HP Envy 14 Radiance review

I have had my HP envy 14 for just over a week, and have written a review here if anyone is interested in reading.
Thanks
Stanley

 

Very nice review All interested in the Envy 14 should def read it

 

Why is that?

While the review was pretty good, it's kind of too late. Sandy Bridge is just around the corner. Anyone thinking about getting an Envy 14 should wait until Sandy Bridge. Three weeks isn't very far.

 

not to mention the radiance is kinda long gone


it is really awesome (if a little bit blue shifted)

 

Great review for nostalgia, but sadly Radiance is dead and people that still want one would mostly likely try to risk buying an used unit. Still a great screen and great analysis of it!

 

Thanks for the feedback. I have a friend who is getting the sandy bridge Envy 14, I will review that as well when it is released.

 

The beats audio is marketed to the headphone jack. Less distortion at louder volume with more bass. It has nothing to do with the speakers themselves. Thats why the "beats" edition came with the headphones. how is having a way better headphone jack than almost any competitor in the market, while having average speakers constitute a marketing gimmick?

just because you had a prefabricated notion of what the beats meant doesn't mean you should smear the computer. I guarantee the envy would cost the exact same without an awesome headphone jack.

 

Not really sure why you're so worked up...

 

Because it is wrong information that people will use to make a decision on a laptop. I base a lot of purchases on reviews.

 

His review was pretty positive. And if he had bad experience, then he should post about it. He's reviewing an older model of the Envy 14, which has very little relevance because that screen will no longer be offered and the Sandy Bridge updates is coming soon.

Anyone that buys a product after a single review is clearly not doing their homework anyways.

 

Ok you are making no sense so i will stop feeding the troll. A bad experience is much different than stating something that isn't right.

 

Nobody is being a troll here. It just seems like you're blowing a small comment out of proportion. He didn't like the audio on the headset. That's his opinion. That doesn't mean he's being inaccurate or reporting it wrong. It's just his opinion.

I own a website where I actually do reviews of gaming headsets. In the world of audio, there are a lot of things that are up to preference. It's entirely possible that this guy either received an Envy 14 with bad ports, or he just plain didn't like it. That doesn't mean he's being inaccurate. But even after that, he gave the laptop an 8.5/10 and highly recommended it. No one is "reporting it wrong".

 

The "beats" doesn't refer to upgraded speaker quality. It refers to an upgraded headphone jack. Stating that "beats" is just a marketing gimmick based on the speakers is false.

this is my reply to your next comments as well so end it.

 

If you read my review fully, I did not say that I found the beats audio to be a marketing gimmick solely based on the speakers. As I said in the review - I own a pair of earphones that would be considered high end, and that I could hear hissing in the jack. This may well be to do with my headphones having a different impedance to the headphone jack - or I may have a slightly faulty laptop. With that being said, the sound that is outputted from the laptop from the jack is very good - better than most laptops and with no distortion; just for something marketed to have audio by monster, I was expecting no hissing at all. Everyone can have an opinion - I was just expecting a little better - the laptop is still great all round!
Stanley

 

My headphone jack does the same thing on multiple pairs of headphones. The beats audio is meh and IMO its a gimmick. It might be better than some other laptops but still doesnt compare to a high end sound card such as my Asus Xonar STX.

 

I have the beats earbuds and the sound is phenomenal compared to any other headphone jack that i didn't pay extra for. I am extremely grateful that i have it since most laptops don't have them.

There are a bunch of threads on the hissing and what causes it.

 

The beats headphones are far from the high end.

 

You are right and i got three pairs of them from goodwill for $25 dollars but the sound from the headphone jack to the far from high end headphones was pretty darn good which is why I stated in my first comment that the headphone jack is awesome and not a marketing gimmick since using any set of headphones through this jack produces better quality sound than that of most, if not all, consumer laptops (not sure of many laptops with awesome headphone jacks).

I keep stating the same thing over and over but nobody seems to get what i'm saying.

Beats on the envy = better than average headphone jack
Beats on the envy =/= better than average speakers

Stating the beats on the envy is a marketing gimmick (meaning there is no true value to the beats being on the envy) would be a false statement. Especially basing this off the sound from the speakers which is what he based it off of, not the headphone jack.

If there is hissing coming out of the headphone jack you obviously have a faulty headphone jack or some other problem. You wouldn't review a screen that is cracked in half would you? because obviously you can't review something that isn't working correctly. If toyota sends consumer reports a camry that has a defective engine they don't state that toyota's marketing on their engine was a gimmick. They get a fully functional camry and review it.

 

Not if what we consider a defect is what they consider fully functional.

 

What??????

 

You seem to take offense that this guy didn't say nice things about the headphone jack. There's no need for you to be taking this personally, or accuse me of trolling. It's just a conversation about a laptop.

The point is, if HP routinely ships laptops with a headphone jack that has a hiss, then perhaps they consider that normal. Obviously some people aren't so impressed with that, and so we're experiencing cognitive dissonance.

 

The only reason I said anything is because he stated the reason the beats was a marketing gimmick was because the speakers sucked. How many times should I repeat this. I'm not taking this personally I just keep stating why I felt he was wrong and you keep posting something that makes no sense. If his evaluation of the beats was only on the headphone jack and he stated it sucked then I probably wouldn't have not said anything since although he based his opinion on a non working specimen it was the actual part in question. he based it off the speakers sucking which is false. Maybe you are able to understand it the tenth time I post the same thing. I own, love, and sell these envy's so anyone that wants to write a review and post it on the most populated envy forum better get their facts straight.

 

Also hp doesn't ship laptops "routinely" with a hiss. It's called mass production. When you build things buy the thousands at a very fast and cheap rate in china there will be a trade off with small percentage of the products having defects. If yours has a problem send it in for warranty work, thats why there is a warranty. if they tell you it's normal it's because you let them. I guarantee they wouldn't say that to me.

 

Please quote in the review where I said that the beats was a gimmick solely based on the speakers. The two reasons were the speakers and the hissing. You said yourself in your post that my opinion would be 'valid' if it was solely based on the headphone Jack. That is exactly what I did - after listening to both the speakers and the Jack, I eventually came to a conclusion that the monster audio was a bit of a gimmick, but the sound was equal to any good laptop, just not anything special. Yesterday I also went to my nearest pceorld, and tried out a brightview envy 14 , and it had the same hissing. Just because you
don't seem to have this problem, doesn't mean that my one doesn't have it - it could be the headphones or the Jack.Whatever the cause, you can't wrongly stare that I made the decision solely based on the speakers.

 

you didn't base the beats solely on the headphone jack which you just restated. I've had 4 envys and not one had problems with the head phone jack.

 

Nice review.