, with I would doubt. I would doubt you will be able to boot from this out right, and likely will have the same similar BIOS access to the mSATA as the J model.

Yes the there is a access door on the back, the design to get in is exactly the same on the Q model as it is on the J model.

Pretty much is all plastic, except for the palm rest just like the J model.

The touchpad is much improved on the Q model which uses the glass based model as like on the Spectre 13.

 

What the battery life when web browsing on the 48 Whr battery?

 

Don't know about the 48Wh but pretty simply to just calculate that from the standard 62Wh that I normally get, you can do the maths.

I would get 3-4 hours depending on what I am browsing general usage, start hitting you tube and then obviously shorter, and if you just stare at the screen reading then it will be much longer.

You have to remember the quad core in the Q model is just a refreshed haswell which is 37W and exactly the same TDP as the J model, if you using the IGP during this time, the end result will be exactly the same.

Everyone needs to understand and notice that the Q model is just a small tweak/refresh based on the original J model, it really isn't anything brand new.
The Q model use same CPU generation and chipset generation, the external chassis design is the same shell with a few things actually removed (cost cutting), when comparing the J model.
There are only and really 2 things on the Q model that are really new additions, that is the Maxwell 850M (although you could get a Maxwell 840M on the J model, there was no 850M option offered). The touch pad uses HP's newer revised glass touch pad.

 

Hello! New member here! I ordered a brand new 2014 HP Envy 15t last night. I ended up canceling my first order as I was wary and skeptical about upgrading from an i7-4710HQ Quad-Core w/ Intel Graphics HD 4600 to an i7-4510U Dual-Core with a dedicated graphics card. My first order was as follows:

• Windows 8.1 Pro 64
• System Recovery DVD Windows 8.1 Pro 64
• 4th generation Intel® Core™ i7-4710HQ Quad Core Processor + Intel® HD Graphics 4600
• 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD WLED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
• 8GB DDR3L System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 1TB 5400 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive
• 4-cell 48WHr Lithium-ion Battery
• Blu-ray writer and SuperMulti DVD burner
• Backlit Keyboard with Fingerprint Reader
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Dual Digital Microphone
• Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth® [1x1]

I canceled the order this morning and reordered a new computer with these specs:

• Windows 8.1 Pro 64
• System Recovery DVD Windows 8.1 Pro 64
• 4th generation Intel® Core™ i7-4510U Dual Core Processor + 2GB NVIDIA GeForce 840M Graphics
• 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD WLED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
• 8GB DDR3L System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 1TB 5400 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive
• 4-cell 48WHr Lithium-ion Battery
• Blu-ray writer and SuperMulti DVD burner
• Backlit Keyboard with Fingerprint Reader
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Dual Digital Microphone
• Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth® [1x1]

And just a bit of info that might be useful, the product number for the machine with these specs is G0T95AV. So if you are to search for anything on the new Envy 15t's, I would suggest searching for that product number as well.

Again, I was wary about "downgrading" from my currently HP Pavilion dv6t with a Quad-core i7-3610QM (2.3GHz Boost to 3.3GHz) to a Dual-core i7-4510U (2GHz Boost to 3.1GHz) but with the choices between a better dedicated graphics card and an integrated Intel Graphics, I went with the latter graphics card option upgrade (as opposed to the better yet 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M Graphics upgrade). Was it a better idea to do so? I've read mostly that it is a no-brainer, but mainly did not want to compromise the extremely fast speeds I get when I multitask on my quad-core machine to the dual-core that I'm getting with the i7-4510U. I do not game much if at all (Starcraft 2) and most of my usage is relegated to watching HD movies, some photo editing here and there on Photoshop, listening to music and browsing. However the more that I think about it, I should gone for the GTX 850M graphics upgrade instead!

And here's a video I found. It's not that great of a video, but it's enough if the high-res images aren't doing you any justice. It's a brief rundown and he compares the new Envy 15t to his older Envy 17.

 

The 840m is not bad, for the average gamer. The dual -core I7 cpu are more than adequate, and give you better battery life. Let us know how it goes, and welcome to the forums.

