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

Since, it's not a secret on this forum anymore. You can buy it at Microcenter for $799. Micro Center - Acer Aspire Timeline AS4820TG-5637 - Carbon Black LX.PSE02.227

 

Dang that seems like a pretty good deal. I've played with some of acers laptops at the store and really dig the lightness and thinness. They seem fairly solid considering how thin it is, i think at least part of it is constructed with metal.

Any reviews out for it?

 

Wow. I was sooo close to shelling out for an Envy 14 and then I saw that the 4820TGs were available at MicroCenter in the US now....

The most important things to me are battery life and weight... But i would like a strong CPU as well. How does the i3 350 stack up to say the i5 450 (what i was planning to stick in my Envy)?

Can someone do me a favor and present a convincing argument for one or the other so I can stop spending all day thinking about this.

Many Thanks!

 

The way I think about it is for a little bit more, you get a better processor, a much better screen with a higher resolution, and a better build quality. I am tired of laptops being made of plastic and feeling cheap, so that is a big draw for me with the envy, because its all metal and gorgeous looking.

But out of all of those things, the screen is the most important. I am a web designer so I need a high quality screen with a good resolution.

just my 2cents =]

 

Anandtech just came out with a mobile buyer's guide...
HP's were not included, but the envy did get a mention

"All is not lost for HP, as their ENVY products have good build quality and look nice; find one of HP's periodic sales and the ENVY line is worth considering, but at the current prices it's substantially more expensive than the competition."

Pretty accurate lol

 

I agree. I was initially interested in the 3820tg/4820tg but I wanted something with a better build quality. After some more research, I ran into the Envy 14 and it has everything I want.

 

i know that the 160gb ssd is the intel x25 g2 but do any of you know what drive the 256gb option is?
i have an unlimited budget for any laptop and am torn between the envy 14 fully maxed or the vaio z mostly maxed.
I like how light the vaio is but the envy is more streamlined and a 330m is simply not good enough as i play a decent amount of pc games and would appreciate the 5650m
any other laptop suggestions (metal body, good graphics, thin and light at least core i5) would be appreciated

thanks in advance guys

 

Yea they are a little more, but I cant find ANY other option out there for me. My requirements are: good for gaming, portable and sleek, and a high res screen. I cant find anything else that fit these criteria.

 

Well, I own the 4820TG and the screen is pretty nice; however, it has bad viewing angles like every other budget laptop. To me, 1366x768 is the perfect resolution for a 14" widescreen. The Envy 14 has a 14.5" widescreen so 1600x900 is the perfect resolution for that specific laptop.

The 4820TG is actually built quite well. The lid is black brushed aluminium, the wrist placement is silver aluminum with shiny black plastic outlaying the keyboard, and the base of the laptop is hard plastic. However, the laptop has a luxury look to it and doesn't look cheap or feel cheap at all.

Last, but not least, the price difference of $799 and Envy 14's base price of $1,099.99 is quite large unless you use Bing Cash Back or a student discount.

 

Same. It's perfect.
I emailed HP earlier today and asked a bunch of questions, including what brand/model the 256 GB ssd is, so hopefully they have an answer for me soon

 

I could have bought a 4820TG with i5 CPU about two month ago here in Germany.

My reason to wait for Envy 14 was the better screen of Envy compared to Acer.
Some reviews of 4820TG showed avarage brightness and low contrast for the screen.

If screen quality is not as important for you, just go for the cheaper Acer.

 

Ha, and here I was about to toss out the obligatory "if the 4820TG ever makes it to North America" post. That really is a pretty stellar deal, but my little hands-on time with a 4820T was rather disappointing - I hated the screen (then again, I'm used to 16:10), the build quality seemed iffy, and the overall impression I got from the laptop's physical aspect was "meh". Besides, if you were to calculate probable CTO upgrade costs to make that 4820TG the equivalent of my pending Envy 14, it would probably come much closer to what I paid anyway:

$100 from i3-350M to i5-450M
$25 for single-DIMM RAM
$100 for upgraded screen
$25 for backlit keyboard
$25 for better webcam
$50 for Corel Paintshop Photo and VideoStudio software
$100+ for improved battery life ala Slice

Envy 14 price with given setup - $1372.91 post-tax and shipping.
Imaginary 4820TG as configured above - ~$1340 post-tax and shipping.

In other words, if they offered CTO, and if they offered all of those options on the 4820TG, it would cost roughly as much as I paid for my Envy 14 to get what I'm getting on a hardware+software level, not to mention I'd much rather have the sexy, (hopefully) well-built Envy 14 than the mundane 4820TG with questionable build quality and unimpressive appearance.

The above is only marginally endorsed by NBR Forum User gcrussell1, but was fun to write and contains at least a moderate amount of validity.

