Envy 14 - UK Thread

Yeah I'm not holding my breath. They may decide not to let it go through, but the order was 'accepted' in addition to being 'acknowledged' so there is a chance.

 

Add my name to the people fed up with HP.

An E14 with a radiance screen or an E15 (1080p) would have done nicely, but HP don't want my hard earned sterling...

 

Well, i phoned up the grants company today from work, will get ordering as sooooooon as i get the go ahead. Being screwed over by a big corp has never been so exciting

David

 

Hi guys,

is this actually shipping (e.g. next-day delivery) in the UK, or are they doing pre-orders only ?

Has anyone ordered one from hp in the uk and received it yet ?

Thanks!

 

so who has the addrss for head of sales/marketing for HP UK, because a mass mailing about the screen is needed.

 

Dude
Im excited and it's not even me getting the laptop!
Lord knows how you must be feeling haha
As I said earlier to someone else, would you mind letting us know what you think of the machine once you get it and all that jazz?

I believe it's actually shipping now but as far as im aware nobody on here has actually ordered and received a UK Envy 14...yet

I'll get out the pickets, you make the signs and gather as many NBR members together as possible. Together, we'll take over the world

 

Course full detailed in depth road test the second it arrives, reckon, realistically it won't be til september though, but nevermind eh

Where are HP UK based incidentally? genuinely, genuinely up for this. When i was little, we complained so much about our remote control cars being rubbish, tyco (?) ended up giving us a bunch of new crazy expensive ones.... you never know.

what do we think gents?

David

 

Ahahahaha
You never know mate, crazier things have happened (just mind )
I remember hearing about some kid that complained about getting too many green skittles and they sent him free packets to make up for the emotional trauma

Anyway back on topic ha
According to the HP website they are based in Berkshire and London.

I'll just leave this here *whistles *

EDIT: Whilst I don't think complaining to HP will make even the slightest bit of difference, if someone does decide to write some sort of email or whatever then i'll grab a copy and do the same...i mean it can't cause any harm

 

Ooo excitement, mine has landed this evening and I hope to have it delivered tomorrow!

Just need a sleeve and a backpack now.

 

Awesome Dan

 

As for HP... protest LAN party? I'm sooo very not a gamer, but reckon it's a better shout that sitting singing kumbaya

David

 

Keep hitting refresh on the tracking whilst sitting at work. Going to be a long night I think! Also looking for a sleeve and finding it hard lol.

 

Hey guys the manager of HP got back to me and was basically saying that she cant see any change to screen option for months which is what i thought. The screen (if they have taken notice to the customers wants) will probably be with the second generation of the Envy 14.

Ordered my Envy though now i have to wait for it... I hate waiting lol

 

Changing a screen isn't too hard by the way - if UK stock it later, you can always upgrade.

Managed to speak to the HP friends and family staff, who've added me on to the US store win win win, I'll be getting it at the end of august thanks to a colleague!

 

Congrats and well wishes to everyone that has since ordered a UK Envy and all that jazz.

Excellent work again Jay, i can't remember how long it took them to update the Envy 15 when it was released over here but I do remember that it never came with the "upgraded" screen, so I won't be holding onto hope that things will be any different this time round. Im sure the manager you spoke to was only sumising/assuming. But we shall see.

I still really want the 1600x900 screen
xell, don't spose you fancy picking me one up? lol [<-- that is a joke unless you say yes...then it might not be ]

 

Actually, they did release a Envy 15 gen 2 with 1080p ultrabright screen. It was model 1110ea. Cost about £1400 and I think about 5 hit the UK as I tried everywhere to get one but everyone was out of stock.

 

Lol my bad

 

Ahh I don't think I can mate, Google might get wise when I get two laptops delivered... and my colleague would certainly protest having to carry another one back over.

Sorry mate.

 

So I've pretty much decided to buy my HP Envy 14 from the US (where my brother lives) and get it shipped over. I have a few questions about the whole process though.

