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

The exact differences:


450m is a Q3 chip and has a higher DMI system bus (4.5 GT/s compared to 2.8 GT/s).

520m has the comm suite so it can do hardware AES encryption stuff (encrypted hdds) and has the VT-d stuff for multiple Virtual machines running at the same time.

520m has a higher turbo boost on one core.

they have the same turbo boost on both cores.

power draw should be the same from both.

370m and 450m don't have the 3mb intel smart cache. just a 3mb cache. But that just could be an oversight on the intel ark website

they may have just forgot to type in intel smart cache..'cause why would that be removed from the newer arrendale chips.



that's about it differences wise. ...beyond oh the 520m costing $100 more than the 450m.

 

Question: Has anyone here ever used Bill Me Later? I was going to have to wait a month to buy my envy, but I was reading the bill Me Later info and it says No Payments for 6 months, no Interest if paid in full within 6 months, which I will be able to do.
Anyone know of a Catch?

 

You have to be approved. All good as long as you have good credit.

 

I've heard nothing but bad. Google: "Bill Me Later scam", I'm sure you'll find plenty of results.

 

As I am living in Europe, I would like to order an Envy with an European keyboard. Is this possible? Has anyone experience with this?

An other solution would be, to order a replacement keyboard. Has anyone experience with this?

thanks in advance
Stefan

PS: I would pike up the laptop during a business trip to the US, Unfortunately it is not possible to configure the laptop in Europe.

 

I'm wondering when we'll see the battery slice for sale through HP, without purchasing the Envy 14.

The more I mull over it, the more I think I might need it. I'm starting to think maybe Amazon's estimates of 3.25 hours of battery life on the Envy 14 really might not be that far off, even on the iGPU.

 

When my Envy arrives, the first thing I plan on doing is a clean install (I will pull the HD keeping it factory original, then drop in an SSD). I see that day 1, HP had a download page up with some of the necessary drivers (impressive). I would be interested in the instruction / experiences of others, with fresh installs on this model.... as these things arrive on doorsteps.

 

I keep looking at that page hoping I will get some discernable info to help me decide between the 370/430/450 and I can't get anything!

 

All well, it seems I can't use Bill Me Later anyways, I don't have good enough Credit >.<

 

What do you plan to do with your Envy 14?

 

i asked in Currys and they have no idea of the release date but estimate July or August, they said a price of £999.

I have been ringing HP quite alot as well lately hoping that one of the peeps on the phone is gonna be give more than basic knowledge of the company and its products and they still know S**T as they are even saying to me it might not come to the UK wen an executive has already confirmed it will. So no luck there.

Anything you find on the UK site when searching for the envy 14 such as model numbers and specifications arent relevant to us. the model number has to end in either "ea" or "sa" to be a UK configuration which none on the site are they are just "tx" models mainly which is Taiwan i think.

Upon searching and stated by others the list of Envy 14 models to be released only one model relates to the UK model code being the 14-1050ea which the UK site hasnt yet revealed the specs to.

I cant see the only UK version having a resolution lower than the 1600x900 promised as there was so much talk towards HP to why the UK didnt get the 1080p screen on the Envy 15 like the US.

 

well imo 430m is the low end of that totem pole.

it's got a slower base. turbo boosts to 2.53 ghz but still. it won't always be turbo boosting, especially if the laptop gets hot.


370m is about equal to 450m. but I'd give 450m a bit of a nudge above the 370m.

520m...ehhh...I bought it. I'll see how it does.

 

I don't plan on doing anything resource intensive, just every-day computing, probably with a preference for longer battery life than performance. However I like to keep my computers for as long as possible (coming up on 7 years for my last laptop), so I sometimes consider overbuying a little in the hopes that I will get a little more life out of them. Money no object (in my mind) considering it's only $75 difference between the 3.

 

Not unless you consider everyone posting what they ordered interesting..

 

Welcome to the club! You have much company indeed!

 

That being said, most definitely go with the i5-450M. I think I'll be going with the i5-450M as well. I don't think I can pay up the extra $100 for the i5-520M...

 

Damn. I didn't think this thread would go up to 160 something pages.

People that are still asking for coupons:

YOUR WAIT WILL BE LONG, OR OTHERWISE FUTILE.

1) Envy14 is a hot item on the market right now. It competes with the hottest laptop (MBP), and they have no reason to reduce prices, if so many people are already purchasing it.
2) It was just released, and sales are still hot. Who knows when the monthly sales will decrease and they'll try to motivate more people to start buying E14 again.
3) I spoke with a representative on the day of release. She said coupons wouldn't be available for a while, and the E14 was so popular already on the first day, that they expect delays in making & shipping if ordered any later.

