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

hmm....i dont think they would consider that a good reason to give you money back. if you ordered the i450 like i did, you could have milked out $50 back from them since there is an envy14 on cdw.com with i450/500gb/6gbRAM for $1170. =D trying to find more excuses to get some more $ back

 

I am reposting this from yesterday and the day before for everyone that missed it....



I have found the retail pricing scheme for the envy14 hidden in the HTML code of the HP website, upgrades go on top of these base component prices. These are the costs to you, the buyer, of each component part. Now you can use your judgment if you are being overcharged for base+upgrades and such.

HARDWARE
i3-370M CPU Included in price (Valued at: $200.00)
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) Included in price (Valued at: $100.00)
320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection Included in price (Valued at: $100.00)
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics - For Dual Core Processors Included in price (Valued at : $275.00)
14.5" diagonal HD+ HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900) Included in price (Valued at : $100.00)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support Included in price (Valued at : $50.00)
HP TrueVision HD Webcam + Dual Digital Integrated Microphones Included in price (Valued at : $50.00)
Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth (Note: This part is really a Broadcomm!) Included in price (Valued at : $50.00)
Full-size island-style backlit keyboard Included in price (Valued at : $50.00)
8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery Included in price (Valued at : $50.00)

SOFTWARE
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Included in price (Valued at: $60.00)
Corel(R) PaintShop Photo(TM) Pro X3 + Corel(R) VideoStudio(R) Pro X3 Included in price (Valued at : $1.00)
Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010 (Valued at : $1.00)



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I posted the secret price breakdown of all the components in the envy14 yesterday, now today I am going to give you an analysis of the CPU prices compared to real world retail cost. This will help you pick what to buy if you are concerned about getting the most for your money.


HP Envy14 CPU price scheme, retail cost to customer in CTO build.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i3-370M: $200 (no comparison prices available)
Arguably the best price/performance value, but this chip is somewhat slower than the i5-450M because it loses 533Mhz of turbo.

i5-450M: $250 ($35 above retail, BEST VALUE FOR DUAL CORE)
A good price/performace value, but they should clearly give this to you standard, considering what HP get them in bulk for and that the envy was indeed slated to have i5 @ $999.

i5-520M:$350 ($125 above retail, BIG RIPOFF!)
This chip is practically identical to the 450M, and its priced $125 above retail. You do not need its vt-d feature to run VMware or multiple operating systems. Why would anyone get this chip at this price?

i7-720QM: $450 ($152 above retail, BEST VALUE FOR QUAD)
Way overpriced, but it's the cheapest quad on offer, so if you need a quad then its the best choice. You can upgrade yourself to the 840QM in the future when prices come down if you want.

i7-740QM: $600 ($145 above retail, BIG RIPOFF!)
It's barely faster than the 720QM, this is worst choice anyone can possibly make when considering price to performance benefit.

i7-840QM: $800 ($150 above retail)
If you need a faster quad than the 720QM, then this is the one to get. This will be the last clarksfield chip, no future upgrade cost or hassle if you get this. There are XM "extreme" chips coming that run faster, but they run at a different wattage, so they likely will not work in the envy14 at all.


.
.
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real world cost of CPU's, retail stores
--------------------------------------------
dual core
i3 370M: -- too new ($128 per 100, bulk wholesale. cant find it retail)
i5 430M: $235 (special orders)
i5 450M: -- too new (expect $215)
i5 520M: $225
i5 540M: $271
i7 620M: $362

quad core
i7 720QM: $298
i7 740QM: $455
i7 840QM: $650

quad core extreme
i7 920XM: $700 ~ $1238 (just to show the upper end of pricing)

 

From what I've heard so far - cool temps, no cpu locking or throttling, great screen, good build quality, decent battery life, awesome design, decent touchpad - this laptop seems damn near perfect. Of course it could have had better battery life and perhaps USB 3.0 and a Blu-Ray player (I know, tech isn't there yet), but for what it has it does very well.

Are we going to have our cake and eat it too? Or is the cake a lie?

P.S. Is the slice battery a higher capacity than the standard battery? If it is do you think if I order by phone I could haggle a lower price for the slice battery? I was originally planning to just order 2 standard batteries, but I don't want to have to swap batteries if I don't need too.

 

I emailed HP and asked what sort of 160GB SSD they use. They told me they use a wide range of components based on price and performance and they can't tell me what SSD they use. I have heard it's the Intel's X25-M SSD which would be great but can we be sure it's that one?

 

slice is 62 Whr

base is 59 Whr

Computer uses slice initially, then Base.

