HP ENVY 4t (Sleekbook 14") Review

Today pickup an HP ENVY 4t, it is not as it would seem, more though a budget line to add in to the ENVY line.

Although the model I brought was the best I could buy, as there are currently only four pre-built 14 inch model to choose from. The cheapest has an i3 and other specs missing.

Exact model link
HP ENVY 4-1030tx Notebook PC (B6T94PA)

Basically this notebook is known as a sleekbook. My particular model came with a Intel i5-2467M, Intel HM77 chipset, 8GB (1600 CL11) DDR3, Radeon 7670M, 32GB SSD + 500GB

First thing I noticed about this once opening the box, was the slim size of the unit. When out of the packaging, it has a very nice black metal finish on the top, and when opening the lid everything is black, keyboard surround has a black metal finish, underneth a smooth crimson red soft plastic bottom.

One disappointment was the screen (at first, until you get use to it). Typical 1366x768 (which I had expected/known of course) with the usual terrible viewing angles. Even saying that once you are using the notebook, it doesn't really matter too much as you stay seated in the same place 95% of the time. The whites look nice and clean with smooth brightness.

Performance is great, without doing bench marks, it just runs well, and does not slow down at all, multitasking is a breeze, stay cool and very quiet. With some general usage and having multiple programs open at the moment, battery is indicating 3 hr 27 min (67%) remaining.

The keyboard is your normal late model presario type, but with much better feel. The keys are tight and only have to press light with very little travel. Can feel some refinement here. I would say it is excellent to use.

Speaker are labelled beats audio. Don't know if that really means anything or not, but they do reproduce sound nice, and are loud for the size of them.

I can say that I pleased to see that it uses an Intel HM77 chipset, which is very nice for such a small notebook, even though the processor is a little old. The HM77 it does make up for a lot knowing that USB3 is implemented as standard, and the other features that are working with the SSD cache and HDD drive.

Yet to test the Radeon 7670M. Just to note the DDR3-1600 CL11 only runs at 1333 at CL9, as the CPU does not support anything higher. Only have had this notebook going for the last couple of hours. Will post better photo(s) when the sun is out tomorrow.

Not sure why this thing is named an Envy (maybe the size), it is more a mini presario than anything else.

Overall would recommend this, and is enjoyable to use.

EDIT (Next day):
Uploaded some more photos, sorry for the quality, with either my SonyPhone or Ipad3, as I don't have any other cameras. Anyway you will get the idea, and there are some other screenshots to look at.

I ran this machine all last night, do various things, web browsing, editing and uploading photo, copying files from exturnal hard drive, light benchmarking, playing games. Battery last almost 5 hours, which is very nice compared with what else I have when doing the same.

If you look at the bottom photo. The cooling fan/heatsink is located on the left on the photo next to my thumb/Windows sticker. This area remains cool to the touch. The vent grills, are actually just air intakes for the cooling fan.
There is a hot spot on the opposite side, which could keep your left leg somewhat toasty if you don't use a lapdesk/pad. This area would be where your left hand is when using the notebook, which is just warm on the plam rest.

Another cool thing is the IGP will turbo from 350MHz idle to 1150MHz. Reading the 7670M memory details, I am fairly sure this is DDR3 given that it is showing 12.8GB/s (battery) times that by 2 (as with the 6770M on the DV6-61XX using GPUz x4 for DDR5) translates to 25.6GB/s. On the adaptor the memory clocks in at 900MHz, therefore I would believe the bandwidth to be 28.8GB/s . See screenshot battery vs power adaptor

Best of all, the TDP for turbo is not locked down on all cores. Therefore with the i5 you get an overclock of 25% (from 1.6GHz to 2.0GHz) if you use a tool like ThrottleStop (big ups to you ) to by pass throttling kicking in. This really means if you Set Mutliplier 20, then you will get a constant 2GHz with endless time period. Check out the low voltage (less than 1v) and wattage (12.8w) when loaded. See screenshot at the near the bottom of thread.

Cinebench R11.5 64bit = 1.91 (See screenshot)

EDIT (Day 3):
Definitely happy with this lower cost slim notebook, performance is excellent for the size. No point getting a 15.6" model which would defeat the purpose of getting a slim notebook, when the 14" has all the same features the larger model does, for less cost.

Boots up fairly fast, therefore the SSD cache is helping, noticeably faster than my Alienware with RAID0.

