Envy 17 3D mini review

I received my Envy 17 3d today and it appears HP upgraded my shipping to 2 day shipping. It shipped out of China on the 17th and I got it today(19th).

Packaging was very well done the laptop arrived in great shape.

The good:

The screen is by far the best I have seen on a laptop. I have had several Dells a Toshiba, Asus and a Sager and this screen blows them all away. It has exceptional viewing angles. Colors wash out as with all LCD panels but the viewing sweet spot is IMHO quit large.It is also the brightest display I have seen. Sitting next to my Asus G50VT the difference is quite startling. Of course that is to be expected as the Asus is a 1366X768 resolution panel. I toyed around with the 3D videos that came with this and the impression is WOW! The NBA video is very nicely done and really shows the screen off.

The keyboard is nice I have never used a Island keyboard before but found it to be firm and easy to type on. There is some flex but not enough to really notice.The back lighting is very good. I had read some say it was too dim on the envy non 3d but I find it to be bright enough for me.

The 3D glasses that came with the laptop seem to be nicely made. I have seen reviews of other 3D glasses that said they were flimsy. That is not the case with these. They seem solid and start right up as soon as you put them on. You can move your head around and they stay synced up. They are also big enough to go over my regular glasses. Extended use will have to wait as I only used them for about 30 minutes so far. But they seem to be comfortable so far. They also come with a extra nose piece which is a nice touch. They say HP on one side and XpanD on the other. The only downside I see so far is they use a battery that will have to be replaced. I would have preferred a USB rechargeable type.

The temps so far have been fine. I have used the laptop to play a little Far cry and Crysis had several web pages open and never felt the palm rest getting to warm. The fan is noticeable when I ran Far Cry and Crysis warhead but not too bad. If I had earphones on I doubt I would have heard it.

First problem came when I tried to run Crysis warhead in 3d mode. Before you run any game you need to download the Tridef software that will act as the middle man to get the game to work properly. It is a free download and installed fine. Cyrsis warhead ran fine but a popup stated 3D ws disabled and I needed to update my ATI driver. I did not want to mess around with that so I played a bit with Crysis and it was fluid and smooth on Gamer settings. Temps were fine to the touch...no idea of the actual temps but the palm rest never got too warm.

Far Cry started and ran in 3D just fine. It looked great and ran smooth with most setting High and in the panels native resolution. The 3d effects are pretty cool. There is some shadowing issues but overall it is quite immersive.

There did not appear to be much crapware installed but I plan on doing a clean install and running my Momentus XT as the primary drive soon.

That is all for now it is late and I am beat.

Ask anything you want and if I can I will try and answer.

 

hi i have 3 config in mind.
XPS 15 / i7 740qm
1080p B+RG LED Display
4gb ram

OR
XPS 17
OR
ENVY 17 3D

 

It would be great if you could comment on the brightness of the display. I'm curious if this laptop is more usable in outdoor/sunlight. Also, any comments on battery life would be great.

 

Thanks for the writeup. Can't wait to get mine in a couple of days.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share your impressions with us. Sounds like you really like it...can't wait!

Did you get it with the i7 740qm? I saw a post in the Envy 17 owner's thread (I believe) giving a really technical explanation as to why the 740qm and 840qm would run cooler, so maybe that's why you haven't experienced any heat issues.

If you could post some benchmarks or average framerates of a few games that would be great...but I would understand if you don't have the time. Thanks again!

 

I am in the process of a clean install of win7.

The screen is very bright but also glossy so it is reflective. It is far brighter than any other laptop I have owned.

I got the i7 q720 .

The battery life seem ok. I ran it on battery for about a hour which included some crysis gaming..(I forgot it was unplugged!) it still had 27% when I plugged it back in.

 

nice review.

if it's running cool maybe HP upgraded the cooling on the envy 17 3D models.

(not that I've experienced an envy 17 before)

 

I am running into a few problems with the clean install.
When I run the TriDef media player I get a blank screen. Before I would get a little movie in 3D.

I think there must be some additional files needed to get 3D running.

 

also I cant get the web cam to work....grrrr.
It says "you do not have the VGA compatible hardware"

 

ask around in the envy 17 owner's lounge?

I don't know much about envy 17 issues (more of an envy 14 guy)

 

interesting.... will be sure to make restore discs first thing just in case...

