HP Envy 14: Availabilty, etc.

I'm using one from Summer 2009. I get ~7 hours, usually just a bit over, in real-time usage.

Usual office-ish stuff.

 

I'm with You there!!!

I hope they do make some changes. HP has brought our hopes up high and a PR mistake has sent us crashing down again..

And Thanks StefanHT for putting up those specs. Was about to do it myself!

 

It was unlikely that $999 was going to get any of you all they eluded to in the PR videos. They knew some wouldn't bother thinking and thus believe it. Just look how some thought, and still think, it would have a Blu-ray drive even though it doesn't exist yet no matter how much we want it to first materialize with the Envy 14. It's called bait and switch in the marketing game and once in the door you feel obligated to have what you've waited for for a little more.

That new spec sheet is about right for the base model and isn't bad for what you'll pay for. The radiance display and better core processors will obviously be options at the declination of your bank account balances.

For me, i'm waiting to see what they offer and for how much. I also have an eye out for the supposed Core i5 update to the Dell M11x. Right now the Envy 14 is my most likely future laptop.

 

I was hellbent on getting the envy but will probably wait till august to make a decision. This way there will be plenty reviews out and maybe more options.

 

That particular course of action has almost invariably paid of nicely for those with patience. Not only are there generally more options and better drivers/firmware, but lower prices. As a plus, the user experiences that have accumulated since only make your experience better.

 

Aren't the best discounts normally offered around launch time or a month after?

 

QFT! Except that BR media consumes too much space to make it reasonable and efficient especially in a notebook. a BR drive is about the only way to go.

 

I would rather forgo that and make sure the product isn't a lemon. I've been around the block when it comes to purchasing new electronics on launch and I believe the HP envy is the device where I put my past learnings to use. lol. I would have to say that at least 80% of the electronics I purchased on launch days have been sub par. I will let others be the lab rats for now on. I can wait an extra month or two. Plus, I figure august will bring some hot deals due to the fact school is gearing up.

 

The best offers occur before a refresh or several months after launch time as they try to widdle down their stale inventory.

With tech, reading and waiting always pays.

On the other hand, buy when you need. But if one buys when they "want", the earlier one buys, the higher the early-adopter premium.

I always bought my computers months after or even a year later.

For instance, the HDX 9000. The config I have now wasn't even available at inception. When the config I have now debuted, with updated options, it was around $3500. I waited about 5 months later, used a $450 off coupon and paid $1900.

Similar story with my TX2500 and DV5.

 

This is my course of action as well. I've been keeping my eye out on the following:

Envy 14
Asus UL30JT
Acer 3280TG
and with the announcement of i-series, the MX11.

I have pretty much already crossed off the Asus and Acer. Lack of any news Stateside has pretty much made the Envy 14 is my primary choice, with the MX11 second.

As far as the price goes, I'm willing to pay in the $1,000-$1,400 range for some of the extra bells and whistles.

The trigger will be pulled on one of these in August.

 

Just a thought -- maybe the "NR" in the Envy 14-1010NR stands for "not radiance"? Haha

 

haha, good guess. The Envy 17-1011NR on Amazon doesn't have radiance screen also

h ttp://www.amazon.com/HP-ENVY-17-1011NR-17-3-Inch-Laptop/dp/tech-data/B003L780XS/ref=de_a_smtd

But we all know Envy 17 doesn't have radiance to begin with

 

QFT. Yet another reason I dislike apple.

 

NR is just the prefix they have at the end of the quick ship envys in the US, in the uk they use EA and in germany as people have seen already from the envy 14 german config they use EG. And there are a whole load of others... that big list that hp normally have of various envy's where the numbers are virtually the same but with different prefixes just indicate the model that's sold to specific countries.

 

From that list Envy 14 is really the only one worth considering, I am tired of low quality displays that other manufacturers are pushing, especially m11x.

