Envy 14 - UK Thread

This is ridiculous how the UK gets the end of the stick... I was so read to cop out for this machine once it hit the UK market, now they have totally lost me as a customer.

 

Thing is though, what are our other options, i need sub 15" and i cannot abide apple...

David

 

Depends what you are looking for. Screen resolution? They are all crap really, Apart from Sony and Dell, but these are expensive. A Dell Studio 15 with a 5650, i5, and 1080p will set you back almost £1000. Sony's are espensive as well, and have poor battery life, unless you go for the Z.

A Acer 3820TG would be an alternative, but they aren't available yet with 5650.

 

the 3820TG is pretty damn awesome.


if I didn't need the 1600x900 I woulda jumped on it like no tomorrow.


it's bios isn't crippled either (you can turn switchable back to dedicated only and that lets you update the vid card drivers)


you can't update the vid card drivers on the HP...'cause ati doesn't let you if it detects a switchable one.

 

HP Canada is selling the Canadian configuration with an i5 430M 2.26Ghz, 640gb 5400rpm HDD and 6GB RAM for $1599 CAD ($1699 if youre dumb enough to buy from bestbuy/futureshop. The 430/640gb 5400rpm hdd aren't even options in the US, presumably because nobody would buy them.

Pretty disgusting markup for inferior specs.

Considering ordering from this ebay listing but I am still unsure how much customs/duty is going to come back to bite me. Then there's the whole warranty/returns thing...

Would love to hear from someone who's ordered the envy 14 off ebay from Canada/overseas.

I'm currently using a Lenovo y460, but the 1366x768 screen isn't the greatest. Too bad the rest of the world gets the shaft from HP.

 

If you read back in the thread, I have ordered one from Ebay. Mine is still in production but as soon as it arrives I will post back and advise how much customs cost, but from previous experiance allow for 20%.

You can phone HP UK and get the warranty transfered but it costs about £60 (this could also be 2yrs instead of 1, the person who phoned for us wasnt 100%)

 

I might be retarded but can anyone find the Envy 14 on the HP website anymore? It seems to of vanished...again

 

Yep, just noticed that too! I love HP UK!
the Envy 17 seems to have gone too

 

Excellent
*golf claps HP UK*
Hopefully they are doing something exciting and it'll be back soon...wishful thinking?

 

hopefully we get a decent spec... the german spec is actually perfect for me, i would love to have got that instead of the rubbish that the UK normally e.g. envy 15 with 720p screen, hp uk must have been stupid to think people would pay more than a grand for a laptop with a screen that has less than 900p.

 

well it hasnt stopped them before

I also noticed they have put some of the new DV's up on the website. But whereas the US gets the amazing looking select edition with i5/i7 and 5650 we get the nasty hot running, underperforming AMD version

 

The German spec seems perfect for me too. Does anyone know if it is possible to order it from Germany?

Cyberport.de seem to have it in stock for around 1100 GBP, and I think they ship to the UK.

HP Envy 14-1010eg WN945EA

 

pop them an email. I expect you will also get hit with customs, but not sure on other EC countries.

Also the Geman keyboard layout is different so you will need to contact HP to get a UK keyboard which will be fun!

 

You shouldn't get hit with customs as its an EU country and trade is free.

Regarding the UK keyboard the part no is 608375-031. This has been pulled for the service manual.

I have also contacted the HP parts dept regarding price and availability of a UK keyboard so when I receive more info I will post it back here. If this fails I do have another avenue that I could use to get HP parts.

 

Cool, I wasnt sure, so thanks for clarifying.

And the keyboard is not going to be cheap if bought from HP, they are quoting $114 in the US parts store Looks like I am going to live with the US keyboard until they turn up on ebay

In other news, mine has been built and is now winging its way to Opal_cadet in the states! She reckons I should receive it Friday or Monday

 

Sorry if a swede sneaks in here but its keyboard related.

I notice some of you talk about swapping the keyboard, im also thinking about this but popping in a swedish keyboard. Ive checked the Envy 14 Maintenance and Service Guide and it seems there are two different keyboards depending if your E14 got BEATS or not.

Anyone got a clue if the US versions got BEATS or not so we know what version of the keyboard to order?

 

If its anything like the E15 then the beats version will be black not silver. The part no i posted above is not for the beats version.

 

ninja2000 According to this site; New Duty & VAT Calculation | The Duty Calculator

their is no import duty, but you will have to pay 17.5% tax on the laptop.

if you bought a 1300 laptop you'll end up paying around £1100 with todays exchange rate.

 

That will be a potential future "Envy 14 Beats Edition", much like the Envy 15 has (black exterior, different logo, comes with DJ software and Beats Audio headphones).