 

Sadly today I will confirm that the new 15-Q with BGA mounted i7-4710HQ has the mSATA connector removed from the motherboard. Bad news for all that are wanting to add an mSATA drive

However the mounting area for the mSATA cache is present, and the terminals on the motherboard exisit, even has mSATA printed on the circuit board, although without the physical soldered on connector, there is no way to put in a mSATA drive.

I would think that the port could very well be active, all the soldering joints are there, so it might be possible to solder on a $2 connector from eBay. Doing so will require the removal of the entire motherboard to get at, and some experienced soldering skill beyond your normal everyday abilities of most.

More specially this is what it missing, and what you will need to buy and solder onto the motherboard if there is a chance of getting this to work.

Micro SATA msata MINI PCI-E mPCIE Connector for DIY Soldering add-on

Micro SATA mSATA Mini PCI E Mpcie Connector for DIY Soldering Add on SSD H4 | eBay


For me there is only one pre-built model available and cost a lot, although was fully loaded with a large 1.5TB mechanical hard drive. There is no way I wanted to lose this amount for space (steam library and the likes), as the need to have the mSATA connector present to enable Intel RST or SSD cache acceleration.
I found the 1.5TB mechanical hard drive to be terribly slow (boot up, OS, program, and general responds time) way to slow to put up with, as mSATA SSD caching fixes speed related issue very significantly, however shame the connector has been stripped by HP.
I could of brought a 2.5" SSD drive, although best I could do would be 512GB and at this stage I don't have the money, also I have a spare mSATA cache drive just waiting to put into this but cannot

 

Oh that sucks. I hope it's still there on the 15t k000

 

I seriously doubt it, there is only access to the RAM and nothing else without removing the entire bottom, therefore chances are hugely slim that there is anything mSATA, the form factor has been reduced and simply wouldn't be any room for it.

mSATA connector present and active:

15-J = YES

15-Q = NO

15-K = more than likely NO (not confirmed, although I am 95% sure there will be none)

 

HP is making terrible choices: before has changed the good IPS screen of the DV series with a bad quality TN panel and now has removed the mSATA connector.
I have bought a 15-Jxxx because of the mSATA connector (I've a 480 SSD in there and the system is terribly fast) and replaced the screen with a beautiful IPS (the original TN was terribly bad).
If these will be the HP choices in the future, next time I will buy a DELL again as I've done in the last 12 years.
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Yeah agreed.

I can also confirm the panel used in the 15-Q touch screen is the exact same TN panel from last years 15-J model which has the poor viewing angles and vertical banding.

I have actual purchased the 15-Q today, but took it back to the store within an hour. I got it at a reasonable price and was prepared to keep it, but the moment I seen the mSATA connector stripped from the motherboard, this was the deal breaker for me.
Even though I don't really need to force the mSATA as boot, I do need SSD caching in which makes a huge difference, and with a 1.5TB drive it would have been a nice combo.

I had small suspicion HP might of removed mSATA connector, but figured that with the small changes this year that it would still be there, thus why I brought it expecting the connector to be present.
Now that I seen this first hand, the removal of the mSATA connector is because HP are not offering the mSATA cache with the i7-4710HQ and 850M motherboard, hence why they have removed the connector. This may not be the case on other motherboards with BGA chips, but with what I have just experienced today don't bank on it being there, I don't see HP listing the option at all with any model that used the same 15-Q chassis.

HP have not removed the housing for the mSATA under the back plate, both the plastic rest post and screw hole for bolting down a mSATA drive is present. There is writing on the motherboard in this area actually marked mSATA right next to the physical terminals on the motherboard, however no connector. This really doesn't save HP much, hardly anything at all, but stops the end user have the chance of choice, which is what they are doing with their BIOS, as they don't want the end user being able to do anything else that may make the machine better without HP getting the last laugh of the almighty dollar.

Point out the silver keyboard while looking good from distance is actually pretty hard to see the white letters on the keys, as silver and while are pretty close colours. The backlight if switch on when there is some light actual obscures the letters even more. Seemed ok if the room is almost dark. Like on some of Samsung's ultra book a couple of years ago, silver keys on a silver machine with a white backlight are not a good combo.

