*HP ENVY 14 (1XXX series) Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Thanks. Absolutly. Had the Envy 15 with i7. Was 40c on idle mode in the quads! Returned it asap

 

yeah, i was considering the 15, even liked its display better than the 13's radiance display

...then i picked it up at the store and nearly burnt my hand! (lol)
thing was ridiculous. that's with a metal perforated stand underneath it, i dont even want to imagine how hot it'd get on, you know, a lap or something

i just picked up my laptop i'm typing on....it's cool to the touch. novel concept, eh? the air coming out of the exhaust vent is actually cooler than room temperature...?

i really hope the 14s dont run hot....i know my mom's MBA runs pretty darn hot due to the aluminum body....

 

My MBP has burned my leg before during gaming sessions. Like actual red spots that took a day to go away... through jeans.

 

Blech. The deadline to file a deposit with my school is this Thursday, July 1st. If they release any coupons at the end of the month, I'll probably need to have the Envy shipped to the FedEx/UPS location closest to my school.

I'm guessing HP will release SOME kind of promotion anywhere between 21 days to a month after the official release date. I'd say the end of July.

 

So this is the momentus...

Seagate Momentus XT (250GB) Hard Drive reviews - CNET Reviews

It has a 4gb SSD, allowing boot up and programs you frequently use (which will automatically get moved to the SDD)

... Hm, I heard that it would make your games faster... so the SSD would be better, since momentus only gets 4gb...?

 

$300 for the SSD will make your notebook MUCH faster than any amount of money you spend upgrading your CPU or RAM from the base config.

And honestly, unless your carrying around your video collection on your notebook, 160gb is plenty.

 

Can some one explain the certain amount of writings/rewrites thing to me?

Or maybe give me a FAQ of some sort?

I want one but I'm afraid to run out of writes/rewrites.

I most likely will not have any videos, I have about 40 gb of music that I only add to not delete from... Thats about it (I THINK) But a year ago I reinstalled windows and wiped it and had to put my 40gb of music back on from my ipod...

 

Thanks. If it's just battery life mainly, then I won't be concerned about it, but I thought it might be something else since nobody seems to be looking at a configuration with i7.

 

Try games. Have five or six fairly new games on it take 6 to 10 GB each (or more), you've used about 50GB of space already. My current laptop I've kept pretty sparse, but it already has 180GB of stuff on it.

Not to mention if you run a virtual machine or two it will consume a good amount of hard disk space, I've got 20GB consumed on mine.

I've been using one of the fastest SSD's on my desktop (80GB Intel G2) when I use my laptop with a 500GB Seagate 7200RPM drive (not XT), I don't feel like I'm missing much. To each their own, but IMHO it's an expensive add-on not worth the money.

 

Np. One good thing about getting the quad core (Clarksfield) is that it supports 1333 memory. So hopefully they use the 1333 instead of 1066.

I would also use 2 dim slots, of either 2 x 2 = 4gb or 2 x 4 = 8gb ram so that way you take advantage of dual channel.

 

I think the main reason many people aren't considering the i7 quads are because you have lots of other options because battery life usually isn't a concern. To be honest you'd probably be better off considering the HP DV6T:SE or some other brand, because it'd probably be cheaper with similar specs. One of the main draws to the Envy 14 is battery life. And without the Intel GPU, it's going to suffer big time.

 

Guys I need advice. I ordered the 500GB and the i5-520. Im on the verge of cancelling and ordering i5-450 and SSD 160. How much more time do you think it will take for the computer to get to me. ( preferable to have it no later than the 20. Is that doable ?)

 

im having the same regrets..

 

Check the build date and use 2 day shipping. If HP delays your order, then call them up and cancel.

 

I don't know how much longer since no one has recieved one yet obviously, but shouldn't be that much longer but they also have big demand.

It's not something you guys should really regret, the performance difference are marginal if any in terms of cpu.

As for SSD, you can always buy it your self and install it. That way you save now.

If you guys really want to cancel, just call them now. See what they say, I've read people that called to cancel and they got $50 off!

 

I just ordered a couple hours ago, and the build date was listed as "by July 8", so, barring any unexpected delays, it should arrive by the 15th-20th if you order now. I don't think they can alter the order, but you could cancel and repurchase and it should come in time.

However, nobody can guarantee the arrival date - if you really need it by the 20th, I'd say that 2-day shipping is the safest bet - the $50 for 2-day should guarantee you'll have it by the 20th barring any big delays (and if there are big delays, there's a good chance you can get the 2-day shipping cost refunded).

