*HP ENVY 14 & ENVY 14 Beats (2XXX series) Owners Lounge*

It's 6pm and my order hasn't shipped yet

Starting to thing Amazon isn't going to hit that 6/24 delivery date

 

Mine has shipped. It's "in transit" now. Scheduled to be here tomorrow.

 

Ya its weird, I ordered right after Auxlo w/ One day shipping and it was saying 6/27 for me. I canceled it this morning.

 

You're not the only one. Frankly I should be happy, because I was strongly considering replacing my year-old first-gen Envy 14 with the refresh this summer if it turned out to be a notable upgrade so I'm saving some money, but as you said, adjusting for time the GPU is actually a downgrade and the screen (by all indications) is the same as they put in their sub-$400 notebooks (no, really, that's not a joke). The end result is that HP is selling a $700 laptop in a pretty case for $1000. Compare that to the original Envy 14 release where they at least offered a best-in-class screen in the deal, even if the GPU was a bottom-binned mid-range part. I still think that a 450 MHz 5650 a year ago was higher on the totem pole than a 6630 is today.

 

When I ordered, it said two remaining. After I ordered it still said two. Perhaps the system is just slow to update inventory counts and I ordered the last one and so you got shifted to the next batch. But according to their page, they have 7 available now...

 

Ya, when I ordered it also said 2 remaining, must be slow updates. Hey you should be receiving yours today correct? Can you post up the full specs when you do, I might just order mine, my old laptop just completely died yesterday and really don't think I can hold out a few weeks for a better processor.

 

Yeah, I'll do a mini-review when I get it.
However, I'm not getting it until tomorrow. In order for the 1 day shipping to actually take one day, you have to order early enough in the day for them to get it shipped out. I ordered later last night so of course it just shipped out this morning.

I should get it after I get off work in the evening. I'm pretty sure the specs will match this though since they have the same model number.

 

Gotcha, I will check it out tomorrow and probably purchase after seeing your review. I hope the 5.5 hours of battery life claim holds true, and I believe the Amazon description on the normal envy non beats said 6.5 hours.

 

No, the regular Envy 14 on Amazon said 5.5hrs.
I'm expecting to get about that, although I doubt I'll have time to really test the battery life. I'll probably do a few benchmarks and then spend time installing Linux and setting up all my applications.

According to an HP rep I spoke to, the 1000 series slice battery isn't compatible with the 2000 series. He didn't know if they would release a 2000 series slice battery but my bet is they will.

 

The only reason that I have not given up my Macbook for one of these is that stupid 13366x768 display.

 

WOOT WOOT

Shipped, 6/24 delivery confirmed!

 

Yeah, this is pretty much the only thing stopping me as well. I'm not happy about the weak GPU, but I would be willing to compromise if I could at least get a decent screen or least a higher resolution option. It's an absolute deal breaker.

 

Yep, same here.

 

What are the specs man. Did you order off Amazon? I think I am going to push the button on this thing. Will there really be a big difference between the 2410 i5 and the higher i5s? And the upgrade price is still probably around $100 for the next tier i5, so I might just grab this instead.

 

Yep, im still waiting to see hopefully they have some customization options on HP's site otherwise I will be waiting for ivy bridge ~ Lets see how long that one takes HP to put out lol. Should be announced release january 2012 ivy bridge that is just take my desktop to school for the first semester/year or my crappy laptop I guess.

Agreed

 

Im guessing the specs are the same as the ones listed for the beats edition here

JR.com: HP ENVY 14-2050SE Beats Edition 14.5" Notebook PC in PC Notebook Computers

No way to be sure though... till tomorrow anyway

 

Do you get $100 off and a free xbox if you order from HP or just the xbox?

 

Sign up for HP Academy and you get the student discount.

 

If you order from HP: For students the price is discounted by 10%. Then you also get the free xbox. But you can't use any other coupons with that deal.

 

Ok, if they stack, then I am going to wait until the 26th to see how expensive the upgrade options are, and check out the reviews from people who received theirs.

 

Get a refurb radiance on ebay instead for 900 bucks and then buy a new laptop in a few years. The radiance will always have a high resale value. The weak GPU and screen mean that HP took two steps forward and two giant leaps back. This computer can't be used to adequate watch movies or play games IMO.

 

the screen sucks but this forum seriously makes it sound like total garbage... it's no where near as nice as the radiance but the screen isnt as bad as everyone complains.
Im sure 99% of people would disagree and say its more then adequate for watching movies or casual gaming.