 

Ok fixed the webcam and 3d issue. There is something in the original ATI video driver that comes with the system that makes the 3D and webcam work. I uninstalled the latest driver from ATI and reinstalled the one that came with my system and it all works again.

I now have a fully ( I think) functional envy 3d system with a clean Win7 Install!

 

figured this notebook would require custom hp video drivers.

 

you may be able to install newer ati catalyst drivers on top of the 3D ones that come with the PC.


that's what we have to do for the envy 14 to get switchable graphics to stay usable when you update the drivers.

though really I wouldn't do that until at least the 10.12 drivers are out.

10.10 and 10.11 kinda broke the brightness hotkeys for my envy 14

 

Yes you CAN install the new ATI drivers over the old ones and it will still work.
I did that and can now play Crysis Warhead in 3D without any problems.

One thing I noticed is the Tridef software will only work with D3D games. It will not work with OpenGl games. At least not the one I play (Battleground Europe)

Also I can't get the 3d demo movies to work again. They are in MVC format and I cant get them to play after the clean install.

On a good note both Far cray and Crysis looked great and ran well. I ran Far cry in all high and averaged about 25-30 FPS for the 30 minutes or so I played it. Machine nver got hot at all. The GPU clocks are still at 500/900 though so that probably has something to do with it.

 

well glad to know HP is consistent with the envies at least (gpu wise anyway)

 

First of all, nice review unpilot. Sooooo, I'm still a bit confused with this Tridef stuff driver. Are you saying that if we do not install it games will not play in 3D? what about movies? This driver is not needed for Blu Ray 3D movies, just games? On a side, note, I really don't get why HP did not already include all needed drivers/software before shipping, sheesh Thanks again, unpilot.

One more thing, unpilot or anyone else who will get their HP 3D this week, please for the love of God, please, please, please, make an HD YouTube video and put it up for all of us to see!!! Be the first! aahhhah, thanks everyone. Peace.


KJ

 

To answer your question:

I'm happy to hear about the diminished heat.

 

You need either the Tridef software...or another vendor is Iz3D. Both have drivers needed to display games in stereoscopic 3d. The Tridef driver is free to download and use.

For Movies the laptop ships with two movies. One is a trailer for Mega mind the other a clip of last years NBA allstar game. Both play and look great right out of the box.

I did a clean install of Windows7 and now can't get the movies to play. Games that use DirectX run fine.

 

can't get the movies to play? what video player do you use? was it a program in the swsetup folder?

 

I cant remember for sure but I think it is the HP mediasmart player.

 

and the media smart player won't do 3d now? wondering if the 3d blu rays are played through mediasmart as well...

 

Got it working....I reinstalled the Mediasmart setup and it works.

 

unpilot, did you have a chance to see the informatioin regarding support for the Envy 3D? What I mean is, I at least heard the Envy 17's get special 2 year warranty parts and labor, and phone support. The most attractive part was I heard the phone support is a special number given to Envy 17 owners that is based in the USA, not some third World Country. Can you confirm if this is true? Thanks.

KJ

 

Well after i registered I got a email that looked rather standard. It does not have a different Number that I can see.

I have not looked thru all the other docs that came with the laptop though so it might be in there.

 

I'm kind of confused...do you switch it to "3D mode"? Or is it just that way always?

 

Is it the "concierge dedicated support" thing? I'm curious about this as well.

For what it's worth, the phone number I called to deal with technical issues on my Envy 17 (non 3D) was attended by people in the US. all very helpful and knowledgeable too.

It's when the issue is out of their control and there is no solution to your issue besides a return or exchange that it all goes to hell with those guys in India.

 

Now that you've completed the install, do you really find it necessary? I've done clean installs on my other computer but I don't see much need for it after looking over my Envy 17 3D. I'm thinking of doing a recovery into a 100GB Inferno SSD instead of a clean install so that it will be quick and simple. I'll move the 500GB into the secondary HD space for games and documents.

What do you think?

 

Well it is a bit of a pain....but I wanted the Momentus XT to be the primary drive so I had to do a clean install in order to do that.

As far as crapware i think the HP has less than my Dell and Toshiba for sure. So far all it has taken is a little fiddling and all the stuff works and I am sure I will see a benefit to the XT drive as time goes on.

