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

I'm surprised the Envy 14 is so popular when it doesn't really seem to offer that great specs compare to HP's other models, let alone other brands

 

Build quality and stylishness is what draws people to it.

 

I was able to play with last years model at Frys Electronics today. With the improvements made by this years model I am tempted to buy an Envy. But I have one major concern.

Wait for it...it is about the screen.

While I do realize that the radiance screens are simply not an option, I was wondering how bright the brightview ones get. The one I played with seemed annoyingly dim, and I was not able to see if I could make it brighter due to annoying settings Frys had the computer set to. It is my biggest detterent from purchasing this computer.

Sadly, there is no other 14" laptop that has the envy build quality with a great screen and a good middle class GPU. Seems like 14" are neglected by manufactures.

 

I can't give you specs as to how bright the screen can get but in my subjective opinion it is bright enough for everyday use. I used to have a HP dv5 with a higher resolution screen and the brightness on the Envy 14 is definitely brighter.

 

how is the new "imagepad" working out for y'all?

 

The clickpad is good. It works when you want it to work. But I wish it was more sensitive... I don't know how to change that yet. It's a little hard to click. The button is definitely harder to click than Apple's. However, now you can put your 'left' finger on the button and navigate with your 'right' finger. I just want to change the sensitivity higher.

And about the screen. Out of the box the screen was bad. I mean bad. I could see color blotches and uneven colors on my screen. You HAVE TO CALIBRATE YOUR MONITOR. The default gamma was way off. Now it's much better. The screen brightness is fine. It's not super bright like Apple's though.

Does Reil's touchpad solution for the 1st gen Envy 14 work on the new clickpads? I'm really scared that I'll screw it up.

 

thanks -- ya I'm primarily interested in the as-shipped product. first of all -- you're saying that the pad can be used just as if it had descrete buttons. thats good for backward compatibility with the legacy neurons firing in my head, and the lack of physical buttons is a reliability advantage.

Beyond this, the clickpad is claimed to offer some advantage over previous models. how would you characterize this?

 

What all did you do to make the screen look better? A little tutorial, maybe?

Reil's app should work on the SB Envy 14. I had it working great on my dv6tqe before I returned it.

 

^I second that notion....

@kingp1ng- how did you calibrate, where, and what settings (percentages, marks, etc) did you set???

 

It wouldln't surprise me if you are right, but I think some caution is in order here as the SB Envy 14's imagepad is different hardware, which i believe to be Synaptics IS (Image Sensing). Synaptics may write their drivers for compatibility with either this or the older hardware, but it would be wise to validate that first.

 

The way I calibrated my display was by right clicking on the desktop and going to "graphics properties" and then going into advanced mode and color enhancement. I still haven't found a sweet spot in accurate color so I just messed with it till I was okay with it and that's it. If someone were to give actual settings that would be nice!

 

If anyone has the perfect combination (as in best display settings for envy 14) of contrast, brightness, hue, saturaation, etc. on the envy 14, PLEASE tell me. GREATLY appreciated

 

If you want to get real serious, photographers often use after market display calibrators such as X-rite and Spyder. These devices use colorimeters to externally measure display output, and influence calibration-aware applications like photoshop.

 

Yeah I did it that way. I used the built in W7 calibrator. Just go to your graphics properties. There are many ways to get to it. Right click on your desktop, control panel, or just search it. Search "calibrate display color." It's a simple step-by-step calibrator. However, I couldn't adjust my contrast... so I left it.

Is there a more advanced way to calibrate it? O___O

 

@Kingp1ing

Would you mine telling me the percentages you put your settings on? (besides contrast i guess)

 

I don't have percentages. The built in W7 calibrator had me move around bars to adjust the display. If you tell me where I can find the percentages I can tell u...

Also use the ClearType program. It's built into W7. It makes reading stuff A LOT LOT EASIER. Makes text very crisp.

 

Just ordered my Envy 14 from HP after 3 years of beating the crap out of a Thinkpad. Hoping the Envy can match it's durability (or surpass since I killed the Thinkpad, prompting the need for a new laptop).

I've got an estimated ship date of August 11. Anyone know how accurate HP's shipping estimates usually are? Any chance of getting it ahead of schedule?

 

I got my dv6t right on schedule (but I returned it later lol). I've heard stories of people getting them early and horror stories of people getting them two months late, so it's anybody's guess, really. Best of luck to you!

 

rofl what a coincidence, its kevin. I also got the beats edition =]

 

I got mine 1 day before the estimated SHIPPING DATE. HP was nice to me lol.

The condition was 99% flawless. Tiny parts of the edges weren't smooth. Maybe I'll find some fine sandpaper and smooth it out.

 

I got mine a week before the "shipping date" so it was really quick for me. It's a good thing too cause I was constantly checking the status of my laptop...