Computer charges Base to 90%, then slice to 90% then base to 100% then slice to 100%.

glancing through the manual is educational. (I may have flipped how it charges the slice and the base but I do know it charges one to 90%, then the other to 90%, then back to the first to 100, then the other to 100)

 

Take your current laptop.
Start menu => Hibernate

Remove AC
Remove battery
Wait a few minutes
Place back battery
Boot

And you'll have your definitive answer.

 

As long as the cake doesn't get up held in shipping or customs too long...

 

For the Envy 14 this is what it tells you when you try to use that coupon:

The coupon entered does not apply to the items in your shopping cart. Please review the coupon for products included in this offer.

 

I thought threatening to cancel the order was what a lot of people did and had success with. And lots of people complained about the 520 and said they wanted to downgrade and got money back. I've read this entire thread lol...shoot me now.

 

Well considering you can't order the laptop without a HDD option, the hidden cost of the base HDD is meaningless.

Even if you took into account ordering the base HDD, then selling it, you wouldnt get enough for it to offset the cost of then going out and buying a retail Intel 160gb SSD instead of just selecting the 160gb Intel SSD option during configuration. Not to mention no one is going to want to deal with all that hassle only to lose money in the end just to prove the point that it is possible. Just because its possible doesn't mean its relevant.

The hidden "cost" as you put it is part of the notebook, and is a given when you decide to buy the notebook regardless of which HDD option you chose. So its not a cost at all, and its not added onto the price of component upgrades because of that.

 

What's the info on the shipping? Has anyone in the US's laptop been shipped?
I ordered the 28th, and mine is " Order in production
(Estimated to ship on July 8, 2010) "

ahh..so close

 

This is where I think that near the end of this year HP will announce a new Envy 13, similar to the 14 except without the ODD and maybe incorporating USB 3.0.

 

"Order in Production", huurah!!!

 

look i did not miss out on a SSD because as i put it in my original post "dont try to convince me to buy a SSD" because i don't want to pay that much. the Envy 14 was at the very limit of my budget and paying $315 on top of that is completely unnecessary considering on my current desktop i have over 650GB so far, so 160GB is just plain stupid for me. now if i could get 500GB for $315 that's another story but i'm not paying more to have to carry around an external hard drive (just another thing to get stolen and to add to that they are not free so i guess i add more money on top of that $315).

 

Well if you want SSD speeds, thats the price you pay. You're note going to get "SSD like speeds" without paying the SSD premium. And at $284, you just passed up the current best deal available to obtain that. You're not going to find a better deal after the fact for at least another 6 months when Intel releases their 22nm SSD's.

 

Mine too expected ship date 9 July

 

Some people just can't afford an SSD and are willing to compromise because they flat out don't have the money. Good deal or not, you save nothing if you didn't intend to spend in the first place.

 

i got no problem waiting, again back to my original post " should i return it and wait for the SSD prices to fall " that being my momentus XT btw

 

Wait, is order in production good?
I ordered the 3rd, and it's been "in production" this whole time

 

I've got a question about the recovery discs people were talking about many pages back.

I usually never bother with recovery discs; if something goes wrong with my system to the point where that would be necessary, I'm fine just using the Windows DVD and starting fresh. Is there any reason I can't just back up that one driver folder (swsetup or whatever it was called) and forget about making the recovery discs?

If I have to do recovery discs, I'll probably just 'burn' them to a virtual drive and squirrel away the disc images on my home system. I don't feel like wasting a handful of DVD's when I've got 2.75TB storage on my desktop system :S

 

Because the envy 13 was not as successful. When it came out it was almost twice the price of a mbp, for weaker specs.

The envy 14 is the reverse, cheaper and more powerful. Don't expect to see multi hundred dollar discounts on the envy 14 any time soon. It's new, more popular, and frankly the margin is not as over the top large as previous models that cost twice it's initial price.

 

Germany lose :cry:

 

nooooo! poor germans =(

 

I guess we can expect eras to either return to provide more info and answer questions or to be gone for a few days to drink away his depression on the bottom of a bottle of heineken.

 

I hate Spain with a passion. I hope they don't eventually win the world cup...They don't deserve a star on their shirt.

 

Man, Germany lost, that sucks. I wanted Germany to go all the way.

 

Damn Octopus.

 

If you look at the estimated build date, it should say the 7th (well, i ordered on the 1st) then underneath that box it will tell you an estimated ship date. Look at my sig for my dates.

 

I ordered around 5am on the 27th (release date), and mine also still says "in production". My "ship by" date is today, the 7th. I'm completely annoyed by how long these builds are taking.

