Fight for the Envy 14 radiance display.

E14: you can tune how bright the display is on and off of battery yourself. Just go into Control Panel -> Hardware -> Power Settings and edit the plan you're currently using.

For what it's worth, I turned the Envy 14's screen up to max brightness while I was plugged in today, and in a well lit room, it actually bothered my eyes. It was very vivid and colorful, but I couldn't stand to stare at it for more than a few minutes before turning it down a notch. If the Vaio Z's panel is ~20% brighter it must be like staring into a light bulb, especially considering those 298 nits (IIRC) of brightness are making it through a matte coating. I can't imagine what it would be like if it was glossy instead.

Either way, I'll GLADLY take viewing angles and contrast (better black levels) over brightness. Ask around with people that buy high quality (IPS, PVA/MVA) desktop displays and TVs as well. I own an EA231WMi, 2408WFP, and TC-P42U2 personally - not the best, but a huge step up from crappy TN panels with poor contrast and bad viewing angles. Generally speaking, black levels and viewing angles are what determine how good a panel is. Brightness just has to be good enough to overcome ambient lighting (and it certainly is in the Envy 14's case), anything beyond that matters little.

So, other than size (subjective) and pixel density, I think we've established that the Envy 14's Radiance Display is superior to the Vaio Z's screen.

On the other hand, please keep in mind that there are far more components than just the screen sucking up juice. I believe a number of users here have reported the difference between the Envy 14's screen at full brightness and at nearly 0% brightness only contributes a relatively small fraction to overall battery life. The processor, GPU (even the Intel one), WiFi card, and various motherboard components draw a huge amount of power in comparison. Sony is obviously working some (awesome) magic to get their idle draw so low and consequently their idle battery life quite high. When you ramp up the workload, though, things come into perspective. That's not to say the Vaio Z's battery life isn't impressive - it is - but if your computer is being used as a workhorse you really can't say the Envy 14 is hugely inferior on the go. Weight and size aside, the Envy 14 + slice battery is still much cheaper than the Vaio Z and should net overall much better battery life. If size and weight are concern, the Vaio Z is the sweet spot, though you'll pay for that luxury.

I'm not trying to wage a holy crusade promoting the Envy 14, but I am trying to get people to see what a hell of a bargain they're getting. The Envy 14 isn't the best at any one thing - the Macbook Pro's chassis is a bit better, the Vaio Z's (and ASUS U/UL, Acer Timeline / Timeline X) portability are better, several notebooks clock better battery life, Lenovo Thinkpads have better keyboards, larger "gaming" laptops have better specs, some notebooks have USB 3.0 and spots for dual hard drives, etc. etc. etc. However, when you look at the entire package and realize that the Envy 14 does everything at an acceptable level whereas most other notebooks fail in at least one category or cost an arm and a leg, you start to realize really how great the Envy 14 is, build quality issues aside.

 

Lets face it, the envy is a cheap knockoff of a macbook pro, it is not a premium product, its an imitation of one. HP forgot that it was supposed to be cheap and got too crazy with the pricing, making the same mistake they did with the first envy models. It's like buying a gourmet burger from Mc Donalds, and getting a big mac with a fancier looking bun, but its still a big mac. The quality and care put into assembly isn't there, its just tossed together. Ironically, the macbook is probably made in the same factory/sweatshop as the envy, they both use foxconn. Thats the place where they installed nets around the building to keep employees from jumping off the roof to their deaths like lemmings. Somehow apple manages to get this suicide factory to crank out a superior product without so many defects, maybe they do offsite QA, who knows...

My Z is it's own thoughtfully engineered design and weighs less than a single school textbook, even the paperback ones and despite that, it is faster than my desktop pc and has better connectivity than the envy including expresscard34 for adding usb3.0, optional firewire, optional wwan, a docking port (rare these days), VGA, two memory card slots, and optional bluray, you can easily replace the dvd with a spare ssd, and standard internal ones run on raid0, plus bluetooth and wifi of course.

The build quality is absolutely perfect, the only flaw I found is that the battery latch allows the battery to wiggle a tiny little bit, but it's not enough to affect anything its just a nitpick. It's extremely cool and quiet too, barely audible, and amazingly there's an option to make it even quieter than this! I would have been super pissed if I got an envy with radiance off of ebay and it squealed like a stuck pig or had turboprop fan noise, because I would have had to return the thing for RMA and they would scratch it all up trying to fix it or send me back a new one without a radiance screen. We see these stories all the time here. So for me it became obvious what choice to make as the price gap narrowed. I had to choose between this...