Been using the Envy 4 all night without a lapdesk/cooling pad, sitting directly on my legs on the couch. Runs slighty warm but no means hot, most heat is on the lefthand side. Right hand side is cool at all times, this side has the fan.

Touch pad is a decent size and very nice to use, supports multi-touch, buttons are integrated into the touch pad, takes a little getting use to. Can't beat a wireless mouse which is always easier with any laptop in my opinion.

Runs quiet, fan spins up every now and then, but no means noisy at any time.

Power adapter is 65 watts, and this is with the i5 and discrete graphics model.

Battery type is listed as a 4-cell Li-Ion polymer, and is inside the unit.

Really easy to pickup, put down, and move around with this notebook.

This notebook BIOS version is F.09, which does not exist!, see below.

F.0A Current › 05-2012 6.25M
F.08 › 05-2012 6.25M
F.05 › 04-2012 6.24M

Windows 7 drivers link:
Software & Driver Downloads HP ENVY Sleekbook CTO 4t-1000 - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Windows 8 64-bit drivers link:
This link based on my review model 1030TX, although likely much the same for all Intel Envy 4 models.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...Id=5260474&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4132

Not much else I can add, thats about it. I'd give it an 8 out of 10

Tweaks:
Use ThrottleStop to make your CPU clocks go past 1.6GHz upto 2GHz dual core, or 2.3 single core.
On battery maximum 7670M clock speed of Plugged In can be obtained by changing PowerPlay setting on battery to Maximum Performance

Overclocking the 7670M achieved!
Has been awhile to get this working, but if the newest (at this time) MSI afterburner v2.2.1 is used, it will overclock
Check out the screenshot at the end of this post.
Using rthdribl as a quick rendering test, I managed to overclock the 7670M all the way to 780MHz core and 1178MHz memory (under a lite rendering for just a few minutes).
Any higher on the memory will introduce artifacts, I have not pushed the GPU core past 780MHz yet, but I am sure there is more in it.

To use MSI afterburner, open MSIAfterburner.cfg annd change these two lines below to:

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 1

The great thing about this, as when on battery the memory is crippled badly (when using Maximum Battery setting), by overclocking the memory, then much of the rendering smoothness returns in games. I would suspect that using Maximum Battery will reduce the voltage to the core, therefore making some gains on the memory without giving up to much extra battery life. I like to game on battery for short peroids anywhere I please

Due to there being no fixed graphics option in the system BIOS, the Envy 4 is stuck on dynamic graphics. To get around this the application must be opened first, then MSI afterburner, and then apply the overclock settings.

HP ENVY 4 Service Manual
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...Id=120&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=5269312


















Battery clocks:


Power adaptor clocks:






Overclocked 7670M @ 780MHz / 1178MHz

 

Thank you for the review! It's the first I've seen online from a non-news outlet. I have an i3-2367m/7670m in production at HP right now. I didn't go the Ultrabook route. Can you tell us if it is possible and if so how hard it is to get inside the 4t to add an SSD, upgrade RAM, etc?

Thanks again!

ix

 

3dmark06 score please?

 

Thanks, weird thing is this has been sitting at my local retail store since the 15th of May 2012. Reason I got it yesterday as they has 20% off sale on all HP.
Looking at the bottom, there is no way in. The battery is also in there. If you want to get in then you would need to remove 12 screws on the bottom. I would think from then you would need to detact the palm rest from the bottom. I am guessing here.
I went with everything I could get to advoid doing operation, this time around. No doubt when it gets old (for me thats only 6 months away) I will be opening it up for mods.

 

Stock 600MHz / 900MHz


Overclocked 750MHz / 1100MHz


Overclocked 800MHz / 1100MHz in conjuction with throttlestop

 

Great looking machine, thanks for sharing pics & info. I'm holding out for Ivy Bridge, but apart from the default resolution, would like one of these for my next laptop.

Let's just hope HP has pity on us and offers a 900p screen.

 

thank you!

 

Not sure about 3Dmark06, looks fairly average when checking the mobile GPU charts, but is 8054 any good for this particular slim notebook?

I'm hoping if a 900p panel is offered (or in the pipeline) that HP has the 900p cable already installed in my Envy 4, but I would doubt it otherwise.

 

Ok, HP, give us a good 900p screen, Ivy Bridge and a 28nm GPU and you are golden!

 

Thanks for the review. I'm thinking about possibly purchasing one of these soon.

Is there any way you test its gaming capabilities? I'm curious about Starcraft II and Diablo III in particular.