 

Didn't look through the whole thread so forgive me if this is repetitive. You can custom order the Envy 14 through costco and then get a 90 day return window. I ordered the envy 17 10 days after it came out from costco and got it weeks before people who ordered it from hp for what its worth

 

, he's right
http://www.costco.com/CTO/HPConfigurator.aspx?Prodid=10029570&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|84|56670&N=4017749&Mo=1&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName%3aBC&cat=28163&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=&model=VX756AV
It's weird, all the prices are like $1-$5 more for the upgrades lol
but same exact pricing and options pretty much, just starts 16 bucks more

although, no discounts through costco like student discount or coupons when they come

 

Yeah it sure can't hurt to ask. BTW, those reps could just be offering that $50 off since there's a coupon floating around online (LOGIC50) anyway.

 

Those that called and got $50 off, did you purchase with student discount?

 

You may be right about the coupon who knows.

You obviously want to be happy with your purchase, so yeah if you think you will have regrets then cancel.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll call them tomorrow and see how things go.

 

Whats up with that demo button on the hp website?

 

So any word on when a good coupon/BCB will come out?

Also, any word on whether or not the "slice" battery will come down from $200?

 

You're not going to run out of write cycles. Reading doesn't affect the NAND chips. Writes do, but if you're not constantly benchmarking your drive or doing some kind of crazy intensive stuff (we're talking server 24/7 writes), you are not going to kill the NAND in your SSD, not any time soon. People have had their SSDs going on a couple years now, and I have not seen a single case of anyone's running out of write cycles.

I really can't stress it enough-- you'll be replacing the SSD with a new one before it runs out of write cycles. It's the same way how many people tend to replace their hard drives with newer, higher capacity drives before they ever mechanically fail.

Edit: What I'm really trying to say is, if you are interesting in giving SSDs a shot, then just weigh your options. I am a SSD user, and they are incredibly fast. I suggest you get one, put your operating system as well as any programs you use regularly on it. If you have the room, put some games on it, if you're a gamer. Some games benefit from SSDs, some don't. I know of at least on game (Darkfall) that benefits amazingly from being on a SSD, as it loads data constantly. Either way, it will make your operating systems much more snappy, and programs will load pretty much instantly. That being said, make sure you have an external hard drive to hold things such as large music libraries, movies, etc. There's no need to keep that stuff on your SSD, as it won't benefit from the SSD and will just take up space.

 

no no max char12345

 

Unfortunately, no and no. There's only been speculation.

 

Agreed, the MBP 15, which is directly comparable to the ENVY line, weighs a little bit more. And that's to say it's not heavy at all.

 

does anyone know how well the computrace lojack thing works? i read online it's embedded in your laptop...but will a full system wipe render it useless? i don't want my envy 14 jacked in the first week of college =[.

oh and repost my earlier question: besides SSD, if i were to upgrade one part of a laptop for an engineering program, what should it be?

 

Went to B Buys today to check out the build of HP latest machines to get a feel for the Envy 14. First the good. Fit and finish of even the lower-end consumer line was fantastic. Envy 14's finishes must be close to MBP. They've definitely separated themselves from the cheap, plastic, boxy Dells. The bad. The trackpad on every single HP laptop was horrendous. I now know what people are complaining about. That trackpad would drive me nuts. It drove me nuts in the first 30secs. On top of that, it's over 5lbs. It was really between the Envy 14 and the Vaio Z. It's just not a comparison. If it was just the weight, I might have let it slide. They really need real buttons or Apple's glass trackpad.

 

I saw on hp.com today, something about "Free Upgrades for all Laptops." How does that work, and does anyone know if it applies to E14?

 

So Best Buy already has the Envy 14 in their stores?

I really might have to make the half hour drive to go toy around with one tomorrow... Assuming my Best Buy even has it. They didn't have any Envy laptops last time I was there.

 

Was there actually an envy 14 in store or were you looking at another envy? Supposedly they made improvements on the trackpad on the envy 14, so hopefully it will be better than the old ones. But if you were in fact using an nv14...that would be very unfortunate for all of us.

 

you obviously weren't looking at the envy 14. because they aren't in brick and mortar stores yet. BUT, HP is using the same "clickpad" across its laptop line so the touchpad is probably as bad as you say it is

evidence touchpad sucks? look at envy 17 thread.

