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

Meh, I never had anything driving me nuts when I tried out envies in stores. I don't use my tumb to click (frankly it's a retarded habit to do so when 99,9% of the trackpads out here are supporting double tapping as left click).
I never had troubles using only one finger on a trackpad to do everything. Eventually I use the thumb to right click but on most laptop its easier and faster to just hit with your ring finger the right click key that's near the right alt button. My only concern is the multitouch gestures precision. I didn't tried them out in store because I didn't even know they were there lol.

 

I think that is a personal preference. I've found many times a double tap won't register for me, and I (and I'm sure many others) like the tactile feedback of an actual click.

 

I wish the envy had a dot thing in the middle of the keyboard. Just a different color then red. maybe black? I love using those dots on business laptops =]

 

Yea I understand that double tap often doesn't register on crappy touchpad laptops (even tho most of the time it is just a problem fixed by setting the right double tap interval in the driver) but this is an ENVY ! And on envy aswell theres no physical button to click, so you may aswell drop that habit if it happens to be unfixable.
And what was said right before is interesting, it sounds logic also, HP certainly have custom profiles to go with the synaptic drivers. Sadly I think most of their tweaks are hidden... If you don't manage to reproduce perfect trackpad with wrote down settings you can recover try saving the synaptics driver folders.

 

Using your finger to do everything including tapping seems a little dainty. I prefer buttons. It's going to be hard to break people's atleast decade old habits. Clicking with your thumb is just what 99.99999% of laptop users do. Doubling tapping is a very recent approach and still haven't replace the thumb click.

I don't get it. Synaptics has been doing this for a very long time. I thought they even invented the trackpad. Even Apple used them till the last few MBPs. Yet, Apple's current trackpads is light years better than Synaptics. Are those guys lazy or incompetent?

 

I think I am the odd man out, but I use both hands to use my trackpad. I use one index finger to move my curser, then I leave my other index finger on the left click button to click.

Will I have a problem doing this on the envy14's trackpad?

 

I guess we'll find out. Perhaps ask the Envy 17 users? Despite what HP said, I'm assuming the Envy 14 and the Envy 17 will have the exact same touchpad and drivers-- there's no real reason they wouldn't.

 

I also wanted to include a note about SSDs for those that are still on the fence.

First, for anyone that hasn't done any research on them before, SSDs are a relatively new (at least new in the mainstream) technology that uses flash memory rather than magnetic disks to store data. Think of them as a REALLY big flash drive, but with much more durable flash memory and a much smarter controller that directs where each bit of data goes. Due to the different technology, solid state disks do not have any moving parts, and thus will not cause any vibration. They can take far more physical abuse (dropped laptop, for example) than HDDs, and they generally consume less power and produce less heat than their moving counterparts. Flash memory chips (or the cells within them) do eventually wear out after being written to many times, but generally speaking, it would take a LOT of write cycles to kill or cripple a drive. Unless you're using it in a server that's constantly doing disk I/O, you're more likely to encounter a dead HDD than you are to prematurely wear out a SSD. After all, even if it does degrade or wear out in 4-5 years (unlikely), there'll be far better technology available for a much better price and higher capacity to replace it.

SSDs can give an amazing boost in general system performance, but it highly depends on what you're expecting. The primary boost comes in the form of faster boot and shutdown and faster application launch. You know how you have to wait a few seconds after double clicking an icon to launch a program, staring at the spinning hour glass for a moment? That's due to the time it takes to read the program off of your hard drive and load it (or parts of it) into memory. That delay is mostly eliminated with SSDs. While it may seem like a very minor point (after all, the hour glass isn't the end of the world), no longer being subjected to the "usual" delay really gives the system a great feeling of snappiness and overall performance.

However, SSDs will NOT increase performance that's dictated by other components. For example, games are generally limited by the graphics card, and sometimes by the CPU or memory. Yes, you may see a boost in the form of less stuttering as the game retrieves textures and other data off the hard disk (since the SSD is much faster), but it won't be night-and-day. A good 7200 RPM hard drive should work fine if your primary focus is launching an application that doesn't constantly read from or write to the primary storage device.