Although, one of the guys in Germany (don't remember which) said that he actually received hie email with tracking info stating that his unit had shipped, 3 DAYS AFTER HIS E14 HAD ALREADY ARRIVED! Talk about lag!!

Plus, someone stated (a few hundred pages back, lol), that he/she had ordered notebooks from HP in the past on three separate occasions, and that they had all actually shown up at the door on either the stated shipping date, or the day after all three times.

Whoever made this statement about the previous purchases,. do you remember which type of shipping you selected? And what country are you in?

 

I'm calling shenanigans on the Octopus Oracle.

Anyways, I'm rooting for Holland. \o/

 

Exactly..
The 5650 has Eyefinity too, so it can drive up to 8 Screens, in my case 3 are used.. Very easy to set up! Just plug and play..!

 

Due to that, I lost a lot of money.
http://www.nerdcore.de/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/stm.jpg

(Well yeah 50$ on for a bet is a lot to me ^^)

 

Hey, can some one link the post where I can price match my overpriced CPU down by $45?

I don't want to search through X_X

 

I only have one date, July 15th for the estimated build by and the shipping date. Where do you see two dates?

 

When I was kicking the machine with Wprime, the fans sped up a bit, but I wouldnt call it noisy.. Not totally silent but not too loud either..
Totally acceptable..!

 

Quote from your quote:

then underneath that box it will tell you an estimated ship date.

 

There is one date. Ship date (date it ships out of factory) = build date (date it will be built by). At least that's how I see it.

 

click on your order number (H#########)
then scroll down you will see it on the left side

 

Agreed. The exact wording is:

Shipping date:
Your customized HP ENVY 14 customizable Notebook PC will be
built by July 7, 2010

EDIT: This is the date provided in the box when you click on your order.
RE-EDIT: The build date is mentionned twice. But there is still no mention of a specific shipping date.

 

Theoretically this makes sense, but in actuality it doesn't work out like that. It may "cost" 100 to the consumer, but that doesn't mean you're paying 415 for the SSD. There's really only two options: Buy it with a standard, sell it and buy an SSD, OR just buy the SSD. The real math would be how much can you buy a standard 7200rpm 320gb HDD (You can get a WD for ~50.00), which tells you how much you can resell it to someone for (probably only 35-40 as it is technically used and without a box) plus the time spent dealing with the sale, shipping it, paypal, ebay, gas money etc. If you could buy the laptop with no HDD and they'd take 100 off it'd be close, but 315 (+ I'll call it 30) for the SSD plus 10% off is a steal. Most of that 100 in the cost of the standard HDD is just markup (I imagine they only cost 20-30 dollars for HP).

 

I didnt get a SSD with my Envy 14 and realized that too late. Other than getting a 100$ rebate from HP for not cancelling my order, I bought a new, still in its box intel X-25M 160GB G2 SSD for 310$ on Ebay.
So for the base price of the computer, I get a SSD and a 320GB HDD. (actually 500 cause I upgraded but that doesn't matter). Selling it for the $40 makes 310 - 40 = 270 total cost. Less than HP. Minus all the bloatware.

I agree it's a good deal, but it's definitely not a "steal"

 

brand new intel X-25M 160GB SSD: $250 w/ mail in rebate. -- i would rather get that instead of paying the +315 to HP.

 

Where?
Link please.

 

With all these deals.. like the $400 off DV6...can get i7/ssd/6gb ddr3/5650 for basically less than an envy 14 with i5/ssd/4gb ddr3....

I mean...kind of tempting to go for the DV6 or even the DV4, pretty sure coupon would work for it, not to mention there's always $400 off for the DV line.

Dunno....

 

yeah me and e14 are having a convo on which laptop will fit me..for my school work, gaming, research (explicit and personal or for school projects) and all that (going into Aero). Envy is a good laptop, but it depends on what u need. Also guess what? I have the same monitor as u. I have a desktop though, connected via VGA (i got a 5.1 surround sound system so i chose VGA) but my ps3 is connected to the monitor via HDMI XD

 

I just checked the Envy 14 at the company website and I recall it being at $999 earlier but now it has raised to $1099. Was I seeing wrong or did they raise the price $100?

 

It has been 1099 since launch (june 27th)
It is $989 with student discount.

 

you must have been signed into your student account because it has always been $1099 base.

 

Yea they bumped the price $100 on release. Kind of disappointing I know.

 

Yeah, they raised it by $100 on launch date, probably to keep the 1600x900 screen base.

Edit:A lot of us waiting in the shadows here,lol