 

The number one speculation I have with this Envy 14 is the heat. I've owned a dv9000t that had a fried NvidiaGPU/motherboard a little more than a year, and now I'm on a dv4 which still gets pretty hot during gaming (Intel GMA4500...). I thought I would never buy a HP again, until I saw this badboy.

Aluminum chassis, completely revamped build compared to previous generation HP laptops. Everything else spec-wise looks solid. But will it last 3-4 years (average life of a laptop?) and run rather cool? A 5650 paired with a i5-540 shouldn't run too hot should it?

If reviews/user feedback point towards yes, I will buy my Envy 14 come tax-free weekend, first wknd of August.

 

My journey unfolded like this:

I started off craving the Acer 4820TG (TimelineX), and then expanded to the Asus U30Jc, as there was no news out by Acer on release date. I've crossed both off of my list as the U30Jc only comes with the i3 CPU and what I have read of the Acer 4820TG, it is less than impressive (build quality & specs)

Dell doesn't seem to be offering anything exciting these days (except for the ultra-expensive Adamo w/ mediocre performance), in terms of laptops, so I have discounted buying anything from them.

After I saw the announcement on the HP Envy 14, I immediately changed my focus, said goodbye to the guys in the Acer TimelineX forum, and am patiently waiting for the Envy to be released. However, I will wait until the online magazines such as PCMag, PCWorld & CNET, and users post their reviews/impressions before I purchase.

I figure I will feel comfortable spending a maximum of $1,300 - $1,500 on the Envy (with all necessay upgrades) and it should be able to satisfy my needs.

Not being too familiar with HP laptops (my laptops have been Sony, Toshiba & Acer) I notice that HP generally have three laptop batteries, a standard 6 cell, a high capacity 6 cell and a 9 cell. How much power should one expect from the high capacity 6 cell? I notice that the regular 6 cell is supposed to get up to 4.75 hrs (as listed under the dv6z) and was wondering how much more power would one expect?

Does anyone know or have experience with this battery? Basically, I don't like the idea of attaching the 9 cell battery, which is thicker (and I suppose heavier).

 

No one is sure yet, but I'm hopeful the heat will be well contained. The i540 doesn't run very hot (I had one in a MSI GX640 for a while which has a poor cooling system an it never went above 65 degrees), and the 5650 also shouldn't give off a tremendous amount of heat. I'm not sure what the exact fan system is in the Envy 14, but they did add new vent holes in the bottom of the case, and a new exhaust port in the back of the unit. I'll cross my fingers and report back when I get my delivered on both fan noise and temps.

 

True. The Evy 14 is most definately at the front of the list when it comes to display (and just about everything else).

While I am satisfied with a majority of the specs with the Envy, a few cons I have for it (based on paper, not reviews, history, etc.) is it's size.

The size of the laptop is above a normal 14". I was really looking forward an ultra portable mid-grade gaming machine. At 14.5 it's kind of pushing into the 15.4/6" area.

The weight is slightly larger than that of the other laptops... but only by about a pound or so... I have been working out so I think I can manage the extra weight.

In regards to the MX11, yes the screen is low quality but at 11", what can you expect? I almost bought the first gen of this but the processor in those things made me back away. It was like putting a V4 in a Ferrari.

But yes, the HP Envy 14 is at the top of this list.

 

It all comes down to what works for you, when I owned m11x it hasn't left house even once, so kinda defeated the purpose of being portable. While it has small footprint it's also heavy, but that's not what bugged me about m11x, it's the damn screen which is why I would rather lose the portability and gain screen quality that Envy 14 offers. M11x screen is the same exact screen used in all these 11" notebooks which is being LED has mediocre quality. It's fine for web, but colors do not pop when you watch movies, view pictures or play games.


As far as performance, I am not a hardcore gamer and m11x did not feel sluggish in anything I threw at it (Crysis, JC2, BC2 etc...), so I will be perfectly satisfied with base cpu in Envy 14 as well. What I do hope is that Envy 14 can get at least 6 hours of battery life time which is what I got out of m11x.

 

why compare the m11x with the envy 14?

isn't the m11x a lower class from this beast of an envy 14?