Since SSDs work differently from HDDs, a few other things need to be taken into consideration. First, SSDs must have some free space left for wear leveling. Wear leveling is a function of the SSD's controller which targets different flash memory chips in order to share the load, preventing certain chips from "burning out" before others. You should generally leave 10-20% of the SSD as free space at all times. Second, SSDs do not need to be defragmented; Windows 7 will automatically turn off defrag for SSDs, but you will need to do this manually if you decide to install Windows Xp or other operating systems instead. Third, the performance of an SSD degrades slowly over time, up to a point (usually they lose about 10-30% of their initial performance, depending on the drive, flash memory, controller, etc.). Most of the performance can be recovered with a special command called TRIM, or another form of automatic garbage collection. Without going into specifics, you should always buy a TRIM-enabled drive (for example, Intel X25-M G1s are not capable of TRIM, while X25-M G2s are) and update to the latest firmware. To my knowledge, Windows 7 is currently the only operating system that will pass the TRIM command, and there are no plans to add it to Xp or Vista (so only drives with their own form of garbage collection will regain performance).

Finally, there are several different SSD controller, and they all have different advantages and disadvantages. Probably the most well known is the Intel SSDs which have excellent random reads and decent sequential reads; their sequential writes are acceptable, but aren't up to par with other competitors. Indilinx SSDs, such as OCZ Vertex (1), Agility (1), and several others are another good choice, and tend to have better sequential than Intel drives, but worst random reads / writes. A newer player, Sandforce, such as the OCZ Vertex 2, Agility 2, etc., are currently very promising in most of their stats but still aren't completely proven in the field. Samsung-based drives tend to have excellent sequential stats but rather poor random reads / writes, and I generally don't recommend them. There are other types of drive controllers such as Jmicron (early models should be avoided like the plague) and Micron, but I have little experience with them and can't really comment.

So is a solid state disk right for you? If you have the money, definitely. I own an X25-M G2 160GB and 80GB and they've made a world of difference in both of my systems. My current laptop is an ASUS UL30A-A2 with a 1.3GHz CULV processor, integrated 4500MHD graphics, 4GB DDR2, etc. and it feels much snappier than my girlfriends XPS M1530 with a faster processor (2.26GHz, IIRC) and graphics card. You will need to take the smaller amount of available space into consideration, and I HIGHLY recommend at least getting a 120GB SSD (160 would be even better). With the 80GB in my desktop, I only have the OS and a few programs such as Microsoft Office and Photoshop installed. It's still about 60% empty, but that still goes to show you that you can't cram it full of games, media, or other programs. One option is to make use of the very handy USB 2.0 / eSATA combo port that HP conveniently places on the Envy 14, and buy a 2.5" external HDD enclosure with a USB 2.0 / eSATA combo port as well (AKA "powered eSATA" or "power-over-eSATA"). Then, you can grab a 500GB+, 7200 RPM hard drive and stuff whatever you want on it.

I hope this helps people who are still confused about SSDs or can't decide if it's worth $315. In regards to the 256GB SSD, I wouldn't grab it until I knew for sure who puts it out. My guess is that it's a Samsung-based drive, meaning that the Intel 160GB should be a bit better in terms of "snappiness."

 

I've also been railing against Synaptics for a long time now. It's no wonder the value of their stock is now in question as they've lost quite a few lucrative mobile phone touchscreen contracts to emerging competitors. I'm of the opinion that there should be more than just one touchpad software maker.

 

Well yeah synaptics was kind of lazy last years (or the last 10 years ?)...
But in january they presented their new 4 finger multitouch palm ignoring trackpad built into... an HP envy.

Who knows... untill someone reviews the envy 14 it's kind of in the air if it is the same envy 17 two finger trackpad or the new one synaptics finished ealier this year... Since hp didn't advertise the trackpad there's a big chance it's the old one. But when you come to think about synaptics who are such failures in marketing and advertisement... who knows...

Don't forget you can add scrybe software to synaptic touchpads to gain some more functions.

 

Yeah, I experimented with it a bit. I can't see myself using too many of the webpage-opening gestures. At the end of the day, it's all about making sure two-finger scrolling works as it should and that I can right-click when needed. A real bonus would be inertial scrolling and the ability to activate Aero peek via a three or four-finger gesture.

