HP Envy 14: Availabilty, etc.

Per my daughter's request, we took back her 5 day old 13" MBP to the Apple store yesterday and called HP to "reserve" a 14. She (and I) like the hardware design of the MBP but she's not a fan of OSX and when we compared the features vs price of the MBP and 14, it was a no brainer. I probably will end up getting a 14 for myself and my wife as well.

HP has nailed the feature set I'm looking for in a premium laptop - I just hope they've overcome the bugs and quality control issues of the Envy 15. I saw first hand how that model appeared to have been rushed to market.

 

This is really weird. It says that the E14 has i7 which I find hard to believe (esp if its referring to the quad) and that it does include USB 3. Also, I don't see an Optical drive on that pic...

On the other hand, for the E15 it doesn't mention its USB 3....so is HP removing USB 3 from the E15 or something?

Also, don't know about you guys but this HP page clearly contradicts this article:

Notebookcheck: NBC Onsite: HP Notebook Lineup 05/2010

If the E15 is being discontinued (which from a marketing perspective is totally stupid) then why is it scheduled to be updated?!?!

 

I was just thinking the other day that the only thing missing is USB 3.0...haha
Wow. That would be something.

i7 wise, it's probably the 620m dual core, doubt it will be a quad.
I wonder if the 3.0 will only be with the i7 again like on the Envy, that would be a bummer.

 

@Kabobi The optical drive was on the left hand side of the notebook in previous pictures, so its probably still there along with a pair of USB ports and headphone jacks.

Engadget pic

 

I think that is only if you get the i7 though... in the datasheet they don't mention usb 3.0 being standard

 

What did they mention as being standard?

 

did anyone call hp and reserved the units ??

 

For those who have experience from when the first Envy's came out I have a question. Once HP offers preordering of the Envy 14, if you preorder and configure your unit, will it ship on the 27th? or will they start building it on the 27, meaning you have to wait another 2 weeks.

 

Yes. As I posted a few messages up, I have called and "reserved" a 14. Note though that all you're really doing is providing HP a phone number and email address to notify you when pricing/features are locked down. The agent I spoke with was very friendly but had absolutely no product information about either the 14 or 17.

 

The optical drive is on the other side, although it is odd they dont have a little blurb for it. Also, the envy 14, according to a pdf doc outlining the specs that someone posted a while back you can in fact get a quadcore with this machine, there is also the arrendale dual-core i7 option as well.

 

ENVY 14 going to rule laptop world

 

Do you guys really believe HP will set parts aside for people who call in to "reserve" a laptop??? I'd say this is their way to gauge interest in this laptop. The more people call, the less likely any coupon or Bing cashback will coincide with its release. Who knows, maybe they'll even decide on the final set of standard specs based on the number of people calling in to express interest.

Do NOT call people

 

The man is most likely right people. DO NOT CALL

edit: if you still do, mention an i5-520 or i5-540... in the hope that'll be part of the base spec

 

Yeah this is fantastic. I'm stoked. I'll pay out for the higher res and the 5650 if it's an upgrade. Everything else I'm fine with being stock.

Depending on the size/weight of the battery slice I might grab that too if it's a reasonable upgrade price ($150 or so).

 

It must come with a portable canister of liquid nitrogen then, for cooling...

 

NICE! It won't even come with at least an i5-520M for $999. HP never ceases to amaze me.

 

For you guys who followed the first-gen Envy release (and the releases of other HP products), when did the first reviews become available?

I'm planning on trading out my MBP for that Envy 14, provided the battery life claim holds up; just wondering when I'll get to find that out.

 

whats the battery life prediction?

 

I just want an i5 to be included in the $999

 

Is this all you're going to do in this thread, talk crap about the Envy 14? Just go back to your Acer Timeline thread. Hope you enjoy crappy LCD quality, an anemic 1366x768 resolution, poor vertical viewing angles, and a mushy keyboard. Do you even know how much the Acer Timelines will cost or when it will even be released? Didn't think so. So ing about the hardware the Envy 14 comes with at $999 is moot.

 

So with this ones release Im thinking ill just be replacing my current Dell E1505. I was thinking of getting a more portable longer battery life Ul30JT, but the ULV I5 and its long waiting time turned me off and I saw this.

Powerful, portable, decent battery, can replace my amazing 1680x1050 bright screen on my Dell which I love, and good looking. It has just about everything I want. Im hoping that an i5 and discreet graphics come with the 999 base, but that sounds a bit too good to be true.

 

I predict that the battery life will be 4-5 hours on medium usage (wi-fi, some multimedia, etc.).

In terms of reviews for this laptop, I am thinking there will be some within a week of the release. This is the kind of laptop that HP will want reviewers to get their hands on early.

