Envy 13 anyone?

Is there anyone here with an Envy 13 with 1600x900 screen? Was hoping to find some users with one but I only see an owners thread for the 14, 15 and 17. How do you experience the touchpad on the Envy 13?

 

There is an Envy 13 Owner's Lounge a few pages back in this forum. However, it is not that active and the Envy 13 in general was never a good seller. So I am not surprised that people don't talk about it. The touchpad for the Envy 13 is like the one on the 15 and it is completely rubbish without driver updates.

 

Well, if I can complete Plants Vs Zombies using the Envy 13 trackpad, it's good enough....

 

Good luck! A Dell Studio 1535's trackpad can play PvZ way better than the one used on the Envy 15. I tried the game on both and I can vouch that the touchpad on the Envy is no good. Even with driver updates, it is still a finicky thing to use.

 

Alright, found it. Kind of turned down on the machine. Was hoping that the Envy 13 would be a nice buy as a refurb in the hopes of getting a 13" with higher res than 1366x768 cheaper than the Vaio Z series. But I'm reading too much sh!t on it.

 

Hahah, getting off topic are we? But I loved P vs. Z!!! Once I started I couldn't stop, had to google cheat codes so I can get unlimited money and stuff. Anyway, good luck getting an Envy 13.

KJ

 

You would be much better off with an envy 14 (like the one i'm selling in my signature ) if you are going to stick with hp. The 14 is pretty darn portable i must say. I take it back and forth to school and work everyday. What makes you want a 13 inch so bad (just curious, not knocking you)?

 

I love the size, weight and of some 13" the battery life. My Asus UL30VT is actually pretty big for a 13" imho. If a 14" would be just as light (1.8kg) and have a battery life that comes a bit near my UL30VT (I get 9 hours with brightness bit more than lowest setting, wifi on and doing light tasks) that would be an option. But I have yet to find some. I read about the 6 hours with the Envy 13 but that's only with the slice battery so that is a big turn down. And from what I've found the Envy 14 ain't gonna last more than 4 hours with the Intel HD. That's about 2 hours short of what I would require. Maybe I would take 5 hours if the price was awesome or something else

If only I could have bought my Asus with a good screen (better colors even though it's not the worst, better viewing angle which is terrible and higher res), I would have happily paid 100-150 extra. And my Asus was so damn cheap, it's hard to beat 500 euro's inc shipping from Germany to Holland.

Btw, I don't need to stick with HP. But if I'm gonna, it would have to be an Envy, I have heard a lot of bad things about cheaper HP laptops so I wouldn't settle for a cheap model. And for the same reason I would never have an Acer, Packard Bell.

 

I played around with my girlfriend's Envy 13 quite a lot, so I have plenty of experience with it.
If you can find a good deal on refurbed Envy 13, definitely get it. I swear by its standard radiance screen, which is even brighter than the much loved radiance on Envy 14.
Imo the 1366x768 on the 13 is pretty darn good, I compared it to the Vaio Z's 1600x900 once, 13 is much brighter and has better contrast, if not a bit over saturated. The 1600x900 on a 13in screen requires quite a bit of squinting sometimes, so I donno if that's the best idea.
The trackpad on Envy 13 is easily fixed by this http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/502589-e14-trackpad-discussion-only.html
With some tweaking, the clickpad is actually VERY smooth and very usable.
As for battery life, I measured average of 8W power draw with medium brightness and web browsing, which means it can last easily over 4 hours with the standard battery, and well over 9 hours with the slice.
The Envy 13 is also exquisitely thin and light, you'll be very pleased.
Most importantly, if you value a good screen, you can't loose with the envy 13.

To make things even better, this one has standard 160GB intel G2 SSD (worth about $300), which means you're getting an Envy 13 for less than $500 bucks.
HP ENVY 13 SU9600 INTEL 160GB SSD 3GB RAM - eBay (item 300532859967 end time Mar-10-11 14:57:47 PST)

 

With the SU9600 I'm gonna lose on my current CPU. Here's the thing. I havean Asus UL30VT. Total price working was 515 euro's delivered to my door and with a different keyboard I needed from Hong Kong. If I were to get an Envy with SL9400 or 9600 then it compares as follows:

Price of the Envy 13 before it'll be here with 2 years warranty:
859 (Envy)
200 (2 years warranty instead of 90 days)
70 (shipping)
----
1129 dollars

824 euro's * 1.19 * 1.06 = 1040 euro's with tax

It will be double the price of the Asus.