 

In one of windows 7 release candidat there was a trackpad gesture for aero peek, I don't know if it's implemented in the current windows 7 though.
"Swipe finger across the taskbar and it will trigger Aero Peek" they said.

 

Not bad at all if it's available. I prefer OSX's ability to activate Expose by swiping 4 fingers down and minimize/hide everything to the top by swiping 4 fingers upward. I won't whine if I can't do the same with the Envy 14.

 

To be fair, there are plenty of other ways to do most of the things that multi-touch gestures do. Maybe I'm behind the times (single touch touchpad on my current laptop, rarely used, Nokia brick phone, cheap little button-based MP3 player), but I find it easy enough to do what I want without gestures...

 

That much is clear. Some of us just like experimenting with and utilizing different methods. I'd like to do away with the mouse, one clear benefit a fluid multitouch touchpad offers.

 

I disagree. I've had a crappy blue tooth mouse for ages. I haven't touched my touch pad for years so...

I have ZERO NEED for a touch pad EVER.

EVER.
Last time I used it I had my laptop on my stomach probably a year ago for ten seconds. Then I grabbed the bluetooth mouse. not difficult

 

With what and whom?

 

I played with the envy 13 at the store as well and experienced its horrible trackpad; the main problem is if you like to rest your thumb on the trackpad to click, the trackpad registers the slight movements of your thumb and makes the cursor super jittery. However I posted my experience in the envy 15 owners lounge and got this reply

Can anyone else confirm that the trackpad is fixed with the newer drivers?

 

No definite info except youtube vid interviews in which HP employees claim they're working closely with Synaptics on software.

 

Not from what I've heard, though I've seen a few threads breaking down how to tweak your settings so the trackpad works much better than the stock settings. There have been people suggesting that newer drivers might solve a lot of the issues, though I'm not clear whether that's a potential future solution or a current solution.

 

Dudes i just checked out the machine and it comes with a quad core i7 as a option!! Awesome i might be jumping on this but the battery life has too be something else meaning pretty good with two 8 cell batteries or the 6 cell slice. I can get some long battery life from the m11x but the problem is that i realized when i am also gaming my arms begin to ache and i have read about that before, plus that high res screen is going to be awesome and like owning my sony vaio Z again. This is going to be awesome in terms something quite small with a quad core.

 

4th of July Sale seems not to be applied on the Envy 14...well I will wait for a BCB 25% - it HAS to come.

Anyway, the LOGIC50 coupon is great, a good start before applying BCB.

 

When are these SSD's going to become affordable and have adequate memory? The 160GB on the E14 looks nice, but spending $325 for that little space is hard to justify.

 

I have been following the envy posts a long time now, I want to bring some wisdom to you all and clear up some things, you can put this in the FAQ if you like.

For the best bang for your buck, take the +$40 upgrade to a 500GB 7200RPM HDD, take the +$1 norton, and then leave the rest at base configuration. For CPU pick the i3 370M, or if you want a quad pick an 720QM or 840QM. The 740QM is not an economically viable choice.

I will explain why in detail.


--OS---
It's cheaper to upgrade the OS later using a windows "anytime upgrade" you buy on amazon.com or newegg.

---CPU---
Your CPU choice is pretty easy, you only must decide if you want a dual core arrandale or a quad core clarksfield. A clarksfield is twice as powerful, but since it has no integrated graphics you will have much worse battery life, and should definitely order a spare main battery or the slice battery if you go this route.

Other than that, the offered CPU's are all going to yield similar performance because they only vary by a few hundred Mhz, when not comparing apples to oranges (arrandale to clarksfield).

You could perhaps upgrade a year or two later when prices come down, but in Q4 of this year we will see the last of the current generation chips before intel moves on to the sandy bridge CPU architecture. Because of this the prices may not come down very much, as they are the final batch of chips and history shows that they tend to keep their value. So for people wanting a quadcore it may be wise to upgrade the CPU right now to the 840QM as that will be the last offered mainstream clarksfield and buying it now gives you a reasonable price. For people that want to upgrade to the final arrandales it is too bad but HP isn't offering any of them so it's best to stick with an i3 370M and get your upgrade later, the 450M and 520M are not terribly faster and not really worth the price for such an intermediate upgrade.

