HP Envy 14: Availabilty, etc.

Yeah, that's what I thought, but a lot of people keep listing a screen upgrade into their purchase price. Which meant either I was confused or they were.

Sorry for the double post, done from mobile, must have not locked my phone.

 

I've been reading this thread and following it for a long time. The most information I've gotten has not been from comparing specs or individual notebooks, but from learning about and comparing company philosophies.

As far as I can deduce from reading on this forum, each company has its own approach and that approach influences what you can expect from their computers *in general.*

Acers have good bang for the buck, but their business model is high volume sales, low cost. So they will be more likely to have subpar build quality. I really don't like the look of their keyboards and I've heard many people complain of keyboard flex. Which means if you're in it for 3-4 years you will probably be replacing some components. Lower build quality seems the norm.

Sony's seem to usually offer excellent products at an inflated price point, but similar to Apple there seems to be a certain arrogance associated with their company "doing things the right way." So while overall they have better build quality and features, you will occasionally have issues here and there. And, due to their proprietary drivers and "our way" mentality, fixes do tend to be more painful and expensive. Basically like a BMW. You are paying for a better product, but you are also paying extra for the name and fixes are expensive.

Hp is hit and miss. They seem to do some things well and some things poorly. Since they are comparatively new to the "premium" market and are competing with and established power, Apple's MBP's, they have made a lot of mistakes. They are trying to compete with Acer's sales numbers but also trying to compete against Apple's brand reputation and perceived quality and 'premium' label. So, naturally, unless you have very talented people willing to adapt you are going to make mistakes by misapplying the design philosophy you use to compete with Acer to the products you are using to compete with Apple. In other words, if you try to apply low cost high volume ideas to a high cost 'premium' product you will have issue like users have experienced in the Envy 15 and Envy 17.

Apple's and Apple users often seem to have a "do no wrong" mentality about their computers that really turns me off. They offer a solid product, but you pay a hefty premium for that product. From what I've read there tends to be drastically reduced functionality if you want to use Windows on their computers mainly because of a lack of Windows drivers made for use on Mac machines. More than that, their notebooks are not as well designed as they would like you to think they are. It's a specific product for specific people's needs, and there's a lot less flexibility than a Windows notebook offers. This is a strength and a weakness. They seem to design each notebook to best make use of the internal components in it, but there's no denying that the internal components are weaker than similarly priced Windows notebooks. It boils down to individual need and preference, because I just plain don't buy into their marketing hype.

Asus and Dell remain unknown quantities for me. I haven't gotten a solid read on them as companies yet. I have heard mixed responses about both, but more positive talking about Asus... when they actually get around to releasing products.

For me, the best example of a company showing what can really be done with computers are Panasonic's Toughbooks. Go over there and you see people who have worked on hundreds of computers who really have a solid feel for the reliability of each brand.

This thread was really eye-opening for me, you can disagree or agree but you will come away more informed if you read it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/pan...e-thread-against-anything-isnt-toughbook.html

In any case, I hope that this post helps some of you fellows get a better feel for how each company's products are designed and built. I feel like the more I know about what to expect from different companies, the better prepared I am as a customer to make an informed decision.

Personally, I am considering what I really need versus what I want. Do I need to be able to play games, or should I just get a gaming desktop and keep my focus for my laptop on portability and reliability? Still deciding.

Like I said, hope this helps.

 

There are some pre-order links on Amazon that suggest that the HP Envy 14 will come standard with a 1366 x 768 screen

 

I'd prefer to think that's an Amazon-exclusive feature.

 

Are there bandits at the borders that we don't know about? I would guess that it is as safe to UPS something to Canada as New Jersey (maybe safer! ).

@badtzwang - it's like buying a best buy Sony CW, the specs are different than CTO.

 

What would be the best way to buy Envy 14 from Canada without a$$holes ripping us off? I doubt official website will have envy 14 on sunday and even they do, they wont have custimization.
Maybe i should buy the envy 14 and send it to someone i know in US and ship it to me hmm...

 

Well, amazon is the issue in that sentence, they get details wrong a lot, and the only details they have are coming from the one press release that goesagainst everything else we've read.

 

yes, the fact that amazon has it for the lower rez.

and to the individual who thinks the low rez version is for amazon only: seriously? do u really think that? HP will go out of its supposedly default 1600x900 to make a lower rez version just for amazon?