+ _Slightly_ faster CPU (Asus turbo boost runs the SU7300 at 1.73ghz so almost as fast as the SL9400)
+ 1GB more RAM
+ SSD with trim
+ 1600x900 Radiance screen

- Very mediocre battery performance (slice is not sold with the refurb so only around 3-3,5 hours)
- Bad touchpad
- Less connections
- Hybrid graphics system that doesn't switch too well (my Asus has a dedicated button AND an auto-mode)
- Significantly slower dedicated GPU

I'm struggling to find this worth double the price actually. Not because the Envy on itself is thát bad, but because my Asus was a great deal. With an SSD in my Asus, which is around 200 euro's for a 128gb Barefoot), it 's still a 300e difference and the only thing that I would notice in my use is the better screen, I don't want to pay 300 for an extra screen and the hassle when something happens that I have to ship it back to the USA...And also losing the great battery life that I still eavilly enjoy after 4 months of ownership.

 

er, I dunno where you're getting the $859 for a 1600x900 envy 13 from, but here's on for much cheaper
HP ENVY 13 SL9300 1.6GHZ 3GB 13.1" (1600X900) LAPTOP PC - eBay (item 360350812574 end time Mar-16-11 09:25:28 PDT)

 

No SSD and slower CPU. And an SSD WILL be installed in my Asus anyway so if I'm gonna buy an Envy 13, might as well buy the version with faster CPU and SSD

 

My girlfriend also just happened to owned a UL30a before (what a coincidence right), having the two side by side, I can tell you this much:

+ Envy is thinner, but feels much sturdier, no flex anywhere whatsoever
+ Screen quality is night and day, and this is with the 768p screen. I can't imagine how much better the 900p is
+ the metal surfaces are completely smudge free. Not a finger print magnet like the glossy plastics of UL30

- Battery life is not as strong, 4-5 hours compared to 6-8 hours from Asus
- a tad heavier, about .3 pounds
- like you said, no dedicated graphics switching button
- the 4330 is about 10% weaker than the 310M
- more expensive
- No backlit keyboard mod available yet for the Envy

Other than that, everything else is a wash. Ports selection are pretty similar, Envy just has one less USB port and no ethernet, neither of which is a big deal. Unless you have USB 3.0 or eSata, no other ports really matters. And build quality is definitely something you'll feel and learn to value. The flimsy plastic on UL30 is nothing compared to the solid magnesium alloy of the Envy's, you'll feel the difference.
Also the extended warranty is pretty gimmicky, it's a waste of money in my opinion. But then again I don't keep my laptop for longer than 6 months, so YMMV.

 

Yeah, the glossy black sucks But, 4-5 hours for the Envy 13? In the reviews I read nothing more than 3-3,5 hours. Where do you get that 4-5 hours from? Ethernet is somewhat of a deal, sometime it would really come in handy. I don't find the build quality of the UL30 that bad but I am willing to believe that the Envy 13 is better in that respect.

And about the warranty, it's only 90 days cause it's a refurb. Knowing from my working experience with a big Japanese laptop brand, refurbs can be a laptop that had a key on the keyboard coming off, but it can also be a laptop that has problems which have been fixed but could come back later. From what I've heard, the return rate on refurbs is higher.

 

I measure 4-5 hour with ligh web browsing and med low brightness, bluetooth off. With full brightness at idle my battery bar show 4hours remaining. So 4 is definitely easily achievable.
I don't exactly know the defective rate of refurb units, but I've had decent experiences with them. Usually if there problems that wasn't fixed completely first, 90 days is enough for it to show up.
Moreover, refurb units are usually returns and if they had any problem to start with, it wouldn't been corrected, so you can sort of think it as a unit that has been "pre-screened" for any defects, an immunization shot if you will.

 

I'm pretty darn sure the envy 13 never came with a 1600 x 900 res only 1366 x 768 at least i know the radiance on the 13 is 1366 x 768 and its supposed to be pretty awesome on that litlle sucker.

 

What he said.

 

5 Ways The HP Envy Is Better Than The MacBook Pro

Some gadget reviews for you: Intuos 4 Wireless, Envy 13, MusicSkins - Boing Boing

HP Envy 13

HP Envy 13 - Laptops - CNET Archive

All confirm it has been sold with 1600x900

 

owned.
but 1600x900 on a 13in is some pretty absurd pixel density

 

Like the envy 14 the envy 13's 1600 x 900 screen was taken away as an option leaving it with only a 1366 x 768 option for some time. I stand corrected but it wasn't available when i was looking at them back in january 2010.

 

through the dark arts I resurrect this thread:

can anyone else comment on the 1366x768 Radiance? Having a hard time deciding if the 1900x600 would be that much better. At least not as much on this size, as opposed to the Envy 14 with Brightview.

 

If you can find one in your price range i would scoop it up as it would make pretty big difference (to me at least). The 1366x768 radiance i've heard isn't bad either. Not sure if it's just the resolution that is different but many folks have said both are great screens if not the brightest in the envy line.

 

im sure a higher res would pay off in the end, but i think if both have the same color quality and contrast either will do fine. thanks!