Envy 14 - UK Thread

Its really nice aint it.... even without the radiance screen. The screen Brightview Infinity screen is still very nice dont you think?

 

Yeah the screen is still great, I don't think I'll honestly bother with the money and hassle of installing the radiance if it becomes available.

Haven't really had a single issue with it so far, hardware and software wise everything seems to be fine. The trackpad can be slightly awkward at times but I think it's just a case of getting used to it. I have got a bluetooth mouse for it which I'll use pretty much all the time anyway.

Seems very fast and really solid build quality. I'm very chuffed!

 

Yer i know what you mean.. the build is so awesome!! yer with the trackpad it can take a bit of getting used to. If u check out the Synaptics settings you can get some kl things going on...

such as (these are things i never knew you could do and there are prob more but this is what i got so far):

when in windows picture viewer u can go to the next or previous pic by swiping 3 fingers horizontally across the trackpad. you can enter fullscreen used 3 fingers and swiping up at the trackpad and exiting fullscreen by swiping down.

scrolling can be done as we know with two fingers but you can enable coasting for example that keeping the page scrolling after swiping down until it comes to a stop. or if 2 finger scrolling aint all that for you there is Chiral Motion scrolling that basically allows you to scroll up and down a page using clockwise and anti-clockwise circular motions on the trackpad this is my preferred scrolling method. It is also used for zooming in and out of pics.

so if you find yourself without ur mouse change some settings and it will prob work out alot better for usage.

oh one thing about the envy is the webcam. On HP smartmedia webcam application the maximum resolution is under 720p if you know or find out how to use the cam at 720p drop us a line... would be much appreciated

 

Alright, that's I'm going to put my order in for the Envy in the UK! 2 year warranty at 918 isnt too bad i guess, plus 8% quidco cashback, that brings the lappy to about 850 pounds.

*pulls the trigger*

 

Well done join us lol. It still an astonishing laptop and the screen is still ace. You wont be disappointed

 

May I ask, how do you get it for £918, I can only see £999

EDIT: I think I too am going to get the UK Envy and then upgrade the screen to the Radiance if it's ever available

 

Enter coupon code WARRANTY3

that reduces the price to 918 pounds and adds the 2 year warranty thing..

It's done, ive ordered!

 

Yer you might as well trust the screen is still awesome and we will most probably be able to order the screen in when its available as a part.

 

nice one

 

Anyone else just tempted to order one from amazon.de and fit a replacement keyboard?

 

My UK one is coming tomorrow, I'll let you know how it is!

 

Sweet !!!

 

According to the official HP parts page (HP Part Surfer) there are currently no part available for the Envy 14's.

 

Aye, but I assume there will be eventually. I can cope with a QWERTZ keyboard (mapped to QWERTY) until then!

 

Well this is my first post on here.

I've been considering a new laptop for a while n didn't really fancy a Mac, then I read the envy review on engadget and began my search. I ordered my envy on Tuesday evening and got the 'order received' email this afternoon. Fingers crossed it will arrive before the weekend.

I've been reading everything from CPU whine to gpu clocking on this site, so to return the favour I'll do a review next week once I've got it up and running.

My use for the system will mainly be web surfing, music and casual gaming. Despite some of the concerns expressed on this site I believe the envy will be more than up to the task.

Good luck to everyone else awaiting their order and i hope you enjoy your new machine

 

Awesome!!

My UK Envy has none of that CPU whine so hopefully the build is slightly different or had been amended before it came to the uk... or possibly is such a small sound i cant hear it lol.

For all you use it for i can see this being the perfect machine.... Gaming i have run Modern Warfare 2 at full graphics with around 40 - 80 FPS on outside maps and on inside parts of a map around 60 - 110 FPS and Crysis at all high but to get a little extra FPS i turned down the shadowing to keep a steady above 30 fps so its a powerful machine.

Encoding a 720p mkv movie to 720p H.264 (MV4) took about 4 hrs and the laptop was still usable during the encoding. While the encoding was running i tested the CPU by running a 1080p movie and running music thru a 5.1 surround sound system and while browsing the net and the Envy still kept up smooth performance

The sound is really nice and clear with beats audio especially the bass. best to use a sound system with it as the laptop speakers are good but still standard... you may find the laptop is a bit quite compared to other laptops but thats a case of customising the equalizer which is quite simple to do.

