Envy 14 vs. Envy 15: Pros and cons of each?

I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro 15". It has the unibody design but also a replaceable battery. I love everything about it except for the performance, which is not very good for most of my usage. I'm considering selling and purchasing an Envy but am somewhat skeptical because it doesn't seem to have the same level of polish as the MBP. I've read briefly and seen many issues such as heat, quality control, display, trackpad, and especially battery life. So, concerning these issues (or others), how do the Envy 14/15 compare? Are these issues equally problematic in each model?

PS: If this topic has been covered I would appreciate links to previous threads. I did try searching this but didn't really find answers.

 

The Envy 14 is a new edition which replaces the Envy 15 (which is now discontinued), the Gen 1 Envy 15 had heat issues etc., but that was solved with gen 2, however I would still recommend the Envy 14 because its the latest edition and its actually 14.5", trackpad is no where near as good as as Macbook, but its as close as you can get in a PC

 

Hmmm so if the heat issues were solved in Envy 15 gen 2, were there any improvements made between the 15 gen 2 and the 14? Is battery life better?

I would prefer the smaller size of the 14, but I have seen better deals/better performance from Envy 15 models.

 

well the things the Envy 15 has is the optional 1080p screen, and better graphics card. The processor options are the same in both, but with the Envy 14 you get a backlit keyboard and an optical drive (as far as I know, Envy 15 has no optical drive, which explains why its slightly lighter than the 14). It basically comes down to if you're willing to sacrifice a backlit keyboard, optical drive, and small size for the better graphics card and 1080p

 

Screen resolution is not important to me, though overall screen quality is of course important. Graphics performance is very important, but an optical drive and backlit keyboard are both very useful too.

Is the "900p" screen equal in quality to the 15" screen apart from resolution difference? And do the Envy 14 graphics cards compare to Envy 15 cards considering the lower resolution it displays?

 

well the 900p screen in the Envy 14 is no longer available unless you get a used or refurb model, the 1366x768 is still great on its own, but the 900p radiance and 1080p screen will be a noticeable difference. If you do happen to get an Envy 14 with 900p, im pretty sure the screen quality is better than the 1080p on the Envy 15.

For graphics card, if you overclock the 5650, I dont think it will be too far behind the 4830 in the Envy 15...unless you play a lot of games or run a lot of graphic-intensive programs, I dont think you'll feel much of a difference

 

Depending on what country you're in, there might still be some Radiance Envy 14's in stock. I'm in Australia, and I just picked one up today from a store.

 

The 5650 is far behind the 5830 that the envy 15 has. Aside that the 5830 overclocks much better than its slower cousin.
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 - Notebookcheck.net Tech
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

unless im mistaken, im pretty sure the Envy 15 has the 4830, not the 5830

 

gen 1 4830
gen 2 5830

and the main difference in the 5800 series is the clock and in the case of the 5830 the memory that is used (DDR3)

as you can see the 5830 drives circles and circles around the 5650.

I prefer much more the envy 15 due to its cooling solution ( its a pretty portable laptop with 2 fans for the CPU, and one fan for the GPU) unlike the crowded space that is the envy 14, with its tiny little fans.

The battery life though is much greater in the envy 14, ranging at 4h or so. the envy 15 hovers around the 3 hour ballpark.

However since that the new intel chips are going to be launched in a week, and there are places that have already started selling those, including a HP dv7 (US) and a dv6 (Singapore and Malaysia), there is actually no need to buy something that is still with its retail price, if you want to buy with the old chips, just wait a bit and the prices will drop, if you want the new chips just wait a bit and the will appear.

The envy line is usually one marked with fast upgrades

 

Pros of Envy 15:-
1. 1080p display
2. Unibody construction
3. HD5830 gfx
4. A better cooling might have been done as there is no Optical drive

Cons of Envy 15 :-
1. No optical drive(for a 15')
2. Heat issues
3. Battery life
4. Not available on market (not available here)



Pros of Envy 14
1. Optical drive
2. Battery life
3. No heat issues
4. smaller (14' but bit heavy)
5. 900p display in 14' (Available here!)
6. HD 5650 is also good for a Mobility-Performance duo

Cons of Envy 14:
1. no Full HD(1080p)
2. slower graphic card
3. no Unibody construction


For me Envy 14 is better choice but I like
Envy 14 with Sandy Bridge i5 Dual coreprocessor,HD 6000 series gfx,900p,Bluray and Envy 15 with Sandy Bridge i7 Quad core processor,HD 6000 series gfx,1080p and an optical drive inbuilt in unibody and pref. a bluray writer.

 

@ up
ENVY 15 doesn't have an unibody construction and the heat issues have been solved in the Gen 2 (the one with 5830 GPU)

 

Sorry my misunderstanding, Then why the hell envy 15 was so costly compared to envy 14?Or more to the point envy 17 is considerably cheaper!

 

If the 5830 really is that much better than the 5650, I think I would prefer the Envy 15. And of course a high res screen is nice.

Really though it will depend on which I can get a better deal on. I have the base model late 2008 MBP (w/ applecare luckily) and whatever I can sell it for I will use to buy an Envy.

 

the envy 15 gen 1 retailed for 2000 a pop.
the envy 15 gen 2 retailed for 1300 a pop.

Now the best deals on both envys is to get through the refurb outlet. In there you will find the envy 15 (it is out of line for now) and the envy 14 would have the much loved radiance screen.

If you buy the envy 14 new you would have to endure the not so good, some say terrible 1366*768.


The envy 15 was discontinued because it lacked the much loved (not by me, not even by long shot, or even used) dvd drive, or for whatever the other gripes that people had with it. They always complained about the bezel and wanted a model with e2e screen. The battery life was also a complain due to it having only 3hs it was another major complain.

So yeah a model with the lack of polish, but powerful nonetheless. I always say if you want to do something do it once.

 

Envy 15
- 1920x1080 display available
- Graphics card can handle most games at 1920x1080 resolution, max detail settings (Envy 14 cannot)
- dual Intel G2 SSD in Raid 0 option available (extremely fast read/write speeds)
- slimmer than Envy 14
- USB 3.0 ports available
- up to 4 DIMM slots for RAM

Envy 14
- regular battery lasts much longer (envy 15 requires slice battery if you need long battery life)
- you can actually buy one from many retailers (the Envy 15 has been discontinued, only available as refurb or used model)
- internal optical drive

bottom line - if you want a slim, portable laptop that can run games at HD resolution and you don't mind refurb, then get an Envy 15.

If you need longer battery life and an optical drive and want something you can buy brand new, then get an Envy 14, or something else. (or you can wait a few more months to see if HP releases an updated Envy 15 in 2011).

I was accustomed to the MBP trackpad and it took me a while to get used to the Envy trackpad, but now that I have tweaked the settings and been using it for a while, I find it to be much more convenient than the MBP trackpad. I assume the Envy 14 trackpad is almost identical to the Envy 15 trackpad.

Neither the Envy 14 or 15 could be considered "unibody," but the appearance and tactile feel is not bad. If you purchase one of these models, I would make sure you can get some sort of return policy from HP direct or from the reseller, whether you are buying refurb or brand new, in case you get a defective unit.

 

Only HP ENVY 15 with Core i7 CPU have the USB 3.0 port I think.
Yeah... The battery life is not that great on the ENVY 15.
A raid 0 of two Intel X18-M G2 SSD is not that great in my opinion, because the chipset on this machine limits the 4k speeds on SSD's.