HP Envy 14: Availabilty, etc.

they already have a laptop brand for sale in chroma

 

I partially agree with your statement.

However, I was trying to make the point that the German basic specced version at EUR 1,299 would equate to a US$1,600 system, of which one could configure a very impressive Envy 14 in the US. I just realized my earlier statement was incomplete and made no sense.

In terms of converted costs, my case may be unusual (although I think there may be a lot of people in this category) but I live on an island (Bermuda), shop a lot in the US (2 hr flight to NY) and Canada (my wife's from Canada), but often travel to Europe (England and the Netherlands) to visit family and friends. So in any given year I would compare the price of items in Euros, US dollars, Canadian dollars, British pounds and Bermuda dollars and in this case will definitely buy the Envy 14 in the US (unless the Canadian dollar, Euro and British pound all fall sharply against the US dollar).

 

A little interesting (possibly completely meaningless) piece of information...
I am ordering a dm4t tonight (to use for a couple weeks until the Envy comes out). I'm at the CPU selection screen and the only options are i5-430m, i5-520m, i5-540m, and i7-620m. there is no i3 option. I can't see them not offering an i3 option on the mid level dm4t, but having it for the premium level 14.

Edit: yeah, nevermind, I'm not ordering that. They wouldnt even be building the thing until the 15th of June. add a week for shipping if everything goes right, and I would only have the thing for a day, if that...

 

My priority is the screen and the video card. Anything else is gravy.

 

Hopefully they'll have the 1600 x 900 screen on the base model.

That would be perfect!

 

I've heard nothing about any other resolutions existing, so I see no reason why the base shouldn't be 1600x900.

And the resolution is half the reason I want the Envy 14.

 

Sorry to rain on your parade: http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/envy/pdf/envy14_datasheet.pdf

 

we have already officially proclaimed that specsheet invalid. there will be a 1600x900 screen. (Translation: *fingers in ears* "LALALALALALALALALALA...")

but seriously, we just don't know.

 

As long as the screen is upgradeable, I don't care. The only real problem I have is that the battery life seems rather diminutive.

Edit: I think HP should put it newly acquired multitouch patent library (Palm acquisition) to work and really give Apple a run for its money.

 

I'm really interested to see real world battery life on this thing, everything else is perfect, other than the lack of usb3

 

I thought the touchpad was made by synaptics on their envy lines so all the multi touch features was based off of how well synaptics does?
correct me if im wrong.

 

the drivers are made by Synaptics, I believe. Not sure about the trackpad itself.

 

So they don't have any "stock" versions that are already built? That's a bummer.

My Acer is on it's last legs so I am really anxious to get my hands on the Envy 14. A couple of weeks ago my "v" key stopped working so I now hae to copy v's from other text when typing......ery ery (oops), I mean very very frustrating.

 

I've got a budget.. I was actually eyeing the Acer 3820TG for a log while because I'm really into the 13" size, but after seeing that the Envy 14 is built like a car with glass, and alloys and super laz0rs I decided to wait for the Envy to come out to see if it's that good, and I'd probably get it for $999 even though it's larger than I originally wanted..
But I won't pay $1600 for it.. Aside from the screen non of it is really worth the $600 difference to me..

 

It's all in the options. Personally, HD5650, 1080p (matte if possible), i5-540, and the cheapest HD (putting an SSD in), no software, 2 years accidental, that should put it up to £1500 ($1500).

 

I could be very well interested in this, however it may well price itself out of my range.

Living at the bottom of the world sure has its disadvantages sometimes!

 

I wish we could configure it in the UK! I expect I will end up importing it from the US but the lack of global warranty is a real pain

 

Aren't Amazon selling pre-configs? Not gonna be fun finding the right setup.

 

... pure theoretical ...

Acer 3820 (german edition) with:
Core i5-430M ; 4096MB ; 640GB ; ATI HD 5650
~ 850 Euro with tax
= ~ $1000 without tax

Envy14 german quick-ship edition:
Core i5-520M ; 4096MB ; 500GB ;ATI HD 5650 ; 1 extra year HP care pack
~ 1299 Euro with tax
= ~ $1500 without tax

The difference between i5-520M and i5-430M should be about $100 , the difference between 500GB and 640GB schould be about $50 and the extra year care pack seems to be $150 with HP.
1500-100+50-150= $1300

An Envy14 with the same main details as the Acer3820 could cost about $1300 or a difference of $300.

For this difference you would get:
+ Alu chassis
+ Multi-DVD Slot In drive
+ bigger and better display

(only theoretical, because there is only one priced config of the Envy14 yet)

 

The overseas market normally get screwed over in terms of specs vs price. hopefully it wont be the case this time.

I wonder why companies like to do this? Dont they have focus groups or marketing ppl telling them what the ppl want??

 

to be fair, i wouldn't mind paying a little extra for some customization and UK warranty... that's my only problem with buying from the US i would have to send it back to them if something was wrong =(

HP UK should really do a student discount thing like Apple do and promote their products in the UK more... quite a few of my friends wanted to get the envy 15 in the UK, as they were all looking at getting Macbook Pros and I showed them a couple of vidoes/reviews of the envy 15. But, since there was no i5 config in the uk and no ssd's they just didn't feel there was any point in buying it since they didn't want to get it from the US.

 

Yeah its strange, HP could make a killing with a website allowing custom builds in Europe, all models come from China anyway! Dell must be laughing at HP, as if you dont want a standard spec HP model there is a good chance you will end up there configuring one of theirs!

 

It's so true lol many people turn to Dell just because they offer customisation not because it's their first choice...