Oh and the Envy heat..... what heat seriously running Crysis or when i was encoding, running 1080p movie, listening to music and browsing the web, the Envy never once got hot on any of its casing. the underneath was slightly warm can easily have it on bare legs if your in shorts. There is defo serious heat going on but u can only feel it coming out of the exhausts so the two fans inside must be doing their job... i was seriously surprised by this.

Oh and the screen... well i know its not the radiance screen yet compare it to an HP laptop of last year (which i have done as i have a DV6) and you can definitely see the improvement of brightness, clarity, colour and contrast its definitely more vibrant and this is probably due to the screen now using LED!

 

Yeah the Envy is very good at keeping cool. I had a Dell M1330 before and the whole bottom casing could get quite hot just browsing the web. This thing stays so cool, it really is a big plus.

No CPU whine here either.

 

Yer same with my DV6........... Envy is a Top laptop all round

 

EDIT: Don't worry, I went through and faked an order, it's £918 including P&P costs

This is purly to make myself feel better for not having the Radiance screen but i've just compared the costs of importing a machine to the UK price:

Importing from the US (I spec'd a machine with i5-450M, Radiance screen, 4GB RAM (2DIMM) and 500GB Hard drive):

Price of machine: $1,289.99 or £851.13 (according to Paypal, as thats who you would use to buy from eBay)
P&P costs: £115 (these vary from £110 to £117, so I took the middle)
Customs: £70 (this varies)
- Quidco cashback: 40% of revenue = £15ish (someone please correct me if this is wrong)

Total: £1021.15

UK Model (i5-450M, Brightview, 4GB RAM (2DIMM), 500GB Hard drive and 2 year warranty ):

Price of machine: £918
P&P costs: £0
- Quidco cashback: 8% = £73.44 (not sure if this works or not)

Total: £844.56

So you save yourself £176.59, you don't get the Radiance but you do get the 2 year "free" warranty

...I really did spend the past 10 minutes doing that :S

 

Ok just received mine. Overall i like the size of it, and everything seems to be fine, apart from the edges. There seems to be like some small gaps where it isn't fit perfectly. It's solid but a bad fit with little dents.

Not sure whether to return this one or whether it will be the same with another one?

 

Yep I'm exchanging it, it's not good enough for any laptop really, let alone a premium one to be like that.

 

just noticed the screen is at a slight angle as well, right hinge higher up than the left

replacement better be decent, where is HPs quality control?

 

yer man mines got some of the same issues think they all are gonna be like that tbh .... even the american ones are showing the same issues

 

i aint got this problem tho... better send it bk

 

i pray i get a decent one then. the gaps wouldn't of been so bad.

does yours have the screen at a slight angle as well? i could probably live with the minor gaps on mine, but not the screen not being aligned straight.

its annoying, cause this laptop is the perfect size and weight i need and theres nothing else like it really.

 

yer mines only got a couple of slight gaps which are fine... they are bought the width of my finger nail so dont really bother me .......... my screen which i just checked all over incase i missed it .... is actually free of unevenness so im luck there.

Yer i bet it is annoying cos its such an awesome machine overall!

 

best bet is to probably buy this in store. check it straight away, if you get a dud exchange and repeat til you get a decent one lol.

 

yer man good idea.... wonder when they come in store.... i rarely saw any Envy 15's around when they were out hmmm

 

hey guys, said i'd put pictures up a while ago. So here they are enjoy =D

Hope you guys love your envy 14 as much as I do

edit: sorry some of the pics aren't very clear was too excited lol

 

Well, I received my envy today, and to be honest, physically at least, it's perfect. No gaps, blemishes, wrong angles, nothing. It's rock solid. And god it's a gorgeous bit of kit! I've not fired it up as yet, I'm leaving it to charge overnight.

The next dilemma tho is OS. Do I leave it as it is, or blank it and do a completely fresh windows install? Will this knacker anything? Am I best to just delete the bloatware I don't want? Hmmmm, choices

 

Lol don't worry about the blurry ones
Looks great man, you got some nice pictures. I think I like the way the colour of the lid changes, depending what angle you look at it
Are you happy with it? Is it everything you wanted it to be?

