Envy 14 update

I can't thank you enough for all this info. I just snagged the ONLY E14 w/Radiance on today's list, and I got it seconds before it was published on the web, pretty much by begging the woman on the phone. .

I didn't do as well as you did price-wise, but I got the same configuration as you did but with a 256 GB SSD. After the 10% discount (thank you for telling me - the lady on the phone didn't know about it, but asked and confirmed that I was elegible - the price was $1008. But then there was tax of $52 and I went for the 2-day shipping, which was $38 (vs. 19), so my final, all-in price is $1099.25. And it is also a scratch and dent, same cpu, ram, as yours. So, I guess the larger SSD may be worth about the $200 more I paid. As long as the scratch/dent is not really huge, I will be extremely happy with this result, and I have you entirely to thank. I definitely owe you one!

Now I know I will have the Envy 14 with Radiance - and the 256GB SSD was an unexpected surprise. My order in January for a new one was for a Core i5-580, but just a 640GB HDD, and its final cost was $944, so again, as long as the scratch/dent is not too bad, it's $150 more for a slightly weaker cpu and the large SSD, which I would take as a tradeoff any day.

BTW, does anyone know if "scratch and dent" models are new or rerfurb? In most factory outlet stores it's new/open box, the point being that if they were going to refurb it they would replace the part of the outer casing that had the scratch/dent. The phone sales rep had no idea - about that, or any other question I asked her! If it wasn't for the 10 day refund policy, there is no way I would have purchased this.

Of course, I am still awaiting the proposed resolution I will get from my Case Manager, said to happen today or Monday. Looks like it won't be to repair my Envy with the defective Radiance, as there is essentially no word back to her from the Service Depot as to whether/when they might get a Radiance to replace mine - and we're at 13 days and counting since it was sent in, 9 days since the CM has been, well, on the case - sorry for the terrible pun! She was trying to get approval to replace my Envy with an Elitebook 8540, but it wasn't too reassuring when 3 times in her email last night she wrote - "no guarantee I can get this approved!" From my past dealings with HP, they should offer something of value, something I might be able to sell and make a profit on. Depending on the final offer, I may just ask if they will give me a free Care Pack for a 3 yr, on-site, ADP warranty for the Envy I just bought, which would cost me some $300 to buy.

Thanks again, one and all, for your support and help. I really have a debt of gratitude to you, bigphil; your thorough and explicit directions pretty much solved my problem, and anything else that falls in my lap from HP Heaven will be icing on the cake.

 

Glad to hear you finally got through, I bet the laptop you got was the one an earlier poster had canceled due to a 160gb version popping up. I hope and pray for both of our scratch and dents to be lightly scratched heh. Apparently a scratch and dent is a refurb that is slightly worse off than a regular refurb cosmetically so they change the name and the price.

I get my refurb on Tuesday, and my new BV on Wednesday for comparison, Assuming it's not delayed in shanghai anymore.

 

Just got mine this morning. Looks good! I also ordered the $15 kit which comes with a slipcase, wireless mouse and headphones (non-beats). Seems like a good value on the kit as well.

Todd

 

Everything run perfectly? No scratches or anything?

 

The only thing I noticed was, when you turn it upside-down you can see some wear on the underside above the network port. Otherwise it's pretty pristine. Mine wasn't a scratch and dent though.

Todd

 

Disappointing about the S & D also being refurb. Did you get that from a reliable source? I did not find the pricing on mine so aggressive, at lest compared to the $500 off prices of new ones last month, that it seems to reflect a lower caliber of refurb. Oh well, 10 day return is the key

I put an SSD in my 2740p Elitebook tablet, and it pulls an 8800 PC Mark Vantage now vs. 5,000 with the HDD. The Envy I got has a slightly pokey-er cpu (i5-450 vs. i5-520) but I'm thinking the Envy with a much better gpu (my tablet only has Intel HD), the SSD and an i5 family cpu running in 64 bit mode ought to be a screamer too. Add the Radiance, the backlit keyboard and the better on-board sound, and at the price and size, I can't imagine doing better. The SONY Z has slightly better specs, but I demoed one for a month and found it TOO light to use on my lap (it wouldn't sit in one place!), or on anything other than a desk or table top. Plus, if you can carry the extra 2 lb, the 1.3" bigger screen at 900p is just more comfortable and better for videos as well as a bit readability of text. My point: the "Z" is most peoples' idea of the very best portable notebook you can get, and it costs $2,300 with 256 GB SSD. If the scratch/dent on my Envy is ok, I'm feeling pretty good about paying less than 1/2 the price for an arguably more appealing machine to work on, most of the time. I'm pumped, for the first time since January 27, the day my Envy got delivered with the busted Radiance!