$1600 envy14: i5-520M, 4GB DDR3, 500GB rotary HDD. (3yr ADH is $200 more)
$1499 vaio Z: i5-520M, 4GB DDR3, 128GB SSD. + Free 3yr ADH warranty.


Gamers might want an envy because of the better GPU, but if that's the case they shouldn't be getting a radiance anyhow since it will ding the FPS by 10 or more.

If anyone does want to buy a radiance envy I made a list of stores that still have them with various different configurations, PM me, I wont post it in public because then the regular forum users here won't have a fair chance at getting one. The supply is limited, if you want one now is the time to get it before they're all gone, HP might never bring it back.

 

confirmed

10char

 

Let's face it. It's all good that you are super happy with your Vaio Z. But to me it seems like your trying to justify your purchase over and over again, sure you are allowed to do that. But why do it in the Envy 14 forum. Try the Vaio Z forum for that.

Sure the Envy looks a bit like a Macbook PRO, but hell I don't want OSX and I didn't want to pay 500 euros more for a Macbook PRO with equal specs. Then you see these Macbooks everywhere, there's nothing special about the Apple brand anymore. At-least with the Envy 14, you'll not see a second one in every coffee shop, this is how it should be when you buy something 'premium'. Yes HP took inspiration from the Macbook. But they sure made it their own! To be honoust they could have left the lighted HP logo of, because it just looks to much like the Apple stuff and the slot load DVD looks like it's from a Macbook too. On the other hand for me the looks of a slot load DVD drive blow all other DVD systems out of the water. And don't all laptops look a bit alike? Especially now all premium laptops are featured with a backlit chiclet keyboard.

I think you are lucky getting a Vaio Z for 1500USD. I too looked at the Vaio Z when looking for a new laptop. However it startes at 2000USD here in Europe. And for one thing I wasn't impressed by the build quality at all, especially not for 2000usd. You already found the battery to wiggle. Well I found the whole laptop to 'wiggle'. Yes it's as big as a textbook. Wel the lid seemed to be made out of a textbook as well. Yes it saves weight, but the thing is so thin that the lid flexes on opening a lot. To me it didn't feel like a 2000USD premium laptop at all. The Envy isn't highly portable, but nothing above 13" is. It does feel very premium and solid. Something that most laptops lack.

And yes sure, HP did make some mistakes on some Envys. Some seem to have slipped past the quality checks. However isn't that the case for more manufacturers too? I can remember these huge threads about whine on the Vaio series too. You can find these threads for all laptops around. Even for the Macbook Pro and even for your Vaio Z. If you search, you'll find problems on any laptop. In the 2 minutes I searched for Vaio Z problems I found tons of problems too. That's the problem with this internet/forum, everybody is posting their problems, some are so minor, some are serious. I bet 99% of the Envy users would not have noticed these very minor issues, like the gab at the bottom of the housing or trackpad not benging 100% flush if these problems weren't stated on the forum.

Now go and enjoy your Vaio Z. It's nice that you are really happy with it. I have the same feeling typing this on my Envy 14

 

Seems very strange because Costco, Futureshop and others all list the 14-1050ca as Brightview 1366x768 but I noticed some review comments mentioned it was radiance. Just odd that all webshops list it as Brightview.

 

Does everyone know what an equivalent to the radiance screen is? I don't want a MacBook, too out of my price range as is the Sony Vaio Z. I guess I'm SOL!

 

Where in the world are you getting your prices from? I just configured both a VaioZ and an E14 to the same specs (based on what you've been discussing), except the E14 had a slightly faster processor and a bigger screen. E14 came to $1550, the vaio Z came to $2100, it should also be noted that the E13 was cheaper than the E14 so a more reasonable comparison would yield an even larger price gap.

So while you may have found a great deal on a vaio Z that does not seem like it will be the norm, and is completely dependent on the E14 not being on sale when the vaio Z is, which pretty much negates your entire argument.

 

Curse the sky made the point . it doesnt matters to me notebookcheck claims about e14's brightness . anything brighter than envy14 screen is useless .

