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

I think it's about as ethical as having your staff members release youtube video's about a product giving specifics about a product and then not following through on them when the product actually gets released.

I think I'll treat them how they've treated me so far.

 

The rep (same who told me the slice weighs 3 pounds) said the 17 does not have a slice option since it would too heavy to be of practical use.

Edit: If the slice is placed on the bottom of the ENVY 14, then wont it cover up those nice ventilation slots on the bottom thus impairing cooling>

 

This is a tad off-topic, but while we're talking about processor options, is the i7-620M right now the cream of the crop as far as dual cores are concerned?

 

BTW: The amazon.com model is the 1600x900 screen.

its an incredible deal and you should check it out instead of buying through hp.com (if you dont mind waiting abit longer).

edit: damnit im late XD.

oh well, good thing i told the amazon people to clean up their act!

 

So, a couple of items for consideration.

First, the Amazon deal. It is wholly possible that the Envy 14-1010NR does indeed come with the lower resolution screen. In fact, Amazon may have reserved 5000 of them or like which put HP in a pickle for screen supply so they released their direct version with only the 1600x900 version. So, just because HP is not releasing it in their own site does not automatically mean that a 1366x768 screen is not part of the game plan. I have also noticed a similar item 1011NR which seems to be associated with Tier 2 and 3 resellers.

Second, estimated time of build. I ordered two of these laptops (one for me and one for the kids). I ordered both with the 450M since I do not plan to encrypt my hard drive or use any of the VPro Management functions. We use the 520M for our work portables but it is not necessary on a home system. That aside, my second order placed yesterday for a 450M resulted in July 9 build estimate which is a good few days faster than other processor selections. Odd. This makes me suspect that, as part of the supply chain build up, they had a lot more 450M based blanks available. Makes sense since that aligns with the pre-built SKU orders they are probably building for the resellers.

I had ordered one originally through Amazon but cancelled it in favor of one direct through HP due to the unknown surrounding the screen resolution. The $100 more for the piece of mind of knowing I got the configuration expected directly from HP is a relative bargain.

 

It's a good deal if you don't have the 10% student discount, otherwise it only saves about 50 bucks depending on tax, and you have to like that configuration.

 

it is already official on the amazon page. 6gigs of ram i5-450 and radiance display. 500gb HD. saves alot of money.

 

slice is supposed to have vent holes that line up with the vent holes on the bottom of the computer.

 

It saves around $100 compared to the student discount if you're buying from California - it's about $18 more than the base price, but includes no tax or recycling fee. In other words, a student buying in California would have to sacrifice 2GB of RAM and 180GB of HDD space (and the requisite speed increase of higher-density platters) to get the same price from HP Direct. X-factors are the uncertain screen option and the uncertain ship date.

And besides, it's a pretty good configuration. The only things it doesn't have from my config are the slice (which I hope is actually a slice, and which should be available separately soon) and the $1 Norton (which I'll probably uninstall anyway, but for $1 it's worth trying out). I would have happily gone for the Amazon version if I had known it had the Radiance screen at the time I ordered.

 

I guess you're right, I was wrong about the ENVY 17. This looks like the ENVY 17's extended battery to me:

HP Envy 14 and Envy 17 press shots - Engadget Galleries

But this is the ENVY 14's extended battery:

HP Envy 14 and Envy 17 press shots - Engadget Galleries

Then again, if they changed their minds about a $999 starting price, I suppose they could change their minds about the shape of the battery too...

Looks like I eat my words

 

Dang... THey charged my credit card so it means they are probably shipping it soon.

 

Can someone explain why the Intel SSD's have such slow write speeds when compared with an OCZ SSD?

 

Technical specs say 1600x900, Item description says 1366x768, Item PDF from HP has 1366x768. So, still a little bit of an unknown on that front so I opted for HP Direct.

 

Trust me, Intel SSDs write sufficiently fast. Furthermore, Intel controllers are very reliable and implement some error checking methods. I'm sure Sand-Force drives do as well, but I know that only old JMicron drives had problems with stuttering thus making their high write/read speeds worthless if they couldn't access the data without (really) high seek times. I really recommend reading this article.

 

im gonna hold out on amazon until its 100% confirmed

 

still, if it covers the bottom and is only a 6 cell battery, theres no way it should be 3 pounds. And if you saw them take out the 8 cell battery in youtube videos. Its freaking tiny, no need to cover the whole bottom.

