HP Envy 14: Availabilty, etc.

I may go with the SeaGate GoFlex since it's interchangeable with usb 3, and esata/usb power combo.

 

3 reasons why I'm going with this.


1. screen size.

2. good (by my standards) switchable graphics card.

3. only damn computer with a good switchable graphics card and 1600x900. (the geforce 335 doesn't count)

 

Same here, except for 1. screen size and 1600x900 screen resolution.

I'm not sure why GT 335m doesn't count, but there's still no machine out there with anything similar as far as size and performance and most importantly price.

 

I hope not!

Sure thing, and the WiFi feature was announced for Win7 as well, although it never made it to 7 Beta or 7 RC... have not found it in 7 Ult yet. Im more concerned with what computational experience Envy is providing that cant be found in most laptops. Maybe I ask too much... but Im still hoping HP uses Envy as a forward thinking brand to provide services and features that are top notch... beyond its great looks!

From an economic standpoint Premium is about the excess value of one form of thing over another of the same nominal value. So yeah, MBP fails! lol.

From a general idea of Premium, its about looking for a sum above the nominal or par value of a thing.

So what does HP mean when it says Envy is Premium, because almost everything on the Envy 14 spec sheet can be had for hundreds less on many laptops. So in an odd twist, is HP taking a book from Apple in creating a Premium (pseudo for now) line for better margins.... without solid hardware, or the idea that our investment is substantially superior in craft or features.

I believe questions like these, that are honest and not biased, can only benefit our purchases, because consumers need to be able to demand quality products from HP's Premium line. Words have meaning right...

 

+1 on all accounts.

It would be cool if the Hybrid drives would show up as an option. Im not too keen on reformatting since HP tweaks many settings. Ive read hundreds of pages of gripes from folks who couldn't get this setting back, or this feature to work once they clean installed. Its odd, since I always clean install... but these Envy's se am (misspelling/pun intended!) to be tricky machines!

USB 3.0 better be on both the i5 & i7 Envy 14 like it is on both i5 & i7 Envy 17's... heck even a couple of Atom powered netbooks have USB 3.0!

BTW there are fantastic sales on the 17 right now!

 

China gave theirself a bad name by producing inferior and unsafe products for years. It's been proven over and over again simply due to a lack of regulations. Even though this is a laptop website, I will stick up for Ford in any way. If anything, the MBP is comparable to a BMW (Big Money Wasted). I'll take my Ford over it anyday haha.

 

Thinner.
Lighter.
Prettier.
Better materials (and hopefully better build quality and design).
Better sound.
Better screen.
Optional slice battery.
*All compared to HP's (and probably every other PC manufacturer's) non-premium lines.

Sounds premium to me. Maybe not as premium as some of us might like it to be, but I get the feeling it'll do.

Would it be nice for the screen to be multitouch without adding weight or losing visual quality? Would it be nice to have fingerprint scanning, retinal scanning, and shiatsu massage? Would it be nice if the Envy had a 3D display, worked as a wifi hotspot, played Blu-Ray, and mixed a perfect mojito? Sure, but I, for one, am pretty happy with what's being offered at the price it's being offered at.

 

anyone can give me some idea on which laptop i should buy?sry for posting in this thread..

sony ea16(i5-5650):bad battery life,low audio quality,underclocked gpu(5650)
lenovo y460(i5-5650):heat issue,bloatware,5400rpm harddrive
asus n82jv(i5-gt335m): optimus driver problem,low desktop win7 graphic performance due to integrated graphic(according to notebookcheck.com),tinny audio,average display quality,lack of expresscardslot
hp envy 14: price,quality and release date yet to be known in malaysia(for me as i live in malaysia)..hopefully its release date same with US..

APPRECIATE MUCH FOR ANYONE WHO ARE WILLING TO GIVE SUGGESTION OR EXPERIENCE..

