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

Long time lurker... first time poster!

I actually spoke to the HP rep in Best Buy months ago and asked the same question, only to get info about how great Dr. Dre and Interscope Records were to work with LOL! I am not sure how well equipped Interscope is in the electronic or music recording industry considering how some of their labels compete in the nominal volume loudness wars though LOL!

Thanks for the quote, link, and your ideas!

Cheers!

 

I'm a current Envy 15 owner considering purchasing an Envy 14 for use when I'm on the road. I love my Envy 15 but I only get about 2-3 hours on battery depending on what I'm doing.

Does anyone know the socket the Envy 14 will be using? I called HP but am getting conflicting reports. I believe it will either be LGA1288 or PGA988. The reason I'm curious is i'm considering upgrading the CPU to a lower TDP model to extend the battery life at one point.

What do you guys think going from a 35w TDP to a 25 or 18w TDP would glean in extra battery life?

Thank you,

Orangecounty_ccie

 

Well, we've seen what CULV CPUs do-- I believe most of them are 18w. It results in some crazy battery life. I think it would definitely make a large difference.

I've come this far, but I'm starting to reconsider the Envy 14 due to battery life. Maybe I'll wait for reviews... Meh, they'll probably tell me it'll only get 3 hours or something silly. I feel kind of slapped in the face after finding out the battery is only 59 watt hours.

 

Good question, although I believe the short life of the 13, and the supposed near future axing of the 15 lend to the idea that both were not totally successful. However, they both helped HP break into the niche luxury market, and the 17 was supposed to take off from there.... woops!

HP's been hiding from reviewers, so Im going to reserve my judgmenet on the 14 untill I see more than 1 quality review. When NBR, Cnet, Laptop, Gizmodo, and Engadget provide good reviews, I will consider purchasing. Untill then, I dont value being a beta tester for HP. Im not even going to talk about the 17.... barf!

It took months for HP to provide a succinct way to find and download drivers and such for the 13/15 series. Seeing that the 14 already has a dedicated driver page, I do believe HP is "putting all their eggs in one basket". You hit it on the head Sir.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. - Honest Abe

 

I do have all my eggs in one basket with this laptop..but that is because I am confident it will really be a fantastic companion for college. Best of both worlds of portability and gaming. If this thing does fail me the only thing I can think of as a replacement is the acer timeline 4820tg. But I am not thinking about that =)

 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention e14. I'm in dismay as even the lowly ASUS Eee Netbooks now provide USB 3.0.

HP dropped the ball again!

 

Does the lid on the E14 latch shut or just close? Anyone know? Would the previous Envys be any indication?

 

Absolutely not true.

My father currently works for Lockheed Martin and has worked for a number of defense contractors who have been utilizing that method for over 25 years. Ive got cool toys made like this from 8 years old on. Apple may have a patent on specific design cues and the word "unibody" (doubtful), but anyone who cares to use this technique may do so if they choose.

 

It is good that you are not thinking about the Acer TimelineX 4820TG because I am typing on it right now. Enjoying every second of it. You had to see this coming with your comment.

 

That post you're replying to was made yesterday morning. But good points still.

BTW, nice username. Prospective law student here.

 

join the club. Last time I used AA and AF was Half-life 2.

 

My question was rhetorical, I know there aren't any equivalently sized laptops with better performance

My point is that - for those who are carping about the GPU in the Envy 14 - it isn't really possible to do better without moving to a larger laptop. And I personally don't want to schlep around some 15.6" one!

 

Moving back to practical issues, does anyone know (or can link to) how to upgrade the graphics drivers of a switchable setup? Do you have to use HPs drivers or can you download the intel and ATI drivers separately and combine them somehow?

 

Any ideas on why HP is preventing review sites from releasing their reviews? Maybe they believe the reviews will hurt their sales? Is this normal for HP to prevent reviewers from releasing the reviews for all laptops before a specified date or is this a unique case?

 

speaking of practical, what is the software we can expect to use to overclock the CPU and GPU?

 

Oh snap! Rhetoricals is ill, yo.

Point taken though.

 

AMD GPU clock tool.

CPU can't be overclocked AFAIK.

 

I'm under the impression that you just install the ati drivers.

and it works.


I know the ati drivers apparently say you can't do that with intel switchable graphics but someone on the gaming and graphics forum told me that ATI meant intel onboard stuff not intel i5 stuff.

...'course he coulda been wrong. We'll find out.

 

Can I ask other than the all aluminum case, hd webcam, how is envy 14 any better than hp dv6tse that has way more ports, finger print reader, touch screen capability that's actually very nice

Now I know before you all jump and say touch screen sucks see a video review of it and how much awesomer it is
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

What caught my attention was the fact former envy 17 owners bought this because though it's 15.6 display screen has lower resolution I think 1376 x 7xx?? Thus saving battery unlike envy 14 that's prob gonna eat battery from hd radiance screen from edge to edge with 1600x900..

What's on your minds?? Cost wise it's about the same pricing after adding i5 450m same ati card max battery on both except on dv6tse you get also 8gb ram making both same cost


Potential repliers do not shoot back with reviews on the web of dv6tse this new model has very few reviews like 1 or 2 I found the YouTube clip other than that most reviews are on the may or April models not the new June dv6tse

 

If you actually need a touchscreen, I would go for the dv6te, but from what I've heard, you lose a little bit of screen quality for it, which for me wouldn't be worth it just to have a novelty I wouldn't use much and I would rather have something that folds into a tablet if I really wanted touchscreen. I'm leaning towards the Envy just because of the metal casing which will hopefully make it a bit more sturdier for everyday use and as I tend to grab laptops by the corner to pick it up from the table to my lap. Also, the 15.6 screen is a killer for me as I was originally shooting for a 13 inch screen, but there currently isn't any 13 inch laptop with similar specs out in the US. But yeah, if you don't need the 1600x900 screen, metal casing, and don't mind a slightly larger screen, I'd say go for the dv6tse, especially if you think you would like the touchscreen.