I did make the recovery disks (7 in all) and made sure I copied the swSetup folder first.

 

After living with this for a few days and taking it on the rd I have come to some conclusions.

First it is "smaller" than my old Asus G50vt. It is longer and a touch wider...not as thick but feels smaller that the Asus. Very easy to travel with. Fits nicely in my Targus 17 " bag.

It is sturdy...I am always picking it up by the sides and I get no flex at all.

Played 2 hours of Battle Ground Europe tonight and it did not get hot at all. I can feel it is warmer but defiantly not hot. Battle Ground Europe is my main game and wouldn't you know it is not able to run in Stereoscopic 3d. It is a OpenGl game.

The fans (fan) are loud when gaming. Not bad...but louder than most other lappy's I have used.

Watched Prince of Persia Blue ray and the screen looked fantastic. It stoped playing when Battery got to 25%. Battery life seems to be average for a DR lappy.

All in all so far I am happy with it!

 

I got my Envy 17 3D on Nov 19 and I sent it back today because the model I got was factory defected. The F10 key was broken

I had the laptop for almost 4 days and and I am extremely impress from it.
I used the original Envy 17 for a while so here is a quick comparison:

1. Heating issues. There is no comparison AT ALL with the previous model. The Envy 17 3D runs smooth and definitely a lot cooler than the original Envy 17. I am so glad HP address this issue. You will still notice the upper left side hotter than the rest of the laptop but thats about it. You do not burn your fingers by touching it and you cannot cook an egg on its surface anymore

2. Support page of HP list BIOS update of Envy 17 3D to version F13 and its exactly the same file as the F13 BIOS update to the regular Envy 17. That made me think that the 3D model will come with the exact same motherboard as the old model. After noticing the fixed heating issue I try to install this BIOS and guess what? I got a message that this BIOS is not compatible with my model! So yes, the claims that the 3D model only differ at screen from the original are not quite true. I cannot tell for sure but after this I am almost positive that the 3D model comes with a new motherboard. If I remember correctly stock BIOS of my Envy 3D was F1A or FA1 or something like that I forgot to note it.

3. The screen is the best screen available in the market for notebooks. The original Envy 17 had a smoking hot screen. Envy 17 3D has even better, even higher brightness. Its extremely smooth to your eyes do to the 120H refresh rate Just AMAZING seriously.

4. I didn't confirm this but I think Bluetooth is updated form 2.1 to 3.0. At least this is what I saw in Add/Remove programs. Bluetooth driver is listed as Bluetooth 3.0 driver, plus my Logitech MX Revolution Bluetooth mouse was always facing disconnects on the original Envy 17 (pairing the mouse with the internal Bluetooth) on Envy 17 3D its rock stable with no disconnects at all and it works as it should.

5. Battery performance are WAY better. I only tested the standard battery before sending the laptop back to HP. Original Envy 17 was only giving me 40 minutes or less out of a full charge in HIGH PERFORMANCE profile. Envy 17 3D gave me more than 1 hour! in the same profile. I guess this will improve once the battery get more charging cycles. And its going to be even better on power saver profile. Hopefully the high capacity battery will give about 2 hours of battery life.

5. USB 3.0 runs a lot faster in the 3D model. I tested both my USB 2.0 flashdrive and a USB 3.0 HDD. In both cases I was getting a lot faster transfer rates from the original Envy. I am not sure if they use a newer USB 3 driver or if it is related to the new motherboard that the model may have.

6. Back-light keyboard is better now. On the original Envy 17 you was able to see the lights coming out the under the keyboard buttons. They improve it, now you only see the specific key lighting and the light under the keyboard is very limited.

Feel free to ask any questions.

I cannot wait until I get the replacement unit. This laptop is worth every penny.

My advise if you are in the market for Envy 17. Get the 3D model even if you are not interesting for 3D at all. You are not going to regret it.

 

I was successful in installing my Inferno 100GB SSD as my primary drive byusing the 7 discs created by the HP Recovery Manager to automatically restore the SSD. It took a while but other than swapping the 7 discs, it was painless. I used the second option on the left side after booting from the CDs.

The result is 56GB free of 93GB (or approx 37 GB used). I will probably move some stuff off like the SwSetup folder to the secondary HD which will be the 500GB drive that came with the computer.