Recommended future envy14 CPU upgrades...
Quad: i7 840QM, i7 940XM extreme.
Dual : i5 560M, i5 580M, i7 620M, i7 640M.

CPU roadmap
Leaked Intel roadmap reveals six new notebook CPUs for 2010, better battery life in 2011 -- Engadget


---RAM---
1066Mhz RAM is not a bottleneck for an Arrandale CPU, some people were complaining about HP using it, don't worry people! Clarksfield CPU's can take advantage of 1333Mhz, HP is surely aware of this and using it.

Your best choice is either 4GB or 8GB (2 Dimm). If you want to upgrade later to 8GB, it's better to just buy a matched pair later, because RAM is very fussy and you should not mix and match it. Not to mention there is a fairly significant 5% performance hit with only a single stick of RAM since it can't operate in dual channel mode.

---HDD---
You want the 500GB 7200RPM drive. The 640GB spins slower, isn't much larger, and costs more money. If you have money to burn, get the SSD. An advantage of having a large HDD is that you can store ISO images of your DVD collection on it, and not have to carry around disks with you. An SSD drive is faster and less prone to physical damage due to no moving parts, however if the SSD drive does fail you can lose all your data and have no chance to recover it, whereas a standard disk if it fails, it is not usually that big a deal and you can recover most of your data.


---WWAN---
It's a cool and unique feature but you probably don't need it unless you live in a rural area.


---Battery---
Some people are complaining about the slice battery being ONLY a 6 cell while the main envy14 battery is an 8 cell. BUT, if you pay attention, the specifications show that the slice battery is 62Whr, while the main battery is in fact 59Whr... This means that the slice battery will last just as long as a standard battery. Unfortunately, it costs $200 at the moment, better to wait and buy one later. The main envy battery is easily accessible under a hatch so you could carry a spare one, they are going for $75 which is a good deal.

---Promotions---
Norton for $1 woohoo, might as well get it.

FREE Upgrade to Computrace LoJack, 4Yrs for $50: This is a $200 value, if you aren't going to get theft insurance then this would be a good idea to get. It is integrated into your BIOS, so it will survive a disk wipe and OS reinstall, and even if a whole new disk drive was installed it would survive... it lives inside the BIOS and NVRAM on the motherboard, even a real smart hacker would have trouble to defeat it. The bad thing is that it is essentially a rootkit and is going to be continually running in the background eating resources and spying on you and phoning home as you use your own computer, and it cannot ever be uninstalled once it is activated, do you trust the people at computrace that much? They will have full control over your computer, including the webcam. Someone could be abusing their oversight powers and you wouldnt even know, creepy huh.

---HP total care---
I think instead of buying an ADH plan from HP, a smarter thing to buy is a laptop insurance plan from safeware.com or worthavegroup.com (coupon code tenoff for 10% discount at worthave), those plans will cover accidental damage as well as theft! This is much better than relying on lojack, because you don't need to worry if a criminal would ruin or destroy your computer or even if he ever gets caught, because you will get a replacement no matter what. Lojack simply returns you your laptop, damaged or not.

You will already have a normal 1yr factory warranty from HP for free, and if you buy from HP with a credit card that is likely to be extended out to a 2yr warranty for free, and this covers your material defects/workmanship.

The ADH plans from HP give you in-home repair, whereas buying 3rd party insurance you have to mail the laptop out for repairs, that is a drawback. Insurance is more flexible though, for instance if you upgrade the computer you can choose to cover these new parts under the plan. Buying the insurance could even be cheaper to do, depending where you get it from.