ULV previous gen processor vs full M current gen processor

 

m11x is getting i3, i5, and i7 ULV in a month.

 

I just wish they had a slightly better GPU in the Envy 14. The mobile i5 is what attracts me to the envy 14 over the M11x with the ULV. But in a 14" seems they could pack something more powerful than the 5650. And it is a fairly large 14" at that. I'm on the lookout for that knockout combination that will replace both my Sager 15" and M11x 12".

 

exactly my point.. ULV... will be nothing near the performance of the full M processors in the envy 14...

 

isn't the 5650 on par / slightly better than the 335m?

 

the reason for the 5650 is that is the best graphical option for both performance and battery life.

ATI 5650 - TDP: 15-19 Watts..... thats quite low for the performanceit gives... you can get modern warfare 2 on the highest setting with it... check out some youtube vidz with peeps running this gpu and a core i5/i7 give good FPS and visuals.

 

yer basically ... the ATI benches slightly higher

 

It's no comparison between Envy 14 & M11x, but someone had both on their wish list...

 

That would make it a suffix, not a prefix

 

gotcha , that's what i figured.

 

I quite like the M11x myself (with the i5 of course ).

 

I might be the only one who couldn't wait to get rid of it

I hope I won't have the same feeling with Envy.

 

Yea, if they had ditched the optical drive and added a second cooling system for the GPU, that would have been sweet. Again, I expect this type of configuration to be the 2nd generation Envy 13 which will probably be out in 6 months or so.

 

You may be the only person on this whole site who knows the difference.

Bronsky

 

i thought they were discontinuing the envy 13?

 

and u are correct in thinking that

 

an envy 13 with the envy 14's specs (minus optical drive) would have been perfect....

 

Maybe the first gen model is discontinued, but I'd bet the whole shebang that this fall a new 13" Envy with the aforementioned specs will be announced. It's just too good of a product for HP to not pursue.

However, it's speculation and for now I look forward to good news about the Envy 14.

 

The perfect laptop is the Vaio Z. I was in a Sony Style store yesterday looking at how nice that thing was. The one in the store had a sticker of $2499 Hopefully the Envy 14 is a good buy for the money.

 

so vaio z was on clearance a few days ago online at the MS store for $1200...

i5, 128gb ssd, etc.. dammit!

so pissed i missed that.

 

So let's say I wanted to buy a HP Envy 14 but replace the HDD with my own SSD. Would I just replace them and then install windows 7? (Do they give you an OS cd?)

How hard is it? I've built my own computer, but I've never worked with laptops before.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-hp-laptop-out-box-guide-2-0-windows-7-a.html

Follow this guide.. Windows 7 can be downloaded online. I would recommend getting a 4gb USB stick and installing it to that, very easy.

 

can win 7 iso fit on a 4gb stick? i read somewhere it needs just a shade over 4gb

 

i think it is too, but all you have to do is remove some of the printer drivers or something

 

Dang... I see what just happened there . It wasn't so much a wish list, just some models to keep in mind which are in the 11-14" range to keep in mind. I'm still betting on the Envy 14 getting my money.

 

well the Envy team have said that the 13 is replaced with the 14 and even on the Envy website it has been taken off.

 

Hmmm. I'm hoping they refresh the envy15 soon as well. I want to be able to play SC2 in ultra settings, but the envy14 sure sounds nice. Decisions decisions.

 

Who said anything that there is no Blu-Ray on Envy 14?

This guy says otherwise... 4:15

YouTube - New HP Envy Notebooks

 

yer i noticed this when i first watched it but i thought it sounded like he was getting caught up in the moment where he stutters just before... made me think he was talking on behalf of the 17 even though having the 14 in his hand... only time will tell.. good spottting!

 

from what i've read, this is the ONLY thing that supports the blu ray option in the envy 14

everything, everywhere, and everyone else basically says there is no 9.5mm slot loading blu ray so it's impossible at the moment

i also emailed and called HP. both times they said the envy 14 can't fit a blu ray