 

This Envy has yet to prove that it is on par with the Acer in terms of cooling solution (resulting in noise and heatlevel), buildquality and batterylife.
The Timeline X series has set the standards very high.
Especially the 13,3'' one. With a highspeedport like e-sata/usb3.0, a better display (and for some the keyboard), it would have been perfect.

And i doubt that HP will offer a really better display here with so few money.

Only plus are the backlit keyboard and the e-sata access so far.
Anything else, one have to wait for reviews for the facts.
But the former Envys weren't really good in reviews....

 

That's my thinking, but I was hoping that would mean some earlier reviews, possibly review units sent around day of release / shortly before then.

 

I guarantee the build quality and screen quality (this especially) of the Envy series are significantly ahead the Timeline X series.

 

Oh, really? I don't believe such things as long as (quality!)reviews haven't proven it. And what does this vague term significant even mean exactly.

I will take that the screen will have about 250nit max brightness and really good contrasts then.

Oh well, atleast looking at the former reviews of the Envys it hasn't been a great series. It hasn't sold well at all (atleast here).

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-HP-Envy-15-Notebook.22270.0.html

Great display.....lol.

It would be a blatant improvement for this series if your words were to be true and if the device would be sold for a reasonable price.

 

Well, there are already people that have the Timelines and they have said the screen is simply average, nothing special. The Envy 13 on the other hand has a fantastic screen, and that same screen is used on the Envy 14. So Envy screen > Timeline screen. Build quality. Easy to determine this, because Timelines are constructed mostly of plastic with a coating of brushed aluminum. Envy has aluminum shell, and magnesium under. Plastic is only on the bottom. Aluminum+Magnesium > Thin layer of Aluminum+plastic. If by build quality, you meant reliability, then I don't know, we will have to see.

 

looks like they replaced the e sata port with a usb 3.0 port actually. I dont think you get both. I might have to go with a 14 all that battery life is great

 

Ok. If the screen is the one from the Envy 13, it should be decent, though it really depends on the screen manufacture in the end.

Yes, with buildquality i mainly mean sturdiness, reliability. And with this i say the 13,3'' Vaio Z has poor buildquality.

And then we still have to wait for:

- battery life under various settings
- noiselevel, heatlevel

 

I ordered and then returned an E15, recently. What I can say for certain, based on my experience, is that HP solved the cooling problem in that particular model. The screen (I ordered the matte hi-res option) was also superior, although not quite as bright and crisp as the one on my 15" MBP.

What convinced me to return my E15 was a trackpad that (despite downloading current drivers and playing continually with the config) caused unintentional pointer movements and mouse clicks. The wide screen bezel that added at least a half-inch the the width of the notebook didn't help.

For me, a high-quality LCD is non-negotiable in a notebook. Based on what I've read so far, the E14 is what I hoped the E15 would be - except, perhaps, for the slot-loading CD/DVD drive. If HP manages heat in the E14 as well as it did in the recent E15 revision, I'll buy (and keep) this machine.

BTW, does anyone know whether the CD/DVD drive in the E14 is SATA? If HP doesn't offer an SSD option for this machine, I'd look into installing one after-market, and replacing the CD/DVD drive with a second rotating drive.

 

There are SSD options, either 160 GB or 256 GB. Most likely they will be Intel G1 or G2s.

 

according to the product spec sheet here http://www.hp.com/united-states/personal_again/datasheets/envy14_17_ds.pdf the drive is a 9.5mm SATA optical drive.

 

Why does the spec sheet say that the Envy has only USB 2.0, while the fancy flash Envy page says it has USB 3.0. HP is being confusing with official specs yet again. But I will trust the data sheets and figure there is no USB 3 on the 14 for now.

 

I don't know, Engadget has a post up with some HP document also showing USB 3.0.

 

either way by the looks of things its either gonna be a usb 2.0/e sata combo or just a usb 3.0 port. It's not going to have e sata and usb 3.0. So either configuration will equally get the job done as far as high speed for mass storage.

 

Thanks for the link to the spec sheet, laststop311.

 

no problem i stole it off the envy 17 thread

 

The Timeline X has not been released in many parts of the world and very few reviews exist. While on paper the Timeline X looks really good, it still has a lot to prove itself. I can't comment on it's cooling nor build quality, there are just not enough reviews. Until more reviews come out I don't see how the Timeline X has set the standards on anything with only a handful of countries being able to access the machines.

There are a few conclusions one can draw though. The Timeline X will have pretty good battery life and it'll be a good laptop. History dictates that Acer will not use a high quality screen and it will be average at best. And the keyboard, same style as the older Timelines, will have flex and not be easiest thing to type on. I own an Acer Timeline 1810TZ and it shares the same full sized island style keyboard. You don't get a satisfying feel when typing, it's just kinda mushy. I'm not sure if you've felt an HP Envy 15 or 13 before but it has a very sturdy feel to it. It's solid. If you've seen the screen, it's one of the better ones you can get on a laptop. Laptopmag, Engadget, and many other review sites echo the same sentiments about the screen. The Envy 14 won't be any different.