 

The manufacturers generally only list the sequential read/write speeds. IMO this is very deceiving because the vast majority of tasks are going to make use of the random read/write speeds, an area which the Intel drive is far superior to most of those drives (don't know which one you're referring to specifically).

 

I doubt it is 3 lbs as well, although I should weigh my 9-cell in my Sager and see what it is. But it covers the bottom so it looks like part of the laptop, and makes it really thin.

 

Thanks for posting the article, it was an interesting read.

However I didn't see anything regarding why the Intel drive is about 100MB/s write speed, while a comparably priced OCZ drive has ~250MB/s write speed.

What is so special about the Intel drive that makes it better, even if it has slower write speeds?

People seem to really like this line of OCZ drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227543

I could see myself going for this drive just for the advantages in write speed. (even if it is 120GB vs 160GB for the comparatively priced Intel offered by HP.)

 

Looooong time reader, first time poster.

I bought the envy 14 the morning it was released, so I got the July 7th ship date.

Specs:

HP Envy 14
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-520M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
• 4GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics - For Dual Core Processors
• 14.5" diagonal HD+ HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam + Dual Digital Integrated Microphones
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• Corel(R) PaintShop Photo(TM) Pro X3 + Corel(R) VideoStudio(R) Pro X3
• Full-size island-style backlit keyboard
• One 8 Cell Lithium Ion (standard) +One 6-Cell Extended-Life Lithium-Ion Polymer Battery (over-sized)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope


The warranty was really expensive, 3 year + accidental. Ouch.

I am going to have this laptop for awhile so splurged on the SSD. I needed a slice, starting grad school this year and all books are digital... I am going to need the extra battery time. The 6-cell battery has to be the slice.

Slice was probably a ripoff, and if it really is another 3 pounds... that SUCKS. Hopefully some rep who doesnt know anything looked up the "shipping" weight of the slice.

Does anyone know how much the slice weighed for the previous models? It couldnt be THAT different.

 

Do believe its like 2.6 or something.

Edit: trying to google where i read that before

 

Does ubuntu 10.04 work on this thing? I've heard it doesn't really work well with the old HP Envy 15.

 

The Amazon model looks decent (IF it comes with the Radiance screen 1600x900), but I'm frustrated they don't offer a Quad Core version in addition to a dual core model. I suppose I could buy with the crappy i5-450 and upgrade with a processor I purchased myself individually , but the i7-620 is the very highest I could go (admittedly, not a bad option), assuming the BIOS will actually allow a i7 620 in. However, due to chipset differences no Quads will be available.

If Amazon offers a similar cheap version that includes even the core i7 720, I'd buy it in a heartbeat instead of from HP direct.

 

I needed mine by July 10 for a trip to europe...I ordered sunday but since today i read this forum, I found that amazon system is 1600x900, I called HP and explained that that configuration is a better deal. They gave me some money off, so my config came to $1004 - $30 ebates = $974. This includes 2-day shipping which i really had to get to know I would have it in time (cost of $39).
I am pretty happy, but if Amazons item comes instock within my 21 day return period I may still return it, as I have a $500 gift card to them and the 450m and 2gb of ram would be worth it imo, plus less out of my pocket as I have the giftcard...

This is the config i ordered from HP (I plan on getting a 160gb SSD through an Employee purchase program with Intel at a heavy discount):
HP ENVY 14 customizable Notebook PC

* • Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* • Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-370M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)
* • 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* • 320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

 

I sent my Day 1 1st generation Envy 15 back due in part to BIOS issues that caused it to not correctly spin the fans up in Linux (Non ACPI compliant), but I've read that there have been improvements as time has progressed on this front. I also read that the 17 works much better under Linux, but that's unconfirmed.

If I buy an Envy, I intend to run Linux upon it exclusively, so if it doesn't work properly HP is going to get it back.

 

Anybody notice that if you build an envy 14 to match (as close as possible) the stock specs on an envy 17, the envy 14 is the same price. Seems like they make more money off the Envy 14

EDIT: Also, if you have have two tabs open, each possessing an HP CTO, both builds will have the same option. For example, mine showed the E17 as having options for the I5.

 

Mmm well I will probably go back to Windows for the time being if Ubuntu won't run properly on it. I doubt I'll return it.

It seems HP's docking ports require extensive (Windows) drivers... are there any plug-and-play docking ports or ones that have Linux drivers?

 

The information from Amazon isn't very trustworthy, it says "6GB DDR3 System Memory (3 DIMM)" when we know that the e14 only has 2 DIMM slots. If they REALLY do have the 900p radiance screen on that model though due to a last minute change in specs, then I am probably going to order from them.

