Envy 14 vs 2nd gen Envy 15

So I found a good deal on a Dell Studio 1558 (i5), but I don't like that hd 5470 gpu bottlenecking the system so very heavily, so I started looking around for other things.

I found this glowing review of the Envy 14 and thought "wow, that might be worth purchasing...." except that it's 14 inch with max resolution of 900p; I see that the envy 15 has 1080p, and a better GPU, so I find a review for the first gen envy 15 and find out it's terrible.

So now I wonder: is the 2nd gen Envy 15 as good as the glowing review of the Envy 14? Are there professional reviews for the 2nd gen Envy 15 that have actual measurements of heat and contrast ratios and luminosity?

Is the 2nd generation Envy 15 what I want: the Envy 14 with a bigger higher resolution display and a better GPU (with similar heat levels, so obviously better cooling)?

 

It depends on what you will use it for and your budget.

If you want to run demanding games at very high settings and you don't care about battery life or the DVD drive, or if you need to run some sort of application that requires more than 8GB RAM, then I would go with the Envy 15, or if you need USB 3.0.

If you need better battery life and want a backlit keyboard and DVD drive, go with the Envy 14.

I haven't looked at any 1080p video files on the Envy 14, but I can tell the difference in detail quality with 1080p video playback on my wife's 900p MBP vs. the E15 1080p display.

 

Woops, I forgot the review: Review HP Envy 14-1010eg Notebook - Notebookcheck Reviews

I want the laptop that review describes, only in 15 inch, with a slightly better graphics card and preferably no worse cooling... If that's what the 2nd generation Envy 15 is (a larger envy 14), then that's worth it; however if the 2nd generation Envy 15 has some of the problems in this review, then it's not worth it.

 

That review seemed pretty positive. the only problems it mentions are:
Contra

- Limited connectivity - not sure what this means
- All ports in the front area of the right side - yes, this is true for 2nd gen
- Low brightness of the screen - don't know about 1st gen but 2nd gen is extremely bright with 1920x1080 brightview LED option
- Always audible fan, very loud under load - mine is pretty quiet unless gaming or some kind of intensive work or benchmarks
- Case surfaces are always warm - mine only get hot when plugged into AC and running intensive applications, however, SSD might be part of the reason it stays pretty cool
- Moderate battery life - I would say very poor battery life

In terms of overheating issues or crashing due to heat, that is a problem that some first gen (ATI 4830) units had, not the 2nd gen (ATI 5830). Also, I don't think they overclocked it to run those gaming benchmarks. You can overclock the 5830 to around 550/1125 mHz and you should avg at least 45-70 FPS for most recent demanding games at 1920x1080, all detail settings maxed.

 

Limited connectivity tends to mean limited ports, from the review the complaint is lack of firewire and lack of VGA, as well as lack of dvd (I'm honestly not sure I care; the only thing that it might seriously matter for (other than convenience) is installing my copy of office). The lack of vga will be troublesome, by which I mean it's frustrating to have to spend $5 to $20 to get an adapter for an already pricey laptop.

The display being bad is a major problem for me (it's just one of those quirk that stands out to me), but it seems to me that the problems mentioned are problems with "HP BrightView Infinity Wide-Screen" 1366x768. However the "LED Radiance Infinity Display" is what makes the 14 inch screen so well liked, and that is not available on the envy 15.

The other major problem is the very hot envy 15; this is also a major attraction to the envy 14: very low temps. Unfortunately this is one of those subjective things that's best if simply measured, but I can't find a profession review of the 2nd generation envy 15.

Another minor detail is that the 1st gen envy 15's were considered to have good sound quality but poor sound volume, and while it's not a make or break issue, it's one of those things that matter if I'm paying a premium.

And I guess the trackpad problems do matter to me, but I guess my understanding is that the problems were primarily firmware, and that the envy 15's works just as well as the envy 14's as well as that they've been updated mostly, and aren't the worst. I'm actually a fan of discrete buttons, but oh well.

 

"Good sound quality but poor sound volume" is an accurate description of the speakers on the 2nd gen Envy 15 as well.

