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

Alright, I finally gave in, just couldn't resist:

HP ENVY 14 customizable Notebook PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-450M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz
• 4GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection (I have a 500GB Hard Drive to swap in)
• 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
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Estimated build date: July 15, 2010 (I hope it's sooner)

Really psyched about this now.

***Edit: Price is $1,123.58 (incl. tax)

 

What was your price?

 

i remember about 3 weeks after the envy 17 came out there was like a 300 dollar coupon going around so i while i am antsy aswell i will wait as an incoming freshman to college who needs to save as much as possible.

 

dude how much is your tax, i paid more than that with the i3 and the 50 off coupon

 

Just pulled the trigger also. i540m, 500gb gdd. rest is standard.

 

I am sorry ahead of time that this has already been asked. I need to buy a new laptop for college and am in love with the Envy 14. But when I go to amazon's website and search Envy 14 it still says pre-order. Wasn't this laptop released June 27th? So if I pre-order the laptop on amazon, when will I get it? When is amazon releasing it? I want to get my laptop before July is over so if amazon will take longer than that, then I will just buy it from hp's website. But I don't want to do that because it's $1099 with an i3, 4GB, and 320GB. The amazon version is only $100 more and has an i5, 6GB, and 500GB.

 

nobody knows for sure but the screen quality is rumored to be lower then from the official hp site(aka the reason why its so cheap).

but amazon will receive their models sometime this month. If you really need to save money try to find that seller on Ebay that buys them for people and ships worldwide.

 

If you are a student you can get a 10% discount on HP. That would solve your problem.

 

He used the student discount.

 

for anyone going to/in college, don't forget you can get 10% off through HP Academy
https://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/register_app.do

edit: lol damn, got beat to it

 

that only works if your college is in the US. mine is in canada so i cant apply.

 

does anyone know if you can combine a student discount with a coupon?..probably not but just to make sure

 

you can try but usually it doesn't allow it

 

i dont believe you can.

 

no u can't

 

can you apply student discount and fatwallet cashback???

 

if fat wallet doesn't care, you might be able to.

 

Not dude .... I am using my student discount, and the tax was around 60-something for IL.

 

Actually, I would bet that the build quality of both is very similar, maybe the Envy has slight edge due to the extra lining of magnesium underneath. But that's not a bad thing, the DM4t has excellent build quality.

 

SCREWW YOOUUUU!!!
jk its not your fault...i live in SoCal, and my tax was about $100 =[

 

All this tax talk helps me hold off on ordering
God bless the state of Oregon for not having sales tax!

 

Does anyone know the phone number to call hp to cancel your order. I called the HP customer care line and they gave me the option to buy something, tech support, and something else that didn't apply to it. I said buy something and then explained my situation and got transfered but they weren't open today. Should i have said tech support? Or is there a different number to call?

 

Just so we can all take advantage of that possible $25.00 refund, where did you find documentation that said the Envy 14 would have an Intel brand wireless card?

I agree with you, by the way, I would greatly prefer an Intel brand card to any other manufacturer. Hell, I might even drop my Intel 6300 (you can buy a half-card at rjtech.com) in the Envy 14-- if it's compatible!

 

sorry i've read liek 300 pages of this thread already. i'm tired of catching up. what happened in the last 50 or so pages?

 

Just curious, why are you canceling your order?

 

Just pick a random USA college, as they don't check and you don't have to use a .edu e-mail.

 

looking at a 13 and a 15 again today, not sure the res on the 15, didnt seem 1080p...

anyway, confirmed withmyself that the radiance out of the box really needs to be calibrated. the colors are vibrant, but so freakin vibrant they could drive you mad. needs the contrast and other settings to be tweaked to get things looking natural and tv quality

 

really!?!??!

 

go the the hp direct and configure a hp envy 14, it states intel wireless n card, with no other choices to upgrade

 

I know itd prob be negligible, but any thoughts on battery life with touchpad on/off (double tap top left corner) vs usb mouse?

 

Woops, that's a pretty obvious bit of documentation, huh? Haha.

 

I say this because I highly doubt they are going to call 'X' college and verify that a student there goes by 'X' name. I'm not even sure they would be able to get that information and because they don't require a .edu address, they can't use that to verify obviously.

It's an honor system to be sure, so it all comes to down to one's morals. I went to college in the USA, so I'm good.

 

You will have to call back Tuesday since Monday is a Holiday. Tech support is 24x7 but customer service operates with more normal business hours. And, as someone just asked, why are you canceling? Are you trying to get the $50 please do not cancel your order credit or like? Or, bailing altogether?

 

my morals say HP owes me big time for the they put me through with my last order

 

Im actually strongly considering this laptop. I was saddened to hear about it's mediocre battery life, but I this machine seems like it fits nicely between a MPB 13" and 15" in terms of price and power while still maintaining te premium build quality.