 

I dont see the word Premium being only justified by form factor or external cladding when major gaps, squeaks, buzzing, etc. are concerned. I also am very happy with whats being offered... I just expect more. Now we'll all have to see if the issues from the 17 will be inherited by the 14. BTW, all the other items in your wish list are easily added, and are featured on many other brand laptops (minus the retinal scanner and slim slot loading BluRay) so why does HP not put them in their best Premium line of laptops?

Although I do have a real nead for a shiatsu massage and a perfect mojito, although the latter is only found in Miami or Cuba from my experience! You gotta boat....?

 

Not all China-made products are built the same. The stories we've heard about lead inside Mattel toys weren't the fault of Chinese workers. If you actually look beyond all the media sensationalism, Mattel executives placed Chinese factory workers under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines and shave costs. If you're going to seriously believe American/European corporations always have the best interests of their customers in mind, look up friendly neighborhood companies such as BP and Exxon. The beaches in Alaska are still reeling from the damage of the spill since 1989.


I will reiterate the point I've been making earlier: Though it may be Chinese workers assembling American products, Chinese components rarely make it into the higher end of the supply chain. Your internal memory chips that make all the difference in performance are almost always American, Japanese, and Korean-branded. Your external materials such as magnesium and aluminum are probably obtained from refineries in China, but the design process and the schematic diagrams are most likely created and drawn by American engineers. The executives and managers who're overseeing quality issues are American. If quality is compromised just to cut costs, it's not because of a bunch of chinky-eyed employees who were playing solitaire during work hours. Laborers in China simply follow instructions they're given. There's a good reason you hear of people defecting from HP to Apple. Both have their products outsourced to 3rd party companies who employee Chinese labor. Yet, it seems as though Apple customers are the most loyal and are able to give testimonies about their crappily designed $600 notebooks and their better built $1,000 Macbook Pros. The assembly line workers are from the same country. But the design and manufacturing processes are completely different. That should make you really wonder.


EDIT: Oh, and all products imported from China are subject to regulations--American regulations I should add.

 

I personally dont think it's that good. Least when compared to a 5650

 

110% correct!

Thats whats got me worried. Although I dont subscribe to brand specific product consuming, I do understand how things are made and why they are made. As an Architect, we design and build the most expensive things on the planet, which last long beyond out years, so I truly envy what strides Apple cares to take on maintaining great quality control and customer satisfaction.

I thought the Envy 15 was an exceptionally strong Envy of origin from a schematics and design stand point in most areas minus ventilation, keyboard, and screen adjustability. Consumers can expect a deeply funded and managed corporation to be able to improve its products, as thats why there are product cycles. So far.... the Envy 17 shows that HP is not able to do this.

NOTE": To those who dont understand the questioning of HP, go see the HP Envy 15, and HP Envy 17 forums. There are photos and user testimonials that no laptop purchaser wants to see or read about their brand new laptop. The Envy 17 forum is even more alarming, as this is the sister to our Envy 14, so we may be able to expect similar lack of design, quality control, and satisfaction from our purchases.

Do I have false hopes for a fantastically built HP Envy 14?

 

I dunno.

I'm just hoping it won't melt while an i5 and 5650 are at load

 

So what happens when the Envy 14 hits the mark.

Imagine fantastic build quality.

Imagine fantastic battery life.

Imagine a fantastic price.

HP promised it all... will they deliver all at once or will it be another Envy 15/Envy 17 production miss?

Update: My neighbor called me and his Envy 17 was delivered! Im gonna beg to take side by side photos of his new Premium Envy 17 vs my 5 year old plastic HP! Any one wanna place bets?

 

Just wait and see, gents. In less than 6 hours, it will be 9 more days until the midnight of June 27th. It's around that time I'll have to commence my apartment search and finalize my shipping destination.

 

The concern is not the labor, but the management. No, most of the QC people in many factories aren't American, they're Chinese, and they're often more concerned with cost management than product quality, so bad decisions are made, especially in materials. 关系 (guan xi - the system of relationships in China) plays a big role, as well. If there are two suppliers vying for a contract to make your LCD screen, it's rarely going to be decided by quality, but rather which supplier can throw the most expensive dinner for the business proposal.

