HP Envy 14: Availabilty, etc.

Looks like the Envy 14 is what I've been looking for. Was holding out for a new 14" model from Asus with switcheable graphics, but this puppy is starting to look a lot more appealing. Considering Asus marketing is pretty horrid and no clue when or where they will release all the models the put out the in the brochure a while back.

 

For people talking about usb 3.0 being on the official web page but not on the spec, I think it may be what HP did with the envy 15 where they include a usb 3.0 with the i7 models but not the i5. It's possible this is what they'll be doing with the envy 14 or else i doubt they'd bother putting it on the envy 14 web page

 

Same here. Originally I was interested in the N62 but when it finally came out, the battery life sucked. So I started to wait for the N82 which promised better battery life but it STILL isn't out in the US. Maybe Asus will realize that the competition & its customers aren't simply going to stand by and wait for them.

 

Hmm, are we sure that the dimensions for the Envy 14 are 14"x9.33"? Because that's less than an inch smaller than this 16" laptop sitting in front of me Asus - Laptop with Intel® Pentium® Processor - Vintage Brown - K60I-RBBBR05

I think I still want to get the Envy 14 for the nice 1600x900 screen (I need all the resolution I can get) but at that size it almost feels like calling it a 14" is a white lie. But that's just me. Maybe it doesn't seem that large in person? Who knows?

 

Honestly, that's fine by me. The Envy 15 was very small as it is.. and the 14 is including an optical drive, something the Envy 15 didn't. I'll take an optical drive + more battery life if it means being almost the same size as the 15.

 

The Envy didn't do so well here either and was not well received by most reviewers. However, those were the first generation machines. I think we're all holding out hope that the new 14" and 17" solve a lot of problems that plagued the 1st gen machines. Most of the concerns were battery life, heat, and touchpad. Heat was only a concern with the 1st gen 15" with quad cores, the newer 2nd gen 15" are fine. With the 14" there will switchable graphics which will solve heat and battery issues. Again the reason why there it seems like HP is being proactive in fixing a lot of the issues.

Here in the US, a Timeline X with i5-520m and 5650 will cost the same as an HP with similar specs, so about ~$1000. If HP solves all the problems that first gen had, it's really a no brainer.

Different story for you guys though if it's price prohibitive.

 

According to Engadget, the screen for the Envy 14 is actually 14.5", which might explain why it is bigger than the normal 14 inch laptop.

 

I think the battery life claimed by the manufacturers are usually tested under very limited conditions (like lowest brightness, no wifi etc), so the spec sheet number is probably the max battery life you will get. Real life usage will almost always be lower the the spec number.

However, the Envy 14 will have switchable graphic and i5 cpu, which the Envy 13 doesn't have. So I expect the Envy 14 will have at least 4 to 5 hours in real life usage (which is still lower than the 7 hours claimed by HP). If you need longer 4-5 hours of battery life, you might want to wait for the ULV version of the Core cpu.

 

Couldnt you just set max processor usage down a tad and save a good amount of battery too? I would think even small underclocking should help a lot.

 

I think undervolting will help a lot more than underclocking in terms of battery life. It also doesn't reduce the performance. I'm really hoping RMClock will work with the Core iX's.

 

Well, I think the hope is that this one might actually come through since it seems plausible with an 8-cell battery running a fairly efficient processor on a 14.5" display. Honestly, I'd seriously consider it even if it landed six hours on medium brightness, Wi-Fi on, the usual browsing / Office work.

Unrelated: is there any way to "dock" an Envy in the sense that you can dock business notebooks? I'd love a five-second approach to connecting external speakers, wireless mouse / keyboard with an RF dongle, external monitor, power, etc.

 

Yeah, it's mostly fine by me too. The way I see it, portability is a combination of small size and battery life. If the Envy 14 has good battery life, it might make up for the size. I'm just wondering how snugly it will fit in my backpack, but that can be fixed.

Like I said, I recently realized that although a 13" is nice for size, the screen resolution just sucks and I've very recently been using an external 20" LCD alongside my laptop screen and I would really love to have 1600x900 internal and 1680x1050 external rather than 1366x768 and 1680x1050, so I'm still pretty much sold on the Envy. 768 vertical pixels is like going back to 2000 ugh. It's just not as productive.

It's just that I figure the 14 is closer to a normal 15"s size, so I find it a little weird that they call it the Envy 14 instead of a new model of Envy 15. But that's just semantics.

 

That's what I'm saying. Since the 13 is out and the 15 might still be in the game, would have been better to have made it a 13.

 

The Envy 13 *does* have switchable graphics and the battery life still stinks according to many. I've never used one at length, so I can't comment if this is true, but many users complain about the sub-par battery life.
source: HP Envy 13 - Review of the HP Envy 13

In short, based on the claims by HP for battery life of the envy 13, and the reviews by real users, I'm not expecting much battery life from the envy 14. But time will tell if this is the case.