Wish I had taken a photo of the unit with the removed mSATA connector, but was in a hurry to get my money back before the brick and mortar store closed for the weekend.

If anyone is think about soldering on a $2 mSATA connector you will have to remove bunch of 2-3 wires that run right over the top of the terminals. There is also a rubber wire holder that HP have glued on right smack bang in the centre of where the terminals are, plus some kind of thick black tape (~7mm wide) that wraps around the wire cluster and the edge of the motherboard over the top of the terminals too.
Consider that HP may have pulled any support for the mSATA slot (or SATA port assignment) from their BIOS, therefore soldering on a connector might do nothing!

On the plus side, the touch pad on the 15-Q which is I believe glass coated is way better than the shocking bad 15-J piece of like plastic. I had a look at HP entire refresh, including the cheaper non Envy model and all of them have a revised glass surface. Keep in mind that without any driver support the 15-Q touchpad acted very erratically under scenarios like using the factory restore from pressing ESC at boot (not windows) and under Linux bootable tools. Basically from what I see the driver for the touchpad is essential for its operation, otherwise it is very difficult to control just normal movement of the mouse cursor.

Comment on the keyboard two different 15-Q that I had the chance to observe, the flex is really bad (especially WASD area) and easily worse than the 15-J, or in other words the flex is very pronounced. On both of the 15-Q models I tested/notice the underlying keyboard support is actually raising (pushing up) the keyboard, and even when one key is pressed e.g. D key, the key in a full circle of keys around the D key consisting of RFCXSE travel downwards even if pressing very lightly. Flex is so bad that it actually affects keys far away as V, Q, 4, as a secondary circle, you get the picture. There is a reasonable amount of flex over near the Enter key and left side of the number pad. The only place where that was near little of no flex was around the JKL keys. I know that HP are using a new keyboard support part, as it is listed as a different part from the 15-J, but they haven't improved it obviously, seems HP just made a new part to fit around the components and haven't worried about keyboard functionally.
Generally physical plastic of the keys appeared to be of poor quality and not well moulded, for example the right shift key was warped and not flat, as like someone had attempted to bend it slightly. I noticed a few other keys similar to this but the smaller keys were really no so much as issue. Appears that across the 2014 range I had a look at today, the keys on all the machine appeared to all have the same poor quality. However is more concerning on a machine that cost twice as much such as the Envy.

I didn't get time to test out the 850M unfortunately, but I did verify it is a 850M and has 4GB of DDR3 with 28GB/s bandwidth.

Like to point out that I might be a bit nit picky, but I demand quality when I am paying this much for what is meant to be a premium product. Including the fact I pay near twice as much here, but even considering at the US price, the things I have mentioned shouldn't be an issue.
Would believe it is only those people that have ever brought rubbish, or have little or no real knowledge, are the ones that will know no better and will not complain, likely be trilled with what they have received.

 

Thanks for the update. I'm interested in getting a 17.3 TS, maybe not the latest version, reading this... Are these problems/changes across the entire line, 15 AND 17? Anybody know?

I see very little info on 17's in a thread titled Re: ENVY 15-kXXX / ENVY 15-qXXX / ENVY 17-kXXX Notebooks (2014)

Do all you guys go with the 15's because of portability and battery life? I'm more interested in POWER & screen SIZE... bigger IS better! The only reason I have any interest in an HP is because they had the most options in i7-quad core models with touchscreen. When I started powerful processors (4900MQ) were offered, that's not the case right now. You CAN, however, get refurbs w/1080p and 4700MQ processors, with Touchscreens, as low as $669.

I'm looking for a desktop replacement more so than portability. If battery life is so important, go with a different model with an i5 or a crippled i7; to me, a dual core i7 is the Celeron of the Core-i7 family! Unless it's a big wattage difference like a ULV processor, to me, it's a trade-off. Of course, I've lived through the evolution of the Intel processor as far back as the 8088/XT/etc, the 286, 386SX, Pentium/Pentium II/III/4M/etc, as well as the competition--Cyrix, AMD, etc.

If someone finds a great 17 Touchscreen thread, please point me to it! Thanks.

 

Just for clarification, which model is the newest slight if at all "refresh" of the Envy 15t? Is it j?