I would avoid the 1366x768 screen, regardless of whether you get the Envy 14 or Envy 15. My wife got one of those when HP made a mistake in her order and we both agreed that it looked horrible after becoming accustomed to the 1080p screen. 768p was very blocky and lines and images were not smooth, resembling the "safe mode" display. The Envy 13 has a 1366x768 "LED Radiance" display and I can't imagine it would be much better. I have found the 1080p brightview to have excellent color reproduction and it is extremely bright. If you use webcams a lot, you will notice that the webcam has a weird purple tint with some lighting scenarios because it is designed for low light usage.

After tweaking the settings to enable Momentum Glide, 2-finger scroll with Coasting and Edge Motion and setting up the Top Right Action Tap Zones to replace the right-click button, I am very happy with the E15 trackpad. I find it to be a much better experience than any other Windows laptop I've tried because now I don't have to click at all, only tap for left click and tap in the top right corner for right click. the material used for the trackpad is also excellent quality, not too sticky or slippery.

 

What's your opinion of heat? Is yours an i7 or i5? Have you played with a recent studio 15 and happen to be able to compare in terms of heat?

Also what's the battery life?

Does the envy 15 allow switchable graphics?

 

Posted, noticed edit button, decided to delete this one and edit my response back into my first post, but it doesn't seem like I can delete this post...

 

Both my wife and I have i7 models. I don't know the exact temperatures, but the case becomes hot if you run demanding apps or games while on AC power. I use a Zalman laptop cooler and it does a great job, making the underside actually cold to the touch. If I will use it on my lap for an extended period, I usually unplug from AC and use the slice battery for insulation. I don't know how much additional heat an HDD would generate, but both mine and my wife's E15 units have SSDs.

The battery life is about 90 min. heavy usage, 3-4 hours very light usage. The slice battery triples that, I would say roughly 2.5-3.5 hours heavy usage and 8-12hrs very light usage.

Battery 53WHr
Battery with slice 146WHr
To give you an idea, according to my Kill-a-Watt meter, the wattage used by the i7-820QM E15 ranges from 1-2 watts (sleep), to 30-40W (light) to as high as 80-95W (gaming). To estimate the battery, you can deduct app. 10% from those amounts to correct for the power that is lost by converting from AC to DC. If you get an i5 processor, it uses much less watts than the quad core.

Envy 14
14.01" (W) x 9.33" (D) x 1.11" (H)
5.2 lbs
Battery 59 WHr (3-7 hrs according to NBR users)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/501066-envy-14-battery-life-log.html
Battery with slice 112 WHr (14 hrs according to HP website)
1366x768 or 1600x900 (recently, the 900p option has been out of stock for brief periods)

Envy 15
14.96" (W) x 9.60" (D) x 1.04" (H)
5.17 lbs

No switchable graphics on the E15 and the only way you would be able to upgrade or change the graphics card is by replacing the entire motherboard.

I assume you are referring to the Dell Studio 15? I have never used one, so I can't compare it.

 

It's disappointing to hear you need a laptop cooler... Does the thing heat up a lot when running HD video? I don't think I'd ever want to do anything more demanding than that while still having it in my lap, but if it can't do that then it's a very serious mark against it.

4 hours internet usage and 2.5 hours hd movie on battery would be good, 2.5 hours internet usage and 1.5 hours hd movie on battery is bad.

Any idea how much more power efficient the i5 is? Any idea how much less heat the i5 generates?

 

It doesn't seem to heat up much during video playback. Mostly during video editing/encoding, running creative suite apps, disc authoring or games. I don't think you actually need a laptop cooler, as it doesn't crash due to heat, but without it it becomes hot to the touch when performing demanding tasks, especially near the AC plug. The entire metal body acts as a kind of heat sink, so it cools the interior by making the exterior hot.

I don't think the E15 is for you if you need good battery life, unless you don't mind using extra batteries or the slice battery.

The i5 I think you should be able to get at least 3 hours with wifi on, perhaps more. Not entirely sure, but I don't think you can get 2.5hrs HD movie playback on battery with i7 or i5.

With the i7, HD video playback from an SDHC card ranges from 44W (low brightness) - 55W (100% brightness). Not sure if it would use less power if the video were stored on the SSD.

 

I have an i5 2nd gen envy 15. It has never gotten too hot to use on my lap and other than occasionally being warm (not hot) where my palms rest, I have noticed zero heat issues. I do have ssd drives though.