 

yeah im getting mine today hopefully, instead of tomorrow (the estimated shipping date).

 

please report imagepad/clickpad experiences!

 

Hi, my first post here. Just got my SB Envy 14 on Monday. Ordered on the 7th, delayed 2 days (delay email said 10 though), and got it in 4 days with 5-7 day shipping.

Screen isn't as bad as I was afraid it would be (I'm coming from a Studio XPS 16 RGBLED)... it's not bad, but it's not really good either. For somebody who's concerned I think it'd be worth it to get one and see since you can return it.

Core i5, non-SSD, I can get more than 5 hours battery life with WIFI on and brightness low (maybe 1/3).

Haven't experienced really hot temps, even while gaming, but then again I had one of the Studio XPS 16s that overheated and the Core 2 Duo throttled down, so heat might be relative for me heh.

Can't wait for BIOS update for Fixed Mode vs. Dynamic for graphics. Have an issue with my Radeon (overlays like full screen Flash (think Youtube) and certain games are not stretching across the screen when on the ATI card but work on the Sandy Bridge graphics), and after troubleshooting with a tech, they're going to ship me a replacement.

Replacement will be the same config but with the 80GB mSATA and 500GB HDD combo. Tech told me (I just wanted to make sure they weren't dumb about it) that the OS is loaded on the SSD but unfortunately the Recovery and HP Tools partitions are too. Ordered replacement on the 26th, estimated ship date August 11th. As I said, mine was originally delayed, but if people now are getting them faster, that makes me happy!

So you can indeed change settings like the screen contrast, etc., but you have to use the Intel Graphics control panel (Display>Color Enhancement) instead of the CCC. Here's my settings (YMMV):
Brightness -29
Contrast 50
Gamma 1.5
Hue 0
Saturation 0

I messed around a lot with it to get it to that. It's tough to see dark stuff like in games because the black level on this screen is really what makes it average at best IMO, so that's why I settled on the settings there.

Otherwise, fit/finish are perfect, no panel gaps or flex or scratches for me, and though for the money the 6630M is disappointing, I was more than happy to pay just over $900 for this config (EPP + 15% delay discount), especially since other smaller high-performance laptops are way more (I cross-shopped mostly with VAIO SA and SB, XPS 15z which both came out to around EPP $1500 with what I wanted config-wise). I see the slight weight difference and ~1" difference from the dv6 actually being important to me because I take it to school, and I'll totally admit being a sucker for the extra-niceness of the laptop.

EDIT: Oh, and the touchpad isn't as bad as I'd heard the 1st gen's was. Still a bit twitchy though and not always smooth, especially during 2-finger scrolling, but I prefer scrolling on the right side of the touchpad anyway. I prefer separate mouse buttons but this is just fine for me.

 

Welcome to the forums. nice configuration! -- this is a great combo in my view -- but if I were you I would call back and ask again about the recovery partition -- I don't see how there would be enough room for the OS AND a recovery partition on that little 80GB mSATA SSD, and still be usable. they should send a recovery disk instead and save SSD space. Moreover, a recovery partition on the 80GB SSD is just plain dumb if you ask me -- the files rarely get used and just take up valuable, high-speed space. why would one need an extra fast recovery partition anyway, and why would one want to take space from the little 80GB mSATA SSD to get it? it just doesn't make sense to me.

But -- if it really ships that way I would promptly build a recovery disk, prove that it works, wipe out the recovery partion and then do a clean install.

The other area of technical interest that amuses me is that Intel's 310 series mSATA SSDs use some sort of intellegent file management that moves files around between the mSATA SSD and the HDD, to optimize performance versus capacity. I don't know if HP is using 310s or not, but I do wonder if this sort of thing is going on within the Envy 14. When you get yours, tell us if you see one C: drive or if you see both C: and D: drives, in addition to the recovery partition if there is one.

-if you see one C: drive, then the mSATA SSD and HDD must be combined using the intelligent file management thing I refered to above. In this case, the recovery partition could still be there (under some different drive letter), but probably it is physically on the HDD, not the SSD, and the rep you spoke with just hasn't been told about this yet.

-if you see distinct C: and D: drives then the 310 intelligence is not there; drive C: is the mSATA SSD, drive D: is the rotating HDD.

Finally, to find out whether or not your Envy 14 has a recovery partiion or not, you can click start, right-click "computer", click "manage", then click "disk management". If the recovery partition is there, you will see it listed. Also, according to the getting started manual , Recovery discs have been included if your computer does not have a recovery partition. It will be interesting to know if your new one comes with a recovery disk!

good to know thanks. I sounds like the 2nd gen "no buttons" touchpad is acceptable!