Also, what was the store that you picked it up at?

 

Ivy bridge is one the way, like pre-production right now. Quote from BIOS version F.08 "Fixes intermittent issues with graphics processors on certain dual core systems with the Intel Ivy Bridge processor"

I can see how those games run in the next few days. In general gaming is ok, but on battery it suffers, e.g. memory is clocked down from 900MHz to 400MHz
I have been looking for a way to overclock the video card, well at least the memory which does not need active cooling.

Brought from a retail store in New Zealand.

 

Good review, thanks.

But, what is need to know is whether the ENVY 4 Sleekbook will be available with an AMD Trinity APU?

Conflciting information; some sources say it will, others state that only the ENVY 6 will have the Trinity option............

Personally I think HP would be complete idiots not to provide a Trinity ENVY 4 option!

 

How do you take out hte battery? Im not quite happy about that since I would remove the battery if im gonna plug it in. And btw, is the backlit keyboardmoption worth the upgrade?

 

If you do any Googling at all on the press release for the Envy 4t and 6t, they say AMD parts will be available June 20. They've said that since the release on May 9th, as I'm sure you've read. However, it all depends on the TDP of the Trinity parts IMO. Llano only had the lower-end APUs in 14" notebooks. All the quad A6/A8 parts were in 15.6"+ notebooks.

 

Any update on gaming ability and performance? I've done extensive research on similar parts. The Alienware M11x R3 i3-2357m + GT 540m is close - but we have a 1.4GHz 2367m in the 4t, along with the 7670m which is +/- 3-5% versus the 6650m, which is better than the 540m. But all I have is that - no Envy 4t-specific benchmarks.

Thanks!
ix

 

sorry for this post lol just interested so subscribing to the thread

 

Please HP, give me a higher resolution. I will pay literally pay hundreds for it (thats how desperate i am right now)

 

If anyone is wonder about the 1366 x 768 screen on the 14 inch model. It really sucks badly!

When compared with my DV6-61XX pavillion, which was a 1366 x 768, it is worse.

When compared with a Compaq budget CQ62 and also CQ42 from 2010 which are 1366 x 768, I would rate the Envy 4 slighty below these, which are poor.

Expect the screen invert colors, from when tilled just 10 degrees below the panel. 20 drgrees look real bad, 30 is terrible.
When at 45 degree angle from below the screen the color has totally inverted to black and gray. It like looking at a photo negative.

As I have mentioned, the screen is just ok. When I say ok, you will get use of it, only if you are seated right in front of it, single user at the right adjusted lid angle. Doing this is the only way you can forget and enjoy the laptop, which I have to do, otherwise hate it.

This is at keyboard level of the Envy 4 with the panel tilted back 10 degrees (you can see a fraction of Alienware M17xR3 on the left, with NBR forums when posting this), and what you are seeing on the Envy 4 believe it or not is Steam.

Now that SUCKS!

 

as said, i have read lots of conflciting information stating quite plainly that only the 15.6" ENVY 6 will be available with the Trinity option.

if you have any info confirming dates and apu SKU's i'd be keen to see it.

i am hoping the ENVY 4 will be available with the 25W SKU.

[edit] gah, such a confusing morass of conflicting information!

http://www.gadget.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=4623

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7620G.74863.0.html

-------------------

versus:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5825/hp-unveils-new-ultrabooks-sleekbooks

 

Super PI 1.5 mod scores:

24.242s 1M @ 1.6GHz Stock No Tweaking
19.641s 1M @ 2GHz x20
17.971s 1M @ 2GHz Turbo (maximum x23)
17.675s 1M @ 2GHz Turbo (maximum x23) + Power Saving

19 seconds and less is only possible buy using ThrottleStop. Using CoolSense either off or on does not allow any speeds over 1.6GHz. In fact I have noticed the laptop never will turbo over 1.6GHz, so therefore if you want more you will have to tweak it!

Intel XTU versions 3 and 3.1 will install and give you some good info but the laptop and processor, shows on the fly clock speeds, but the manual tweaking feature does not work

Best advice to to advoid the i3, otherwise you will never do any better than 27.597s, and yeah might be super pi score but this will reflect everything you do that requires any horsepower. Score was simulated but lock the processor to mutliplier x14 for 1.4GHz clock speed.

 

Really 1366 x 768? Phones almost have higher resolutions. PATHETIC

 

How do you take out the battery?

