*HP ENVY 17 & 17 3D (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

I am a college student too and I do programming. I ordered both. Probably a stupid idea but I can't decide without having both in my hands...
The Envy 14 is too weak for me but the gaps in the chassis and high heat in Envy 17 is a concern. Especially the gaps. I've sold 4 and returned 2 notebooks because of build quality issues like that.
I'll let you know my opinion when they arrive.

 

@IKilledYourHamster

Why are you getting the Envy 14 and Envy 17 or is your sig just wrong?

 

I want to try both before I make a permanent decision.

 

It comes with Blue Ray and the extended battery.

 

my envy 17 crashes frequently when playing dawn of war II. this is annoying, i think it may be a graphics memory issue.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Now I'm even more confused at what I should get. 14,15,17 I've already got my netbook for mobility situations. I guess I'm really looking for "portable beef". At least more portable than my current desktop. I don't mind toting the weight, and I hand-write or use my netbook for notes.

@metril I have the NZXT Cryo LX and I can say for sure that it helps with my current laptop. My current lappy has served me well, but is no longer keeping up with my demands.

 

Jaxxy they are not free, in fact very expensive. I have the Xrite and Sypder. They each cost from $200 and beyond.

Calibrating your monitor is a must if you are in graphic design or photography.

 

@divertankado
i am assuming you received your envy from amazon, did yours have heat issues and or the wobble issue? want to know how other amazon orderers are fairing mine comes in two weeks and i am hoping i wont have to send it back.

 

@IKilledYourHamster

You have 2 kidneys. You only need 1. Sell the other. In the case of the Envy 14 and 17...once you use them, I don't think you'll be able to live without them.

Do the right thing! Sell a kidney!

Buyers are standing by.

 

Are you saying that you are ordering 2 laptops with the intention of returning one of them, using your living room as your personal showroom?

So HP will absorb the loss on the opened box & pass it on to all the other buyers in the end.

I can just imagine hundreds of thousands of laptops going back & forth in the shipping trucks, airplanes, etc.

 

So as an entering engineering student the e17 is one of the best options available?

 

Yes. I'll be sure to scratch it up before I send it in.

 

HP still makes a profit because of mass production. Their contract with Fedex allows them to ship products way below what it would cost you or me to ship a single item. Take that all into account and in the end, everyone is happy.

Look at it this way. Which ever one he sends back will go to their warehouse for clearance. That one will probably be sold for $100 or more less than one with the same configuration made new. In the end, HP still makes a profit and his returning the product actually saves another buyer, who might not care about not getting something completely new, money. The product will still come with a full warranty and contain all materials even if he forgot to send back something as simple as a manual.

@rick9087

What engineering major? What do you expect to do in your major? I went with the Envy 17 because of CAD, design, simulation, and computations I need to do. It has the style that shows that you mean business. In fact, I think I am going to take my laptop with me to interviews and just take it out when I pull out my resume and then put the laptop back into my bag. Then I'll just abuse the interviewers curiosity and leave my mark; in a good way.

 

I like the way you think. The image of your laptop in the interviewers mind might actually work in your favor. I never thought of 'staging' an interview. I've always just gone in and done my thing.

 

I'm studying mech engineering. From what I've heard there is alot of design involved, so I'm assuming some form of cad. I know this laptop would impress my friends, but I never thought about it impressing my superiors. Lets just hope the e17 won't be outdated by the time I'm applying for internships.

 

Going off topic here.

For interviews, everything matters. You want to make yourself as comfortable as possible. This means that you want to get the environment to the way you want it. You will most definitely be wearing a suit and tie.

What about your phone? What kind of phone is it? Is it an iPhone, a Blackberry, a smartphone, or just a regular old flip phone? Do you stand up straight when walking or look at the ground?
Do you make eye contact and smile?
Is your handshake firm?
Do you let the interviewer sit down first before you take a seat?

Even your backpack says something about you. Taking a heavy backpack into an interview can say a lot about you. Either you are a hard worker or you're just not organized. The trick is to play it to your advantage. Say something like, "Man my classes were really tough today, but I'm still interested in Aerospace. Compared to when I first started my major, today was just a cakewalk, but I'm sure that it's nothing compared to your day sir (or ma'am). I'd like to thank you sir (or ma'am) for taking the time to interview me today."

Now coming to the Envy...it is something that not many people in college have. I've seen a lot of Macs and a lot of other computers around. Again, the Envy has that style to it that make's it unique. The interviewer probably hasn't seen it yet.

Also, my university started a virtual career fair and virtual interviews. Basically, interviewing through Skype or some other video conferencing program. The Envy 17 has a good quality webcam (better than the Envy 15 and other laptops I've seen and used). I plan to make full use of the $1927 my parents have spent.

 

I agree that there is a cost. The net profit per laptop decreases each time it is shipped back and forth, but HP will still make a profit. Just not as much as if it were never sent back.

Don't you think HP already has this figured out? Why would they have a 21-day return policy if they hadn't worked out all the numbers?

 

Yep, they figured-it out & raise the price to everybody else to cover the cost.

Other merchants also figured-it out & that's why there is more and more return policies with re-stocking fees to reduce waste.

This said, profit is not the only bottom line as mentioned previously.

 

I ordered from Amazon for the 1649.99 model and still waiting.

But.... Amazon just charged me 79$ for joing Prime service I never asked for. Anyone else experience this?

 

Hi my Envy will arrive in a weeks time. I ordered mine on the 1st of July. I had originally ordered from HP.com w/ a $200.00, then for the forth of July weekend they went on sale, I asked for a discount they refused. So I said FXXK it. I'll just order from Amazon which saved me $400.00 as compared to HP.com

I am in no rush to receive my laptop, I just want to be able to get the best value out of my buck.