Firstly how do I get the most discounts etc? My brother can get the 10% EPP discount but are there any more? I'm very upset I missed out on the Bing Cashback thingy.

Secondly how does the whole customs thing work. Do I just send it and hope it doesn't get picked up. If it does will it be delivered with a bill for an extra 17.5%? Is this on top of the sales tax?

Thirdly what can I buy in this country to make the laptop as British as possible (excluding flags). AC Adaptor keyboard and warranty?? If I could ge all these I'd be a very happy chappy. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

I'm buying from US too, can you tell me what/where this "10% EPP discount" is please?

Yeah, it's pretty much post and pray, but I think it's unlikely you'll get away with it. Most courier firms have well established procedures for working alongside HM C&I, and will process your tax bill automatically. Some stuff slips through, plenty doesn't.

Depending on the courier you use, you're likely to get either a letter saying "we're holding this item for you, the import duty is £x and our admin fee is £y, please pay this amount via credit card and we'll then forward it on to you", or, the other possibility is they will calculate the duty, pay it in advance on your behalf, then send you the item with a bill for that amount.

The US sales tax won't make any difference to the UK importation duty. If your brother lives in a state which imposes sales tax that's just bad luck. Perhaps your brother can claim it back if he shows that the purchase was exported from the US?

You won't need to do very much at all. Almost all laptop powerbricks nowadays are dual voltage, and I'd be astonished if the standard HP supplied one wasn't compatible with UK power supply. Remember, people fly all over the world with laptops and they don't usually need to take different powerbricks with them. You'll just be able to cut off the US two pin plug, and fit a standard UK three pin, and away you go. The warranty will be fine also. HP confirm on their own website that they provide global warranty on most of their products. If you import a US laptop to the UK, you get UK standard warranty coverage. The only proviso here is that HP UK don't supply components such as the Radiance display panel over here, so if that breaks you'll likely have difficulty getting support.

The keyboard differences between US and UK are minimal. The " and the # keys will be in different places, and perhaps one or two other things, but they are very few and easy to get used to. You can set Windows to US keyboard layout and just use it as the keys are printed, or set Windows to UK layout and remember those very few characters which are in different positions.

I'd be very interested in knowing about cashbacks or discount codes etc which can be used for an American purchase, as that's what I'm doing also. Please let us know about any you uncover.

 

Two packages arrived from HP today. However one was the lovely cheap printer and the other was the printer cable. I'm guessing they don't have the Envys in stock yet, else I would have received that at the same time. Anyway, it's a good sign as it looks like the whole deal is going through.

 

That's great news Htxt, looks like you got in just in time. Nice shiny toy to follow once stock arrives.

 

Thanks for the help. I have a few worries about your answer though. The first is that on the HP America site when I look at the warranty care plan in says this:

Plan requirements
Service must be purchased within 30 days of laptop purchase
HP Care Pack must be registered and activated as instructed in materials
LoJack for Laptops must be activated online using a valid registration code
PC must have Windows Vista or XP, Internet connection, and Internet Explorer 6 or above
One plan per product
Does not cover preexisting damage to applicable hardware
Available only in the United States

The last entry is the worrying one. Is there a separate one year warranty from the care plan?

The other is that i'm not to keen on snipping off the cable and replacing the plug. I know it's easy enough to do as I do it often with lamps and other things it's just on the other end of this power cable is going to be a £1000 laptop and if I muck up anything it will at least ruin the adaptor if not the laptop itself.

The EPP discount is basically a student discount. There are others about including various $50 off vouchers. There are also so rebates going around but you need to have an American card for them I think, not sure though.

I just phoned up the HP customer service and they were absolutely useless. The woman eventually said no they couldn't provide a UK warranty for a US laptop, no they won't sell the keyboard separately and no they don't sell UK AC Adaptors separately.

Tbh she didn't sound like she had a clue. I feel like if I had spoken to someone a bit higher up I may have been able to get somewhere.