 

I know I have in the past. I dislike Dell, but in the UK what other choice do you have? You can have off the shelf HP's which have poor specs, over priced acer with their poor screens or over priced sony with their battery drain issues and propriety drivers that never get updated!

 

Yeah but these are things that I don't need...
The only thing I care for is the alu chassis and the better display (wouldn't mind if it was 13"), and acer gives warranties as well, and the difference between both i5s is too small for me to care, the HDDs too...
Bottom line is: $999- in budget, $1600- out of budget.
I might spend an extra $200 if reviews are good, and this thing actually delivers, but 600.. Not sure..

 

Apparently. Asus won't sell UL series in europe (the ones with switchable graphics). Although in a way I'm glad, or I would have gone for a UL80jt instead.

Looks like the people here are a niche market, and that nobody else in Europe is interested and wants to buy crap laptops with 2 hours battery, crap screen, and crap performance. Well, given the price of the good stuff in UK / EU, I'm not really surprised.

However, I think the Envy 14 will make a killing in Europe, it's been marketed against the Macbook Pro, so it's rubbing a bit of its shine to appeal to Joe Consumer who wants a Windows machine that looks like a MacBook.

That, ... or it's a conspiracy.

 

I hope so too...

Premium Laptops have all failed marketing wise in the UK... most people don't need them. The people have the money to buy these normally get a free laptop with their job or sumin. Most uni students don't want to spend too much money on a laptop but like the look of macbook pro and consider that as an option and get enticed by the student discounts/promotions, even after the discounts its still overpriced for what you get...

Laptops just need better options here...

 

interstingly, the HP Envy 15 has gone from £1200 to £1000. Making way for the 14''?

Actually, £1000 for a a Envy 15 is a really good prices as well.

HP Envy 15-1060ea Laptop
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Intel Core i7 Processor i7-720QM
ATI HD 4830
4GB Memory
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive
Wireless, Nightvision webcam, Beats speakers, microphone & Bluetooth
WAS £1199 - Now £999

 

Well I am not holding my breath that we will get any decent configs over here and I expect it will be July/August before we even get them.

I am trying to persuade the Mrs. that we need a holiday in the US at the end of June so I can pick one up over there

 

I cant agree that its a good price, its the old gen 1 envy 15, it has a poor 1366 screen and the old 4830.
You can import an i5 gen 2 with 1080p screen and 5830 for £900 (including VAT and duty)

 

yup, completely true. Awful value for £999... this is what they did with the last envy's that got on my nerves raised the price with stupid configs like 6/8gb ram and blu ray... put all the most overpriced and useless options on it for the uk market.

I'm hoping since they can't offer blu ray and will probably not opt for selling 6/8gb 2 dimm configs in the uk, that envy 14 will have some decent i5 configs hopefully with an SSD and maybe 3G

 

Have some rather interesting news.
In the Netherlands, they have annouced two new models, 1020 and 1030 envy 14.
They are rather expensive, resp 1549€ and 1749€. Both models include a quadcore CPU and it will also include an extra slimfit battery. I'm searching for the exact specs, but nothing found, this far.

I hope they release a 1200-1400€ config in Belgium...
Anno 2010, getting a quadcore in a notebook is ridiculus if you want some batterylife (which the envy 14 stands for)

 

where did you find this?

 

On an hardware site.
HP introduceert nieuwe Envy-notebooks | Hardware.Info Nederland

You can translate it (language is Dutch ) but like I said, there is not much else to tell. They will get released by the end of July.

 

why in the world would they sell only quad core... ruins the whole point of the envy 14

 

I think just the same, it's good that they offer quadcore, but they should atleast release one dualcore model...

Anyway, I'm not so keen on mobile quadcores either.
They run hot, aren't much faster than dualcores, no switchable gfx, low batterylife, etc.

 

That's just so odd! They spend so much time making innovations for the G series, air vents, tech, etc... and they can't even put all the ports on the left side of the laptop instead of the right. I mean come on.

 

Totally agree with you. I had an i7 720qm in my m15x for a while and was completely underwhelmed!

Not only did it run hot and loud with incredibly poor battery life but I switched it for an i5 540m and got much better results with most games and autogk divx encoding.
BFBC2 was the only game I own where I saw better fps than the i5

 

Maybe they are a bunch of leftys?

Getting a bit worried about the dutch news on that full spec Envy. If thats all they will offer I guess I will save me some money, get a cheap TimelineX and put the rest towards a new camera body. I can pay a bit extra for the nice screen and desing of the Envy but I wont pay loads of extra for a spec I don't want.

 

Welcome to Europe ...

 

where we get the crappy stuff that the americans won't buy...

 

It would be nice if could give a link to that...

 

I currently have a desktop with an e6600(2.4gz) and an nvidia 8800gts. Would the 5850 and a i5 be an improvement over what I have. Thanks!

 

I can link it but its just through ebay. They start at £720 but you will also get hit with customs

 

No, your desktop will be faster than your notebook still.

 

The processor will be an improvement

 

I wouldn't say that. If your CPU is not overclocked it will be (much) faster. Expect some 20-30% improvement.

Do you have the 8800GTS 320/640 or the 512MB version?
The 5850M will be faster as the 320/640 version. And should be a bit above the 512MB version.

 

it wont be since the 5870 has the performance of a 5770 desktop, and that card has the same performance

 

Initial efforts at overclocking the HD5650 in the Acer 3820TG are resulting in 3DMark06 benchmarks of 8800. That is achieved configured with an I5-430M and HD 5650. Looks promising for Envy 14 owners.

Bronsky

 

But that with the graphics card overclocked...stock it was 7397.