Then again, maybe we should be worried about the labor as well - they're often treated so poorly that it's hard to imagine that they could take much pride in their work. Take the rash of suicides at Foxconn's Shenzhen campus and its underlying causes, for example.

I'm not saying that all Chinese-made products are trash - they typically aren't (at least, not the export-quality ones) - but the blame isn't all on the side of the companies designing and commissioning the products.

 

I will probably also purchase an Envy 14, and if it has no defects and works the way it should, I will be a happy camper. Unfortunately HP has not instilled a lot of confidence in its consumers in the past several years through their higher (to the industry) failure and repair rates.

So yes, if I get a $1000 Envy 14 and it is awesome and nothing goes wrong for 3 years I will be happy. But the same can be said for any buying experience and often with companies producing goods, past performance is a predictor of future results.

Why anyone would buy an Envy 14 before any real world reports come out is beyond me. Wait 3 weeks and problems (if there are any) will become apparent and then some sort of educated buying choice can be made.

 

That would be true only if the likes of Dell and HP weren't supervising the design and production of their own products thoroughly. But I seriously doubt any billion dollar company run by a self-respecting executive would allow quality control to fall 100% into the hands of Chinese managers.

At the end of the day, the burden of responsibility falls on Dell's executives to protect their bottom line lest they face the wrath of shareholders. Unfortunately, the problem with Dell's consumer laptops pre-2008 was the lack of attention that was put to the design and form factor aspects. Their Inspiron 1500 line was known for breaking down constantly. My friend's 2005 Inspiron's warranty paid for itself. Hard drive died 3 times, screen died once, and a slew of other problems cropped up that had the local Dell technician visiting his house multiple times in the course of 3 years. The spine after years of use eventually cracked too. Note this is just one of numerous examples and I'll bet the farm it's not a Chinese manufacturing issue. Dell back then and still to this day uses low price and bang for buck as its primary selling point and still manages to turn profits in spite of cutting costs. All this cost-cutting and corner skimping only led to customers such as myself (Vostro 1500) to switch over to better-built notebooks that actually work. I will consider the possibility that Dell manages to obtain unicorn dust to allow its low-cost laptops to somehow work 3 years or longer as they should. But...that would require some serious discussion and submission of real evidence.


Companies like Nvidia have gotten into trouble more than once in the past for designing poor GPUs (See: 8600M GS/GT fiasco) and trying to put the blame on their suppliers who were later found to be simply building and shipping parts to Nvidia's very own patented designs and specifications. I can imagine your argument being one that Nvidia's CEO would've relished whipping out in a class action lawsuit. Pulling out the "Its our suppliers/manufacturers' fault not ours" card and winning in court would've been his big wet dream. Too bad for him the more than just probable danger of losing a multimillion dollar lawsuit and future contracts with Sony, Apple, Dell, and HP forced him to back off and pony up for poorly-designed GPUs.

Great, but why is it Ford and GM cars pre-2006 were (with some continuing to be) pieces of junk? If we took your logic further, cars made by good ole' UAW whiners *cough cough* I mean hard-working Americans should be of better quality. Should it be any surprise Ford's quality improved drastically after a hotshot gunner like Alan Mulally took the helm and changed the way they design and produce cars? I'm no fanboy of American cars, but I admit the new Ford Mustang 2010 turns my head and the Fusion gets two thumbs up for fuel economy, value, and quality.

 

Apples (and Sony and Asus and...) have proven to be more reliable than HP. People bring up the "Envy premium" as a higher quality of product, but the Envy 15 seems to shatter that perception.

 

Im in the same frame of mind as you both. I love the imagery that HP paints, but realize its final substance just may only be thin as paint. I'll wait and see, after all Amazon gives you 30 days, and if youve got great credit with AMEX, even more.

 

We don't know if this will have the same problems as the 15, or if they will be as common or more common. Until it comes out, stop speculating on the reliability of a unit that no-one here has even touched yet. As soon as the reviews/units are out, feel free to make complaints.

