HP Envy 14 Review (Pictures, Benchmarks, Comparisons)

PS: I am sending my laptop in for repairs tomorrow to get rid of the whine. I will finish all benchmarks, and add more to the review once I receive it back​

HP Envy 14 Review​

I purchased HP's premium notebook, the Envy 14, on July 12, 2010. The specs are below:

Custom HP ENVY 14

• 14.5" HP Radiance Infinity LED Display (1600x900)
• Intel Core i5-450M
• 4GB DDR3 RAM (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 7200RPM HD
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 switchable graphics
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Standard 8 cell + SLICE Battery
• 4 years LoJack Service

Discounts:

30% Bing Cash Back
$50 Delay Credit
$39 Return Shipping Credit

Total (Before Tax): $944.99

Reason For Buying

I have been in the market for a portable, yet powerful laptop for College since Early June. My tasks would include taking notes in class, using AutoCAD, and possibly 3D rendering programs. I also needed a high amount of battery life, so I opted for an i5 processor with switchable graphics over a more powerful i7 processor.

My first choice was the MSI GX640, but because of inadequate cooling and poor battery life, I decided to go in another direction. I was also looking at Asus, Acer, Lenovo and Sony, but none had what I was really looking for.

After past experiences with HP products, I was not even considering an HP laptop, until I started looking at the envy 14. After reading more and more about the envy, I started to love everything it. Some of the pros that I liked about the envy are:

-Switchable Graphics
-High Res Screen
-Slice Battery
-Backlit Keyboard
-Slot Load DVD Drive
-Aluminum Build
-Great cooling

I always loved the look and build quality of Macbook pro's but I absolutely hated OSX. When researching for a laptop, the Envy looked to have everything that I wanted.

When ordering my laptop, it happened to be when the Bing Cash Back was at 30%, so I opted for the extra $200 SLICE battery, which I really wanted, but wasn't planning on getting due to the price. Anyways, let's start the review:


PS: I am running all benchmarks and tests on a factory install, with all bloat ware uninstalled, and all instances removed from the registry.

Build Quality

After using several Toshiba laptops which are mostly made of plastic, I really wanted to go in the other direction. The HP envy 14 is mostly aluminum (or magnesium, if someone can confirm) with the exception of the bottom being plastic. It still isn't an aluminum uni-body design like the macbook pro, but it is definitely the closest windows machine you can get to a macbook pro design.



The laptop feels VERY solid at 5.25 lbs before the SLICE battery. When moving the laptop around, I get no flex or creaking in the frame, as you normally would with a plastic framed laptop. The screen is very stiff, and does not give much, if any flex when opening and closing the lid. The hinges are perfect; they are not too tight or not too loose. You can easily open and close the lid with one hand, without having to hold the laptop down with the other.

The lid and palm rests are fully aluminum, with a swirly design etched into the metal. The design looks much better in person, and gives the laptop a nice feel when touching it. The edges of the palm rests are beveled, meaning they slope down slightly before they hit the edge of the laptop. This helps a little bit when resting your arms on the laptop, but there is still a sharp edge on the laptop, which can get annoying when using the laptop on a desk.

The screen was thought to be covered with edge to edge glass, but it is in fact plastic, much like the screen on the Dell studio XPS 16. I would not expect HP to cover the screen in glass, because that would add to the weight of this laptop, which is already pretty heavy for its size. The screen is also surrounded by 1 single piece of rubber to allow a space between the screen and the laptop when the lid is closed.



The bottom of the laptop is all plastic, with 1 main air intake for the laptop, with 2 vents for the hard drive. To access the battery and hard drive, you slide a latch to pop off a plastic cover. The 1 main complaint I have with this, is that the cover is not completely tight, so when moving the laptop, you can feel the cover move back and forth, thus making some sound. It is only a minor problem, but I still would rather screws, or tighter latches.

To access the rest of the components, you remove 4 screws in the battery compartment and slide off the plastic bottom. I have yet to do this, but I eventually will.



Keyboard

The keyboard is one of my favorite parts of this laptop. The backlit keys are a nice addition, and is something that I always wanted on a laptop. The keys light up evenly, and are bright enough to use at night.