My system rating is now 7.1, 7.3, 7.1, 7.1, and 7.5.

 

nMik-3 amazing review, thanks.

KJ

 

i also decided to go for an envy 17 3d now, after having used the hp compaq 8510p and the elitebooks until now for almost 4 years.

its already ordered, its coming directly from hp and due to a sponsorship cooperation im getting it for free - hence shipment date is not confirmed yet, but probably mid-december.

the only downside i am really very unhappy with, btw. the same downside why i moved away from the elitebooks(!!!), is the lack of possibility of hardware configuration in europe.

..its coming with the i7-720qm still

i actually wanted to take the 8540w with an i7-740qm or 840qm (or 680m) and a firepro m5800, or the 8740w with the same cpu and the firepro m7820, but as already mentioned, in europe it is not possible to configure the notebook.

and the pre-configured models available here werent satisfying enough.. well, i hope the 720qm is still ok and will be enough for the next 1-2 years.

btw. does anyone play cs:s on the envy with the 720qm? im a bit worried about its fairly low frequency.. although multicore rendering is supported now, high frequency is still more important than multi-threading. and the maximum turbo boost with 1 core/2 threads is only 2,8ghz..

still great to hear these obvious improvements from the original envy 17, which actually prevented me from taking it, until the 3d version became available!

 

nMik-3........

...........
........

NOW THAT was a review we've all been waiting for. Thank you so much. It's also nice that you used to own a regular Envy 17 as well, and I am so glad to hear you say that the heat issues are gone AND the display is one of the nicest that you've seen.

Awesome. Simply cannot wait for mine.

 

Waaa...so you did not like my review....waaa

 

Thank you nMIK-3 (and unpilot, again) for your reviews. They're making the wait even more unbearable.

It's a relief to hear that the heat issues seem to be gone...but that leads me to believe that perhaps some of the components have been underclock so that they run cooler. Can any of you guys that have the E17 3D in your possession check what the GPU is running at? Here's hoping they found ways for the system to run cooler, while keeping the 5850 at or close to stock speeds.

 

TerminallyOdd, very good point. I really hope the HD 5850 is not underclocked. Anway, unpilot you did a great review of course as did nMik-3. I can't wait for mine, but also hope some of you guys with HD cameras will do videos on youtube about unboxing, FPS/gaming, feel and look, to many other features. Thanks.

KJ

 

The 5850 in the original E17 is pretty heavily underclocked, so if I were a betting man, I would say this one is as well...here's hoping I'm wrong though!

 

still no bios update that reverts it to its original clocks???

thats quite bad, paying for a gpu for its obvious potential power and then getting less power than paid for.. just because theyre not able to build a chassis that handles heat well, like they obviously ARE with the elitebooks.

 

mine is running at 500/900 so it is still underclocked

 

unpilot, I am confused a bit. I read on these or other forums I believe that laptop GPU CANNOT be overclocked for some reason or other? (or they can but tis very difficult) And those smart enough to overlock their laptop GPU's run into potential hazzards of destroying the laptop completely, so it sounds very very risky. Do you think a simple driver download will fix it? I am not that computer savvy. I can email, google, and play games! Hope we get this sorted out. Thanks.

KJ

 

the clock restrictions are set inside the bios, so no driver will be able to change that. and by "overclocking" the m5850 in the envy is meant setting the clocks to its actual default clocks.. but unfortunately even this seems to be difficult/impossible, unless HP releases a bios update that resets the default clocks or enables OC.

 

A poster named Jaxxy from the Owner's thread was able to overclock (i.e. get closer to stock speeds) here. He started from 400/1000 though. Those 3DMark scores are pretty tremendous though, even with the underclocked GPU.

 

Is it really that noticeable though?

 

Got 1 hour and 45 minutes of battery life with 9 cell draining from 100% down to 12%. Usage included surfing and some video playback. I have a SSD instead of HD but I don't think it affected battery life much. Brightness was at around 50%.

 

probably the only way you'll be able to OC is with MSI afterburner and modifying the .cfg file (near the bottom) by setting allow unofficial overclocking to equal 1.


that's what you have to do on the envy14 (or at least some of 'em)

 

Could you post a link to this if you can find it? Thanks in advance!

 

Here you go.

 

Great! thanks!