 

yea that was prob the order I cancelled with the 256gb ssd. I dont use that much space and figured I would just save $200 with the 160gb ssd.

Both my laptop will arrive the same day so this will be interesting. Still havent decided the best move. Keep one return the other? Sell one on ebay? Move the screen and ssd to the one with better cpu and warranty then sell the other on ebay?

#1 $804
I580m hdd 6gb 2year hp warranty

#2 $929
I450m 160gb ssd 4gb 1600x900

 

Off topic, does anyone know if there are any good coupon codes for the envy. I've decided to give in and buy the non-Radiance screen. Thanks guys

 

no coupons around for it but one of mine will be on sale soon.

 

Thank you for doing that Was yours a scratch/dent? Is your 160GB one also? Curious to hear how it looks if it is. I probably would have preferred to save the money as well, but I seeing how fast space is going on my 160 GB SSD in another machine, the additional 96GB could come in handy. I'm assuming they use an Intel for the 160 (which is excellent) and I'm guessing a Samsung for the 256 - and I don't know as much about that one.

Hard to know what to do re: switching things around. I too am a bit disappointed at getting the i5-450, but I do not believe it will make much of a difference in real world computing. And I also can't imagine your not keeping the Radiance. So the question of switching screen and SSD to the new one, I imagine you might lose some $100 after expenses selling the refurb with an i5-450 and BV screen, probably sell it for around $750 and net closer to $700. But for that $100 you would: 1) get the better cpu, 2) get the wtty, 4) get a brand new computer. That would be worth doing for even $200, no brainer. My only concern would be whether the screen swap would harm the wtty and, if I was doing it, whether I could mess things up!

You can't go too wrong (just having a new computer and the i-580, even w/o the wtty, is probably worth the max. $100 loss you might take on the resale of the refurb minus its SSD and Radiance, and I think new computer and faster cpu is worth the $100. As for keeping the refurb as is and selling the new one on eBay, I'm not sure if you would clear enough for it to be worth the hassle, but you have 21 days to see what you can get for it, so again nothing to lose by trying that; it might end up funding some or all of a purchased care pack for the refurb.

It's not a simple choice because the benefits could prove marginal in the end, but again, you can't go too wrong with either approach. I'm surprised they only dropped the price on your new one (I'm assuming your Radiance order canceled) by around $150, given that my Envy with Radiance purchased new was $944 with the same cpu and ram as yours. A third option might be to call back and bargain for an additional discount on the one they sent you, then your net costs/profits would improve.

 

$944 shipped with tax? The price is $1373 shipped with tax for me and they are refunding $569..

They really just cancelled my screen subtracted its cost and offered me the computer in the end.

 

I will call back and pretend I am going to return it when I get it anyway just to see if they offer me more cash.

 

Let us know what happens. I honestly don't think they will offer you any discount considering how quickly the refurbed radiance's got sold out. They can just easily sell it again for the same price.

 

no im not talking about the refurb. the new one.

 

I think that's the right play. Tell them you looked at the BV and are just so disappointed you can't bring yourself to accept it and are planning on sending it back, but figured you ask if they can do any better since if you send it back, they get another "used" Envy w/BV to sell - not an attractive proposition.

I suggest you call Resolutions directly: 888-227-8451. Ask for a guy named Owee (say "owe- ee"). Tell him a guy he's helping suggested you call. Can't guarantee anything, but he's a good guy and worth a shot.

BTW, on your price for the new BV model, wouldn't you be entitled to:

$1,373 (original list w/tax) - $500 (the coupon) - $200 (the upgrade charge for the Raidiance) = $673 ? Or, if you're saying the $1,373 is list w/o Radiance, are they only crediting you $69 for your "pain and suffering" for having your order canceled? If so, that's where I think Owee might be willing to do better for you. If I'm being brain-dead in the above analysis (always a good bet ) I still think that call is worth a try. He responds best to a very courteous, almost apologetic approach, but also tell him how "despondent" (or equiv word of your choosing) you are after seeing the BV, and that you need the extra funds to buy a monitor in the future, something like that. What the heck, nothing to lose, right?

 

FYI, my got notice late last night my refurb shipped Friday, same day as I ordered it. Paid for 2-day air, so should have it Mon or Tues. I'll report in.

 

Question guys, what would you think is better, an i5-580M with a 640 hhd BV vs. the i5-450M with 256 ssd and Radiance, (both with 4gb ram). I use it for all daily stuff, and I like to game too. I have been looking at charts making comparisons but I have a hard time telling the performance difference. I am military, so a good build like this envy sounds perfect, it will travel alot with me, and battery life is a plus, but not essential. I have 0 experience with ssd, so any help would be greatly appreciated. If I posted in the wrong thread I'm sorry in advance.