 

Before the haters come in, I'd like you to know I support you.

 

That's the boat I'm in. For me the base envy 14 has what I'm looking for at a reasonable price with a slight premium for the higher build quality. I understand most of the complaints come from those who want higher end options made available. It's a shame they most likely won't make those options available... then everyone could be happy

 

I have been trying to decide if I have something new to say about this, other than to essentially vote for one side or the other. FWIW, my vote would be that, if HP does not offer superior screen and gpu options with CTO purchases, they will be virtually committing brand suicide.

The Envy brand has to stand for more than just being a Mac lookalike with higher than average build quality for a windows notebook - and the premium price to pay for that, and that alone. That's why sales of Envy 14s dropped off dramatically after they stopped shipping Radiance screens, and the only way they could keep selling them was to offer ridiculous discounts that put them in league with HP's own Pavillion line - which now has far better specs than the retail model Envy SB refresh we're seeing at Amazon and JR for the same or higher prices.

But here's the reason for optimism: HP has proved nothing if not that it is the shrewdest marketeer in the PC business. They know everything I just said and much, much more. The only reason a company this sophisticated would have for treating a premiere brand like its their "Oldsmobile" (for those outside the US: a General Motors car that was only purchased by old men for the last 10 years before even GM had to kill it off!) would be if they are planning on discontinuing it and are investing as little as possible to keep selling them at higher and higher margins until the volume drops down really low and then they kill the brand. Such brands are known as "cash cows," because they are anything but modern and competitive, but they cost little to make and are highly profitable. This is the opposite of the case of the HP Envy brand! It's still in its infancy and it has one of the best brand franchises in the consumer notebook market as a high end, leading edge luxury model. It makes no sense for HP to kill it off by making a still-overheating Envy 17 3D and then top it off with a damn-with-feint-praise, mediocre "new" Envy 14.

We really should run a pool on whether what we've seen is as good as it gets, or if this was an intentional "fake" by HP, planning to wow us all with awesome upgrades when its CTO options are revealed (I bet the latter, but I have to admit my confidence is shaken by what they've put into the retail channel.) If not, all I can say to the Envy 14 is: "moo."

 

The biggest problem with the screen is not the quality but rather the resolution. Would I like high quality screen as well? Absolutely. But I could willing to look past that. For any serious work I would use an external monitor anyway so its not an absolute deal breaker. The low resolution, however, is unusable. Have you tried web browing on a 720p screen? It's horrendous. Especially when it's a 14.5" screen. If they offered an average quality screen with higher resolution I would be content. Certainly not as happy as I should be with a "premium" laptop, but enough that I would actually purchase it.

 

I just purchased a "used" Envy i5 for $625 shipped on eBay that was bought in February and barely used. You can find most i5 non-beats versions ranging from $600-$750 and then buy a radiance screen for ~$300. After looking for two weeks I finally found a radiance for $260 and got that.

In my opinion spending $900 on a nice laptop is worth it. No, it may not be the best but it will do everything I need it to and when the update comes out next year hopefully the specs are better so I can sell this Envy and upgrade to the newer version.

This is also coming from someone who has had their hearts set on getting a fully loaded Origin 15-S laptop. Yeah the thing is an absolute powerhouse but who really needs that? I don't game, I just like knowing I have the best specs. I just had to come to terms and look into what I really needed.

 

This is the problem agreed not the screen itself but the resolution.

 

AMEN! But sadly I can't part with the thought of Sandy Bridge in my envy or any other adequately mid end spec'd out laptop for that matter.

But there aren't many aesthetically attractive choices in the sub $1,500 price range other than the XPS 15z and someone mentioned crappy build quality earlier in the thread, and being that it is Dell, I won't risk it.

 

Delivered.

14-2020NR

Core i5-2410M (2.3 GHz)
750GB HD
4 GB DDR3

 

Does anyone know if it will be possible to swap Radiance screen with new SB Envy 14 BV?

 

Unboxing/review please?????????????????????

And if you could test some 1080p .mkv files that would be great.

BTW I'm jealous.

 

You might be able to. Ask eafd about details. He is kind of the expert on technical things.

 

I've got 6GB of RAM (Beats Edition).
In the process of installing Ubuntu now (deleted the recovery partition).

Tap to click in Windows was annoying, I disabled that.

 

I went this route as well, but I got a new open box i5 envy 14 for $500 at micro center , lol I was there originally to look at a vaio s.