 

aylafan:
What battery life do you get on your 4820TG?

 

I get 5-6 hours on power savings mode with 30 percent brightness, which uses the integrated Intel GMA. I have the 6 cell lithium battery rated at 66600 mWh.

 

tee kay
ok awesome, when you find out the brand/manufacturer of the ssd post it up here cause the 256gb is what im interested in too. otherwise ill just get the 320gb hd and buy a seperate 256gb ssd and replace it.

my build:
core i5 520: i want switchable graphics
regular 4gb ram, single stick is silly, if im gonna upgrade i want the same timing/speed ram so that dual channel works effectively
256gb ssd
and have win 7 64bit ultimate on a disk will do a full wipe

it comes out to 1839 but i think if you have the 2k to drop theres nothing as enviable (hehe) or thin with that much horsepower (z only has 330m)

 

yes, that sound reasonable. the asus u30jc had a 84 Whr (84,000 mWh) and lasted about 7-9 hours with moderate usage and wifi on.

The envy 14 is supposed to have a 59 Whr so we should expect something like 4-5 hrs

 

Here is the photo album of my 4820TG. If you were wondering how it looked like.
Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG laptop | Facebook

 

Really now? With the Envy 14 having an 8-cell battery and similar specifications, I'm thinking that's looking good for battery life!

 

So because we're all gamers here, most likely we'll plug it in anyway when gaming. Thus, do we even need the slice, since IGP will give us at least 3hours of time?

And oh! I just remembered... Will the E14 have that problem that people were talking about (in another forum which I don't recall), where if you're not plugged in, the comp will switch automatically to IGP and won't let you switch to the dedicated GPU? I SURE HOPE NOT!

 

Well, the 4820TG is smaller, thinner, and weighs less than the Envy 14. You can have the 9 cell lithium battery for the 4820TG, but I heard it looks ugly and sticks out from the bottom.

You can't go wrong with either laptop. They are both wonderful laptops.

 

So if I pricematch, will they still let me take 10% off the total via Student (Alumni) Discount? So 1170(.9)=1053+tax+8=1163.67?

 

Oh, of course. I don't think many plan to do any real gaming without an outlet nearby. I'm definitely talking about web browsing, note taking, light task battery life.

 

I ordered my E14 on Sunday afternoon and it has been in production since yesterday evening..I hope it ships by July 7 like it says!

 

it's not about the # of cells. it's all about the watt-hours.

the asus u30jc had a 84 Whr (84,000 mWh) and lasted about 7-9 hours with moderate usage and wifi on.

The envy 14 is supposed to have a 59 Whr so we should expect something like 4-5 hrs

 

Bump for help on this^ and that> And oh! I just remembered... Will the E14 have that problem that people were talking about (in another forum which I don't recall), where if you're not plugged in, the comp will switch automatically to IGP and won't let you switch to the dedicated GPU? I SURE HOPE NOT!

 

ok what the hell is the billing adress? Im using freakin credit care so why do they need an adress anyway?
I live in Canada and planning to buy with credit card and deliver to friends house in US and cross the border. What should i put the billing adress as? my friends house?

 

Ah crap: HP postponed the delivery to july 2nd here in Germany. Was june 28th originally...

 

calm down a bit there. The billing address is the address associated with your credit card. It's used mostly as a security measure to make sure the card isn't just stolen.

The billing address would be what you registered your credit card using. Your friend's house is the shipping address.

 

actually, i'd like to know the answer to this as well, just in case i'll need to use some type of engineering program w/o an outlet nearby. but i think we can only find out when the first units arrive, which will be around...next week? or the week after?

 

Yes, I'm aware of this, I just had no idea there was such a huge disparity between the number of cells and the watt-hours of notebook batteries.

Regardless, four hours is twice what my previous notebook was capable of, even after doing every possible option to extend battery life.

Though to be honest, it kind of makes me wonder if I'll need the battery slice.

 

True, but I believe that HP Direct US doesn't like non-US cards, so it might not work anyway.

 

Try buying an HP giftcard and using that for your envy. Or one of those pre-loaded visa cards.

 

I read much of the thread but I gave up because 50% was about hard drives/ssd's nonsense.

Anyway, is it possible to configure an Envy 14 with i5-520M & ATI 5650 for under $1,000? With or without coupons?

 

Maybe with BCB. HP coupons tend to vary as they often require you spend a certain amount to get a certain amount off.

 

you can choose to get either 5% bcb, 10% bcb or academic, $25 off, or $50 off coupon, none of these will stack together. beyond that, you can try weaseling $50 to $100 extra out of HP on the phone by threatening to cancel an order or redo it after its gone out to the manufacturing stage. the real discounts probably will be coming after july 20th when the first reviews will hit, after initial sales die down and the back to school rush is over and every last dime is milked from the pre-review hype where theres been nothing bad said yet, only then shall we see a real discount, i believe.