---Available Accessories for ENVY14---
HP HDMI to VGA Adapter
6-cell Slim Fit Extended-Life Battery (62Whr)
8-Cell Lithium-Ion (59Whr) (main battery)
Notebook sleeves, which include an exterior pocket
2.4 GHz wireless notebook mice, start at $29.99.
HP USB Media Docking Station - VY847AA#ABA ... HP USB Media Docking Station | HP® Official Store
HP USB Media Port Replicator - VY843AA#ABA ... HP USB Media Port Replicator | HP® Official Store
HP USB Essentials Port Replicator - NK398AA#ABA ... HP Essential USB Port Replicator | HP® Official Store
HP 16 Black/Blue Notebook Sleeve - VZ345AA#ABA
HP 2.4GHz Wireless Optical Mobile Mouse - VK481AA#ABA


---ENVY14 Physical attributes and I/O---
Dimensions: 14.01" x 9.33" x 1.11" inches
Weight: 5.25 lbs
Left: Slot load DVD, USB 2.0 (x2), audio jack, audio/mic jack
Right: HDD activity LED, USB 2.0/ESATA, HDMI, Minidisplay, Kensington Lock, Ethernet, Fan exhaust port, AC Power port
Front: card reader, speakers
Back: Fan exhaust port
Internal: 720p HD webcam with infrared nightvision, Wireless N, Bluetooth, 3G WWAN ATT/Verizon.

Notes:
no USB 3.0, no blueray option, no 1080p option, no anti-glare option, no firewire, no expresscard, no pcmcia, no VGA (without adapter).


---Rumors---
The quad core clarksfield envy14 has USB 3.0 (this might be true if it has a different chipset/motherboard... I doubt it though)

The CPU will be non-replaceable (doubt this, but it will probably void your warranty if you do replace it)

Having the screen open will obstruct the rear exhaust port (could be true)

Did I miss any more rumors?

 

Some things in your post are debatable and makes recommendations that may not be suitable to a larger audience. So I won't link it to the FAQ yet.

In particular, the 500GB 7200RPM versus the 6400GB 5400 RPM. Truth is transfer speeds will be very close. So close in fact, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference in real world use. Rotation speed isn't the determining factor. It's rotation speed in conjunction with aural density that makes the difference. The 640GB is more dense per platter which compensates for the 5400RPM speed. It will usually be quieter also.

 

I don't know if newegg still has the sale on but its a G1 intel ssd 80 gig drive, 220 read and 160 write quite fast. This machine takes 2'5 drives correct? If so then it be awesome to have a intel 160 gig drive X25M and a 750 gig for storage since that is still 9.5M thick standard drive. Newbie fellow this sounds awesome and i am probably going to jump on this if the rumor with the usb 3.0 is true i still probably will but it would be awesome to compete with the Sony Vaio Z with a 13.3 that comes with a 1080P screen and still the only one so i probably will just wait on this for some time. All of these things will be probably with the second gen. Reasons for going for something like this is to have a quad core cpu in something this small, kinda heavy for a 14 i have to say though, but still a great option to have and also better for an ultraportable that is going to change everything, real true competition to the other notebooks in this category.

 

my envy is now in production, i have 2 day shipping (i am currently without a computer, read sig)

 

Eh, is the CPU even upgradeable? I thought it was soldered to the mobo and you'd need a full mobo swap as well? That's no easy feat. Recommending to go with the i3-370m only to upgrade later is bad advice IMHO.

Usually it's best to order the CPU, GPU, and display that best suits you, because those are the most difficult and costly upgrades to do. RAM, HDD / SSD, and ODD are usually fairly inexpensive and simple(r) to upgrade.

Regarding SSD's, I have my own personal take on it but I'll put that aside. If you can afford an SSD and don't need the more storage space offered by an HDD, by all means, go the SSD route. However, if you're debating between an SSD and skimping on the CPU, then I think the best path is to go with the better CPU and get an HDD. Update to an SSD later.

Finally, regarding RAM, go with 4GB (two 2GB sticks) if you aren't sure what to do. You should already know if you'll need 8GB RAM. RAM always gets cheaper and is easy to upgrade later. Also note that you can sell your two 2GB sticks when you upgrade to offset costs of the new RAM you put in there.

 

This in particular is good advice. There are much better SSDs out there than what HP is peddling. One is generally better off upgrading to SSD on their terms later after having done the proper research.