I get 2.5-3hrs wifi surfing using the stock 6cell battery. The 9 cell slice battery will give you the hours you're looking for (and beyond). However, I'm going with a 2nd 6 cell instead. I think it is a better way for me to add another 2.5-3 hours as it's much smaller/lighter than the slice and is cheaper.

I love having 1080P resolution. I don't do movies on it, but for viewing multiple spreadsheets/webpages side-by-side or using programs with lots of windows/toolbars, the extra working space is great.

 

Mine gets pretty hot on the left palm rest, closer to the AC power. I think that is the location of the CPU, near the Windows key on the keyboard. Without a cooler, the underside also becomes hot in the same area. (on AC, high performance) The GPU, on the other hand, is located near where the backspace button is, unless I have it backwards, and that area doesn't seem to become hot, even when the GPU is overclocked.

 

I posted this in another thread (claiming (but not delivering) comparisons between the envy 14, envy 15, and pavilion dv6tse) but perhaps one of you two can answer these questions:



I would like a more thorough explanation of the heat differences. I'm comparing between the envy 15 and the studio 1558, but I have absolutely no reliable sources on the 2nd gen i5 envy 15 heat amounts. See I imagine the i5 2nd gen envy 15 will be better than this review indicates, but there's no way it'll be as good as the envy 14, so what really matters is if it is better, and how much better, than the studio 1558 (which, for me at least, is very significantly (read: $275) cheaper than the envy 15)...

The problem here is that you have no experience with the 1558... So the question becomes: how much difference is there between the envy 15 and envy 14? This might give me some concept of how much improved the i5 2nd gen is over the heats of the first gen.


P.S. You might say "hey, the envy 15 does better on notebookcheck than the studio 1558", and it overall does, but the problem is that the envy 15 puts heat in the worst places, while the studio 1558 puts heat in places that I'm less likely to notice (read: not right on my wrists).

P.P.S. I do want to use the envy 15 on my lap, but when I do that I won't be doing anything more demanding than watching 1080p video...

P.P.P.S. Basically I am asking that you allay these fears: that it will get too hot while watching 1080p video to watch in bed with the laptop laying on me (my girlfriend's laptop has this problem, and it's highly annoying watch a movie for a while only to have to deal with searing heat 40 minutes in (even worse for the power adapter, but it seems all laptops have this problem)); and that while gaming it will get so hot that the wrist wrests will become extremely uncomfortable (or even moderately or very uncomfortable), thus nearly neutralizing the primary attraction of this computer (that I can play modern games without terrible settings, in a very portable way) (or requiring that I spend another $100 on a laptop cooler, that not only increases the price, but also severely harms the portability aspect).

 

My laptop doesn't get too hot during video playback, if you keep it plugged in to AC for a long period of time, though, it will become hot on the bottom left near the AC port, even if you are not doing anything stressful. If you use the slice battery as insulation, you can watch 1080p video in bed without any discomfort and you know that your bedding won't over-insulate the laptop or block the airflow. I watch videos and do web surfing on the regular 6-cell battery on my lap some times and it doesn't get hot on my lap; however, keep in mind the regular 6-cell battery doesn't last long and if you use the slice battery, it really insulates your lap in addition to providing triple battery life.

The i7-820QM really does get hot on the left side during gaming and I wouldn't want to rest my palm on it (particularly left side) if gaming on AC for extended period unless I had some kind of insulation on my left hand. I use a wireless mouse and bluetooth numberpad for gaming purposes, which is ergonomic and also makes it possible to game on my 1080p projector via HDMI out. The Zalman NC1000 laptop cooler, which I use when gaming or running demanding video or image applications, cost around $40, does an excellent job of cooling the underside. It doesn't cool the palm rest, unfortunately, as far as I can tell.

As I mentioned, the i5 should generate less heat than my laptop, also it helps if you get an SSD, which I have, perhaps that is why it's relatively cool on the right side where the SSD is. Ultimately, however, it sounds like the heat on the palm rest during gaming could be a significant problem for you and I would suggest trying to get it from HP direct, so you have a 21-day period to try it out before you decide if you want to keep it or return it for refund.