 

Wait - a similar spec'd Envy 14 is MORE expensive than a Vaio Z? That's news to me... and 99% of the rest of the Internet. Perhaps there's some amazing coupon out right now; if we're going by that logic, why not wait for a good coupon on the Envy 14?

Base price vs. base price, the Envy 14 is CHEAPER. Period. You can't debate that. It's also larger and heavier, but then again it does have a 95% metal chassis with only a few bits of plastic (for radio connectivity reasons). The Vaio Z doesn't have that. Put the Envy 14 in a plastic chassis and I'd bet it'd be ~4lbs or less. Lest we forget the physically larger screen (which some prefer) with a superior panel.

I agree with others - you seem to be simply trying to justify your Vaio Z purchase. If you have it and you're happy with it, more power to you. There's no reason to pointlessly bash another notebook to give yourself some feeling of superiority, however. It's a more expensive machine - I'd expect to to be better in one way or another, similar to how the MBP 15 is more expensive and has better build quality (the MBP 13 has worse internals than the Envy 14, keep in mind).

For what it's worth, the last time I played with a Vaio Z, it was nice but nothing that made me want to run out and grab one. It's the same old internals packed into a (nice) small plastic chassis. Whoop-de-do. If you have $2k to burn on a notebook, by all means. If $1000-1300ish is more of your price range, you either have to sacrifice specs and go with something less powerful (ala Macbook Pro 13) or something less portable like the Envy 14.

On a final note, VGA? Seriously? Grab an HDMI => VGA or Mini Display Port => VGA adapter. I'm glad to see that ugly ANALOG port gone personally, especially considering the fact that there are numerous, cheap adapters available.

Does the Vaio Z come with eSATAp or Mini DisplayPort, by the way?

 

I have been following the envy14 since at least a month before its launch, and it's even my name here "e14". I was fully intending to buy one so don't get me wrong, I think it has a lot of potential to be a great laptop as long as you don't get a lemon. If HP didn't discontinue the radiance or jack the price of it up sky-high then I surely would have got one, the best thing about it is the chance for quadcore in a small form factor.

Pricing for the e14 with radiance has been supernaturally high though, compare prices to the similar specc'd and sized lenovo Y or acer timeline. The price is relative to what you think it's worth, but how much extra is aluminum styling and radiance screen worth to you in dollars? Even the budget priced HP's are starting to go aluminum, and asus has a few too... It's not gold or platinum, its just aluminum, same thing coke cans are made of. Look at the total package, the vaio comes with dual SSD's that's why its normally so expensive.

The pricing for vaio Z has come down, you can find them on ebay from reputable sellers factory sealed and new in box for $1500ish at the base configurations. Microsoft online store had them at $1500 recently and still do in store along with killer promotions like free xbox or free ADH warranty, sonystyle of canada had them at $1200 last week, sellers on amazon, etc. The radiance envy never went down in price and never will, it went up up up and then got discontinued, sad!

The lid on the Vaio Z is quite flexible but that is by design so it doesn't crack if it gets dropped or smooshed by something when riding in your backpack. It isn't flimsy all parts not made of metal are carbon fiber NOT PLASTIC, you can find a picture of someone holding it one handed by the screen here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/3840126-post51.html

Videos of vaio Z drop and crush tests:
Sony | For Business


Other laptops with higher resolution screens:
Mac: Macbook Pro
Sony Vaio: EB 15", F 16", Z 13", EA 14" (EA is 1600x900 in europe only)
Asus: N53 15" (N53JF, N53JQ, etc)
Fujitsu: Lifebook E780 15"
Dell: Studio XPS 16"
HP: Elitebook, Probook

I am not trying to "justify my Z purchase" or bash your precious notebook, I am posting here because there are other people who still need to buy a laptop with a good screen in it. This thread is about the radiance screen, not about the envy.

 

^^ You are comparing envy with a notebook in different price range . ebay prices and MS store prices only get low in certain situations . In most countries the vaiz z retails for $2000+ .

HP should have made the radiance screen a default to create demand . If i am not wrong the problem in availability is due to radiance orders being low .

