First thoughts on the Envy 15 (2nd Gen.)

Hello all, I have been using my brand new Envy 15 for about a week now. I know that before I bought it, I stalked the NBR forums looking for reviews and tech specs, only to find many more like-minded people. Although I am by no means an expert, I still think it's fair for me to address some frequently asked questions / concerns about this laptop, as well as my (very on-the-surface) first thoughts on it. I will add to this posts as I gain more experience using my Envy. But for now:

Specs:

Envy 15
-i5-520M @ 2.40GHz (Turbo 2.93GHz)
-4 GB DDR3 RAM
-ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 1GB
-1920x1080 Ultra Brightview LED widescreen (15.6")
-320GB @ 7200 RPM SATA HDD
-Default 6-cell Li-Ion battery

Design/Build quality:
The Envy 15 looks absolutely gorgeous. As you all know, it closely mimics the MBP, and overall looks aesthetically clean and focused. Although this is a rather large notebook at 15.6", because of the aluminum/magnesium alloy construction (not unibody), it weighs and carries like a smaller 14-inch laptop. It is very thin (1 inch) and light (just over 5 lbs.), so carrying the Envy around is no problem at all. There is absolutely no flex on this laptop whatsoever, even when I hold just one corner of it with one hand. Keyboard flex is also nonexistent. Speaking of keyboards, typing on this laptop is a dream. The chiclet-style keys have a good solid tactile feel when typing, and usually leaves me feeling strangely satisfied. Please note however that typing is rather loud, but this doesn't bother me too much. However, the Envy 15 isn't without its fair share of flaws. One of the first thing I noticed is the screen opening angle... or rather its lack thereof. The screen barely opens past 110*, making it nearly impossible to type standing up. Even when I have the Envy on my lap, the screen does not completely reach a perpendicular with my line of sight. This is a pretty large design flaw. Also, there are problems with the touchpad and battery casing as well, but I'll get to that later. My second largest gripe about the Envy 15 design is its ergonomics - specifically, the front edge, where your wrists lie when typing. Just like the MBP, the front edge is extremely angular and sharp, and after typing for around 15 minutes on a slightly elevated table, I found deep, red, painful lines on both my wrists. It actually got so bad to the point where I had to roll up my sleeves. No doubt prolonged periods of using this keyboard will lead to... callouses on your wrists. Nobody wants that.


Performance:
The performance of this laptop is pretty impeccable, at least for the normal user/gamer, especially in a package this thin and light. My i5-M520 is powerful enough to blow through most tasks I throw at it, and the i7 versions would of course be even more powerful. The graphics card is also very high-end, and can run most modern games with settings maxed out, at full HD native resolution. I believe it scored in the high-8000s in 3DMark Vantage, although I didn't bother running any benchmarks myself. I am able to play Left4Dead 2, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, and Modern Warfare 2 (to name a few) on native resolution, with all settings maxed out (including antialiasing), and still get an average of around 30-40 FPS. The Envy 15 should hold its own against newer machines for at least 2-3 years.


Heat/Battery:
This is where the Envy 15 runs into some issues, and is also what many potential buyers are wary of. HP completely reworked the guts of this machine from the first generation to increase airflow, and added in a 3rd fan. There are large vents on all four sides of the laptop, as well as 2 air intakes on the bottom. As thus, the Envy keeps itself reasonably cool/warm, even when playing intensive games. Because of the aluminum alloy design, the laptop is essentially one large heatsink, and the areas around the vents WILL get warm to borderline hot, although not uncomfortably so. The reviews I've read about how the Envy 15 could "fry eggs" are completely unfounded.
Battery life is one of the Envy's weakest aspects. On powersaver mode with Wi-Fiturned on and Youtube blaring, as well as a few windows and Microsoft Word open, I got a dismal 2 hours of battery life. This number dropped down to just over one hour when gaming. I suppose if you turn off all peripherals (Bluetooth, Wifi, etc), and lower the screen brightness to minimum, you can scrape out 3 hours on idle. Note that I don't have the additional battery slice. If you are on the go alot and don't mind an extra 3-4 lbs of weight, I highly suggest you get it, as HP claims it will boost the battery life to a more respectable 5-7 hours. And even this is only mediocre, considering some high-end business notebooks are now approaching the 20 hour mark. There is also a problem I noticed with the battery casing: it's not securely attached. That's not to say that it'll randomly fall out on you, but the casing wobbles up and down inside the laptop quite a bit, and will actually move up (you can hear the squeak) when you put the laptop on your lap. I cannot say what effect this will have on the electronics/contacts, but it can't be good.