Sorry, I'm just sick of people trying to crap all over the Envy 14 before it has even been given a chance.

 

I completely agree. I really, really want the Envy 14 to be the bees knees. Any computer that promises performance and quality for a good price is a winner no matter which company produces it. I'm going to wait a month or two to see real-world experiences with the laptop before diving in. Then if everything looks kosher I'll be able to get the Envy 14 (or refreshed Envy 15), and then I'll have money left over to get a netbook, a Kindle and the 4G iPod Touch (or just go on a nice long weekend holiday) for the same price as a MBP. But if the Envy 14 bursts into flames with regularity...

And the talk of "fanboys" does not apply just to Apple users (as can be seen in this thread).

 

I like Sony Vaios. But I'm not too hot on Asus's tendency to use plastics. Thats just me.

 

I like your thoughts... I dont see why HP does not utilize a better method, but in all honesty my boyfriends MBP is so much better than my Envy 15. Its just built well, and doesnt creek or bend or pop. I went through 4 Envy 15's until I got one that was right.

1st Envy 15 had scratches on the edges of the screen, 2nd Envy 15 GPU would overheat, 3rd Envy 15 Track-Pad was uneven, and keys were different heights!.

I need the Envy 14 for portability so I wont go through 4 to get a good one. I'll try one, then look elsewhere! It sure is a pretty picture HP paints though... it just takes allot of time and effort to get one thats worth the price. Good luck everybody!

 

I think we're all of agreement on one point:


If the E14 turns out to be most if not everything we've made it out to be in our minds, we'll be happy campers. Heck, if it means I can help people make an informed purchase, I'll post my own written review...though I'm still debating making a youtube review as I'm used to revealing nothing more than a username and at most my e-mail on the internet. Bottom line is I'm hoping it doesn't have any of the seam/gap problems and that there are no heating problems even though the E14 unlike the E15 Gen2 now comes with an optical drive. From what my friend tells me, the E15 Gen2 runs very cool with an i5 processor compared to the i7-equipped Gen1. It's very good at cooling down quickly after a couple of Starcraft 2 matches.

 

At the end of the day, we all want the same thing. I don't want to have to go through multiple Envies either. If I do have to issue multiple returns, chances are that I'll have to change the shipping address for the second Envy and beyond as I'm moving to San Diego. Here's to hoping it's done correctly on the first try.


Disclaimer: It would appear to me it's mostly people who got bad E17s who're reporting negative experiences. There are a sizable number of people in that thread who're skeptical about why others are having such problems. Apparently they got off clean with no problems. Not that I consider that a resounding success for HP. Those returns/exchanges are going to cost roughly $30 to initiate and a few $100 more to turn into refurbs. Makes me wonder whether it would've been worth it to invest more into better quality control and assembly processes.

 

Averages alone really mean nothing since Apple has very few laptop models, while HP has easily 3x more models (and hence there is much more variation). For more meaningful comparisons, studies need to break down models but that would probably be too much money and time. But going by personal experiences and other user reviews (mostly from NBR), HP Elitebooks are far better than any of Apple's notebooks but their mainstream lines are horrible.

 

Good points. I like the diologue of these past 5 or 6 pages, HP needs people to be able to speak up and say " hey, this is my hard earned money, will you honestly make a Premium product (as HP calls it) to the best of your abilities and to the best of laptop manufacturing, or is it the same HP everyone knows about?"

Thats what its about, economic performance. Do we get what we pay for or not? How many generations of Envy's will under-perform due to heat and construction issues?

I hope the Envy 14 is the best of the 4 different Envy's.... 4th time is a charm right!

 

If HP did not sell the heck outta Envy with their flashy branding, boastful marketing, and outrageous claims, most people would look beyond the faults of the 3 different Envy's. It just seems they are clearly manipulating their brand of Premium Laptops beyond what their capabilities are. If they tone it back, and be honest in marketing, they would have less of a negative backlash from the media and users. Look at comments on Gizmodo, Cnet, Engadget... the vast majority of responses are very negative, and thats not a good sign. Any one can pick a few bad things or great things, but clearly HP is building a poor reputation for its Premium Envy line. The malfunction and return rate must be enormous!