 

You're going about this the wrong way. The Radiance was a 100$ bump (similar to the 1080p option on the Z) before supply problems got in the way. At that point, some nasty little thing called economics (specifically offer and demand) comes into play. HP, knowing there's a demand for the screen, jacked up the price for the last few units it had, hoping to make a pretty buck on them all. As a business, it's the logical thing to do. If you slept into your econ 101 classes, I'm sorry, but that's just how it works. Were Vaio Zs suddenly to lose their screen manufacturer, their prices would jack up too!

You're essentially comparing a model that just came out and so doesn't have second-hand and/or refurbished units, one that didn't have time to get sales, with another laptop that's been around for a good while now, that went through many revisions (obviously each revision knocking the price down for past versions) and that already is probably sold with a much greater margin than the Envy 14.

The Vaio Z is a superb piece of engineer, no doubt. Yet if you want to parade it, do so in the SONY forums. There is absolutely no reason to do this here, you're just bashing on the Envy because for some reason you've gone from lover to hater. It shows; one out of two posts you do here is a unilateral attack on this laptop.

Also, while aluminum is one of the most common components on Earth, that doesn't make it any less amazing on a laptop. Remember carbon is also very common, yet your Z doesn't feel any cheaper for it...

The Vaio Z has SSDs, yes. No TRIM, though. Average performance (don't go looking for a RealSSD or a X25M in there, you won't find them) compared to currently available SSDs. On the other hand, the GPU is the equivalent of a 325M, many steps below the 5650, low-binned or not. Don't come and spout this, the difference is negligible, just like the difference between the Z's 330M and normal 330Ms is. Still, the 5650 is vastly better than the 330M.

As for your list of other laptops, why not bring out 19" desktop replacements while you're at it? This is a 14.1" laptop, not a 16" behemoth! The only comparable laptops are the Z, the EA and if you stretch it I'll grant you the 15"ers (even though they're usually a fair bit heavier). In that range, the Envy's Radiance beats all but the Z (which it is roughly equal with) fair and square. Then you come and speak about density (reminds me of the Retina Display bull). While yes, density is nice, I'd rather have a 14" 1600x900 than a 13.1" 1600x900. If weight is not a concern, a bigger screen is always better. It's better for your eyes, it's easier to read, it's easier to see...

You really are trying to justify your purchase, I'm sorry to say. It appears you wanted an E14 but got a nice deal on a Z and found it cheaper. I'm glad you did end up getting a good laptop, but that doesn't suddenly give you the right to go on a holy crusade against the E14. For once that HP does a good consumer laptop, please don't bash on them?

 

^ QFT

E14, thats great that you like your Sony Z but your beginning to sound like an arse. You seem to be going out of your way to persuade others into hating the Envy 14 as much as you do. Why bother?

I'd take an Envy 14 anyday over a Sony Z. I much prefer the Envy's styling, 5650 and lower overall price. Plus, the Sony Z is pretty bland styling wise. But thats just me.

 

You are so envious of my Z aren't you? It must be better than the HP envy if even envy owners are envious

If you already own an envy then this thread really isn't for you! It's for people who are pissed that they didn't get to buy one with a radiance, OK?!! If anyone should get out of the thread it is you, who is so insecure you ask me not to bash the envy because you realize you overpaid for a shoddily made boat anchor of a laptop. There, that is bashing, happy now? I wasn't bashing it before but I can oblige you.

I came into this thread before I even got my Z, if you read back you would see that. I am still in this part of the forum mainly because I want to see how this thing shakes out, if HP will bring back the radiance. I am also helping people who still want to buy. So far only one person has PM'd me for the list I have of where you can still buy one with the radiance screen... this shows me that people would rather put their hard earned money towards a better value (asus, acer, lenovo), or a higher quality product (macbook, Z, etc.)

By the way, the Z SSD's do support trim. Trim doesn't work in RAID. Intel is updating the drivers to support trim with RAID. Even without that, they have their own garbage collection function, so the point is moot.

P.S. What have any of you guys done to help buyers out, you got any bright ideas for them? If they don't get a Z then they have to take a bigger laptop because there aint any other small laptops with a high res screen. That's why I put the list up. You get all upset when I post how good the Z is as an alternative, then you scoff at the mention of carrying a bigger sized laptop. So give me a break that is just trolling right there.