Touchpad/Speakers:
I absolutely LOVE using the Envy's jumbo trackpad, although I may have a biased opinion because my previous laptop had one that offered only half the real estate. The trackpad resembles the MBP's, and has no physical buttons. Instead, press the entire trackpad down to click. The trackpad is large and smooth, and is a pleasure to use when just moving the mouse around. However, the multitouch gestures (scroll, pinch/zoom, rotate, forward/next) are all unresponsive and sluggish compared to the Macbook's. This doesn't bother me too much however, because I normally use a mouse. HP put in a neat feature that allows for the easy deactivation of the mousepad, so you don't accidentally move the mouse or click when typing. Besides the bad multitouch, my other gripe about the trackpad is that on my Envy, there is a large and noticeable gap where the left side of the pad reaches the palmrest. I would say it's around half a millimeter wide, and I can actually see the internal components of the laptop at just the right angle. This is a serious flaw, as I imagine it will attract grime/dust into the machine.
The Beats speakers by Dr. Dre are also remarkably crisp and clear, and don't suffer from warping even when the sound is cranked up to maximum (although this is a relatively low maximum). It can easily fill a room with high-quality music. I'm very satisfied with the speakers-they're about as crisp as you can get them on a laptop without an imbedded subwoofer.

Overall:
Pros:
-looks gorgeous
-1080p screen is stunning and very bright
-light and thin
-sturdy
-very powerful


Cons:
-horrible ergonomics
-horrible battery life
-some possible driver issues with webcam/touchpad


Overall Rating: 8.5/10

 

This is a great post and the kind of reviews I have been looking for.
+1

 

pics + benchmarks now, maybe?

 

just a short question...

while playing l4d, did you unintentionally hit one of the function keys on the left instead of tab/shift/ctrl?

while playing any game that needs a large and barrier-free mouse movement area, or even just during normal usage of an USB mouse - are the USB ports in the way which can be very annoying when eg. having to move the mouse quickly to the left?

this is what i experienced while "testing" this envy 15 2nd gen, and these were the reasons i definitely decided to stick with my 2-yr-old 8510p and wait for some elitebook hardware upgrades and forget about the envy (maybe hope for an envy 15 3rd gen with a radeon 5800/6800 GDDR5 gpu and of course all these design fails fixed).

 

The reason the ports are on the right side is because the laptop requires such massive amounts of space for cooling, being that it is only 1" thin.
This is the same reason that there is no optical drive.

I agree the ports would be a pain on the right, however now that I think about it my network and several USB ports are also on the right on my Sager NP5793, and I have never had a problem of not being able to game on it (FPS, RTS, WoW) because they get in the way.

You get used to it real fast.
Also, from what I read somewhere, although it is a pain, you can disable the left keyboard buttons for email/browser/etc., so that at least it wouldn't pop up the application, and you'd just have to re-hit the button you intended.

 

@dyoano: A couple points: The slice is only 2.2lbs, not an extra 3-4lbs of weight. Your processor is the i5-520M, not the i5-M520. The touchpad is wrong, it's a build issue. There should not be that gap, nor should your battery be "wobbly" at all. Mine is perfectly solid. Make sure that it's locked in, and if so, check with HP while you're in your return period. Gives you more leverage on getting those fixed.

