Former ENVY 14 Owner

Hi Everybody.
After spending the last two weeks or so cruising all over the web to find out about my recent ENVY 14 purchase, I figured that I would make a post here to sum up everything that I’ve found, as all of your posts have been really helpful.

About 2 weeks ago, I was tipped off about a $450 off promo for certain ENVY 14’s. I ended up ordering one for about $1k after the coupon, and it arrived a week ahead of HP’s supposed schedule in a pretty black box via FedEx. The model that I received included an i7 quad core, the standard 1.3k x 768 Brightview monitor and the slim battery pack. The computer was screaming fast, cool to the touch and really nice looking. Battery life was about 2 hrs with the standard battery, and over 4 hours when the extra slim batt was attached. It was as fast as I thought it would be, if not faster.

However, the machine that I received had a loose touchpad, and the noise that it rattled every time I double-tapped it was too noticeable to live with for a brand-new thousand dollar laptop. If it was a $500 laptop, I probably would have just taken the case apart and tried to fix it myself…Here’s a video from someone else’s computer with a similar problem:

YouTube - Envy 14 touchpad noise

After I experienced the trackpad problem, I figured that I’d trade it in for a replacement, and hunted around on HP’s site to see what it would set me back to change any of the configurations on the model that I had in hand…and then I noticed that a 1600 x 900 14.5” display was (sometimes) available! Holy cow; that changed everything! Also, I wasn’t aware that the i5 models had switchable graphics built in, which would tack on another 35+ mins in battery life, and would have been another crucial point in the decision-making process.

About a week after placing my order (before I had received my new laptop), a coworker of mine brought her new MBP 15 in to the office, and it had a beautiful 1600 line display that shamed my 2.4k Samsung LCD’s, and I looked forward to seeing how the ENVY 14 compared. It didn’t. Would the Radiance 1600 x 900 display compare? Probably. Did my Envy run circles around her MBP with processing? Absolutely; hands down; it destroyed the MBP in processing.

So, I’m returning the laptop that I received from HP due to the trackpad issue. HP was excellent about the return process due to the manufacturing defect. If it would have been built correctly in the first place, I would have been in ignorant bliss with the ENVY 14’s speed, and I could have looked the other way with the display being outmatched by the MBP 15. For now, I’ll sit on the sidelines until I can get an Envy 14 with the Radiance display for a comparable price with the current short-lived coupons. The battery life with the i7 was a little short for me, and I don’t think that anyone will be able to tell the difference in performance of a chip that has a few hundred Hz’s lower speed or a few less physical cores, but what people will be able to tell the difference in is the fact that the quad core i7’s have 6 MB on the chip vs. 3 MB for the i5.

Just my opinion…thought it would be useful to post my thoughts and experience about everything as these are all recent pricing and configuration issues that I was really curious about.

For the record, I loathe all things Apple, so owning a MBP isn’t anywhere in the equation.

 

The i7 in the MBC is just as fast as the i5 version. The i7 in the MacBooks are really low end dual core i7.

I had $1099 spec'd 14 on the way then canceled when I saw the Radiance and $500 coupon, but before I got my refund so I could reorder the Radiance and $500 coupon were over. v.v Kind of screwed myself.

 

I don't know how I feel about the video. If I strike my touch pad that hard it too makes a similar noise, but this is a piece of electronics. It can tell if your finger is touching by the electrical circuit created when finger and pad form as one. You don't need to bang on it, this track pad is not pressure sensitive. As long as your finger so much as glides across the pad an input is created.

The person who made that video sent his laptop in, received another, and stated that the second had the same issue. I don't want to sound harsh but this really sounds like a case of PEBKAC.

I will also say that I envy (hur hur) the MBP screen. I also like how small the bevel is around the screen. But, I have a 24" 90+ gamut screen at home when I need it. Hopefully HP and others will learn from APPLE, they have some pretty good product engineers, even if I had how smug and trendy the company is. Even if I loathe their OS, the have damn good engineers.

Anyway, Cheers. Hope you find something that works for you, perhaps a pressure sensitive track pad?

And apologies if it makes a sound when you barely touch it either way I have no clue why that alone would make you avoid the computer, hp will honor the price if you put in the effort to call them.

 

I agree with OP that there's a noise when I press the touchpad. But I don't tap that hard so most of the time I don't notice it. It would be nice if there were a fix for it.

 

Thanks for the replies, folks.

The touchpad rattle issue was completely unknown to me before I received my machine, but it was noticeable to the point where I'd be personally embarrassed to tell someone with a MBP (or even someone that hadn't ever even owned a laptop) that I paid a grand to buy a brand new HP ENVY that rattled of cheap plastic contacts every time I tapped or double-tapped the main human interface on the computer. The pad is fastened securely at the upper two corners close to the screen, and there's no audible noise if you hit the pad in those two corners, but the bottom two corners and the middle of the touchpad are loose and noisy for some reason.

Usually, I'm a do-it your-self-er with building my home PC's from component parts, and I don't complain about small/detailed things that could go wrong with a computer build (they're almost a given with so many variables), but for a thousand bucks, I expect things to be in order when I receive the machine at my door.

The case didn't have any warps or screen alignment issues, and the stamped aluminum was really nice, but if it's noisy to the point where my kids hear dad working on his laptop at midnight in an adjacent office room with a closed door, that's a deal-breaker.

 

Except for, apparently, the MBP screens.

 

You're absolutely right!

 

I'm sitting in an office with around 10 brand new MBPs around me as I write this (and some Vaio to my left), and the Radiance on my Envy 14 looks better, even my colleagues on the MBPs agree....subjective I suppose but still....

 

Never noticed that noise, I never thought about tapping the pad this way either.
I guess it all depends on user habits, some people are loud/heavy typers, others have light & swift fingers.

I have some buddies that kill a few keyboards every year.

 

I can understand, especially if you are someone who is used to pressure sensitive touch pads, or mechanical keyboards back in the day. But the touch pad on this bad boy is capacitive, much like smart phones. You won't go banging your iphone or android that hard.

 

Mechanical keyboards have made a big comeback. I just bought one and its amazing.

 

Yeah, the guy in the YouTube video looks like he's tapping the touchpad pretty hard, but my machine made the same rattling noise with normal tapping and double-tapping anywhere on the bottom half of the pad.

I'm not someone who complains about cosmetic defects on much of anything, but it would have been embarrassing to tell anyone that I paid a thousand bucks on something that rattled every time the pad was touched.

For what it's worth, I really liked the keyboard on the ENVY 14; it felt really solid. No detectable flex, the backlighting was done very nicely, and the layout was simple and utilitarian.

Anyways, guess I'm back in the market for another machine! :[
So many decisions...grrrr......again!

 

I have this same issue and I'm wondering if there's a fix for it. I've seen some threads and photos of people that have dismantled their laptops and it looks like the black plastic of the trackpad comes off as one piece with the keyboard plate. I don't know if this is a difficult process, but i was thinking of lining the outer edges of the interior with thread seal tape to get rid of the rattle. Anybody have updates on this?

 

Well...you got the quad core i7 Envy for around $1000.
Here is a link to a less powerful non quad core i7 from Apple. for $2400
Configure - Apple Store (U.S.) So why is it $1400 more? I am not putting Apple down. I have owned both MBPs and Envy among numerous other laptops. I have a 24 inch iMac and an iPad and 2 iPhones in my house so I like Apple products but they are seriously overpriced for the hardware you get. The OS is nice but Win 7 is just as nice. It just comes down to preference....