So if you are like me, a guy who's been waiting for the E14 ever since info was leaked months ago, but disappointed that the price was bumped up a $100, with a fricken i3 instead of the i5 they promised, but still want it, JUST GET IT.

Or you can wait. FOREVER.

 

It seems they've greatly increased their credit standards. That's unfortunate too. It was a great program. The sad thing is that I used them fairly regularly, and always paid on time and paid off early, but I guess that doesn't matter. I was rejected too. How silly.

 

Reps have no clue when coupons will be released. Other laptop launches had coupons very soon after if not day of release.

Who knows if sales are hot? I haven't seen anything that says one way or the other. It's popular here, but that doesn't mean everything.

If you need it now though, order it now, if not, can't hurt to wait a week or two.

 

I apparently needed it now.

...'cause now 7 is saying "you may want to replace your battery"


oh windows 7. you sure know how to kill 3 and half year old batteries dead. ....or well..the battery being 3 and a half years old and the computer running hot can do that too.

Poor thing idles at 58-60 degrees Celsius. Everything does more or less. except for the gpu (67).

 

Do you currently have BML? I currently have it linked in paypal. Did you mean you tried to buy an Envy 14 using BML and it rejected it? I've been thinking about putting it on the BML account I have, but I know they go through soft checks everytime an order is placed through them. is this where you were rejected.

 

Here are the differences between the 450 and 540...

i5-450:
~ 4.8GT/sec System Bus (DMI)
~ 2.66 GHz Max Single Core Turbo Boost
~ Standard Cache (1.5MB Cache per core)

i5-520:
~ 2.5GT/sec System Bus (DMI)
~ 2.93 GHz Max Single Core Turbo Boost
~ Intel® Smart Cache (3MB cache dynamically split between both cores)
+ Intel® Virtualization Technology (running 2 operating systems at a time)
+ Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (something about security)
+ AES New Instructions (better encryption, so better security)

(~ differs, + additional)

 

If the Envy 14 was that hot, one would think HP would be pushing more marketing press and also advertising it on their front page with the other hot deals. At this point, unless you were specifically following this laptop you wouldn't even know it's released until you navigate to it specifically on their website.

 

Thanks, I think that is what I will end up doing.

 

Im not sure why, but this waiting after placing the order is WAY harder than the waiting was for it to be released. And, I actually thought it would be the other way around.

 

well, if they made it aluminum, you'll have a hard time accessing the internals...

 

Smartcache on i5xx is commercial BS, core 2 duos already had smart caches. Actually this SmartCache TM copyright is just a split cache with a little better splitting algorithm than their older cache sharing. It probably accounts for nothing since no one ever even tried to bench or discuss that caching difference.
That said the 4xxm and i3's can all use as much cache as the higher processors. It's just the caching algorithme difference that intel is branding for "WHOA AWESOME THIS IS SO NEW" while this is on all intel double cores even since the second or third generation of intel dual cores.
A reason it might be removed from newer arrandale may even be that the new algorithms are in fact less performant than the old ones in some cases of multitasking while it's perf gain is ridiculous on some others...

As for magnesium bottom...
- Ugly ? Well who looks at the underneath of a laptop anyway...
- Unibody is copyrighted by apple.
+ You're not burning your lap with high heat conductive metal... (remember 5 minutes at 50°C on bare skin = 1st degree burn)
+ Heat goes away by the ways it should, aka fans and aluminium parts of the computer that won't touch skin.
+ You can add the slice battery without scratches. Imagine aluminium slice on aluminium bottom lol ?

 

Considering the price of upgrading the processor. My recommendations are 450m>520>370>430. The 520 has the extra stuff for tech savvy people to use AES, but I dont know how and dont think I'll ever need it. 450=520 in dual core speed and thats the most important part. The turbo boost is only slightly lower in the 450 and thats just for the single core clock speed. 450 is better cause its 100 cheaper. 430 is just old and slow compared to the rest. 370 is really good as well for its price, no turbo boost but 2.4 ghz dual and single, so the dual is equal to the higher end ones.

 

has anyone figured out what the deal with amazon is with the WQ784UA#ABA model? is that display resolution a typo?

 

If you are referring to me, I never said I thought the bottom should be aluminum...but black kills the look, and you can see it form the edges of the unit as seen in the slideshow..about 8 pictures down. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hp_pc/sets/72157623953419362/show/

I just don't get why they didn't do it like the Envy 15 with the matching silver bottom.

 

I dont mind the black bottom, but the all silver look of the Envy 15 also doesnt look back..