Congrats on the Envy purchase
How long did it take you to receive it after ordering?

In regards to the OS, I read in one of the many threads about the E14 that there is a minimal state backup on the machine somewhere, I think you have to press one of the F keys during boot. What this basically does is gives you a fresh version of Windows, without all HP's bloatware and it installs all the necessary drivers for you.

Here is the link to the post that describes the procedure in depth

Hope that helps you

 

Thanks for the link, I'll look into that this evening.

The ordering process was very quick. I ordered around 10pm Tuesday, received the payment accepted email weds afternoon, then it was delivered 1:30pm Thursday. All done via citylink with a tracking number.

 

Blimey that is quick!
Im going to order mine on Tuesday I reckon (providing i don't change my mind between now and then) so fingers crossed i'll have it by the end of the week
Result

 

Does anyone know where I can order an Envy 14 keyboard? Did anyone succeed doing that?

 

If you give HP a ring im pretty sure they'll be able to get you one. I dont think anyone has tried to actually get one yet, they all seem happy enough with the US keybaord

 

I am officially an Envy 14 owner now. I received mine a couple of days ago and I have to admit this is an incredible machine. Highly recommended.

 

Perhaps someone who has had a UK Envy delivered would be kind enough to open 'er up and let us know the part/model number for the keyboard? It's still not listed on the HP Parts website!

 

My money has transferred into my account this morning so im going to order mine shortly...unless anyone gives me a reason not to

So if no-one has done it before then I can when i get mine. I will say though, when I rung them up to ask about replacing a US keyboard with a UK one, a couple of weeks back, they didn't want a number for the keyboard, just a number on the bottom of the Envy itself.

I still have the phone number they gave me somewhere, that gets directed straight to HP Parts

EDIT: I did want to ask one thing before I order, what kind of wireless card are we getting in the UK? Germany got Broadcomm and the US are getting Intel. It shouldn't make too much difference, im just interested

 

well worst case you can pick up a 6200 for £15 from the bay, its a 2 minute job to switch them

 

Should be getting my replacement this week, dunno what I'm gonna do if it's another shoddy one!

 

Im not really that fussed either way tbh mate, i've used both before and neither really gave me a problem. I was just curious

How are you finding your Envy? Now you've had chance to use it for a while

 

it Broadcom and its working like a dream .... getting awesome smooth playback using Windows Media Center Extender on my Xbox from my Envy streaming Full 1080p XD

 

Cheers man
First thing in the morrow' I shall be ordering

 

anytime

you ordering from the US or joining us UK Envy proud owners ???

 

I just found that HP ENVY 14-1010EF can be purchased in France for 959 €. It lacks radiance screen and comes with Intel Core i5-450M, but still - it's great price.

The only thing that bothers me is that I haven't found any shop that ships out of France, I'm from Slovak Republic.

The link is here HP ENVY 14-1010EF acheter comparer prix discount promotion

 

Im going to become one of the UK boys
I priced up the difference between the US and UK version of the Envy (Here) and the £160 saving is just too much to pass up...even if I don't get the radiance screen

 

Get in!!

yer man totally still a good option at a reasonable price for the UK thats why i went for it to.... there will always be the option to upgrade the screen if i ever want to that is (when it becomes available as a part) ... the screen is still nice they have defo done work on it since last years models!

 

Still loving it! Dont want to rub it in for you UK users but the radiance screen is a joy to behold, if you get a chance to install one at a later date I would definately consider it.
It runs so cool on the intel too, I use it on my bed all teh time watching movies. I used to do this on my old m11x which also ran cool but the m11x screen was so awful with dreadful blacks/contrast.

Also even with the gfx at 450/800 it plays all my games at 900p. Mined also clocks to 500/850 which does help a bit in BFBC2.
Also whilst gaming the left side stays so cool so extended gaming is comfortable

Having a SSD and 500gb in mine is also a great help, I have the speed of SSD yet my whole movie and music collection for when I am working away.

All in all best laptop purchase for me ever!

 

Thats great to hear
Hopefully i'll get the chance at a later date to install the Radiance screen
I've just ordered mine (literally) so hopefully i might get it by the end of the week

 

Nice one mate, let us know when it arrives