 

That's the thing. Most hard drives are to the point that performance differences are somewhat minimal. SSD's on the other hand are all over the place. Some are better at sequential read/writes, others at random read/writes. Personally, I'm perplexed by all the differences. I'd say take a stroll to the SSD thread in the hardware upgrades section here at NBR as a good starting point.

 

I think for most people, the Intel X-25M (80GB / 160GB) and Intel/Kingston 40GB drives are the best choices re SSD's.

They are all tried and tested drives, proven to be right up there in terms of performance (maybe not top, but close enough to have little or no noticeable difference). They are also great value and reliable.

I dont know every single drive and model, but im fairly up to date, and there is going to be a 80GB Intel inside my NV14 Would deffintely recommend everyone looking at a SSD upgrade considers the same

 

Omg...still no review

 

Anyone heard anything about UK release?

 

I rang hp uk and told to a sales person "e said he "i didn't think the hp envy was going to be release in the uk" at which point i hung up.

 

Someone here said HP told him the CPU is not going to be upgradeable without a mobo swap, same guy said quad core laptops will have usb 3.0. I am regarding those as rumors since its not been confirmed and seems very unlikely.

I for one am really disappointed that they aren't offering the i7 620M, but I will do the upgrade myself later if its possible. The less tech savvy can pay a tech to do this for them at a repair shop, they don't have to do it themselves of course =)

 

Yeah, that was me, but I would also regard the info as speculation, as it very well might be incorrect or some sort of dishonest sales pitch in which case I will be demanding more money!!!

 

Definitely possible, but you'll end up paying twice as much later as you would getting something better now because you'll be paying for a full mobo with CPU and labor time. Where hard drive / ssd you can do a swap fairly quickly later on and will cost much less than it does today, same goes for RAM.

 

Well I think the 160GB option, given it's a G2 Intel SSD (as seen in Most E17) for $315 and atleast 10% off to ~$275 is a superb price. If you upgrade later on your own terms, that's $400 purchase.. not to mention you get the coverage of HP on it. I bought a 256GB SSD from Dell in my config and it got replaced along with a brand new system when I had technical issues.

 

so what exactly is wrong with the 740QM?

 

Point taken.

 

I think the point was that a $150 upgrade to increase base and Turbo clocks by .13 GHz is excessive.

However, the 740QM being a newer processor than the 720QM, might it not have some further advantages over it, like the 450M has over the 430M? I'm not gonna go check a datasheet, but it seems like there might be more than just clock speed to think about there.

 

Hey the Envy 13 just got a a $300 coupon so you can get

Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor and Graphics Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo SL9600(2.13GHz, 6MB L2 Cache)w/512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 4330 Graphics
Memory 3GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
Hard drive 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Display 13.1" diagonal High Definition LED HP Radiance Infinity Widescreen Display (1366x768)

For $1099

Do you guys think this is a good deal or should i just wait for a Envy 14 coupon to come along. Also do you think that processor is already obsolete and same with the graphics.

 

depends, the stock 14 is still better than that spec wise

how much does form factor and weight mean to you?

 

Aside from 133MHz speed bump, 720QM and 740QM are equal. Same can be said for 820QM and 840QM.

Funny thing is that none of them support AES new instructions.

 

@RBaile - in my opinion, yes both the CPU and GPU are non even comparable to the Envy. You can for the same price a much better i3 and ATI5650. Only go for Envy13 if you want a smaller computer.. that's about it.

 

i rang them up today too and they said the same to me... but if it is to come to the uk they said it would be a few months yet.

It is defo coming to the UK because electicpig.co.uk confirmed it with HP and HP said the base price for the UK will be £999.

 

also, will 1333 ram be that much better than 1066 for an i7? does it make any difference for an i5?

 

well the envy 14 is probably my limit in terms of size and weight, so anything lighter and smaller is a welcome feature, but i do want the processing power and if im paying over a grand for it, i kind of expect an i5.

 

this is splitting hairs

like comparing dual core to core 2 duo

actual performance > product branding

 

Yeah, I ordered it with an education discount which I couldn't get any coupons, including LOGIC50, to work with. The rep said the credit would go to my card 3-5 days after delivery. I'm a little concerned about that since I can't seem to varify it anywhere and if it doesn't show up, my complaint call may sound a little unbelievable.