Anyways, I think its more honest for the plasic bottom to look black.. At least its smooth black plastic without all the knick knack of so many other notebooks...

 

I dissagree. Having the Envy 17 the last few weeks, I prefer the black bottom to my GF's MBP 17. The contrasting colors look nice. It looks a lot better in person than in pics IMO, so try not to get too hung up on the bottom.

I would have loved my E17 if not for the ridiculous heat issues. I may swap it for an e14, but am worried about the same. Getting anything over an i5 and not using an SSD are both not options IMO with a metal case, unless you plan to use an external keyboard. BTW, does anyone have a schematic of the e14 layout; where HD, GPU and CPU are located? is it the same top left solo exhaust?

 

not sure about where everything is located. Just that the ram and hdd are very easy to reach (unscrew one thing and you can get to both of 'em).


also there apparently are two exhausts. the one in the rear and the one on the right.

 

PC World says "Of course, a good laptop is more than the sum of its hardware specs, and we haven't had a chance to review the Envy 14 just yet. We're anxious to put it through its paces and you'll see a review here as soon as we can."

When is that gonna be?! ahhhh lol, I'm going crazy due to lack of developments

 

I'm looking to buy an external monitor to go with this. Can someone remind of what kind of output the Envy has? Is it just HDMI out?

 

I was just looking at a latitude E5410 and I noticed that the price difference between the 450M and 520M is only $30. Why is that? Assuming that Intel sells them their CPUs at the same price the price difference between the two models should be same for Dell and HP.

 

Sasha Muller (PC World Reviewer) Says:

 

There's also a Mini DisplayPort.

 

Well if we're on the topic of potential reviews, I noticed this in the comments section from some of the Anandtech writers:

"As for the Envy, I've asked multiple times to get one of the Envy laptops, and so far no luck. We've recently had HP ship us a couple business laptops, but they haven't sent out consumer stuff for review in quite a while for some reason. So unless that changes, it's unlikely we'll get an Envy review. :-( "

"It's my understanding this isn't at all unusual. I started doing reviews at NotebookReview.com (and still write there regularly), and I've also written for Tech Report. HP tends to be extremely cagey with review hardware of any kind (Sony's even worse that way). Personally I don't think that does them any favors at all; Dell and Acer for example are both extremely forthcoming and proactive about getting review kit in the hands of reviewers."

 

As much as I want this laptop as soon as possible, I want to wait and see how hot the bottom of the laptop gets, battery life and if the trackpad issues have been resolved.

I have a feeling that most likely the issues on the trackpad are still going to present to some degree, however I will be interested in how actual owners feel about it.

 

I suppose the major reviewers could just buy them with expedited shipping ike the rest of us. I don't think there would be anything stopping them from releasing a review if they were never given a "review unit".

 

Did anyone actually try to buy the hp gift cards with the 25% BCB and get it to work? There was a ton of discussion in the other thread about that. I figured it would never work, given the conditions of BCB.

 

nice find i have actually visited that site before i have left comments as the person who wrote the article was giving incorrect information and i couldnt have them talk wrong about the 14 lol. So looks like an August release just as Currys had estimated.

 

Ive gone through a few pages, but Can't find it.

Does anyone know when the envy 14 will be released in Canada, and how much they will mark up the price?

Thanks

 

I still cannot find a good skin for the computer.
I really want to cover up those etchings...

Can anyone help me with some sites that came out with envy specific etching covering skins?

I've found a couple sites, none were very high-qual though,

 

Review units in late July? That times with the end of BCB. In other words HP wants people to scoop up this laptop now instead of waiting for a potential BCB deal. After July their sales will probably drop off, so they don't want any potential negative reviews right now. Makes sense.

 

I'm not surprised at what I've seen in the past 10 pages. The reports of HP being stingy with review units just confirms my suspicions. Seems to me HP's worried about receiving bad press at launch date. If a company is confident about the merits of its product and that the negatives will be outweighed by the positives, they should be scrambling to get reviews out ASAP. Guess some people didn't get the memo when the benefits of free speech were first put on paper.

 

I don't think BCB is making enough of a difference anyway. The pent-up demand and hype associated with new product launches is what's driving sales, not the usual 5-10% BCB.

 

agreed, a majority of buyers don't even know what bing cashback is. even in this thread, i bet a large majority of readers only knew about BCB from reading this thread

 

Hence part of the reason Microsoft's killing their BCB program. The people who DO know about BCB just log in to get the cashback, but for the most part aren't compelled to use BCB over Google. BCB as a whole just didn't accomplish what it set out to do, which was to attract new regular users.