 

How useless are HP are product marketing, the launch has been just as poor, this machine is one of the best looking PC laptops on the market and it packs some killer specs, yet they barely market the things, shout about a $999 price end up deciding the epic screen should be included (which should have always been the case) and they should have just accepted that they can't entice people with a nice sub 1000 price point, they don't need to it's a great bloody laptop.

Still waiting for the quoted June release for the UK. Saying that I want to see some concrete reviews before I take the plunge, surprised HP hasn't sent out a few units to a few tech blogs to create a buzz... I might just call HP and tell them I'm taking over their marketing department.

 

And then there is the weekend to slow down delivery.. Awesome timing^^

 

Why does HP need the ETA for the reviews?
Does HP fear that people will read it and eventually cancel their orders?

The device can't be that good, if HP is just holding back the reviews...

 

I always worry when a company dont send demo units out for review before a launch, its like when a games company releases a steaming POS game, there is never a demo before release

 

Rev units have been in hand since may 5th, nobody is allowed to post a review yet though, probably have an NDA forcing them to wait, someone here pointed out earlier today a pattern of past launches that they wait exactly 20 days after the launch to publish any review, that's what I meant when I said we will have to wait until after july 20th to see the real deep discounts. They have students by the balls, its either full price right now or go a semester without a laptop to wait for the $300 off coupons, etc.

 

It'd help our worries if we had concrete evidence to support these claims. How do you know the blog websites have had units since May 5th? Is this the reason Engadget didn't respond to my query for a review?


If you're right, then I'm not surprised. It costs them virtually nothing to send out a few models. They're essentially spending a few thousand on paying bloggers to market their products albeit with the risk of getting negative press. July 17th(exactly 20 days)-20th is late to release a coupon. But it works out as it lets them capitalize on student time constraints. If that's what's going to take to ensure I get this machine at a sweetass price, I can keep using my Asus DTR for school for a few weeks from when the semester starts. I'm out of shape anyway. I just need to decide on a school ASAP so I can choose an ideal UPS location.


Still doesn't explain why the Envy 15 in the past couple of releases got generous coupons.

 

Mark Spoonauer has an e14 in his office, on video, and has been promising a review since may 5th, which was the day of the official HP press release about the e14.
HP Envy 14, Envy 17 Hands-on: MacBook Pro Wannabes No More

I don't think engaget has one, they had to rely on email tips from readers to cover the appearance of the e14 in the hp store on the 27th. And they already had done articles on the e14 and knew it was coming.
HP Envy 14 now on sale for both the washed and unwashed masses -- Engadget

original envy line was more expensive, that explains the lack of coupons on day1, a thinner profit margin. The actual cost to HP to manufacture these is very low though, it was made in china, it could be as low as $400 to $600 per unit, so they will still make a profit even at %25 off. It's only a matter of time before the initial sales numbers drop off and they roll out the discount coupons.

 

Mine is showing "in production" now. Ordered Sunday 3pm EST

 

Then you should have kept on reading.. or at least maybe read the first post. If you want to save money and barely lose out on any performance if at all get the i5-450m and save yourself $100. Then use the academic discount if you're wanting to purchase now.

 

My orders
Order summary
Order number Order date Total Description Status Tracking Number
H1******** Jun 27, 2010
$1,234.04
HP ENVY 14 customizable Notebook PC Order in production
(Estimated to ship on July 7, 2010) Tracking provided upon shipment.

This is such BS. You cant tell me it takes them this long to build and test these machines. I mean, how could it? Dell built and shipped a coworkers CTO notebook in 2 freaking days. HP's not capable of this??

Can anyone shed light on why this takes them as long as it does?

 

Is it possible to place an order for the envy14 if you do not live in the US? I'm going to NY for two weeks and I was planning to buy a laptop there. Is it possible to pay with Paypal here in the Netherlands and ship it to an adress in the US or has the adress of your paypal account be the same as the shipping adress?

 

Aylafan, great pix, thanks for posting them. But I was wondering if your Acer has a backlit keyboard when in low lighting conditions?

 

Go to Bing.com/cashback, select cashback stores, select "H" and find "HP Direct" it's 10% there...

 

Hey guys.....let's not be so hard on HP about the shipping date. Because I bet none of us will care to wait that long as long as our unit is made with care. I will wait as long as I need to in order to make sure that I didn't have any "gaps" or anything in my unit. Maybe they are learning a little something from their E17 launch. But I swear if I wait long for this and I get some piece of premium crap at my doorstep, I'm gonna tear HP a new one for getting my hopes this high!!...LOL

 

Any reviews on the Envy 14 yet?