And on second thought, I might just cancel the laptop after reading some reviews and impressions. It just sounds generally bad. And I love my 2012 Pavilion dv6t so far. Solid construction compared to the Envy from the sounds of it. Very unfortunate that it's a disappointment.

 

Leave HP for a better manufacturer. In my opinion during the last years HP is making a lot of marketing errors.

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The 15-Q model is the refresh of the 15-J model. The newer 15-Q motherboard is different in some aspects, but still uses the same chipset as the 15-J model, both are HM87.
However the newer 15-Q model does not feature a mSATA slot. The 2 speakers from underneath the front of the unit have been removed, therefore only has the 2 speakers across the top near the screen, no more quad speakers like the 15-J

2012 Pavilion dv6t was the last of the decent builds from HP, before they rebranded the Pavilion line to Envy in which a lot of corner cutting started. Marketing as Envy fools people into thinking they are getting top of the line, but actually end up with a Pavilion class laptop instead. HP stripped down features or quality of parts, therefore the Envy of today I would believe is sitting little bit under the old Pavilion. The only thing the new Envy has going for it, is that the hardware is newer. Build quality and quality control have seem to suffered greatly over the last couple of years.

Not sure who is to blame, but I would point finger at the new CEO.

 

Hmm that's odd. On the 15t, you can't elect for the 256 GB SSD without opting into the dedicated gpu (and the duo core i7). Can anyone reason why that is?

 

That offering will be a 2.5" SSD which fits in to a standard 2.5" hard drive bay.

SSD have been and were forecast to drop in price considerably in 2014, this has been the case. You will find that at this point in time on average that the 2.5" SSD have become more cost effective than mSATA particularly in the upper sizes.

From where I see it, offering a 256GB size SSD is now large enough to do most of everything for the majority of people.

Personally I really wanted a large mechanical drive with the addition of a decent SSD cache (64GB), which can only be done in a laptop with a HM87 chipset (there was support with the older HM77 also) and a supporting SATA port, manufacturer must not write/lock out the feature also.

 

I've bought (in Italy) a Crucial M 500 mSATA 480 GB at 173€.
I've installed on it Linux (3 partions: one for the home directory, one for system, one for swap). On the original HDD I've left Windows8.1 in a 200 GB partion, and the remaining space is divided in a 200 GB NTFS partition and a 450 GB ext4 partition for data.
I had liked to accelerate th HDD with a little partition of the mS mSATA SSD but I don't know if it's possible and how to do it with the HP BIOS installed on these laptop.
Accelerating with Linux is possible using "bcache" or similar, but with Windows BIOS support is mandatory.

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I was thinking about the possibility of adding a mSATA connector to the 15-Q, but figured that will be beyond me. Also for anyone that can do thing kind of micro soldering, I counted ~50 leg pins that would need to be attached to the motherboard. Even if anyone could solder on a connector, there is every chance and more than likely that HP would have removed the supporting circuitry from around that area, e.g. SMD caps and the likes.

With the 15-Q the only hope of any decent hard drive performance is running a 2.5" SSD, with that any hope of running large capacity on the cheap is totally lost.

I have had a few second thoughts today on getting the 15-Q back and buying a new release Crucial MX100 512GB, as these are kicking butt for the price paid, and are full 512GB without any space taken/reserved for garbage collection. Although I am have an internal argument with myself that I have to remove such a large spec hard drive which space I was actually going to use at will, cannot accept dropping down to 1/3 the size, plus the added cost to the total outlay for the machine become unreasonable.

With August now few days away, I am starting to sense how close Broadwell might be away from this point in time. Maxwell has been around for a short time, getting the feeling that the node shrink from NVidia may well tie in very closely to Intel's node shrink. Might be better off to hold out a little long, and hopefully a full re-design is just around the corner, but if Broadwell is release on the HM87 chipset, then a redesign may not happen until Skylake

 

What I mean is that you can't select the default quad core i7 and the SSD. You have to select the dual core i7 in order to select the SSD.

 

This is another proof that HP is making very bad businesses.

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I smell a rat if you are talking about the 15-Q model. I am thinking as the processor is soldered onto the motherboard (BGA package), then it could be possible the mSATA connector is present on the dual core model motherboard, that is HP are using that type of drive?