The $200 battery is almost certainly the slice, the specifications back it up.
6-cell Slim Fit Extended-Life Battery "Slice" (62Whr)
8-Cell Lithium-Ion Main Battery (59Whr)

 

Yeah, i definitely think they have a bad loop hole on their website.

 

It would probably come up as "order could not be accepted" like my first Envy 14 config. The worst part about that is that they bill your card anyway and then credit it back to you a few days later. I still haven't gotten mine back, as far as I know. Fortunately it's not a problem in my case unless they fail to refund that money, but this ludicrous issue could definitely cause problems for some people - overdrafts, inability to successfully order until the refund goes through in 3-5 days (quoting the HP rep), etc.

 

184 pages in an owner lounge, yet no one has this yet lol

 

haha, more like a soon-to-be-owners as of late.

 

Wait and see. I think we'll start seeing mini-reviews pop up in the next week or two. Hopefully there'll be a few youtube vids as icing on the cake.

 

yesyes. maybe we should post up a list of what we want through the mini reviews like...

benchmarks
viewing angles
clickpad functionality (win or epic fail)
heat
battery life (with and w/o discrete)
hm...what else?

 

So for an i7, will 1333 ram be noticeably faster than the 1066 ram?

 

Does anyone know what kind of overclocking options that the bios has in the e17 or previous envy models? Would be nice for i3 owners to make overclocking profiles and speed up to the same level as the more expensive chips.

 

I noticed there's a mini display port on this laptop, does that mean I can hook the apple LED monitor into it?

As an aside, if anyone has experience with this monitor is it worth it's $899 price tag? That seems absurd for a 24" monitor and almost as much as the laptop.

(I currently have an older gen 23" apple cinema display which I would sell to cut into costs if it's worth the upgrade.)

 

No, skip out on the higher clocked RAM, hardly makes a difference whether using i5 or i7.

 

arrandale cpus cannot make any use of 1333 ram, clarksfields can, people who buy ram which is faster than the CPU requires are not getting any extra benefit, but faster ram is useful when manually overclocking in the bios, to set up a good memory ratio. The new intel cpu's dont have a FSB any more though so I'm not sure how that affects things, maybe you don't even need ratio now.

 

if buying from amazon, theres always the 4% commission as an affiliate...

 

so its all about capacity. like AAA batteries vs AA batteries. you cant really compare the size/weight with numbers. having said that its all speculation so far.. hope the first few models ships fast and we get to know the truth.

 

LOL Amazon site already displaying dumb information ( 3 dimms of ram) .,, now you guys finding bugs in HP site too ...

 

for that price i'd rather buy a nice small (24-32") sony 1080p hdtv for it and use the hdmi out

 

lol I dont think any 24" monitor is worth $900, apple or not

 

Today Yingiz informed me, that my purchase at HP.com was successfully reported which qualifies me for the Yingiz cashback. This means, that the German Yingiz cashback program is definitely stackable with normal coupons!

I originally used a HP 5% off coupon which reduced the EUR 1299 by EUR 66.72 and bought an additional 90W AC adapter for the "deal of the day" price of 35,40 EUR. Makes EUR 1267.68 that are charged from my credit card.

My Yingiz account shows that I HP reported an purchase amount of EUR 1267.68 which matches the sum after HP coupon perfectly. Yingiz gives an extra 5% off, which is EUR 63.38. However, the business model of Yingiz gives the customer only 60% of this amount which is still EUR 38.03. Better than nothing! This sum will be transferred to my bank account as soon as the HP trial period is over and I have not returned the machine until then.

So I got an overall discount of EUR 104,75 (66.72 + 38.03) which seems to be the best deal I have seen so far for the E14. At least here in Germany.

 

+1


If you want great image quality, $300-400 for a 24" IPS monitor is fine. The HP ZR24w occasionally sells for $380 and the Dell U2410 with some hunting around can be bought for under $400.

 

hmm, that was my original sentiment - I knew it was just apple jacking up the price for no reason

the one cool thing that I wish other monitor manufacturers would do is include a power supply in the monitor so I can keep my travel one stowed away. I guess I could just get a docking station for this purpose. :/

 

Monitors have power bricks now?

 

i think he means plugging the laptop into the monitor as a power source?

 

Not sure if this has been asked yet, but will the CPU be upgradeable, or is it soldered stuck? I'm interested in the 620M or watever the next gen one will be.