HP Envy 14: Availabilty, etc.

No, there isn't enough space, but here is the list of hard drive options

250/320/500/640 GB HDD.

or

160/256 GB SSD

 

i agree with you completely, if the envy 15 came back with E2E and backlit keyboard i'd be all over it

 

How about no OD? There should be an option to switch OD for another HDD. I'll have to do that myself.

 

If you watch this video at 1:30 he says they added back lit keyboard to this (the envy 14) and the 15 at customer request

YouTube - HP Envy 14

dont know about E2E

 

WOW UNBELIEVABLE! HP is ridiculous. The previous Envy 15 is far superior to this new Envy 14 in most all respects (it even weights less! lmfao). Why is everyone so excited? Are you guys blind? HP is basically selling us a gilded turd.

 

Seems to me he misspoke. I think he meant the Envy 17. I almost guarantee the 13 and 15 will be fully end-of-lifed when the new line drops. I don't think anything will be added to the 13 or 15 this close to their end. The 15 doesn't have and won't get E2E or keyboard backlighting. Don't hold your breath.

 

Yeah i agree about E2E, not something i really care about, as for the 13 and 15 "end-of-life", they said that the 14 is replacing the 13 but i think the 15 will live on with the 15t-1200 (probably coming fall <-just a guess)

 

Battery life and lower price are the main advantages of the Envy 14. Also, since some people would carry an external optical drive with the Envy 15, that would make it heavier.

 

Yep. And even the "gilded turd" part -- I, for one, like the idea of having a backlit keyboard and edge-to-edge glass.

 

Anyone know when these are for sale? Any word on upcoming Dell XPS 13 laptops?

 

Dell Adamo XPS 13? Already out. Haven't heard of any plans to release anything else similar.

 

No I mean like a new Studio XPS 13 (a smaller alternative of the Studio XPS 16)

 

I'm hoping the Envy 14 will have superior cooling (with an i5 and 5650) and battery life than the Envy 15 (with its i5 and 5830). If not, I hope they refresh the 15. Sadly it is only .95" less wide, .27" less deep, and .05" thicker (!). I was hoping it was thinner. If the optical drive is what is keeping it large and thick than I hope they get rid of it again. A side by side comparison would be great in a month or so. I'm beginning to question the Envy 14's usefulness compared to the 15, but either way it is superior to my laptop...

 

I would still rather buy the 14 inch because it is 14 inches. it is cheaper. it has a built in dvd drive,

I would rather carry around a smaller laptop with similar specs. (dont say 5650 isnt the same as 5830, i'm pretty sure the HP Envy 14 graphics can be upgraded.

 

The Envy 15's cooling is great; it's a giant heatsink. The Envy 14 shouldn't get as hot on the outside, though.

 

Looks like a pretty decent alternative to the way-too-pricey Sony Vaio Z11

 

Well, whether or not the Z11 is too pricey depends on your needs. The weight is amazing at ~3 lbs, which isn't far off half as much as the Envy 14. Plus, the VAIO Z comes with SSDs standard, and those aren't cheap either.

 

It's really simple as to why most are excited about the 14, at least these are the reasons I am:

E2E display + high radiance
Backlit keyboard
Switchable graphics
8-cell battery

It's going to give great battery life, at least a lot better than the 15 and it will look premium with the screen.

And in my opinion, it just looks better. The vents on the front of the 15 just make it look ugly, I don't know, just something "off" about it. But the 14 looks beautiful. If they have the cooling down....I don't see a better laptop out there or a feature it's missing.

 

It's now semi-official - the ENVY 14 will not have an internal bluray drive. According to the product specs, the drive in this machine is 9.5 mm tall, and there aren't any 9.5 mm bluray SLOT loading drives on the market (there are tray loading drives though). Because HP went with the slot style, we can't get blu-ray (yet). The ENVY 17 uses a 12.7 mm tall drive, so it can have bluray.

Now if they can refresh the ENVY 15 with blu or if someone can make a 9.5 mm tall bluray drive, I'll be set.

 

By the way, this is also what's keeping bluray out of the macbook pros (not to mention Jobs's irrational hatred of bluray).