 

Well...just gonna have to use a mouse when I can lol

 

Comeon coupons!

 

I would say cpu then other then ssd.

 

I just read NBR's review of Lojack and it seems to be a pretty legitimate program.

Here is the link for the review: LoJack for Laptops Security Review

If you don't want to read the whole thing you can just skip to the "trying to break the software" and "conclusion". In answer to your question it sounds like a full system wipe will render it useless though the reviewer says this is really the only way to stop Lojack.

Safe to say though that based upon the review it might not be a bad idea to buy it if you are a college student on a big campus. I am debating whether or not to shell out the extra $50 for this thing since I will be one of them come September.

EDIT: Does anyone have any experience with this program? Is it worth the extra $50?

here is the thread for Lojack on NBR forums: http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...jack-laptops-security-review.html#post2011170

 

this is on the envy 13 but it seems to echo what envy 17 owners are complaining about

HP Envy 13 review -- Engadget

 

I'm giving it one week. I'm hoping for a $300 coupon. If not, I will use my APP discount.

 

Honestly, I never understood why people hated the touchpad so much. I liked it :]

It was pretty customizable too, so there are lots of settings you can customize to your liking

 

Assuming the Envy 14's trackpad isn't actually improved, I'm thinking with a bit of configuration and tweaking, I could get it working to my liking. If it's anything like the Synaptics drivers I've used in the past, you can set a dead zone where the trackpad won't register, so worst case scenario, I'll just set a dead zone over the left/right click areas. I'll lose part of the trackpad's area for movement, which could be annoying, but if I keep my thumb there all the time, I don't think it will matter anyways.

We'll see. I'm using to using a wireless mouse with my notebooks anyways, so I don't think it matters too much to me.

 

Best Buy will not be carrying the Envy 14.

 

i think the biggest complaint came from people who use two 2 fingers for trackpad: a thumb resting on the left mouse button and the index finger to scroll. if u do this, the cursor will move erratically

 

putting your thumb on the left button and scrolling a finger around doesn't make it scroll, as far as I know, unless your finger is in the same horizontal area as your thumb. By resting the thumb on a button, I never really had any issues with the cursor moving strangely

 

I hate leaving my laptop around on the desk when I use the restroom or something. I say 4 years of Lojack for $50 is not a bad deal but I'd also invest in a $25 Kensington Lock. Beyond that there isn't much you can do besides keeping it on your body at all times. I don't think most thieves would bother with a laptop that's tied down to a desk or a chair.

 

hmmm !!! thats bad.. no more blackmailing guys!!!!

 

IMO, the trackpad problems are purely a software related issue (read: fixable).

When I had my Envy 15, I tested it out initially in the factory configuration - bloatware and all. To my surprise, the track pad worked great; I couldn't find a single thing to complain about. Button clicks were registered without a problem, tracking was great, it had no problem ignoring a finger or thumb placed on a button, two finger scrolling and other gestures were all flawless, etc.

However, after a week or so, I pulled the factory hard drive and installed my 160GB X25-M G2 SSD. I installed the latest drivers and important utilities for everything, including the latest Synaptics drivers. Lo and behold, the track pad gave me nightmares. Suddenly it would skip any time I had a finger on one of the button areas, would sometimes track across the screen randomly, didn't always register button clicks, etc. After a few days of that, I put the original HDD back in and shipped it back. I tested the track pad again first, though, and it worked flawlessly once again.

So, I think the problem (or rather, the solution) is having the right combination of drivers from Synaptics, plus having the right profile settings for the drivers themselves. I couldn't get it working the way I wanted it to, but if my Envy 14's track pad works well out of the box, I'll be writing down EVERY setting before swapping in my SSD.

 

No. I did not say I tried Envy 14 at B Buy. Was there to look at the Z and test out the weight of various machines. I didn't go there with the intention of checking out the trackpad. However, it was so bad, I gasped. Seriously, why would anyone buy an HP with that trackpad? It is quite simply the worst trackpad I have ever experienced. All that within 30 secs of use. If you touch the trackpad with your thumb and try moving around, random stuff happens. Hopefully, HP improved it.

 

Please do, and please post them here and get a link to your post added to the first post in this thread. This is something everyone needs to know, as I think many of the prospective Envy 14 owners want to swap out the original drive with one of their own.

If you can get the settings, and manage to reconfigure it properly on a fresh install, that would be perfect for all of us.