 

Does anyone know how to increase the sensitivity on the touchpad? Now that I've used it longer I've concluded that 2 finger scrolling SUCKS. Nowhere near Apple's technology. It doesn't register all the time. Maybe it's Windows 7 lack of multitouch support or maybe it's the lack of Synaptics software+hardware... still 2 finger scrolling should be better in 2011.

 

check out this hp support article that discusses touchpad configuration, including sensitivity.

Do let us know if any of this helps. It would be a shame if the new touchpad can't be configured to be any more useful than the gen 1 pad.

 

thank you so much. I was on synaptic's website and I couldn't find that manual.

 

^tell us how it goees please!

 

You can also try using Reil's envyTouchpad.exe found here http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/563791-definitive-guide-envy-trackpad.html It makes a big difference on two-fingers scroll.

 

^but isn't that used for old envy 14 touchpad??? can anyone explain this?

 

Yeah, I want some clarification on that. I used my dv6t with Reil's app, and it worked flawlessly, but some people have been suggesting that Reil's app won't work on the SB Envy's. The new touchpad software is probably the issue, so if someone could test and give some feedback, that'd be great!

 

@kingp1ng

How did the "calibration" with the touchpad go? Please let us know!

 

I plan to test out Reil's software. But first I need to buy an external HDD and backup my stuff before I go tweaking stuff.

I maxed out the sensitivity. 2 finger scrolling activates about... like 90% of the time I want it to (unlike Apple's which works 100%). I turned off pinch-zoom and rotate since they both suck! Sometimes they'll accidentally activate. I turned on 2 finger CLICK for right clicking. The 2 finger click activates about 60% of the time. You have to make sure you evenly click with both fingers. If the pressure is off a little bit, it won't register.

 

Bought an Envy 14-2013tx yesterday. They changed a couple of things from the previous Envy beats. They changed the chrome trim (where all the ports are) to black (basically the whole laptop is black and red). Also, before there were just lines on the touchpad to indicate left click/right click area, but now the line is a raised, so you can feel when you're fingers are crossing the left click/right click area.

It also comes with dynamic graphics switching like on my dv6.

EDIT: Is it okay to use the recovery disc to re-install windows on an ssd? I plan to change the hdd on it.

 

Is your 2013TX from the M1 promo? Try to perform a clean install as the HP recovery seems to not align the SSD. Dynamic switching is unexpected, does it have the openGL issue like on 6770M?

Still waiting for my ENVY 14-2006TX (2 weeks already) to replace my ENVY 14-1207TX though.

 

Well, yes and no. The software is based on Two-Finger Scroll two-finger-scroll - Two finger gestures for Synaptics TouchPads on Windows - Google Project Hosting which uses Synaptic's API to enhance the scrolling. Reil's envyTouchpad is just a fork with better options, so, it should work on any Envy, and I believe any Clickpad unless Synaptics change the API. The program need no installation, so you can give it a try and delete it if did not work.

 

Check this out..

‪HP Envy 14 Sandy Bridge Unboxing (2011)‬‏ - YouTube

 

boy that sounds dissapointing. I wonder if this is consistent among Envy 14s or have you got a bad one...

 

Hi Everyone,

I have been reading this thread for a while now and thought I would share my own experiences with the SB envy trackpad. I'm talking solely in terms of two finger scrolling here. First off, Reil's drivers work fine with the new Envies (I have the 2020nr), however, you may lose the tap to disable feature (I messed around a lot with my trackpad drivers, so it may not be because of Reil's. Just a word of caution). Also, you need to either disable User Account Control in Windows (kinda unsafe...) or load the .exe with admin rights every time you restart. If you are willing to accept these risks/limitations, download it and use these settings:


Also remember to disable tapping in either Synaptics or Reil's drivers, or else both will register a tap, making you double tap EVERYTHING

Note: I did not create the download link or the "settings" screenshot. All credit and a BIG thanks from me goes to eafd. I just thought it would be easier for people to get some numbers and the download link from this post rather than me linking them to another thread, and asking them to scroll down I do not intend to take credit for what I have not done. Thanks again to eafd!


All of this is well and good, but I just discovered something that prompted me to post (otherwise I wouldn't be adding anything new ) : you can make the new envies' trackpads rival those on a Mac. I used a Macbook for three years before buying the envy, so initially I was quite disappointed with the trackpad. However, when you install Reil's drivers, the trackpad gets better, but it is not completely smooth. The reason for this is that both the Synaptics drivers and Reil's are registering the "scroll" command, so we get the smoothness of Reil's drivers mixed with the choppy Synaptics scolling. Last night, I had a theory that by disabling two finger scrolling in Synaptics settings, I could isolate the buttery smooth scroll of Reil's. Crazily enough, it worked!You can adjust the settings to suit your taste. I know I kind of rambled along this post, but I would love to help anyone here. I think every Envy owner should take advantage of this amazing program and evolve their trackpad experience

BIG THANKS AGAIN TO REIL FOR THE DRIVERS AND EAFD FOR THE SETUP GUIDE. Original post here

 

Thanks automagical and welcome to the forum. that was quite a helpful first post!
I find it frustrating, to the point of disturbing, that Synaptics can't come up with a real solution that really works. I can only conclude that either Synaptics is clueless, or that apple lawers have things sewn up pretty well. after all, thats what Apple does -- this is the company who tried to patent the mouse concept itself that originated at Xerox, for pete's sake...