Side note, how much would a new motherboard for a laptop like this usually run, I'm still on the fence about getting a warranty and the biggest reason I would think of getting it is if the GPU dies/overheats, which from what I'm hearing would require a new motherboard to replace it if it did die.

 

Screen res does not affect battery. The brightness may, but then again you can just turn it down as much as you want. If it is truely as bright as claimed 40% should do just fine.

 

This post and the fact that Sony Z owners with the 1080p screen report less battery life makes me think otherwise.

 

Ummmm why would you link to a post that contradicts what you want to prove?

That post states that the resolution (amount of pixels) will have very little effect on battery life. He does say that screen size will have an impact, but that is just common sense.

 

hahahaha yes mtowalker my bad for saying i consider that was pretty dumb cause i obviously did get that info off notebook check. lol but it still holds true right? =p

 

^^ah ha see now you can say hp dv6tse and envy 14 have a good amount of even exchanges bigger screen smaller res whereas 14 is bigger res smaller screen..
I'm stuck between both ahh I'm waiting for reviews on envy 14 but if it has one fault like
Overheating or weak battery life I might have to swing dv6tse.. ;(

 

Direct quote from your link:

So Actually your 15.6' laptop will use more battery with its 1366*768 than the Envy with its 1600*900

 

I can confirm. Not only does your system have to fill in those extra pixels with information (not a big deal with web browsing but in games it's HUGE), but it also has to power the pixels on the screen.

 

The 1080p screen may have different power use, but it's not because it's 1080. The screens may have other differences, such as backlighting method etc etc.

*edit* There is more potential for indirect power consumption through the GPU, but this would be marginal. I hadn't thought of it before, but it's definitely true. In games it won't have an affect though(GPU should be maxed no matter what in games).

 

what resolution is the HP Envy 14 screen? 720p?

 

nah. 1600x900.

dv6t is 720p (well a step above it, 1366x768)

 

It is 1600x900
edit:sniped

 

ok guys so i decided to finally blow the vaio z off (the smaller form factor and 3lb weight was nice) and im gonna be orderin my envy 14 soon. i know ive been talkin about the graphics card around here alot and the 5830 and all that stuff but the 5650 is still a pretty decent card especially at this form factor. thanks for all the info youve provided me guys its really helped in making this college bound decision.

my system
i5 520 (wanted switchable graphics over i7)
8gb ram (cause i was willing to spend all that money on the vaio so i might as well max the envy haha)
256gb ssd
hd 5650
radiance display

btw has anyone asked hp what brand and model ram they use?
depending on that i might just get the 2x2 4gb and upgrade to 8gb myself from newegg

 

That was an amusing mistake.

The thread I meant to link to said that it reduced battery life in tests by about 10 minutes if you were to switch from 1366x768 (or some netbook resolution) to 1080p using an integrated graphics card. This was using a laptop with a 1366x768 screen though, and the 1080p was simulated by running a virtual machine with that resolution (which could have easily caused the 10 minute drain in battery life.)

So high resolution displays don't seem to have much of an impact.

 

Half the time I don't think even HP knows what they use (they order from a lot of suppliers is what one rep told a guy asking about the 256 GB SSD).

 

Hope you enjoy your buy.

 

Great. I'm sure they have one supplier for their SSD, otherwise it would be pointless to order through them. The variation in performance is too high.

 

But as far as I know playing games at a non-native resolution always looks really blurry and ugly.

Well it wouldnt be just a few games that will run faster......every game will run faster at a lower res haha. And I feel like running a game at 1366*768 on a screen that has a native resolution of 1366*768 will look MUCH better than running that lower res on a 1600*900 screen. I think.

 

True. It's not like the hp reps have had a clue so far. They probably get the 256 from..well..whoever's selling 256 gig SSDs right now that don't suck and cost..well however much the 256 gig one costs but add $100 bucks to the price.

Isn't that how much they took off from intel 160 gig's price 'cause well I'm guessing they're using $100 as the base price of the 320 gig hdd

 

I am weary of being an early adopter of this.. why does HP have to be soo crappy? I REALLY want this laptop but am afraid of the consequences of being the first one with it.

 

hahah magus im the guy who got told they buy the 256 from various suppliers thats why i was asking about it on here.

 

Well. We'll let you know how it is.


If it's crap umm....well. I'll be pretty damn annoyed at buying a 5 lb paperweight

 

whelp.


start browsing newegg for $600-700 256 gig SSDs. Those'll probably be your choices of what's in the Envy 14.

 

How much bigger is the dv6tse then the envy14 anyways?

 

14.5in vs 15.6in

both weigh 'bout the same

 

but what about thickness?

 

Grrrr. Still debating buying now.

 

If you find out that it is crap, why not take advantage of HP's generous return policy? I believe they even pay the return shipping for you (pre-paid shipping label).

It seems like there isn't much risk unless you're going to be hard-pressed for cash in the time that it takes to get your money back, in which case you probably should not have purchased it in the first place.

 

If it's not money, it's the time constraints. There's the assembling and shipping period which together can take UP to a month. School starts in August for me. A nightmare of mine is having to go through multiple units before I get one without flaws. At that rate, it could be half a semester before I get the right one.

 

going over my config....is more than 4gb even needed? how long until we actually start seeing 6gb as the sweet spot for home computing?

even trying i cant get near the 3gb my current laptop has, generally in the 1-2 range

 

nah not many people need more then 4...