It will turn about 8000 in 3DMark06 at all default settings. 9200 or so with a commonly-achievable overclock given what I've seen other owners hit, and I've seen a few machines go over 10K. Pics are available all over the web

I sometimes do hit the Windows key instead of alt to crouch. But that's a problem with any keyboard. Nice thing is that you can fix it: http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/disable_windows_key/

As for the mouse, I use a bluetooth mouse, and rarely have anything plugged into the USB ports. That said, all laptops I've ever used I've plugged the mice in on the right side of the machine, and never had a problem. Get a bigger desk It's not an issue unique to the Envy.

 

I had a question actually after watching a review...

I have a headset I use when gaming, that has a mic AND a speaker plugin. I notice the Envy 15 only has 1 plugin of this type on the right side, so would I have to go get a USB headset?

 

Perhaps...or would a splitter work? I'd test it out if I still had mine.

 

I actually use the mic on the screen. It is pretty decent quality, so I just use headphones and still have good performance.

If you don't want to do that, yes, you will have to use a USB headset.

 

That 110 degree max tilt on the screen is what really led me to cancel my HP Envy 15 order...otherwise I would have waited out the production delays. Although I do wish I had a chance to try it out myself first, I use my laptop on a stand that requires it to tilt more than 110 degrees 90% of the time.

 

well, it very depends on what games you play.

when im playing cs:s (same applies to l4d online, but also other online fps) i 1. need a top-end usb mouse (1000hz usb polling), 2. a headset (mine is a fatal1ty usb headset) and 3. perfect mouse motion room, 100% barrier-free and not too far away from the keyboard (= notebook) and 4. no keys next to some essential keys nobody is used to (from usual keyboards/notebooks) i need while gaming whose hit accuracy can be critical (shift - sneaking, tab - stats, ctrl - crouch in cs:s).

all these requirements are met on my present hp compaq 8510p business notebook, since having 4 usb ports, 2 on each side, as well as the power plug on the rear, ethernet port on the left side and the mic/headphones jacks on the right, but at the very front so it doesnt get in the way of the mouse... unlike an envy, an "almost" gaming notebook, that has its ports on the right side only, and there even worse, around the center...

 

I admit, at first I was a bit peeved at the unique layout of the keyboard, and the extra row of function keys on the very left. I found myself accidentally exiting opening Microsoft Outlook or the calculator or whatever when I just wanted to hit "Shift", but this problem actually goes away very fast as you accumulate muscle memory for this particular design. It's only been a week, and I never hit those keys by mistake anymore. You'll get used to them.

I admit, the placement of all the ports on the right side does somewhat hinder the typical right-hand user, especially with a bunch of wires for external HDDs or whatever sticking out. However, I keep my ports relatively free of peripherals, save a small Unifying USB dongle for my Logitech mouse (only protrudes half a cm out), so this isn't actually a problem for me.

 

While the last thing I'm sure people want to do is spend more money on more hardware... These might solve a lot of the problems if you like to constantly have your printer/usb mouse/external HDD/headset or whatever else plugged in, but dont want all the wires on the right side....

http://www.logopremiums.com/computer-usb-hub-3317BT.jpg

Simply set it behind the laptop after plugging it in, and all your cords are like they are coming out the back instead.

I can't speak on terms of transfer rates with 3.0 USB's, but for 2.0 I can't imagine it hinders the read/write speed at all.

Network cable won't bother me as thats how my sager is right now anyways, on the right.

 

Hi dave.ladner, I'm considering of buying an Envy 15, and I was guessing how the anti glare screen performs, could you tell me? thanks!

 

It performs very well. It's not as bright as the glossy, but I find it to be a very nice screen, better than some of the older glossy displays I've owned. It's worked fine for me everywhere I've taken it, and it's amazingly sharp. And it's the first laptop I've owned without a dead pixel on it, so that may be counting for something

 

It's beautiful screen with nice viewing angel

It's not as sharp as dell studio xps 16's RGBLED screen ,but it's anti glare, no reflection. Mine is made by LG 2009

Apple charge like $200 for anti glare screen upgrade

 

Thank you for the info! Any of you have any technical data? Like brightness in nits, and contrast ratio, etc. (of both, glossy and anti glare).
Thanks again.

 

A quick Google for Envy 15 matte nits turned up this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-15-should-i-go-matte-glossy.html#post5978325