I've never tried this, but you could try setting the keyboard to your native version via Region and Language settings in the control panel. A few of the keys would show something different from their output, but it would probably be better than buying the replacement keyboard (in the US they cost $114 iirc).

Also, if any UK'ers are interested, I've got an E14 that I'm willing to sell and ship right now. I bought it before the 30% Bing Cashback offer came up, so I was planning on returning it, but I decided to offer it up for a couple days in case anybody who doesn't have the luxury of US prices wants to buy it at cost. There's a link in my signature if you're interested.

 

If the Envy is damaged/ faulty, what's her returns policy?

 

The E14 is still gone from the UK HP site. I wonder what is going on

 

Hmmm how strange. Maybe they arent expecting them to arrive for a while and got sick of people phoning about them

According to Fedex tracking mine should arrive tomorrow!!! I am praying customs dont pull it as that will add an extra couple of days.

 

Sorry, only just noticed your question!

She will accept returns for faulty products and will provide a replacement. I will have to pay shipping costs back to USA though

 

Excellent!
I really do hope the wait you've had to endure is worth it!
If it all works out for you then I reckon i'll follow the same route
I don't want to really (re)start a search for a new laptop...again...it's taken me 7 months to find the E14 haha

Hopefully you'll be ok on the VAT front...but you know what Britain is like

 

The studio 15 only comes with a 5450.

 

The 1300 euro laptop already includes VAT at 19%, you can import it without paying any additional customs (since you only have to pay VAT once within the EU).

The E17 is back up. Seems reasonable if it really has a 1920 screen... I just want the portability of the E14.

* Featuring Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium for a superior digital entertainment experience
* An Intel Core i7 720QM processor for incredible performance
* 4GB memory for top system performance
* 500 GB Hard Drive for storing all your digital files
* A 17.3" Full High Definition Anti-Glare LED display
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD5850
* Create silkscreen-quality disc labels with LightScribe, watch movies and more with the Double Layer SuperMulti DVD±RW and watch the latest High-Definition content on the Blu-Ray player
* 1 year, pick-up and return, warranty. Optional upgrade to 3 years accidental damage cover for peace of mind
* Featuring wireless networking, bluetooth and a webcam, ideal for social networking and communications

 

The Envy 17 does like quite good, i'd just never buy a 17" laptop though. Much like you, I like the portability of smaller laptops

 

also that E17 has been reported to run really hot! an i7 and a ati 5870 running on 1 fan is never gonna end well!

Well that gave me a 5 second break from refreshing the fedex tracking page

 

Did you order from the US to the UK? How did you do it and how much did it cost you? Also, how long did it take to arrive or ETA?

thanks

 

I ordered on ebay. I customised my specs and the seller then ordered from HP.
I ordered on the 5th and it is arriving today before 12

It cost me £850 for the laptop and I have a £70 customs charge to pay so just over £900 in total

Will update when I get my hands on it

 

How did you get away with only a £70 customs charge? Did the seller mark down the total value of the laptop? If so, spill the beans and let us know how much

 

Is it here yet?!
The anticipation is killing me...and it's not even mine!

 

hahaha sorry guys, it is here, it is amazing and I have been playing for the last hour

mootothemax, yes she marked it at $500

demonhotrod, wow it was worth the wait!

Impressions so far:
-Screen is gorgeous, I was expecting it to be brighter, I would say its nearer 250nits than 350 but still good. The colours are amazing!
-It is so quiet, I have just been running 3dmark and the fan noise is nothing compared to my m11x and m15x!
- There is a little bit of flex around the P key, but this wont bother me, I may try and fix it when I add the second HDD. Other than that the keyboard is a joy to type on.

Will add more as I play further

 

Dude!
Thats awesome
Im glad to hear your unit appears to be fairly noise "free", if thats the right way to put it, there seems to be a lot of contrasting opinions regarding the fan noise etc
Seeing as (I think) you are the first UK user to import the E14 from the US, when you have finished having a play with your new toy would you be willing to just say how the whole process went i.e. ordering, paying, delivery, customs (do they just contact you saying you need to pay by card etc) that kind of thing.

You are basically our leader for now...

 

lol ok. Well I am at my desk at work so have plenty of time to answer questions.

Firstly, I have owned a lot of laptops and so far this seems the quietest on load, even quieter than my old sony CW which impressed me at the time. Every dell sounds like a jet engine whilst gaming so this is a refreshing change.

I have no cpu whine either which was worrying me

With regards to the ordering process it couldnt have been easier. I spoke with Edwina and specced up my machine, she listed it on ebay for me (make sure you stay in Ebay, some sellers try and get you to transact outside but you will have no come back if you get problems).

Once it was listed I bought it and paid by Paypal. What ebay shows is GBP is misleading as Paypal shows a higher amount It showed as £840 in ebay but when purchased I paid £865. I also used quidco which gave me another £15 back.