So far 2 or 3 people who have received their unit from Amazon have reported no wobble. Perhaps Amazon has higher tolerance for Quality Control.

 

Found this video on the HP site, talks about the design of the Envy series,slice battery, materials, metal etching, etc.

Meet the Team: HP Envy | HP Products & Services Videos

Has names of the designer in charge, so let's email them and tell them about the design faults?

Might be worth a sticky in the first post?

 

I cannot imagine Amazon has any control over quality. They are just the shipping agent of HP. Luck of the draw more likely.

 

To close this issue. Amazon promptly responded they'd refund the 79$. I had apparently unwittingly signed up for FREE Prime that automatically rolls over to PAID Prime and I wasn't even warned or aware of it. Pays to keep an eye on your c/card.

 

This is a pleasing and most reassuring thought, until you think it through and realize that Amazon is unlikely to be opening each box it receives from HP to check for the plague and then carefully repackaging "the good ones" into new HP boxes.

 

I'm noticing the same, the screen has bluish tinge. My previous laptop didn't have this.

@divertankado we all will be thankful if you'd share the color profile with us

 

I second NPcomplete,

divertankado if you uploaded your monitor profile you'd make a lot of people very happy.

 

I'll upload a color profile to share when I get my unit. However, the profile is unique to each monitor. Mine might not work for everyone.

 

I agree with you completely. I am just trying to think positively and hoping my unit will have no wobble.

 

Yes I agree, I'm just hoping that there aren't huge differences in two LCDs from same assembly line manufactured during a week or two time period. Thanks again.

 

Bing Cashback is now at 30%. Go get'em!

 

Keyword please. It's showing as 5% on bing website.

 

Search hp direct on bing.

Even though its at 30 percent, I'm not going to cancel my Amazon order and go through hp. With California taxes being 10 percent, and then the hassle of waiting 2 month to get that money back, plus having to pay for shipping,its just better for me to keep the Amazon one.

 

I picked another one up to preempt any build problems when the i5 arrives in a few days. Good job bing! What a way to go out in style...

i7-740, 6gb, 1080p, 500/7,200, bluray for $1,227.

Economy ship is free although you do have to pay tax $122 in my case.

 

OK, so I finished clean install yesterday. Everything looks fine, except that the on screen display isn't working. i.e when I press 'volume down' I don't see the translucent dialog showing how much volume was reduced. Same with brightness.

Does anyone have a clue?

 

You need to install all of HP's software. That means the DVD player, their music program, their webcam program, etc.

This was the only way to get back the OSD. I recommend you not use the OSD because it causes fullscreen programs to minimize. There were some cases were the OSD caused my fullscreen games to crash.

 

How on earth did you manage that? Searching for "hp direct" with Bing does not yield any results near 30%.

The best way I can seem to buy it is with the student discount.

I really wanted an i5 CPU @ 32nm process but those are all gone. I'm afraid that the i7's will be too hot. This conclusion is backed up by what I see in this thread. What I would really like is an i7-620M but I don't think that'll happen.

Any further deals/tips would be really appreciated.

 

Hmm, it isn't a big deal, but it would be nice to have feedback.
If you say that will cause issues, I'm better off without that. Thanks.

 

Angry,

Worked for me. Try clearing cache, cookies, restart browser and try again. You should get the 30% hit with "HP DIRECT" as the search string.

 

Are you saying that you are ordering 2 laptops with the intention of returning one of them, just in case the first one is defective?

 

This is what I did:

1. Open firefox, which I never use except for developing.
2. Cleared *everything* from my browsing history.
3. Typed "bing.com" into the address bar.
4. Typed (including quotes) "hp direct" into the search box at the top.
5. Clicked on the "cashback" icon next to the "HP Direct" link.
6. Navigate to the Envy 17 page.
7. I do not see any indication of cashback / sale.

I guess I'm doing it right but I've never used Bing before.

Edit: Do I have to buy a pre-configured model or can I buy a customized one?

 

No quotes.

Free to customize and roam. Discount applied to total order. Payable within 60 days of purchase into account specified when you signed up for bing.com.

 

Thanks. I think that's what I'll do. Still sad about the i7-720M but, what can you do.

Estimated $1260 after tax and cashback.

i7-720, 1080p screen, 8gb of ram, extended battery slice

I'll see about ordering it soon, I hope.

 

Please note, the E17 extended battery is not a slice but rather a traditional bulge design. I believe the slice is applicable only to the E14 and E15 models.

 

That is tremendously dissapointing and not what I had understood at all.

 

I still haven't received any email, other than the order confirmation email, about my order that was supposed to ship last Friday, Jun 9th. God HP! This is ridiculous. Either get it right or give me my money back and I'll avoid you from now on.

 

For those that are having problems find the 30% off Bing Cash back you need to disable your adblocking software. I had Adblock plugin for firefox, once disabled you will be able to find the 30% at bing.

 

Wow 30% off makes the Amazon deal not such a good deal anymore... especially considering I had to buy my ssd + storage drive separately.

Congrats to those going that route...

 

I talked to a sales rep from hp about why haven't the e17 that were supposed to shipped out on 7/9. They said they don't process any orders Sat-Mon. So they said either they were able to send it on Fri but didn't update it, or they couldn't ship it on Fri and that it's gonna sit there till Tue. Either way if I don't see any update tomorrow the s**t is going to hit the fan.

 

Don't let it hit the fan. Let the s**t hit HP. Seriously, HP is lacking in organization and promptness compared to other vendors.


Update:

They finally sent me a delay email. New ship date of 7/23/2010. That will be 4 weeks since I placed the order.