 

I've been following this thread for a while and seen quite a few people complaining about the Envy 14 refresh.
I see many want a better screen and/or more graphics performance but don't like the dv6tse as an alternative because of the looks/build quality.
What about the Envy 15? I know the battery life is awful compared to these as it has no switchable graphics, but it has a fantastic screen, a great GPU and of course (apart from the bezel) those Envy looks
Obviously that means getting no warranty or whatever but it's still an idea.

 

Quick question: Does anybody's travel charger get really really hot? I'm a little worried about it, as it seems to get almost to the point of being uncomfortable holding it in my bare hand...

 

Mine gets pretty hot. It's not like it hurts hot but its really really warm so I hope that's normal for all Envy chargers

 

In fact, if you don't use any special feature like the double tap to disable, you can terminate Synaptic's helper SynTPEnh.exe and rely on envyTouchpad for anything gesture-realted (and save some CPU cycles too). The bad news: every time envyTouchpad is launched the SDK autoruns SynTPEnh.exe, so, its a bit tricky to get rid of it.

 

lordromanov01, they do not make new envy 15s anymore. Otherwise, I am sure many here would have gone for it..

I purchased my Envy 14 a few days ago. Only change I did was to the CPU. I am getting the 2630QM. I can't wait to get it. First thing I will do is uninstall all the junk. Do these recommended changes to the track-pad drivers, change the screen settings, and then when I have more time figure out how to partition the hard drive to have fun with Linux.

Are the stock drivers for the video card good, or is there anything I should do to tweak those when it comes out?

 

I get the feeling that HP did not cheap out on us for the GPU. It probably has more to do with heat or physical constraint. Laptops at 14" usually don't have great GPUs in the first place. When last year came out with the 5650m I thought that was great.

This year we sadly learned that the GPU was not updated that much at all. But has AMD really done that much to innovate their GPUs since last year? Not really. I think that is the main reason the GPU has nearly the same performance.

Next year with die shrinks coming from Intel and AMD I expect a pretty big upgrade. Also, I would hope next year HP would have found a better screen manufacturer. I fully expect next years model to be a big step forward for the Envy line.

 

I though about it actually when I was deciding what laptop to get next. I ultimately got the ENVY 14 SB instead of the 15 because of the battery life specifically, but if it weren't for that, I would seriously have considered buying a used 15 (I think the prices I found were around what I paid for my 14, which I mentioned in an above post). If you don't care about battery life or an ODD, I'd definitely consider it.

Mine does too. Though as I said above I'm getting a replacement anyway, mine also occasionally stops supplying power to my laptop unless I unplug it and plug it back in (only the AC adapter to socket side fixes it), and it will repeat itself every five minutes or so for an hour or two, then it goes away. Strange stuff.

I don't know that there's an alternative to using the HP drivers (somebody correct me if I'm wrong)... there's an issue right now with the AMD/Sandy Bridge switching. The BIOS currently only supports Dynamic Mode, which means you can't really pick what card to use, even though it will let you specify on a per-application basis. HP has stated this is an issue and is working to release a new BIOS update (hopefully soon) which will put the graphics cards in Fixed Mode, which is more like what it was on the 1st gen. EDIT: Dynamic Mode means the system picks which card to use when you run an application... you can change it once it's running or find the executable and designate it as one or the other. Didn't want anyone to think it wasn't switching... it is.

 

Dynamic graphics works for me. It doesn't do anything stupid. It runs the intel GPU when it should and it changes to the AMD GPU when it should. I heard that dynamic graphics has problems with Adobe software, but I don't use any Adobe creative suites so I don't have an issue.

My AC adapter doesn't get burning hot. Yes, it gets hot like all other adapters but it's not like I'm touching a hot stove.

 

Thanks for the welcome dlleno. I'm also pretty disappointed with Synaptics, but since "necessity drives innovation," Reil came up with what is arguably the best trackpad utility around, giving users complete control over the experience.

I'm also curious to see if anyone has tried using Reil's program alone (ie disabling two finger scrolling in the Synaptics utility). I'm still hunting for the sweet spot in the settings. Also, if you haven't already, go to Windows' mouse properties and change the scrolling from the default 3 lines at a time to 1 line at a time. Makes any touchpad drivers' scroll feel a lot smoother. Of course, if you feel that it is too slow, you can simply increase scroll speed while maintaining line by line scrolling.