Oh well.

 

Have a look through the details of the "Care Packs" at the US HP website, you'll see they're additional bolt on upgraded warranty options that you can purchase at the time you buy a computer. Like buying an extended warranty from Comet when you buy a new washer dryer.

Those additonal options likely aren't valid in the UK, but you weren't actually planning on buying them, were you? You just want standard warranty coverage back here in Blightly, which HP will provide, despite what the idiot on the phone told you.

If you look a couple of pages back in this thread, I linked to the HP UK website pages that explicitly state that they provide a global warranty, and that you will be able to get warranty service in any country that has an HP presence and service network.

Changing the plug on your laptop powerbrick is exactly the same as doing it on a lamp, just make sure you use the correct amp rating fuse in the replacement plug. The powerbrick itself will be dual voltage and perfectly happy with a UK supply. When it arrives just read the label which is stuck on it... it will confirm it's spec and will say something like "input 100V - 240V". That range covers both US and UK supply voltages, as well as most of the world.

A plug doesn't provide any protection for the appliance at the other end, so cutting the US one off and replacing with a UK 3 pin doesn't change the game in any way. There is a fuse in the powerbrick (and probably the laptop itself as well) to protect each of those devices from supply problems. If you're not convinced then you can google for futher info, or get someone electrically qualified to do the job for you. If you are completely against using the US powerbrick then post it to me and I'll give you ten quid for it. You can then simply buy a new UK laptop supply, it doesn't have to be HP, just take the input/output current and voltage details off the original HP powerbrick label, and buy an identical one here in the UK. It's completely unnecessary though, I promise you.

You're wasting your time talking to an HP call centre about these sorts of issues. They're staffed by minimum wage phone monkeys who have zero information apart from the set scripts that appear on the screen in front of them. They, and their supervisors, won't know anything about this kind of stuff, and in the face of any uncertainty will just say no to everything. Don't waste your time or your phone bill mate.

 

I see. Well that all makes sense. I wouldn't mind more than a standard (1 year?) warranty coverage as my previous experience with laptops and just about everyone I know's laptop is that within the first 2-3 years there is a major thing that goes wrong with them. But I can do without.

Just one last quibble. After reading the links (which I'm afraid I missed when I read through this thread the first time) my mind isn't completely at rest. I know it is compulsory for HP to sell Laptops with a one year warranty in the UK. Is it also in the US? I only ask because I've looked everywhere on the US site for a guarantee that I would be getting a warranty with the Envy 14 and I can't find it. The other part of the quibble is that it says "most" of the products they sell. I cannot see a reason why they would exclude laptops but knowing my luck the Envy is not on the list.

Would it help getting it through customs if my brother unpackaged and started it up to check everything was working and repackaged it to make it look like I had left it there when I was last over?

Thanks for your speedy replies. I'll be speaking to my brother tonight and perhaps ordering!

 

Haha not a problem mate, it was only an off-the-cuff remark

 

In fact, the law here is that HP must supply a TWO year warranty on laptops sold in the UK. It's an EU thing, most goods of this type sold anywhere within the EU must, by law, have a minimum 2 year warranty.

I don't know what warranty is given as standard in the US, I'd assumed it was one year. Anyway, the wording of the warranty info on the HP website indicates that when taking an HP item to another country, you get the standard warranty that is provided on that type of item in that country. That might imply they'd give you two year coverage here in UK, but that would seem over generous, and I wouldn't bank on it, or in fact demand it if I had an 18 month unit that developed a problem.

I understand about the "most items" concern, however, the info on the HP website actually lists (some of?) the exclusions, specifying one particular line of lapotops, but not excluding the Envy's. I don't think they'd easily get away with denying you warranty in thoses circumstances.

Bottom line is that if you have a warranty issue here in the UK within the first 12 months, I'm sure you could (after some pissing about with call centres) get them to sort you out. After 12 months, it's probably ropey. I don't think you're going to get anymore concrete an answer than that until someone over here actually has a b0rked lappy and starts the process.