 

But they didn't make it just for Amazon. Isn't the UK and some other regions getting the crap 720p screen too?

 

Which is EXACTLY what Im doing!

 

Man..the Envy 17 owners thread is starting to scare me now...this laptop is absolutely perfect on paper hopefully it lives up to its expectations..
I still have faith this will be a great laptop!

 

Point being .... if HP is offering a cheaper option (1366 x 768 screen) to other markets and are producing these models, it makes sense for them to offer them in the USA as well.

 

Spec sheet on the quick ship one is 1366x768:

http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/envy/pdf/envy14_datasheet.pdf

I would find it hard to believe that the base model would come with that screen. Makes sense to go 1366x768 and upgrade to better screen. I'm guessing a $100 upgrade though. Other's guessing a lot more, but based on Envy 17 going from 1600x900 to 1920x1080 costs $100, I would think this would be the case here too. At worst $150.

 

Bump*

How easy is a return through HP anyway?

 

exactly, meaning that 1600 by 900 is not the default screen.

 

It is in Australia ( http://h20424.www2.hp.com/campaign/consumer_notebooks/ap/en/resources/HP-ENVY-brochure.pdf)

It's not too unreasonable to hope it's the default in the US too.

 

HP needs to keep the price down on the E14. I know some people on here think that $1200 or whatever is cheap, but that's a lot of money for someone to spend on a laptop, especially college students when funds are tight. I'm hoping this bad boy can be had for around $900-1000 with minor upgrades after a good BCB or coupon.

 

What makes you think the money isn't coming from HP? Why would Microsoft create a shopping website that hands out significant discounts using Microsoft's money on products being sold by other companies? That would cost the company hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars with nothing to gain from it.

No, I guarantee that the discount is coming from HP. There's no sensible way it's coming from MS. It's probably more like a rebate company - MS gets a large percentage of the discount money straight up and it's up to them to fail to come through on enough cashbacks to pay their bills. The reason it's being closed is probably that the BCB system is too efficient and user-friendly for them to default on enough BCB offers, so they're probably losing money anyway. The reason that mail-in rebate companies work is that they remain inaccessible and uncooperative enough to hold enough rebate money for themselves to stay in business, and BCB doesn't seem to be like that.

 

It's a shared discount. Bing is doing this for advertising.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/155148-cha-ching-microsoft-pays-users-to-search-with-bing

http://www.rimmkaufman.com/rkgblog/2009/10/05/bing-cashback-basics/

 

Then don't buy a PREMIUM laptop. The envy is their top line and you want it for nothing?

 

i agree. i'd pay up to $200 more if I knew the build quality was impeccable and envy14 lived to its hype.

 

Do they absolutely need to cater to college students?

Apple doesn't need to keep the price of their notebooks low. BUT they still manage to capture the interest and dollars of college students despite a hefty premium for some of their Macs. Funny how that works.


If you can't afford it, then don't buy it. There are hundreds if not thousands of other notebook combinations out there that suit the needs of wallet-depressed college students.

 

Exactly. I'm not ragging on college students--I'm going to be a student myself going in this fall with a generous scholarship. I'm buying this notebook because I want something that's got all the good things in one package, especially the trappings of solid build construction assuming things blow over well at unboxing time. I've gone through enough notebooks in the past 10 years to have learned the importance of build quality.

 

Yeah, after seeing plenty of student laptops fall apart, I'm also OK with paying a premium for a well built laptop. My lenovo T61 was maybe $200 more than it "should" have cost, based upon cpu, ram and so on. But it's really solid and has served me well for almost three years.

Hopefully the envy 14 will also prove to be a well designed laptop that can stand up to being moved and bumped around in a bag or backpack.

And if it turns out that it feels junky, I will just send it back!

 

Strange things... I guess that this means I'll have to cancel my order and place it again if I want to upgrade my cashback. Ugh...

How long does a 25% cashback promotion for HP usually last? A day or two ago, when people were talking about buying gift cards, I missed the 25% entirely. I wasn't going to get in on the gift card party in case of a cashback issue (though if someone can confirm that it's kosher, I'm into it in theory if another 25% off comes up in the next few days), but that makes me wonder how long it lasts - since I live in China, I might miss it entirely if it's just a half-day deal.

 

4 days guys!