 

I think this argument is getting out of hand... both sides have valid points. I would like to know what other laptops also have comparable screens as e14 says. I think all of this could have been avoided with a new thread lol.
(I can't send personal messages... e14 if you see this message can you send me the list where you can still buy radiance screens thanks)

 

I was fairly surprised to see a Radiance notebook at my local Futureshop, so there appears to be at least a few more units around if you shop for them. That specific demo unit had a substantially raised bottom-right corner for the touchpad, though.

Unfortunately most hardware manufacturers don't really seem interested in high-res screens. Assuming you can't find an Envy for an acceptable price, the MBP 15, the Vaio Z and probably some of the professional lines from the likes of Lenovo and HP will have a higher res screen. Obviously you still need to weight factors such as GPU and CPU power, as well as price, the greatest killer of all.

If you have the money, the Z is a good choice (I was considering it myself, but back when I shopped the Z was strictly over 2k$ and that was just unaffordable), though the GPU is worse than the Envy. Professional notebooks likely will have the same issue, though, and the MBP has roughly the same GPU as the Z.

Honestly, had I known about a laptop with similar qualities and strengths to the E14, I'd probably have gone for that instead

 

Thanks for the quick reply.
I think i am pretty set on the envy 14. I don't like the look of any other laptop ever since I saw the build quality of the e14; the only thing holding me back is the lack of a higher res option; I also considered the envy 15 too since it had a better GPU and the 2nd gen seemed to have fixed most of the problems that the first gen envy 15 had but too bad they discontinued the line

 

You will have to make some more posts in the forum first, that will allow you to send a PM. I want to make sure the people here who really want one can get it, and not resellers who will mark up the already high prices.

---

The GT 330M in the Z is actually better than the one in the macbook pro, because theirs is also underclocked and has half as much texture memory. Hard to believe but its true. The Z has a real good cooling solution on it, the macbook has only a tiny little slit behind the hinge of the screen, so overclocking the GPU on the mac wouldn't be smart but might be ok for the Z.

 

As far as I know, these are among the best laptop screens on the market:

• The DreamColor 2 displays on the Elitebook 8540w and 8740w are apparently the best laptop screens ever made, by far. They're expensive upgrades on already expensive machines, though. According to this post, even these screens are only 210 nits. If that's true, it indicates that anything brighter is redundant for picture quality and only matters for viewing in very bright environments (e.g. sunlight).
• The Radiance display is obviously exceptional, but there's no telling when it [or a suitable replacement] is coming back to the Envy.
• The Dell RGB LED displays were fantastic too, but they're gone now.
• The MBP and Vaio Z screens are usually considered the standards for comparison. They don't compare to the DreamColor 2 - nothing does, really - but that's just too rare and esoteric to be commonly referenced. They're also a step down from the Radiance on most important metrics, but they're much more common and readily available both today and in recent history.
• Some Lenovo Thinkpads have an option for a 95% color gamut display. I've heard conflicting things about it, but it's worth looking into.

 

Fighttttttt!

btw I had a chance to use the Envy 14 with the radiance. Obviously, by looking at my sig, you know how it went

 

Great list.

Having personally used (briefly) an RGB Dell Studio XPS, Envy 14 with Radiance (obviously), MBP 13 (though not the 15 with the upgraded display), and one of the Lenovo models with the supposed better screen, I'd rank them something like this:

Dell RGB > Envy 14 Radiance > MBP 13 > Lenovo. I've only seen a Vaio Z (and several other Sony models), but I remember it being fairly similar to the MBP 13 in terms of color and brightness, albeit glossy vs. matte (one point for the Vaio Z). I'd love to see one of the DreamColor displays.

Additionally, for anyone stuck with a glossy display that prefers matte, they do sell self-apply films on Amazon and other websites. I haven't tried them myself, but I've heard some fairly satisfied people that have used them.

 

Hey everyone! This is my first post on this forum. I just had to register and share my experience with you guys after having spent the last month and a half going through this site to find the "perfect laptop" for my needs and wants

Basically I just bought the Envy 14 1050ca after finding out a little earlier today (thanks to this thread) that FS had it for 1299$ and I'm typing on it right now... man it feels good to look at a screen that's slightly bigger than my iPhone's! That's what I had to use for the past 1 1/2 months... yup...

