Got my Envy 14 Beats today

First impressions while Im formatting to a clean install...

Build quality is excellent. I dont know if its something about the newer batches, but my keyboard is extremely firm. No bends at all even if I press down hard.

Touchpad sucks because you can actually move the mouse where the click buttons are. Who's bright idea was that? Gota try those fixes when im done.

Beats headphones suck for every genre of music besides rap. Too much bass and its muddy.

 

What's your opinion on the screen?

 

Awesome news! the scroll fix makes the track pad work really well! Try a few games and see how it feels!

 

The screen is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Obviously its not a match to a higher resolution screen but its more then fine for this laptop. 14.5in is small if anyone hasnt noticed. My girlfriend's Asus has this same res on her 15.6in and that is pushing it. This one is fine. The brightness is pretty good and it does hurt my eyes a bit in the dark so I do keep it down. I have yet to try out any games with the screen cause WoW is still downloading =p

One thing I love is the keyboard. My god this thing is a pleasure to type on. I have no flexing on my model at all. It is rock solid. The red backlight is unique and not too bright. Just the perfect amount.

After my fresh install everything was much faster. I was a little worried when I set it up out of the box but I guess it was just HP's junk on it. Clean install and everything is fast.

The touchpad I still havent tried the fixes but Im kinda growing on it a little bit. For some reason after the fresh install its not skipping as much as before at all.

I will post of pics soon.

And if you want the headphones Ill sell it to ya =p. Still new in box.

 

Mind if I ask, do you notice any tilt or cut off at the top of the screen?

 

There are 2 maybe 3 pixels cut off at the top of my screen along the whole edge. Honestly, it's not a huge deal. I rarely, if ever have a window maximized, and I haven't noticed at all during games.

 

Yea I noticed it yesterday but its not that huge at all. Doesnt really bother me.

 

Could you post those pictures?

 

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/4408/20101105112151.jpg
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/5579/20101105111912.jpg
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2641/20101105111931.jpg
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7033/20101105111949.jpg
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/9384/20101105112114.jpg
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5052/20101105112131.jpg
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/951/20101105112210.jpg
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/5612/20101105112220.jpg
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/5186/20101105112244.jpg

 

Its pretty prone to fingerprints. LMK if there are any certain shots you want.

Played some games on it today. WoW and SC2 was perfectly smooth at max res and med-high settings. Didnt check FPS though but it was no slow downs. However I realized it was a good thing I didnt get a gaming laptop. Nothing compares to my i7/5870 =D

 

Very nice looking laptop. What about the 'B' on the back of the laptop, is it a sticker or painted on? I've heard that it looks and feels like a cheap sticker.

 

Its painted on and its a very clean paint. Like with a very precise look to it. Not cheap at all.

TBH the laptop works and feels very high end.

 

Agreed. People really seem to have some wacky ideas about the look and feel of the Beats Edition. I've mentioned in a number of other threads (including one that I started) that it's a very good looking machine that's not at all garish. Some folks just seem to want to believe it's over the top, when in fact it's quite tasteful and, I'd say, even elegant.

 

It's hardly a conspiracy of some sort. My personal opinion is unchanged: I find it unattractive. The black on black is often done better, and I don't care for the red. I find the logo garish. I don't find the entire machine garish; I just don't find it attractive.

 

My problem with the normal envy is that it looks like their dv line. Only after you use it you can tell the difference. Sometimes I do like the metal over the matte but I think the black is very nice. I've had several people tell me they like the color after taking it to class.

Another note. I decided to buy a slice battery from hp. I found a 15% off coupon and it came to 180 after tax. 4 and a half hours was enough to get through my classes but I had to use wifi sparingly towards the end.

 

The dv line looks like the Envy ... in photos. I almost didn't get the Envy, because I couldn't tell the difference in the low-quality photos on HP's site. Any decent photo or in-person viewing makes the difference clear, but I do not like that HP has given the dv7t a premium look. I also don't like that it can be upgraded to burn blu-rays, but Envy users have to shop elsewhere to make that happen.

 

Just out of curiosity, have you ever seen it in person?