 

How many gd times do people have to say they're not interested int he footprint /size of a 15 inches notebook. I've had to repeat it incessantly, but even among 15.6" notebooks, the Envy 15 is the WIDEST one out there.

Why don't we all just get 12 pound Alienware m17x while we're at it?

 

The Envy 14 sounds really good to me too but the etched floral design looks way too feminine to me. That aside, I am surprised to see some MBP owners here saying they will ditch their MBPs for the Envy 14. What is driving you to that decision? The battery life on the MBPs running OS X is great and is almost driving me to the other side.

 

This has battery life claimed of 7 hours without the slice...14 with. That's some monster performance to go with a gorgeous high resolution screen and a fairly light, package.

The etched floral design isn't as bad in person imo. At least not on the 15.

 

Not likely. The reason the Envy 15 had the optical drive removed was so cooling can be placed to cool the 4830 and later 5830. The Envy 14, being smaller and an optical drive won't drive enough space to cool the 5830. So it is most like the only option is the 5650.

 

Interesting. I understand the price argument against the MBP but I was just surprised that people who already owned one were saying they would switch to the envy 14. For me the comparison is between the 15" MBP and the Envy 14 and the battery life of the 15" MBP is better albeit under Mac OS X. I'd take 7 hours under Win 7 though.

 

Yea but the MBP is kind of a graphics slouch and coupled with under par performance of the laptop in Boot Camp. Those who wan't battery life and power in a Windows platform with the screen quality, good looks, and battery life of the MBP have no choice but the Envy 14.

 

As a guy I would like the word "floral" stricken from use when describing any laptop ever made.

 

I think the etching is very nice, personally.

 

Any word on how graphics switching will work? If it's not automated, I hope it would be as easy as manually changing it from the taskbar.

 

The Envy 14 is mentioned to have switchable graphics .... but seeing how it has an ATI graphics card, it would probably switch graphics based on whether or not the laptop is plugged in (plugged in - discrete graphics, not plugged in - integrated). That is currently all ATI offers in terms of switchable graphics.

 

You can turn the ATI card on when unplugged, and off when plugged.

The default behavior (that afaik you can't change) is that the ATI card turns on when you plug it in, and off when you unplug it, but you can turn it on \ off at your leisure after that.

 

You can change the behavior in power management settings, as it has been in other laptops with the same graphics solutions.

 

Wow i am so pissed I got a GX640.. Envy 14 seems perfect

Backlit keyboard.. low price.. decent power... switchable graphics.. 7 hours battery.. small size... "better cooling".. no extra column of buttons on keyboard... improved click pad.. hi-res screen for 14".. gahhhhhhhhhh.

 

here's the thing, I love everything I've heard about the Envy 14, but if it's so great, why aren't the other laptop makers doing something similar? are we all assuming HP just took a lightyear leap forward in terms of engineering?

right now I am wary, this laptop sounds too good to be true.

 

May be HP has just started aggressive marketing and re-engineering new products to be at the TOP of the computer manufacturers list.

Again, now you tell, WHY Apple is selling outdated technology with HIGHEST price ? Hope you the answer to your question.

 

who says other companies aren't? HP still has 1.5 months to actually put out the product and dell, lenovo, asus, acer, etc can still step up.

For asus, there's the u30jc. It has very long battery life (we're talking 7+ hours with web browsing) on an i3 processor with switchable 310m graphics. it's not as powerful but it's already released and starts off at only 900 dollars. it also has an aluminum lid with some aluminum in the interior.

 

So is it possible to switch graphics during use (web browsing, video watching, etc.), or do programs need to be closed before switching?

 

HP is being HYPER aggressive with their whole new lineup from the envys on down to the pavilions. Last time HP did a refresh on their laptop line in terms of the paint job (black paint with the crop circles), Toshiba came out with an identical looking laptop (almost looked like they were working from the same design page). If HP is the only laptop maker with the new aluminum across almost all their ships in the pavillion line, I think it will give them a competitive design edge for a time before others start copying it on the pc side en-masse. Asus and some others already have models out with a metal finish, but it is not across their main line in full yet.