I saw a Square Trade report on all the laptop manufacturers... HP was dead last in everything! Since that was last year, I wonder how the Envy 15 fared... did it pick HP up or drag them even lower? Any one know?

 

we can only hope.


and wait impatiently.

and hope another $200 coupon shows up shortly after the envy14 drops

 

It did make it into the Windows 7 hardware spec. You can check out Connectify - Turn your Windows 7 laptop into a Wi-Fi Hotspot for a freeware program that creates the functionality.

 

I saw those stats too. I don't doubt that HP ended up where it did. The problem with something so broad is if they had one line that was horrible it would just skew the result. Kind of like when Ford had the Firestone tire recall, they looked bad because they had the most recalls of any manufacturer, mainly because of the tires. Not to mention that I hope HP pays attention to reports like that and makes adjustments so they don't fail again the next time.

Or better yet a 25% Bing Cashback. I'll take $400 off a decently configured $1600 Envy 14 Think 520m, 1600x900 display, 160GB SSD, slice battery for $1200!

 

I've heard nothing but compliments about HP's business line PCs. Their Probook series gets praises all the time. I'm not sure whether they measure up to IBM (Not Lenovo) Thinkpads, but they're certainly a business notebook competitor.

But the consumer line? It's because HP has separate premium and non-premium notebook lines the old quote "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics" rings ever so true. Squaretrade admits that netbooks and premium notebooks have differing reliability rates, which shouldn't be a surprise as premium notebooks tend to be built differently. That's why if we want to make proper sense of Squaretrade's 2009 reliability report, we'll need a flow chart with breakdowns on particular models and price points.

 

I wasn't saying that all American or European products are top-notch, either in design or manufacture, I was providing a counterpoint to your earlier post, in which you drew too much blame away from the manufacturers and onto the designers and companies that sell the products.

Besides, if American QC is required to ensure that a Chinese manufacturer produces a good product, as you imply, doesn't that suggest that I'm on the right track?

 

+1

These forums are for the use of people, they are not meant to attack. I wish the mods would ban people who attack with "Fanboy this" or "Fanboy that". I wish people would stop using juvenile/amateur tactics to belittle people.

Were all people, and were talking about products we invest in. People should get over themselves and realize this is all really cool technology! As much as we like or not, its still real cool....

This Envy 14 look REALLY COOL!!!

 

To everyone who is bashing on HP:

A consumer reports survey of 75,000 laptops bought from 2005 to 2009 broke down the number of repairs per manufacturer:

Toshiba, 16%
Sony, 17%
Compaq, 18%
Acer, 19%
Apple, 19%
HP, 20%
Gateway, 20%
Dell, 21%
Lenovo, 21%

The article notes that differences of <3% are not meaningful, suggesting that the only manufacturer of laptops that is really any better than the others (they didn't have enough data for Asus) is Toshiba, and even then by a 1 point difference.

 

But BCB is sorcery and snake oil!!



...ok but seriously how long does it take for BCB to come back to you and where does that money show up. I really don't know much about it still (other than it's ending july 31st)

 

Good call. I too hope Hp pays attention, but take a look at the Envy 17 forums. WOW, those things are no better than flimsy netbooks. Overheating, wobbly feet, speakers that are not balanced, Synaptics software is still horrible, keyboard flexes like a kite, graphics driver issues with 3 monitor out scheme, ...... I dont know if HP has learned enough from the mis-cues of the Envy 15 to make a better quality laptop, as is very self evident by the Envy 17. HP is even telling people with replacement Envy 17's that they had a bad production run and there are delays with replacements... so hopefully the HP Exec's have a clue here and are fixing all these problems... therefore hopefully they wont make it to the Envy 14.

 

I've not used it, but it appears that it goes into some sort of limbo for 60 days, after which it's available for transfer to your account, probably directly like with Paypal. The 60-days thing is probably half in hopes that you'll forget about it and half return-protection.