 

HP needs to make things people want to buy, end of story. The good point is that they like many other pc makers have more than just higher end machines that will serve people well enough.


If you want a sub 1000 notebook to take around with you, head to best buy and pay 799 for the dm4 with the i5 and ~5 hours of battery life, want some graphics power? Head to costco and get the same machine with switchable graphics for 899.


Want even cheaper than that with better graphics and no optical drive? get the acer timeline with the 5650. There are plenty of nice notebooks out there. It is only if you want all the niceties and even some premium features, like a better screen, that you have to pay some extra money.

 

4 days, 28 minutes, 20 seconds!!!!!!!!
it feels so close!

 

Hah. I'm estimating conservatively by putting it in PST terms. 4 days, 2 hours, and 23 minutes.

 

I dunno what you guys are talking about.

it's 3 days and 23 hours and so and so minutes over here.

 

lucky =p xD

 

I dunno how you're measuring time. I'm going strictly off of my timer which ticks until June 27th, 12:00am.

 

we all are. we all are....man I hope the 1600x900 is standard in the cto build.

 

heres to that.. CHEERS! I also hope.. that the build quality is solid!!!! I will pay more for a solid computer HP!!!!!!

 

4 more days to go eh...

I'd also have no problem paying $200 more if the build quality justified it, including a well designed cooling system.

The thing is though, even with dm4t or dm6t-se, the cost adds up quickly if you add all the options, so ENVY 14 isn't THAT expensive in the end, considering the only MUST HAVE option for pretty much everybody here is the radiance screen.

 

Toss in a phone call from the dean from one of my wait-listed schools offering me admission on top of a solidly built Envy 14 and July will be the best month of my life.

 

Let's also hope that HP doesn't lock the processor down while on battery mode like they apparently did with the envy15

someone in the 14 vs m11x topic was complaining about how his processor, no matter what he did, wouldn't go above the 9x multiplier while on battery. it was stuck at 1.3ghz or so.

 

yeah I know.. this computer has potential to be great. Is everyone here ordering the minute after midnight or waiting for reviews?

 

thats a lie. there's a program called throttlestop that lets you go full speed. I've tested it myself.

 

kay. maybe he doesn't know about it, point it out to him 'cause I dunno where to find it and google felt like talking about race cars

 

I'll probably order it at midnight if there is still a 25%BCB or if I don't have to make too many upgrades (probably screen and HDD). As long as I can keep it around $1,100-200 before warranty I'll be good. The return period should allow me to do more than enough testing of its capabilities, so waiting for reviews isn't that big of a deal for me.

 

If there's 25% BCB when teh Envy 14 is released, the SSD would be a mandatory buy for me if I was getting one of these. That would put the 160 GB price in the $250 range.

 

I would consider a SSD if some sort of DM4T styled $350 coupon showed up.

never tried one before.


'course latest hdd I've used in a laptop is some old 100gig 5400 rpm one.

 

Or less - the 160 GB is a $200 upgrade on the Envy 13...

 

That would be nice.

 

You have to remember, a $350 coupon will be useless if cashback is at 25%. Now a $1-200 instant rebate would be nice, because that stacks with bing.

I'm looking right now at

Base 1000
Radiance 100
SSD 250
Slice 75
+I5-540 200
$1625

Discount after BCB: $406.25

Final Price: $1218.75 YAY!

Thats my basic high end estimate, hopefully less, especially with an instant rebate. Which I will wait for if no 25% BCB on release date. Still don't know about paying for a warranty.

 

Hey guys new here...can someone please tell me how to get the 25% BCB you speak of?

 

BCB is Bing CashBack - a program that comes into play when you purchase something through Bing's shopping site. It works like a mail-in rebate, but apparently much more reliable, so it's not a direct discount, but you will definitely get your money back unless you screw up big time.

The typical BCB discount is 10% for HP's site, but it's fluctuated up to 25% many times, so most people here are planning on waiting for the first 25% discount from BCB after the Envy 14 is officially released on HP's site - it's not guaranteed, but chances are good it will happen. From there, I believe you just have to go to bing shopping, click on the 25%-off HP direct link, enter your email address, and make your purchase. In 60 days, you'll be eligible to have the cashback value sent to your Paypal account or possibly directly deposited into your bank account.

 

Thanks gcrussell1!

 

The day draws near. 4 days, gents.