 

What will you be doing with it? Gaming, web surfing, photo editing? For normal operations (i.e.- not number crunching done in games or video editing) I would think the SSD would make much more difference than the faster clock speed. The build quality is indeed very nice, and much better than my old HP Livestrong, which sucked dust for a year at Bagram back in 2006 and is still going strong...just slow by today's standards. I would think the Envy would have no problem....the only question would be the optical drive (as far as the dust).

Todd

 

Gaming is the most intensive thing I do, I am currently playing Fallout NV, I like SC2, and I'm hoping to play Diablo 2 too, and I like Civ 5 etc. I don't do photo editing really, but I do have corel pro x3, and may ocasionally mess with photo's on there. I run Packet Tracer and may try for other Cisco emulators like GNS3. I watch movies when I'm deployed, but they aren't usually even hd. That's mainly what I do.

 

The difference in the i5's wont be as big as the difference between the hdd and ssd. Go ssd all the way.

EDIT: The ssd has a radiance? i must have missed that. I would choose the computer with the radiance even if it didn't come with a hard drive.

 

Can't speak much to the individual games as I don't play them. But I would think since you'd have the same GPU the performance advantage would still go to the SSD. When I went to an SSD boot/OS drive on my desktop PC the difference was like night and day. It was NOT subtle. My Envy came with an SSD so now I'm just spoiled (esp. with the radiance screen). I would say go with the SSD.

Todd

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice. And I think your both correct.

 

I'm surprised they won't let you pick it up either, as I've done so many times with computers that needed to be signed for in person. By the way, it can be signed-for by another person, it doesn't have to be you. If you have a neighbor who is likely to be home when you are not, you can put a note on your door to deliver it there, and they will accept any adult's signature.

Good luck.

 

At which time I yell, scream and threaten (seriously) to sue, if I end up with a refurb with lower specs for more $ and no warranty, because they told me there are NO Radiance displays in existence. Not that I believe that statement; rather, I think they already have too many angry customers, not to mention the States' Attorneys General, who will be none too pleased when they find out the company sold out all the warranty replacement parts just to have a promo.

 

Na it was $1399 with 1600x900 after taxes and discount it was $999 after tax.. then they offered me without the screen for $799 like everyone else. I changed some stuff and it came out to $804.. Its the same deal everyone is getting I just pay more in taxes cause where I live. I am calling them to complain anyway since they are giving us a discount now after we've paid the tax when the original we paid the tax after the discount. They owe me some cash for that.

 

They definitely have atleast 1 radiance for every one that was sold. They need to keep those available for 2yrs minimum. There's no way they don't because that's a huge liability for hp. Those 300-400 that were cancelled were probably to provide a nice cushion of supply for already sold envys and not because they didn't have any left. If it does come down to them not being able to satisfy their warranty agreement then you better expect a class action lawsuit at which point I wouldnt mind getting the cost of my laptop returned to me.

 

No place carries 1 replacement for 1 sold. You think Chevy does that With Camaro engines? They look at the failure rate after testing then use that to factor replacement stock. If say 5% fail they may keep 15% of sold and that gives them theoretically 10% to many.

Keeping 100% replacement would cost them a LOT of money on product they could MAKE money on.

 

Hahahah, you know what? You made really good sense. I would tend to agree. Not sure where the idea that there was one radiance screen in stock for everyone sold.....

KJ

 

You are thinking of the 6550.

6650 is actually a nice upgrade. 20% more shaders and higher clock speeds.

 

I believe the number they are required by State and possibly Federal laws would be a tiny fraction of the number sold - normally, a percentage based on the percentage of the components that are predicted to fail over the life of the product's warranty. I can pretty well assure you at this stage that they didn't reserve enough radiance's for their wtty requirements; I'm just trying to figure out whether my warranty claim will be one the lucky ones to be honored.

 

How hard is it to source a 900p LCD with 500:1 or better contrast ratio? It is not that hard.

It's not like people are not willing to pay for the screen. Folks want to give HP their money.

 

it's not the 900p part that is tough, it's getting it in a 14.5" form factor. 15.6" is in abundance so is 17". the problem is the size of the panel as well as the quality of the panel.

 

There is lots of bezel space, but yeah I suppose you are right.

Maybe the 13 will make a comeback.

 

I'd check your warranty. I wouldn't be surprised to see some ditty in there about "equal or greater value."

 

I hope it does... The Sony SA/Z need some competitors.