 

I see.

wonder how you transfer it.

I mean I guess you have to setup a bank account with it or something huh

edit: or could it be credited to a credit card?

 

You can get your money in many ways. They can send you a check in the mail or get it deposited in your Paypal account. I've done it many times and have received every BCB. It's pretty easy to manage and track. You get your money in exactly 60 days.

 

alright. cool.

 

@gcrussell1, zeth006, droid, on the car comparisons.

I do agree with some of your statements, but realize the brand or country its built in means nothing. Sometimes the differences in material mean nothing, rather its the way the designers choose to make things, to construct. If that process is well thought out by good clever designers and engineers the Envy would be flawless... or close. 13, 15, 17, all pretty much fail at quality, you just never know which one is a good one. I know for fact that does not happen with MBP. Its designed more thoroughly so by default there are less opportunities for discrepancies to arrive through production or wear and tear.

There is a reason they use modular tubing in NASCAR, and not production cars. Apple has over built the body of the MBP, and because of this all other laptops with inferior structural technology will have issues of some kind. I like how Apple over-designed the case, sure it gets hot (my boyfriend cant game on it on his lap, he uses a cooler), while I can game on my Envy 15. But, as droid mentioned, the Envy has all those dumb vents, so I can never set it down except on a table. As a consequence I have to constantly look for a table, or large book to lay my Envy on, while he literaly tossed his MBP on the bed or couch or anything because its designed better! I might be able to lay my Envy 15 on the bed for 15 minutes, and it would probably die! lol

 

Nope. I wasn't talking about Chinese companies. We are concerned about American companies and their QC/design processes.
Bottom line: A low-level American employee will be no different or better than a low-level Chinese employee at doing his job all things considered equal. As we've seen in the past week, both will always worry about what they're being paid and whether they can protest for better wages and time off. Both may be trained in some aspects of quality control, but it's the people at the top who're responsible for ensuring things work as they should. If a Dell or HP executive were to find that the 3rd party original design manufacturer (e.g. Foxconn, Clevo, Asus) was churning out substandard products, they'd simply contract their work to another company.


As we see with Macbook Pros which are ODM'ed by Foxconn but assembled in China and most HP notebooks which seem to be also made in China, it's not about the nationality of the low-level worker. It's all about the initial schematic designs and instructions that are handed to such low-level workers. My theory is Dell and HP have as much control over their assembly processes as Apple does--otherwise Dell's and HP's business notebooks wouldn't garner such good ratings for build construction that contrast with the so-so to horrible experiences people report with their consumer $600 notebooks.

I would go further to say Dell and HP choose to be permissive of lingering problems such as the infamous gap/seam issue that seem to be cropping up with the Envy 17s. I hear that Sony handles their TVs with gloves and checks to make sure before boxing that they don't come with a single fingerprint that might compel a Japanese customer to return it. You don't see such attention to detail with lower-end Dells and HPs.


But that's not to say Dell and HP only make crap books. Their business notebooks are great. But my impression is they're new to the art of creating premium consumer notebooks. The Dell Adamo had plenty of teething issues (e.g. Rear port section literally coming off at unboxing) which hopefully have been solved by now. But the HP Envy? The E15 Gen2 shows HP's improving...but that damn touchpad issue is still mystery meat.

 

about the touchpad.

it doesn't have buttons does it, but an area you click at the bottom instead?

...is one of those right click or does it have no right click?

 

I think these statistics might make this discussion a bit easier...

 

Its a one click trackpad. If you press the bottom left corner or anywhere above the divider line (or is it a "T" line?), it will be a left click. If you press the bottom right corner, it will be a right click. Press the top right corner "dot" twice to disable the trackpad. That's my guess, since I've never fiddled with a Envy laptop.

 

You've posted 2 different sets of conflicting numbers now with no link. So what does any of this mean?

 

You have no idea if Elitebooks are far better than any of Apple's notebooks.

And my comment on "premium" lines addresses this issue.

 

It means wait for a month or two after the end of June and then buy an Envy 14 if reports are positive?