So anyway, just to let you know, the screen looks great, but lucky as I am, 15 min into looking at it, I discovered what looked like a stuck pixel. Upon closer inspection though, there seems to be some sort of particle stuck between the front panel and the screen itself... ? Never seen anthing like that in my life?

So I don't know if I should just exchange it with another one, get the new envy 14 1150, go back to the MBP (which does seem flawlessly built) or order an Asus U43 online...

What do you guys think of this? I'd really appreciate your input

Cheers!

 

For what it's worth, I had a 19" Samsung display for my desktop a few years back, and it also looked like it had some kind of gray dust/dirt particle stuck in the display covering about a pixel and a half. I looked it up online, and from what I remember, that kind of thing can occasionally happen during the manufacturing process. It didn't bother me all that much, and I ended up just living with it, but it's up to you to decide what to do in your case.

It seems like you've already decided to return it, and you're just trying to decide what to replace it with, right? If it bothers you that much, note that you can exchange it for another Envy, and it's very unlikely that you'll get another one with the same problem (unless they have larger issues controlling the environment for dust, etc. at the manufacturing plant). Beyond that, I don't really know enough about your needs to say whether you'd be better off with another laptop entirely though. (You might want to check out the "What Notebook Should I Buy?" forum.)

 

Hey CantankerousBlowhard,

Thanks for the quick feedback! I think I was a bit overreacting...
Yeah I'm pretty sure that i wouldn't notice it after a while, but I'm just gonna exchange it tomorrow since i have the option.

Aside from that, I'm verrrry happy with my purchase so far!

 

HP is still selling Envy with Radiance in India . Radiance is the only option available here . I think it will be for sale for quite a few months since it was launched only 20days back.

 

Poster E14,...

Instead of posters needing to PM you as to where to obtain the Envy with radiance screen, would you kindly post in this thread where and how.

Thank you.

 

LIST OF WHERE TO GET ENVY 14 WITH RADIANCE DISPLAY

Alright, might as well post it since nobody was asking for it anyways

First of all you should search ebay daily as more pop up each day. Can also get one brand new shipped out to you from a store in Australlia, New Zealand, or Canada. The Canadian ones aren't that good since they have a "french localization" (french keyboard?) and slow i5-430m CPU.

ebay:
ask seller opal_cadet if they have any, they had 2 left a few days ago, if those got sold then I was told they won't be getting any more of them in. this was one of the biggest resellers of envy on there.

can also check opal's store at
tech turn-a-round items - Get great deals on HP Laptops, Sony Laptops items on eBay Stores!

3 current auctions (earlier this evening):
HP Envy 14 i5 M520, Flawless, Office 2010, Norton's + - eBay (item 130442862108 end time Oct-18-10 11:00:03 PDT)

HP Envy 14 Core i5-430m 2.4GHZ 14.5" 900p Gaming Laptop - eBay (item 190455590689 end time Nov-10-10 15:45:18 PST)

HP ENVY 14-1014TX Core i7-720M 6GB Win7 - eBay (item 250707729738 end time Oct-17-10 03:02:36 PDT)


Australia:
$1500 HP ENVY 14-1002tx Notebook PC : i5-520, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD.

Advanced Search - OTA.com.au

HP ENVY 14-1014TX: radiance + 720qm.
HP Envy 14-1014TX Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz Notebook (XJ371PA) with 14.5" LED 1600x900, 6GB RAM, 640GB HDD, ATi Radeon HD5650 1GB, DVD-SM, 802.11n, Bluetooth, Webcam & Windows 7 Home Premium

other australian stores:
mwave, jb hifi, techbuy.com (I had found others too with higher prices, didn't keep a list of those)

Canada:
ENVY 14-1050CA (says non-radiance but it is)
NCIX.com - Canada's Premier Computer Store - Great Technology, Service and Selection.

futureshop also has them, don't know if they will ship to other countries but ncix will, I have used them before and they ship to the usa.

Google:
search for the model numbers to find more stores. 14-1002tx, 14-1014TX, 14-1050CA

I had a full list of even more model#'s than this, but I erased it, these 3 are the most popular pre-configurations with radiance the others are rare. There are other countries with radiance configurations if you want one just search it out. You can find the list of all the model#'s and the specs for each by looking it up individually on various HP websites. It's very time consuming but its possible and I did it.

 

Be aware that the 1150 is definitely without the Radiance screen.