Of course, I'm not an HP employee or rep, so this is my opinion. The info is there on the HP website and you can put your own interpretation on it. All I can say is I'm importing one and I dont' have a shred of doubt I could force them to provide warranty service for the first 12 months if it were necessary.

Maybe, but they ain't stupid, and are generally pretty wise to that sort of thing. Remember, it will have a US keyboard, and a US plug on it

I think it either sails through unmolested and you get away scot free, or it gets pulled and you get a bill for the full whack. Once they are looking at it, I think they generally can identify exactly what is due, and these little ruses we might try are very transparent.

Let us know if you order, and if it gets pulled at customs etc, and of course what you think about it when it arrives. Good luck!

 

Fellow UK'ers,

Just thought I'd follow up on actually receiving my Envy14.

I purchased 3 weeks ago before the spec and price change and had the following options:

i5-450m CPU
4GB RAM (1 Dimm)
500GB HDD

Was delivered by the UPS man 10am (especially when I had finished work at 7am).
In the excitement I unboxed and inspected the unit for any build quality issues and I must have ordered at the ideal time as there is nothing defective with my unit worthy of returning by far but there are a few minor imperfections, but I am being picky!

1. Bottom right keyboard slightly raised, this is around 1mm. This is not noticeable by sight but only if you run your fingers across the join this edge is raised where all the others are just slightly lower than the chassis of the laptop.

2. Trackpad not centred, now this is a really small issue but is compounded by the difference in colour between the trackpad and the chassis. The gap is very slightly bigger on the right than the left but operation is fine, also the trackpad is not completely flush to the chassis but again this is by less than 0.5mm on one part.

Now, CPU whine. Im pretty sure this is not coming from the CPU and coming from the capacitors on the motherboard when the CPU is in reduced clock state. This can only be heard from very close up and also when the room you are in is completely silent.

Fans, I am very happy with the cooling solution in the laptop. I came from a 3+ year old Clevo which had lost its cooling capability and had the fan running most of the time. Even with the fan running in this it is barely noticeable until it really ramps up. Under normal running it is very quiet.

One last item with the laptop itself was the bottom cover was not on properly when I removed the laptop from the sleeve. This was due to one of the mountings from the HDD being bent and not screwed down properly. This was easily fixed by tightening the screw which bent the bracket back to how it supposed to be.

Once powered up I went through the motions of the back end of a Windows install and had a lovely desktop. The screen is very, very nice and I am glad I made the jump when I did. I made the recovery media which requires 4 DVD-R/+R single layer discs, this took around and hour and a half which at this point I went back to sleep for a while!

After my nap and feeling much better now I completed the recovery media and copied the swsetup folder to my desktop and backed up my windows activation for when I need it later to reactivate my SSD install.

At this point I was backing up my old install on my old laptop so I decided to do a minimised recovery on the laptop as is to see how much bloatware was actually removed. After another hour and a bit the recovery was complete and I was left a leaner install. Still in my eyes this still had unnecessary programs installed so when replacing the HDD with my Intel G2 I will do a complete fresh install.

I do believe that a SSD will complete the machine which is just a bit sluggish with a mechanical HDD, I will report back with pictures and how the install went later this week.

Finally, am I happy with my purchase?

This has to be a resounding yes, I have been looking for something like this for nearly a year now. I looked at the Envy15 G2 but was put off by size, heat, lack of something that was missing. I looked at the Sony VaioZ which is more of a technological exercise than an everyday latop and also it being alot more than the price of what I paid for the Envy so not worth the pennies.

Just on a quick calculation the spec above, including VAT was £1100, which was a little more than ordering the German version but it comes with a useable keyboard!

(for the power brick it is a 100V-240V version so all you need to do is cut the plug off the US one and put another on or get a new laptop power cord with the 3 circles in a triangle formation)

 

Danh, have you already been hit with customs? how much if so?