From then Edwina gave me regular updates as they were given to her from HP. It shipped from HP on Friday, Edwina got it Tues and sent it to me. Two days later it arrived on my desk

I phoned this morning about customs as I know some courriers wont let you have the goods until you have paid. I spoke to a nice lady at fedex who told me there was £70 to pay but they would deliver the goods and send me an invoice for the £70!

Would I do it again? Most definately, this still came out cheaper than the UK model by £80 and I get the decent screen plus who knows when the UK will actually get it.

I am also happy with the US keyboard so will keep using it until I see cheap UK keyboards turn up on ebay

 

Wow, you actually did that much, much quicker than I thought
Im both impressed and disappointed (you should be playing with the E14! haha)
Nah, thanks a lot for that mate. It might help out a few fellow UK buyers... aka me!

So I take it you don't have your E14 with you right now? Or do you?

Tell me straight, if the room/building you are in now was on fire, would the E14 be the one thing you saved?

 

hey ninja could you link me to the shop on ebay or something?

edit: also how much was shipping?

 

The painful thing is, I have to sit upstairs in an open plan office but I also have my own office downstairs for building PCs etc. I can only disappear down there every so often.

If the building was on fire I would risk getting burnt to get my new baby out

Just sneaked down again to run Prime and furmark. Temps were well managed and the noise kicked up a bit but still not that loud. The right side gets warm and the top near the function keys gets hot. But not even close to an sxps 13/16 if you have ever used one!

 

opal cadet isnt listing any envys at the moment

There is this seller though who seems good:
HP Envy 14 - Configure to Order (up to i7 qm/8GB/750GB) on eBay (end time 11-Aug-10 03:49:13 BST)

I paid $100 for shipping which worked out at £65. It was 2 days as well! amazing.

If anyone wants me to contact Edwina (opal_cadet), I will happily do so.

 

i would be grateful if you could and ask her when the envy 14 will be available to shipped to uk again. 900p screen, 500gb HDD, i5-520m, if you could get a quote for that spec and one with 160gb SSD instead of HDD?? would really appreciate it

 

I can, But there is no real need. Just check the prices on the HP US site. She keeps the same prices. Then when you have decided on a spec in your budget let me know and I will email her.

With regards to the date, that depends on HP. She cant give you a date until you order as they are custom built by HP. HP do give a rough date on their website

 

well i am only 15 so my parents would have to pay, i'd prefer to see a site or get an email contact, the only difference between opal cadet (is this an ebay shop?) and the envy 14 on the other ebay shop is the shipping cost ($168.91 seems very high)

 

Dont worry, I am not saying you wont get a contact etc, I am saying check out the US site to give yourself an idea of the costs. If I contact opal_cadet she will list what you request on ebay, so you then get the contact details/ebay protection as normal.

 

Quality mate haha
Have any fellow work colleagues commented oh the amount of times you have visted the "toilet" yet?

I've never used an SXPS13 or 16 but I did have an old inspiron with the "dreaded" 8600M GT, that used to whack out a fair amount of heat (50C idle, 70/80 as soon as you started any cpu/gpu intensive tasks) and I remember the area around the palmrest getting really warm, putting my hand under the laptop whilst it was on would give me 1st degree burns!

I hope you and your E14 have many magical moments together

God dammit!

 

Oh right thank you, will it be ok if i could PM you in a couple of weeks when i am most likely to order? Also how much was shipping?

 

well the best thing about the E14 is the WASD keys have no heat at all whilst gaming as the vents are the other side. And even with prime and furmark the right side was only what I would consider warm.

When I used to game on a sxps 16 with P8600/ati4670 the left palm rest would get so hot I would have to take a break every half hour to try and cool it down, I started to hate that machine which was great except for the rediculous heat.

 

Am trying to scrape up money now to buy one from the states. Have £500 now. will probably have enough next month!

 

No problem mate, just let me know and I will email her. Shipping was $100/£65 for fedex 2 day service. My total was £920 for envy/shipping/customs. Specs in sig

 

Also guys, I have been comparing the i5 450 to my i5 540 (in the alienware) there is very little difference. If you want to save some dosh this would be a good place.

 

Hey Ninja,

Cheers for all the information - due to your good experience with opal_cadet, I'm going to go with her.

I'm actually over in Zurich, Switzerland at the moment, and think I might get it shipped here (VAT is only 7.6%).

Could I just check which shipping method you used - the cheaper one is the same for Switzerland as it is for the UK. My only concern is the insurance, if she listed it for $500 I wonder if USPS would cover it for the full value....

Also, have you had a chance to change your warranty over?

Sorry for the questions mate, but it seems you are the trailblazer for us UK folk!

Thanks.