 

I reformatted my 6t, and I'm trying to find the drivers for the amd 7670M but with no luck at all.

I've installed the driver from the hp website and that only gave me the Intel 3000 GPU. Does anyone know where I can find the AMD 7670M driver?

 

Here is my disassembly guide where you can see how to remove the battery.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/667656-envy-sleekbook-6t-1000-cant-reformat.html

 

Hello all new poster here. I have been very interested in this laptop the minute I've seen it but a couple things holding me back. First of all, is it confirmed the Envy 4 & 6 are getting Ivy Bridge and Trinity processors? If so does anyone know when? Secondly, I have a Crucial 256 SSD so would I have any problems installing that? By installing my own SSD I wouldn't order this laptop with the 32GB express cache, is this correct? Thanks to all in advance!!

 

^I wonder the same thing

 

Ivy Bridge will soon be here if the future, if you want to wait, otherwise if you don't then it is what it is today.
There are no screw or pop off under the bottom lids, therefore you will have to somewhat take the notebook apart to get in.
If you are still certain you want to pull it apart to get your drive in, then make make you don't bother with the 32GB cache, for the fact that you may have a few troubles get it to work with your drive change out.

 

you can get it now with Ivy Bridge

 

Yes, I see now that it is being offered with Ivy Bridge. Does anyone have any knowledge if the Ivy Bridge will be offered with dedicated graphics as it is in Asia? As of now its just Sandy Bridge dedicated and Ivy Bridge HD 4000 integrated. What a bummer!!

 

^Ya HP tends to screw everything up for a potential buyer like me and you.

Its NO WONDER they're cutting 30000 employees haha

 

I was super excited to see Ivy Bridge today and then was disappointed that I couldn't bundle with dedicated graphics.. I assume that it's coming sense it has been that way for awhile in asia? And what are the odds they add a better screen option?

 

Does anyone know if this ultrabook is expandable? I wanted to bump up the RAM to 8GB and I have a 256 SSD to install in it? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

 

After charging the battery several times after a full shutdown (like completely off), I have found out the battery is discharging when off!

e.g. Last night, I shutdown the laptop. Charged it overnight. Unplugged it in the morning. Started it up 12 hours later, battery was on 84% and had lost 16% worth of charge while completely off.

Over the last weekend I had not used the laptop for almost 3 days, after a full charge. The battery was almost flat, only 17% charge in the battery. Very disappointing

I have made sure that I have nothing else plugged into any of the ports, e.g. USB ports.
I am thinking that it just may be possible the SSD cache maybe draining the battery when off and unplugged?

100% certain that the discharge state is there, as I noticed when unboxing the laptop, it would not turn on at all. Usually there is a small charge in the battery enough to turn it on even when new, or at least flash the power led a couple of time. It was dead flat, I had to charge it for sometime before the laptop would start.

Can't be sure if I have a bad laptop or not, but if this is the same for everyone then this is not good for any of these sleekbook models.

 

^ Yikes! My 4T should be coming in on Saturday, and that is just the 500GB hard drive model (that I will be replacing with an SSD). Will you let you know if the same behavior happens without the SSD cache.
I would contact HP, that don't sound right at all, unless it's in some weird hibernate mode or instant-on suspend state.

 

when did you order Groove? The power drain might be due to the Charging USB on the right side as we can charge thru that usb port even if the laptop is OFF.

 

I made sure nothing was plugged into this USB charging port while off, as I was aware of that. I can't see any reason why the battery should discharge if nothing is drawing any current from that particular port.

 

Anyone think this laptop can run Star Wars the old republic at the native resolution with the i5 Ivy Bridge HD 4000?

 

First off, thanks for the review, it's impossible to find reviews for the 4t

I noticed in your pictures that the HD3000 was also included in your GPU tests. When I talked to HP and they told me that if I ordered the 7690M option, there wouldn't be an extra HD3000 onboard (to enable graphics switching). Does your computer actually have both the HD3000 IGP and Radeon 7690M or were the pictures just certain specs that were not actually included?

Really, the only thing holding me back from getting this instead of the UX32VD from Asus is the ability to switch GPU's to conserve energy.

Other random questions I have about the computer:

-How's the brightness of the screen? Can you see the screen ok when working outside in sunlight?
-How's the battery life when playing only a game with 50% brightness (so full load on CPU and GPU)?
-How loud is the computer for everyday browsing/ office use, when on turbo?
-If you do have both a dGPU and IGP, do you use the dynamic switching option or do you manually switch your graphics units through the catalyst utility?
-How do you like the weight of the computer? We have the same Dv6, and I'm trying to find something light and easy to carry around to replace mine.