I still havent received anything

Glad to see another happy import laptop user BTW, my keyboard is slightly raised at the top by 1mm, I guess it is a typical envy 14 small issue. It doent bother me at all.

BTW, I installed a 160gb intel ssd and it makes a big difference! The boot time is still long though as there is a problem with the current gfx drivers, I am sure HP will fix it

 

I was tempted to buy this in the UK if it came fully specced but glad I didn't, without the high res radiance screen there is nothing special about this laptop apart from its fancy look.

There is a reason I didn't get the acer 4820tg, it's perfect in every way except the low res screen which is important to me. Otherwise the acer beat's this in many important ways, it's faster (no underclocked gpu), it's cooler and nicely overclockable. Battery life is also great with switcahble graphics on 9cell.

Overall HP UK .... I hate you.

If only Acer did high res screens but I have now jumped for a sony that gives the screen and GPU for the price I want.

 

Can I ask which Sony model (and spec/price) you went for?

I've been tempted by the Vaio Z as an alternative to the Envy 14 but it's a lot more money.

 

Great to hear you're happy Dan and great post.
I'd be interested to know your import charges if you wouldn't mind sharing?
If your £1100 is inclusive of these charges then I think i'd pull the proverbial trigger and import it.
Did you buy from eBay? (Opal_cadet)

 

My VAT charges (no miport duty on laptops) were £57 + the £11 clearance fee but that was with a $500 declaraton value.

Bought it from ebay but not Opal_Cadet HP has would not allow her to carry on importing overseas. So I used another ebay seller, everyone should be able to find them.

 

Yup. I would have picked one up if I could have found one...

HP Envy 15-1110ea review - PC Advisor

 

Yeah the Vaio Z is too expensive, I actually went for a E series 15" with Radeon 5650 graphics, full HD screen and free bluray-writer (one of their weekly deals).

The only negative thing I can think off is that it doesn't have any switchable graphics and comes with a slightly 4cell stock battery. Apart from that it's a bargain £726 inc delivery.

 

Thats reasonable
I think it's much the same as what ninja2000 paid, did you ask for the declaration value to be $500 or did they suggest it?
I hadn't realised there was a time when HP had told Opal_Cadet not to ship overseas, that would explain her absence for a short time, there is only one other Envy 14 on eBay as far as I can see.
Would you recommend them? (if it's the same people/person)

 

Regarding the UK Envys, the store is now saying immediate availability rather than within 2 weeks. Hopefully they will send mine early next week. On another note, if you add it to your basket now it seems to add two Envys but only charge for one (at least it did when I tried). I think that's one mistake they won't be letting slip through the net though!

 

No that value is declared by the seller, but also the seller will only use UPS for shipping because of their high success rate.

Would definitely reccommend the seller, quick to answer emails, answer them properly etc.

 

Cheers mate
I just wasn't sure if you initiated the talks about having a lower declaration value, or they did. I think im going to go ahead and import, a sudden gust of "what the hell" has swept through me!
The Shipping charges of the seller you bought from seem to be much the same as Opal_Cadet (she is back now) so I guess it's 50/50 who i buy from

I hope you enjoy your Envy

 

HP ENVY 14-1050ea Notebook PC (WN967EA) specifications - HP Home & Home Office products

Has anyone actually bought this??
I'm very tempted to actually get it without the Radiance screen =\

 

if you read the last 2 pages or so, yes

 

So how bad is the non-radiance screen really?
Am i going to be kicking myself once i receive the laptop without the 1600x900 screen ?

How much of a difference does it make when watching 720p film?

 

I'm not sure anyone has reviewed the non-radiance screen yet. What I can say is that 720 is defined to be a display with a resolution of 1280×720. With the lower resolution Envy display being 1366x768, it is already above the resolution of 720p HD. So you still see all the detail in a 720p film resolution wise. I'm not sure about differences in terms of colours, brightness etc.