Yes HP does have a lot to prove but they have addressed a lot of concerns and issues that gave the first gen Envy 15's bad reviews. The Envy 14 will have switchable graphics which will help with battery life, the 2nd gen Envy 15's have addressed cooling issues so hopefully the 14" won't have issues either, and lets hope they fix that touchpad.

Point is, lets not crown one is better than the other when these things aren't even in mass circulation yet.

 

+10000000 ^_^

I just hope cooling won't be a problem otherwise it's 13" timeline x for me..but that's only if the temps are close to the lenovo Y460...o_o and for the love of god I hope they don't even come close...

 

There are enough reliable reviews (notebookcheck and notebookjournal) for me here in Germany for the Timeline X series. So it has already proven to be the fastest 13'' on the market, yet cool enough with good noiselevel.

There are reasons why the Envy series didn't do well here.
And also the reviews showed that it were simply overpriced consumer machines.

And yet again, the Envy 14'' will cost atleast 1300€ (basis!) here!
So it gotta have to top the 13''/14'' Acer , not only in terms of the display.

Otherwise i can garantuee you that it won't sell to well here again

 

^^i havent seen a 5650 tested on timelinex with i5 on notebookcheck

 

I'm holding out for battery life reviews. I'm praying that it can do around 6 hours of light duty w/wifi without the slice! If I can get 10hours with the slice, I'd be very pleased.

The fact that it has a nice screen has already secured it as my top most-wanted laptop as most modern laptop screens are quite low quality.

Strangely, I've been seeing the envy 13 price hovering around the $1099 mark, and I'm tempted to get this as well, as I *love* the form-factor/weight (above that of the envy 14, actually). Of course, I'd only consider the envy 13 with a 1600x900 res at this price.

As you can tell, my priorities aren't aligned solely with performance. Come to think of it, it's a shame that HP gave up on the envy 13. I would take a refreshed 1" thick envy 13 with no optical drive at $999 in a heartbeat.

}:^)~

 

This is not encouraging....

After looking at some user reviews of the ENVY 13 on Amazon.com, and professional reviews, it seems that the battery life that is much lower than HP's original claims and the slice battery only brings it up to the level of being acceptable (IMHO). If this is the case, I'm guessing that the ENVY 14 will get the same treatment: long battery life on the spec sheet, short battery life in reality -- which is not encouraging.

Sadly, if I'm carrying around a 5.25 lb brick, I would expect it to last more than a few hours (a problem with my current lappie). Unless the Envy 14 has good battery life, I'm going to have to pass.

I was *really* looking forward to this machine! I hope that the reviews are positive and render my doubts inert!

Looks like I'll keep wishing/waiting for a nice screen on the ASUS UL series! The UL30Vt is looking much better to me now.

}:^)~

 

Just curious how does the switchable graphics work if ATI doesnt make a switchable graphics interface yet.

 

Err...
With ATI's switchable graphics, the onus is on the manufacturer to do most of the work, since it requires extra hardware on the motherboard, and special drivers.

 

Hmm looking at the official specs it seems a 5830 is a no...

Ahh and I had really high hopes for this.

 

I think HP will handle the Envy 14+17 the same they did with the 13+15 Versions.

There will be a configurator Option for US customers only and one or two out-of-the-box preconfigured versions for Europe.

The cheapest configuration you can get in US will be the one for 999$.
The cheapest in Europe will be a different configuration for 1300 Euro (with tax) which converts to about 1500$ without tax.

Question is, what do we europeans get for the extra 500$ we have to pay for our cheapest configuration.

 

Oh no it won't sell well in Germany. tear

I don't know how you can downplay the screen too. Its the one thing you use whenever you use your laptop. Even for regular web browsing, I can't stand the lower resolution screen. I absolutely refuse to buy it.

Plus I heard the keyboard sucks too. BRB having a laptop in which the two things you always use just suck.

 

An 8-cell battery, Intel HD GPU, and core i5.

There's no reason it won't get 4-5 hours at least.

 

Well HP will be in tears, not me. In press conferences they always claim that the Envy 13'' and the 15'' sold well, but never give a real reason why they would switch to 14'' and 17'' then.
15'' notebooks are bestseller just followed by 13''.

A bit better display is not reason enough for me to pay extra 500€, even assuming that the device is on par on things like battery life, noiselevel and coolness.
Plus, this display is a full-glare one. If you turn on max. brightness, then it will drain your battery accordingly.
One of the best screens you can get is the one of the Vaio Z.

I am just extremly sceptical of these "new" devices as the former ones performed poorly and were completely overpriced here. Also in general, the consumer models of HP are nothing compared to their business models.

@StefanHT:

Most probably nothing. Maybe a bigger HDD and the next better CPU maybe.