 

ParkerKim,

I as well have been scouring the internet for reviews as well. The only review I found was Cnet Asia, but that review had Ivy Bridge with dedicated graphics instead of Sandy Bridge. Geez, for the love of god why don't they offer that here?!?! Buying the Sandy Bridge just feels like I'm buying older tech in a new machine. Anyways look on YouTube and you'll find some decent hands on videos of the Envy 4. Looks pretty.

 

You see, the USB to the right of Envy sleekbooks have a special property, they can charge and iphone or any usb powered device even if the laptop is completely shutdown. It is same as connecting your iphone to the usb powered socket ( powerline ) . What I was referring to is to find a way( prolly in BIOS ) and disable that USB power charging mode..

 

1. Yes both HD3000 and the 7690M are included. The HD3000 is part of if not all Sandy Bridge processor.
2. Screen brightness is good. Looks fine as it is winter here outside.
4. The computer is almost slient, great thermals as in cool running, and silent. HP had disabled turbo,you will have to enable it with third party software.
3. Battery life is much better than my DV6-61XX when gaming, but I have not bothered to play it from a full charge down to nothing yet.
4. There is no manual graphics switch, it is dynamic. Thus it automatically goes into power saving mode after your are finished. You can tell the computer through the switchable graphics control panel which graphics to use.
5. The feel and weight of the computer is great. For the size is a very good performing. The DV6 is big and heavy (I have one), this is excellent, as you can see I could take photos of it which one hand and felt totally safe handing it this way due to being light weight

Yes I am aware of that port is a charging port. Like I said, why would the battery drain if there is no current draw from the port, aka nothing plugged into it.

However I do understand what you are getting at, but there are no such options in the BIOS if it were to help.
There is another option that I will try that is unrelated to the USB, and that is the "Intel Rapid Start Technology", in which if there is power waiting here on device such as the SSD cache, then changing this from enabled to disabled could help. I will test this tonight and post the results.

Just to note, I unplugged the power adaptor charger this morning at 8am, it is now 4pm in the afternoon. Over the last 8 hours, after verifying a full 100% capacity before shutdown and unplugging, the battery is on 93% at first boot in to windows which takes about 20 second to do. That means it has lost 7% charge.

If anyone else has this notebook, I would suggest they try charging till full, unplugging, then see if they have lost charge over 12-24 hour period. Post your results here.

 

I am typing on a 4t right now. A few thoughts for people that might help:
1) I can confirm switchable graphics
2) Screen is mediocre but far from the worst I've used. My Envy 17 definitely puts it to shame, but it's workable minus the annoyingly narrow vertical viewing angles
3) Battery life is currently estimated at 4h at half brightness, which is kind of disappointing
4) IMPORTANT - the HDD bay is 7mm. Most HDDs and SSDs are 9.5, some are more than that even. I found this out the hard way...sigh.
5) I'm coming to like the keyboard, which is pretty solid, but the keys have narrow travel

 

Hmm. Haven't paid attention to the discharge rate while unplugged. I'll try to remember to fully charge it and unplug it before I go to sleep.

So far I like the ENVY 4t but I'm not sure just how impressed I am. For the price I paid after coupon, it's decent for the price, but it still feels kinda heavy (not much lighter than my 14" Sony) - and I was kinda hoping for longer battery life. I specifically stuck to the i3 + Intel graphics for the longest possible battery life, but it's still only around 5.5 hours.

 

Yeah the main issue around the battery is when idle all i3 and i5 will be at 800MHz and ~0.8v, therefore the low down power savings are about the same due to being dual core with 3MB cache built on the same 32nm process. Although the i3 will have slighty lower volts and power consumption due to the lower clock at 1.4GHz, but not by much compared with an i5, as the i5 turbo is disabled by HP on these laptop (shame on HP).

Simulated speeds and voltages with my i5:

1.6GHz = 0.9156v total power 9.9watts
1.4GHz = 0.8856v total power 8.8watts


This laptop is going back to the shop, due to the bad discharge rate. I will get a replacement if this is just a faulty somewhere with only just this laptop. If the problem is common to all Envy 4, then I won't be getting another Envy 4 again.