 

Hey Fiendly0Fire,

thanks for the warning lol
The Radiance screen is definitely a step above the rest!

That said, I went out and got an MBP 13 today instead (even though I'm not a fan of Steve Jobs or the whole Mac 'cult'), just because build quality seemed better imo, and I felt a little weird about having an MB look-alike...

 

Does the stock resolution look disgustingly bad? any pics or videos in comparison to the radiance display?

 

From what I understand the resolution looks decent, and the LED backlight is actually pretty nice, but the radiance is just so much better. My friend has a 15.6" laptop with a 1366x768 screen, and it looks alright, but things do seem a bit cramped sometimes since the lower res leads to less screen real estate.

It's not that the stock option is bad, it's just that for a "premium" laptop it should have something to set it apart from the competition, and the Radiance did so when it was available.

 

... Before when the radiance was available it was such an easy decision but now I'm torn. I may just go with the macbook pro 13 but then I think whether or not I'm thinking way too much about screen resolution. ing hp... Makes me rage so much.

 

I personally could never go for the 13; the step down in performance is just far too great to be tolerable. If you can take it, it's obviously a good choice, along with the Vaio Z!

 

Well I just bought an Envy from one of e14's links, $1200 for radiance and i5 430m. Seller had 100% positive rep for over 700 auctions, but the machine is "factory refurbished" so we'll see and hopefully I get a good one!

So thanks and +rep to e14!

Only thing that'd make me mad right now is if HP soon announces a 2nd gen or a 3rd gen envy 15 or something...

 

Jumblerumble, I totally understand. I still don'y know if I made the right choice getting the macbook instead :S
That said, I just realized that since the radiance won't be available anymore, it would be smarter to get your hands on one, especially given that notebook's specs. You could always sell it in a couple of months if you don't like it that much and get a mbp (the mac can only get better).

 

Thanks for the rep swg, hope you get a good one.

 

If anyone is still looking for an Envy 14 with the radiance display there are quite a few refurbs on ebay right now. I ordered the one with the i3 myself (couldn't justify $100 for turbo boost, would rather save the money towards an SSD). Here is a link: alitunay items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!

 

i just bought one used a bit with i5-450m and the radiance for 1125 shipped.

 

Of course many of us are STILL looking. I'm impressed with my own persistence. I've just been to the HP Germany website and they have a model that claims to have radiance. Only I think I'll have to call in. So I'm researching about it.

There's always the Vaio EB option but I think the Envy 14 would've been perfect!

 

A German envy has the Y and Z key physically swapped, a big old fashioned L shaped enter key, and other oddities on the keyboard such as umlauts. It also has a broadcom wifi card instead of intel. You can remap the keyboard layout in windows control panel easily, wifi channels may be different between countries; could replace the card if it's a problem.

 

HP is probably using the Broadcom wifi card in the UK, they are also using it in the Netherlands and probably in whole Europe.

About the keyboard, yes the German keyboard is way different. Different keyboards can be bought from HP parts, but they'll cost about 100USD and require you to replace them yourself..

 

Yeah I figured I could have keyboard issues, so I researched. The Y and Z are swapped, yes there are some additional symbols, but at the same time there are characters that to me ,my first language being Portuguese, will actually make my life easier. I'll just have to see what the whole wifi card is all about.

Thanks for the insight!

 

Is it really worth getting the radiance display? As some one posted above it's going for 1,250 on ebay. I can get the exact same new from HP with out radiance display for $944.99.

 

swg1251, did you get you envy?? I want to buy that too, but I have never bought from eBay so I'm pretty unsure about that

 

That's a personal choice, most of the people here will call you an idiot for not getting it. Personally I chose not to configure my computer with one while it was still available, money better spent elsewhere for my situation. Sounds like that might be your situation too from the tone of your post.

 

I want that with the radiance! Is it safe to purchase it form eBay? Never bought from there.
There are a lot of E14 with the radiance for sale but I'm pretty unsure about getting them.

 

Hp stil has some radiance envy in refurbished outlet store

 

The Radiance screen is now at the HP parts store.

 

Are all the Envy 14's with a resolution of (1600x900) radiance screens or am I missing something here?

http://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/hpre...R295_store/buspurchase-refurbished/computing/

 

Only the ones having 1600/900 resolution