 

How's the "new and improved" clickpad? Does the entire clickpad act as a button?

Estimated battery life!?

 

it's "some sort of magical optical clickpad thing or something that detects your fingers betterer"


or whatever they're calling it.

 

But does it actually work? IDC what they call it personally haha, just want to know if it works. And Congrats man.

 

I have no clue if it works. (not gonna get an envy 14 SB, sticking with my 1 year old radiance envy 14)

 

Well that was mostly for the people who just recieved the new ones. I'm interested as that could be the deciding factor for me. I'm dissapointed with the graphics card and especially the display, but if the touchpad is absolutly one of a kind for a windows computer I could look past it, possibly. The Sager NP5165 is looking pretty good to me too however.

 

5 to 5.5 hours or so, on integrated of course.

I'm not really sure if the trackpad is better, as I never owned a previous Envy and only used it briefly at Fry's. It doesn't seem too bad. They've got support for 4 finger vertical flick up (application switching), 4 finger vertical flick down (show desktop) which makes it a bit more like OS X. Not quite seamless, but it will work if you don't have a mouse handy.

You can click the majority of the trackpad, except for the very top where the hinge is at. Two finger scrolling isn't as smooth as on OS X, but I haven't had any issues that I've read people have had where it would act weird when attempting that.

I disabled tap to click before, but unfortunately that keeps you from being able to do the doubletap to disable in the top left, so I re-enabled tap to click.

The red backlight on my Beats edition appears even.

I'll do a NovaBench benchmark and post results here. Overall, performance seems pretty snappy, although performance wasn't quite up to the level of my desktop (AMD 965 BE, VaporX 5750) but I suppose I might have been expecting the bottom end i5 to have better performance.

Update

I ran it earlier and got 220fps on the graphics and I think an overall score of 605. Not sure why it went down a bit.


For what it's worth, in case you're interested in the WEI.

 

That's weird, my old Envy 14 I am pretty sure had a 5.9 Base Score. So I am guessing the Graphics on that were 5.9 or above, what is the difference between Graphics and Gaming Graphics?

 

Auxilio_ab_alto, do you know which type of switchable graphics Catalyst Control Center is using on your envy 14(dynamic or manual switching)? I just RMA'd my dv6t today because dynamic switching was giving me nightmares (see this thread for more info).

Manual:


Dynamic:

 

yes seems your graphics results are low...i got (146) score with 444 frames per sec on the old 5650....
also cpu was (492) with the old i7.....
i dont know what relevance that has though......
still i am still envious of the whole unboxing and testing thing...
get some pics up !! or an unboxing vid...

 

I have dynamic.

It looks pretty much the exact same as any image you can find on Google of the previous edition, and the unboxing videos I found on YouTube for the previous gen looked pretty similar to this one as well. Although of course, this doesn't include the Beats headset. But that headset was extremely overrated. And I know a thing or two about headsets...

 

Good lord! do you use all of those?

 

He is just probably a Head-Fi member

 

I receieved my Envy 14-2020 NR from Amazon yesterday. I like it so far, and I'll post some more information after I play with it this weekend. For now, I can say that the trackpad is definitely better than the one on the 1st generation Envy 14. It's not as fluid as the trackpad on a MacBook (Air/Pro), but it is perfectly usable.

Some things that are improved with the new trackpad:

• Two-finger scrolling works much better, and I don't need to disable all other gestures to keep two-finger scrolling activated.
• The verticle four-finger gestures are quite responsive and genuinely useful. Four fingers down shows/hides the desktop; four fingers up moves to Aero Flip, which finally makes sense because you can scroll through open windows and select one with another click.
• You can set the pad to take one-, two-, or three-finger clicks, with three fingers registering as a middle-mouse button click. I find this very useful for managing tabs in a web browser. (Three-finger click opens a link in the background; three-finger click closes it immediately.)

But most importantly for me, it is now effortless to

• Move a window by clicking on the titlebar.
• Resize a window by clicking on a window edge.
• Select and move text using the trackpad.

These might sound like minor things, but they were the most difficult things for me to accomplish with the old Envy trackpad. Honestly, I used to dread trying to resize a window because I would mess it up most of the time.

That's it for now, but please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Is there an eSATA port on your ENVY?
Is the LAN port integrated or external?

(Reason: There may be two different designs for this generation of ENVY 14)

 

On the standard Envy 14-2020NR, there is no eSATA, but there is an integrated LAN port.