Almost all laptops come with the resolution of the cheaper Envy screen, or lower. So it's not a bad screen, the option for 1600x900 in the US is quite exceptional considering the laptops size. Having used a 1600x900 laptop I'd guess you wouldn't want to go back due to the extra screen real estate it gives you. If you don't know any better though, I doubt you'd be kicking yourself.

I've gone for the UK Envy with the 1366x768 display. I did get lucky with the price but for me the lower res screen is not a complete deal breaker like it is for some others.

Other than the screen, I'd say the UK spec is pretty spot on.

 

Yeah, the spec is fine, the price is terrible though.

With the BIG discount you bagged, it's a good buy, but a grand for that spec is way too much money.

The US price for the UK spec model works out at £683, but to buy it here in the UK they want £999, which is a 43% price increase, that's feckin' outrageous. Talk about price gouging. Remember, they're already making a profit on the US model/price.

 

Thank you, that was quite helpful and eased my mind a bit. Do you it would be possible eventually to buy a radiance display and have it installed on the envy?

Also when ordering from the UK, what vouchers did you use? and how long did it take them to deliver it?

EDIT: When looking at the Overview section on this page:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF05a/321957-321957-3329744-3995710-3995710-4173527.html

It says

Premium 36.8 cm (14.5") display
• Enjoy the highest brightness and colour gamut with the optional radiance display. It delivers optimum brightness, contrast and clarity, plus super-wide viewing angle technology so you see more of the display in any position.

 

I ordered last week when it was still saying 'Usually within 2 weeks' since Saturday it has 'Immediate availability'. Coupled with the free next day delivery this should mean you get it the day after ordering. However since I have not received mine yet, I can't say for sure.

As for the screen, there is a small chance we may receive a different spec with the higher res screen at some point. If that was the case you would be able to get hold of a higher res screen easier than is currently possible, as HP UK would stock it as a spare. I doubt they would install though, I think it would be up to you. I'm not sure what HP is like for acquiring parts, others may have a better idea.

If you are going to order make use of discount code HPDISVR5 which is for 5% off. Also make use of Quidco for 8% cashback: Find Hewlett-Packard voucher codes, Hewlett-Packard cashback, Hewlett-Packard discount codes & Hewlett-Packard promotional codes at Quidco. Clear cookies, click the 'Get cashback' button on that page (once signed up & logged in). Then navigate to the Envy 14 and proceed in purchasing making sure to enter the code I noted above before proceeding to payment.

You are correct the price is high for the spec. I did manage to get a one off big discount due to a mistake on the site. However, the UK laptop sits within the UK laptop market, a market which is always more expensive than the US. We always receive big markup, though this may be more than usual. I do remember big markup on M1330 when I got it over here vs the states. For this country, considering the spec and premium status of the product, I don't believe the price is too insane, though I totally understand where you're coming from.

 

Yeah I believe this is HP playing a game of copy & paste with the US description. They are certainly not offering this at the moment as there is no configure-to-order and they only offer one model.

 

How can they make errors like that when this is a product they specialize in selling? =\

If it was a person selling shoes who happened to have found an envy on the floor and wanted to sell it, then i would understand if he had made such an error in describing what hes selling.

 

Yeah got all excited about the "optional" thing a couple weeks back, i mean technically we could bag them for false advertising - though while mentioning it implies its availability the most we'd prolly achive is a lil * stating it's a US option only.

When it comes to me placing my order, i'll have a moan about it to someone at HP, you never know i guess....

David

 

This is a bit of a longshot but I don't suppose anyone thats imported the Envy knows if the sellers check over the Envy before they send it for any issues (CPU whine, dents etc etc)?

Im pretty sure they don't because it would take up far too much time and take away the "grand opening" opportunity from the buyer (admit it, we all love that moment right?) but I figured i'd ask anyway.

I've decided to import the Envy (stuff the warranty) but I can't bear the thought of turning it on and finding something wrong!