Do you have links to where you are configuring?

 

It's just the 15t K model on the US HP shopping site.

 

The K model is actually new and not a refresh model like the Q is.

In fact this thread doesn't really fit very well with the Q and the K models, as they are two different model laptops with different designs.

 

Ya but that still doesn't explain why you need to select a dual core i7 in order to select the SSD. I have no reason why this is.

Maybe the SSD is a msata and the i7 dual core mobo is the one with the msata slot. *wishful thinking*

 

I don't know, I just think HP have made a move to drop the mSATA from their inventory for the home consumers, giving them a hybrid drive instead and marketing that as a SSHD which fools the end user into thinking they getting a SSD, really 8GB of 1000GB is less than 1% of the total capacity. It might help a little bit but stuff all compared to a real separate large dedicated mSATA cache.

I don't know why I keep coming back to the HP, maybe I am obsessed, there isn't much on the table (finally a decent touchpad and new 850M GPU), and I already have a few good machines that are way better than this crap, but I keep coming back for more.

Check out this weird notebook, the 15-U, it looks like a cross between the 15-J and 15-Q, but has a convertible lid, if there is no IPS on this model (as per spec), then this thing is going to suck really bad with that really stink Chimei panel HP refuses to move away from.

http://www8.hp.com/ca/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=7139960#!tab=specs

 

The difference in price between the bad TN and the very good IPS will be no more than 50$. I can't understand why HP is persevering with the TN one. May be they have bought a big stock of these panels and they don't know how to dispose them?
On the PRO series HP uses an IPS!

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HP today added a new HP Envy 15t Slim Quad Laptop For $899.99 but HP is currently offering a $50 discount and selling it for $ 849.99

Specs

15.6 Full HD WLED backlit display

I7-4712HQ Quad Core Processor + the new 4GB Maxwell GTX 850M.

8GB of Ram

Full size backlit keyboard

750GB 5400rpm hard drive

6 cell 47WHR battery

Up to 5 1/2 hours of battery life

Weight 5.07 lbs

HP ENVY 15t Slim Quad Laptop Best Value | HP® Official Store

 

That display is the same bad TN.

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This is exactly the same as the 15-Q that I have been explaining. Hence that motherboard is identical to what I just had. The processor is soldered onto the motherboard as it is a BGA chip. Good thing for the US this time around, is that you now have the 850M option with a quad core, as previously there was none.

The 37W quad core is plenty fast and will blow away any dual core offering, combined with the 850M, it will be HP fastest notebook in it class for gaming.

As the motherboard is the same (there is one part number for this), there is no mSATA slot, and if you can live with that then it all good compared to the 15-J, the touchpad improved as I found the 15-J touchpad terrible.

I would actually go for this (new one on HP site), as the unit I had was over spec thus overpriced and paying for extra RAM, HDD space, and a touch screen I didn't want.
As this (new one on HP site) is not a touch screen, ram is small, hard drive is minimal. This means that you can upgrade the parts you want, and being a non-touch screen means you can put in a slim IPS panel.

 

wow, amazing price for the specs.

 

Yeah that pretty good, I would buy it at that price (upgrade ram, add 2.5" SSD, change panel) but that is only for the US market.

My only option has 16GB ram, slow 1.5TB stanrdard HDD, and a sealed touch screen. Best discount I can get is $1566 us dollars, which is a freaking rip off.
Then I have to spend extra on a SSD to get the slow HDD outta there, and still stuck with a Chimei panel sealed touch screen.

 

Yup you have been and I agree with you.Also While it may not be the best laptop on the market with the GTX 850M, the price is a great value. And as you said you can upgrade the parts you want as you go. It's a great laptop for someone on a budget.

 

Yes it is. You are not going to find many notebooks with an I7 Quad Core processor that comes with a GTX 850M for under $900.

 

Can anyone actually name any other laptops with a i7 quad, 1080p, and 850m (or better specs) for around the same price?

 

My problem is one pre-build model where I am located, and it pretty much fully optioned thus not budget, price is with the best discount I can get = $1566 usa dollars