Hopefully you can give me an anwser about the battery.
Please remember to try out your battery, see if it drains after being fully charged.

Note:
Laptop unplugged (fully shut off) after full charge at 11:30pm once again, turned on laptop at 7am, battery is on 93%. I checked that it was 100% prior to that. Lost 7% charge in a few hours overnight. Taking it back to the shop for a return. Beware of the un-removable battery!

 

Of course I fell asleep last night and my ENVY 4t hibernated itself at 5% battery. I'm charging it now and will unplug it before I leave home, and I won't use it tonight so it can sit the whole night. That said, the battery was on 5% when I turned it back on just now, and I'm estimating it was in standby til a couple hours ago when it hibernated, so for me, at least over a couple of hours, it did not even lose 1%. We'll see how it does when I leave it unplugged over night.

I bought my 4t directly through HP so I have 21 days to figure out if I want to keep it or not. I like it a lot but I'm debating if it's worth the $$. I have a dv4 which I really like too, and it's 14" too so it's still fairly portable and since it has a regular i3-2330m chip, it's also considerably faster than this 4t.

 

After terrible experiance taking the laptop back to the shop, thanks to the ever decreasing customer service offered by New Zealand retails stores. With the store manager going as far as saying, and then not saying, that I could of damaged it myself (yea right!).
Then also going against their own stated terms an conditions about right of exchange which is clearly printed on their website. And then after 13 days, the store manager said that he can only send the unit away for warrenty, and while saying I had no right to bring it back.
He finally gave up the stupid act of say how much money it will cost the company, and then actually replaced the unit for a exact same model Envy 4.
A refund was out of the 7 days, but I was hoping for at least a store credit. Getting a replacement risks me getting another dud, if it turns out to be way. I hope not
Good news about the above exchange for you people here, is I can now confirm if the Envy 4 has a discharge issue or not
I will be posting the results soon.

 

I feel for you. I hate doing returns/exchanges at most stores. I had a couple of annoying dead pixels on an MSI laptop I bought a couple years ago and went to exchange it. The tech guy was like "what's the big deal? You can barely notice it" - before I got upset, the manager said to do the exchange anyway. The replacement was perfect and overclocked awesomely and I just recently sold it to a friend.

Anyway. I'm off to sleep. I unplugged my 4t about 12 hours ago. I'll report back later today with my results on the battery discharge thing.

 

Got the 4T today. Was very disappointed that I could not find my SSD into it (it uses a slim size hard drive, which is the reason for the SSD cache; a regular 2.5 drive will not fit, which is scary if the HD fails, as I have to get a new one from HP at that point, instead of Newegg or the like). The laptop came with zero charge. Will let you know how the battery is when I let it sit overnight.
Despite the spinning drive, the machine is actually quicker and more responsive than I thought. Today I am doing the usual software uninstalls and antivirus, office apps, etc, so today is a wash, but will start running it through its paces tomorrow.

 

What 3rd party software do you recommend for enabling the turbo feature of the CPU? Preferably software that enables turbo and switches between turbo and normal mode on its own.

 

Battery Update

Good news if anyone is wondering about the battery drain while off issue?
Answer to that (with the replacement I got yesterday) it does not have that issue

I took it off the charger at 100% last night at 11pm, started it this morning at 7am and was showing 99% when booted into windows.

Shut it down, started it up at 10:30am, battery is still showing 99%

BUT... I would have some concerns that there could be a chance or possibility this could/or happen to other people.
Keep in mind that no one can just remove the battery without taking the laptop apart.

Be interesting to see how your is. Please post you findings

I noticed the same thing, both laptops came with zero charge in the battery out of the box. This could because the battery is pyhically in the unit, as where most other laptop are not? I usually charge first thing out of the box as a rule, but I just wanted to breifly check the memory amount in the BIOS before I got the charger unpacked from the box. Which I couldn't do anyway, there was no power on to the unit, the charger is required to be connected for a few minutes before it will turn on, I did notice this with both laptops.
Please post you findings too, thanks.

Use ThrottleStop, set mutliplier to Turbo, and tick the check box "Power Saver". That way you get the best of both worlds and it will do what you are looking, turbo/normal. Click the save button, make a shortcut in the start up menu, if you want this to happen automatically at boot.

One other tip, is if you want to keep the voltage down and stop turbo on just a single, but only have both dual cores turbo at the same time if fully loaded, then set your multipler to x20, that will get you 2GHz, this can be sustained without hitting and limitations