And as a side point, the Palm buy gives them a competitive advantage in the tablet space by allowing them to have what apple has, a custom OS that every other hardware manufacturer under the sun can't put on their machines ... (legally only probably).

I like it, makes my job easier!

 

it's a shame no usb 3.0 on the envy 14. If it had USB 3.0 i would probly go for this over the envy 17.

 

It has eSata though which is just as good, at least for data transferring.

 

I think you make an excellent point, and you are not alone. What is especially curious is that HP is now making the following screen sizes for the Pavillion line: 13,14,14.5, 15.6, 17.3 (let's not talk about 18.4 - sore subject, see signature!), yet for the Envy line, "vaguely emulating" the MBP line of 3 very popular screen sizes (13,15,17), leaves it to the two to do all the lifting. It's as if they are telling the market: "yeah, well, if you want a 13" or 15" you'll have to go to the fruit people!" (Though, I thought it was not yet confirmed that the 15 is "retired," or is it?) I think they are missing huge opportunities by not competing in the 13 and 15.6" spaces. Probably won't be hard to fill in with them, based on sales results and consumer input, which it seems like they are really starting to listen to. One of the things HP has demonstrated with its new line is that it appears to have developed a very flexible design/manufacturing cycle. But why intentionally get it wrong the first time, just because you can fix it later?

 

HP is not the only brand to come up with new designs... Acer shot first with their new Timeline with a brushed aluminum style chassis, Asus has n43/n63 on the way with similar features. But both lack backlit keyboard (at least I'm sure Acer does) and their 14 / 15" laptop come with the crappy 1366*768 def as standard. Asus will use outdated cards like the GT335M, at least until nvidia releases new stuff. Toshiba has some new chassis incoming too but they kept a similar design and a glossy plastic surface (booh) and the same definition. So yeah, HP seems to have all the trumps in its hand. Hopefully it comes true and they release it in europe quickly

 

Glory bee ... we agree on something.

 

A couple of months ago a Dell Rep posted that the Studio XPS was being discontinued until it could be completely redesigned. My guess is we won't be hearing about these until late summer at best.

 

will i5 be standard on the new envy 14 or will we have to upgrade? an i5-5xx would be ideal for me. Can't wait for this badboy to get released for sale...

Also, anyone know if the 1600*900 display will be part of the base spec?

 

Well, I was planning to buy a mpb 13 or a vaio EA for replacing my giant asus M50VM, but when I saw this thread I think that the Envy 14 is the way to go xD

But, the envy doesn't have Bluetooth ? Or I just didn't look right ?

 

An i5 will be the base CPU, I'm almost certain. Everything I read, besides Anandtech, didn't mention any CPUs besides the i5 or i7.

For the high-res screen, almost certain it won't be base spec. The higher res screens are almost never a standard feature on any laptop. If you look at the Envy 13 and 15, the high-res screens are $100 upgrades.

Base specs, from what I've read and videos I've seen, and with past HP tendencies:

i5-430m (might be an i5-450m, it's in the Envy service manuals apparently)
320gb 7200rpm HDD
4gb DDR3
1366x768 screen (probably E2E though)
GPU wise... I'm not sure. The Envy 13/15 only offered a single GPU choice. So I'm guessing the ATI 5650 will be standard. I don't see them offering an Envy without it, wouldn't go with the "premium" label.
Backlit keyboard
Wireless a/b/g/n + bt
8-cell battery

For $999... that's bangin.
This is all speculation, but at this point, I think it's as close as anyone is going to get to what it will turn out being.

 

It is official. USB 3.0

High Performance Laptops w/ Free Audio Software | HP Envy Features

 

anyone reserve their envy 14 yet? Or can you even reserve it when you call?

 

Sweet, news just keeps getting better. But I did notice that it mentions that it can have an i3, i5, or i7 so do you guys think that the i3 will be the base processor now as it wouldn't make much sense to offer an upgrade from an i5 to an i3?

Edit: @afinch idk if they will let you reserve one yet, since the * after "reserve" apparently means to "Speak to our call center to be notified when the product becomes available".