I'm a graphics designer so the screen is one of my major concerns. This radiance screen seems up to par and good enough to accurately display colors I'm working with. This is probably my biggest sell on this thing. I thought about getting a cheaper and longer lasting Acer 3820/4820TG notebook, but I knew the screen would be lackluster, thus bringing me back to this guy.

Despite all the positive things that have been said this is still HP we're dealing with here, so I'm probably gonna wait for some more reviews from laptopmag and NBR if/when they pop up.

So far though this is looking good though.

 

Well I said possibly. To be honest, the MBP is one of a handful within E14's league (including the upcoming Asus models). Both have their pro's and con's, I'm just amazed at the fact that I can get a E14 for $1,100 (base config) with much better specs, as compared to a MBP 13'' for $1,200 (base config). Of course disregarding discounts, coupons, free iPod...etc.

 

oh dang. So guys how does the envy compare to say a lenovo Ideapad or such? I'm thinking of a lenovo W510 but idk if the envy would be better, i don't wanna regret after :laugh:

 

sorry for jumping on you about it, but this needs to stop, nobody who owns the laptop has even said yet how long the battery lasts under normal usage, people keep parroting false information like this over and over. same with the unable to run virtual machines or multiple operating systems if you don't get such and such CPU. that is not true either. both of these things were discussed only 5 or 10 pages ago!

I want to mention that apple has just discounted its MBP 13.3" to the exact same price as the envy14. $1099.00, but the e14 has much better hardware on it, and if you do 3d rendering you will appreciate a quad i7 option.

 

Thnx for the reply.

I just went and looked at an envy 13 and an envy 15 beats edition.. honestly I was a little surprised at how much thicker the 15 seemed (although not that much thicker in reality) than a MBP. I am a little concerned with how thick the 14 is going to seem.

ughh.. if the envy had longer battery or if the MBP was a little cheaper and had hdmi - this wouldn't be such a tough decision.

 

That's not going to change the fact that the Envy 14 won't go 7 hours on a charge like HP stated. Just based on the hardware of the laptop and the size of the battery, it's not hard to infer that we'll at best get around 4 hours of battery life on a charge when doing stuff like web browsing over WiFi.

 

This was also my logic regarding the battery issue. I was hoping for 5-5.5 hours, but 4 is decent.

 

For those of you worried about the Envy 14's battery life (one of my concerns as well), have you considered something like an external battery pack/charger?

Is there any reason something like this would not work or could harm one's laptop?

I have no idea what the best type of battery pack is (this one is not exactly small, cheap, or light), but here is the kind of thing I am picturing: Super High Capacity External Rechargeable Battery Pack - BP150

 

dude.....slice.....

 

yeah telophase, that's what the slice is for if you wanna add another 4 hours to the battery life.

'course it's also $200

 

That may be a little excessive, I think we all are just lookin for our dream machine. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if you could get 5 hours out of it if you had a fresh install and were frugal with brightness and other settings.

That's still no 7 hours but I'd feel alot better about unplugging.

 

has anyone tested the battery with the turbo turned off? Or even with the wifi off?

 

I'd love to pick up the slice, just to have it, but I can't justify $200. That's very overpriced, considering it's just an ever so slightly higher watt hour battery put into a different plastic case. The $75 replacement battery is expensive, but at least it's reasonable.

I believe the slices on the other Envy laptops have dropped to $75 or so at some points, so maybe in the future if I go with the Envy 14 I'll pick up a slice when they're cheaper.

I don't think so. The only people that have them (as far as we know) are our friends over in Germany. They've not said much about battery, but I guess I can't blame them, I'd probably just want to play with my new Envy 14 if I had one now.

 

It's amazing how much of this thread are basically the same questions being asked and answered over and over again.

"Can I stack coupons?"
"Is the i520 better than the 450?"

I am also enjoying how people are still posting "well, I like the Envy 14, but its battery life is no good." Didn't we go over this like 30 pages ago?

No wonder this thread is 355 pages long without most people even having received an Envy 14.

 

Just had a look at the Acer 4820TG at Microcenter in Cambridge. It was listed at $865, had the i3 with 4GB RAM. It's not a bad deal. They are advertising 8 hrs. of battery on that thing, which I heard is not true. To me, I think the better screen, build quality and processor is worth the extra for the Envy 14, but for those who are overly concerned about price, the Acer 4820TG seems to be a good option.

 

Yea, I don't see why it wouldn't reach 5 hours of battery on websurfing with proper tweaking of the default energy saving profile and windows services (you can literally disable nearly half of them on a fresh install...) and turbo boost off.
Hell the dm4 is getting 5h of heavy flash browsing with 6 cells (62 Wh) and no tweaking at all and runs the same i5 processors and integrated graphics... Only the radiance screen could lessen that drastically.