There is slight keyboard flex around the P and W keys, but is un-noticeable during normal use. The keys are very easy to press, and very responsive.

The only complaint that I could have about the keyboard is the right shift could be a little larger.



Touchpad

There have been many complaints about the touchpad. I myself love the touchpad. The size makes it much easier to use than my old Toshiba. I have been using the original Synaptics drivers, and all is good for me. Edge and two finger scrolling, pinch to zoom, 3 finger swipe all work for me.

The trick is to have a space between your fingers when using the touchpad. If you are trying to use two finger scroll, separate your fingers on the touchpad, then swipe up or down. This way, there is no jumping because the touchpad can easily tell your fingers apart.

Other complaints have been with the way the touchpad was installed, it either was not flush, or there were spaces between the pad and the frame. For me, the touchpad is slightly raised along the bottom, including the bottom left and right corners of the touchpad. This does not bother me at all.



Screen

Now for the best part of the Envy 14, the Radiance screen. The LED radiance display is by far, the brightest and most crisp screen I have seen on any laptop. When next to my Toshiba, the high contrast on the envy blows the Toshiba away. The viewing angles are not bad at all. At around 160 degrees, the colors start to turn into a slight reddish hue, but nothing that I can't deal with. Here are some pictures of the screen:



Benchmarks

I have only done a few benchmarks, so I will do more when I receive my laptop back from repair next week. I will do game benchmarks (Star Craft 2, AC2, Borderlands etc) and some stress tests (3D 06) but here is what I have now:​

Boot Time

This is my boot time, factory install, all bloat ware removed and all instances removed from the registry:



Hard Drive

Crystal DiskMark:



Battery Test

I have yet to time the battery test, but my laptop last about 4.5 hours without the slice battery. I will do a full battery test later, including the slice, different power modes, and integrated and dedicated GPU

Cooling

The cooling is another choice for picking this laptop over others. With 2 fans in this small chassis, this thing stays very cool.

The only complaint about the cooling system would be I would rather have the exhale vent be on the right side of the notebook. The hot air from the vent gets annoying when using a mouse. Also, the vent at the back of the laptop gets almost fully blocked when the screen is open, thus pushing hot air up and onto the screen. I don't know if this is bad in the long run, but it seems fine for now. See pictures below.



Temperatures

My Idle temps are always around 30c, and under full load, it gets to about 60c

*PS: I will add pictures and do a full review of the cooling at a later date*


Sound and Speakers

The onboard speakers on this laptop are the best for this size of laptop. They do sound full, but also lack base and sound tinny. The output, however, sounds amazing. I have tried several external speakers, including Logitech speakers, BOSE in Ear buds, Home theatre system and Turtle Beach. The sound blows me away. I have not tweaked any settings because I feel that I do not need to. The output is probably just as good if not better than my 17.3" Toshiba with a Harmon Kardon Sound system.

I also do not have any white noise at all. When there is no sound playing, there is no sound at all. I have tested this on all of the external speakers, and could not replicate the white noise others have.

SLICE Battery

I purchased the Slice battery for $200. I really like it. It feels solid, but also adds greatly to the weight of the laptop. Here are some pictures of the SLICE Battery with the ENVY:



Comparison Pictures

Here is the HP ENVY 14 compared to my Toshiba Qosmio x300, as well as some more pictures of the adapter against some everyday objects:



Problems I have

I only have one main problem with my laptop, and this is a slight CPU whine. I only hear the whine when I am doing any of these tasks:

-Bluetooth
-Firefox
-Opera
-Google Chrome
-Crystal Diskmark
-ITunes

I do not have any other problem that others are reporting, such as:

-dents/scratches
-off centre HP logo
-headphone jack hiss
-off color display

Conclusion

All in all, I love this laptop. It feels very solid, and has everything that I want from switchable graphics, to a backlit keyboard. The display blows any other laptop display away, and is by far one of the reasons people choose the envy over other laptops.

All the pictures and more can be found here:

HP ENVY 14 pictures by tornbacchus - Photobucket