I'm back to lusting over the UL30Vt and dreaming of an aftermarket LCD panel.

{:^)~

 

You do realize the Envy 13 had a 4-cell battery, yes? It's so small and so thin, they had to give it a tiny battery.

It's not rocket science boys.
8-cell battery + Intel HD GPU + LED + pretty efficient i5= good battery life

The tricky thing with the 8-cell though is that it's only 59Wh, the 6-cell on the DM3 has 57. So I'm not entirely sure what the story is there, doesn't make sense. Has two more cells yet only two more Wh? Something is off there.

You're looking at least at 5 good hours if not more. Will it reach the 7/8 advertised? I highly doubt it. But on such a powerful system, all things considered, if it's gets 5 hours I will be very happy. If it gets 6? Would be beyond fantastic.

 

They use smaller cells to fit into a smaller physical sized plastic battery shell.

 

^ Your avatar is making me nauseous.

Anyway, for the Canadians out there, we might not see the Envy 14 for a while. My "reasoning" goes like this: Best Buy has the HP Envy 15 and 13 (still the NON-REFRESHED versions!) on "sale" for $200 off until June 17. If HP brings the new Envy's to Canada, Best Buy would definitely be one of the places that carry it. Therefore there's no reason for BB to have a sale until June 17 if the new Envy's start showing up before then. So I'm guessing a mid-late June release for Envy 17 over here, and if we're lucky we'll get the Envy 14 at the same time (June 27?).

 

The Envy 13 had a 4 cell, 41Wh battery and with this it got about 4:20 hours of life. Considering the Envy 14's more powerful CPU (I'm not sure if they idle better however) and larger screen it is likely the battery life is similar to the Envy 13 due to its larger battery. Of course, I'm not an expert. 4+ hours without a slice sure sounds good to me.

Regarding the dimensions, you must look at this as more of a competitor to the small 15.4/15.6" notebooks rather than 14". It is smaller than the Macbook Pro 15, while offering superior performance (especially graphically) at a lower weight and price. In those regards it is a competent competitor. It is not intended to compete with the UL-30Jt, which is smaller and offers superior endurance at the cost of computational and graphical prowess.

 

The 4:20 figure is from laptopmag ya? The NBR review got almost 7 hours. They didn't mention if they were doing anything though. They did say wireless was active, but maybe it was just sitting there. There's a lot of different variables, but considering they did hit 7 hours, leads me to believe you can get more than the 4:20 laptopmag got, how much more? I don't know. But I'm guessing you could hit 5 at least.

CPU wise, the SL9600 has a 17watt TDP, which is lower than the 35 in the i5, but if I'm not mistaken that includes the GPU and the other chips they put on the CPU die that were separate on earlier systems. The i5 will suck more power, no doubt about that, but maybe not that much more.

I really don't think the screen is going to play that big of a role, they are LED screens after all and we're just talking about 1.5 inches.

So then factor in the extra 18Wh, almost 50% more than the 13...I mean, you're looking at pretty great battery life.

But I'm with you, anything above 4 hours browsing the net and listening to some music...would be great.

If people want 6-7 hours, then they should check out the ULV systems. But who knows, maybe HP surprises us all and manages to hit 6 hours.

 

Ah yes, thank you for the specifics. I do believe that the i5 systems have an integrated GPU which is not included in the SL9600's total power consumption. Furthermore it is surprising they could get 7 hours of battery, that is rather incredible. As for the screen, I was assuming more area needs more back lighting, but perhaps it is per pixel in which case the Envy 13 had the same amount of pixels.

I'm wondering what kind of battery life it will get when playing DVD's but there isn't enough information to even speculate or guess here. I just hope the SSD option is cheap, because I really want one in my laptop now too. And finally I hope it has a compliant BIOS this time, since apparently the Envy 15s had problems with Linux.

 

For the people that are planning on buying the 14" envy.... are you pretty much set on the hi-res screen?

I ask because I was about to buy a new MBP, and had a hard time choosing between the standard/hires model. Basically when I saw them side by side in the store I thought that the fonts/everything on the hires model were just really small. Not impossible to read but I felt that the 1440x900 would be a lot easier on my eyes in the long run. I didn't mind the 1440x900 on the MBP, and was the one I probably would have bought.

That being said heres the rundown:

15" MBP HiRes: 1680x1050 - 128.65 PPI
15" MBP Standard: 1440x900 - 110.27 PPI
14" Envy HiRes: 1600x900 - 126.6 PPI
14" Envy Standard: 1366x768 - 108.08 PPI

Idk which one to pick I feel that with the 14.5 screen you'd want the higher resolution for more screen real estate, but I don't want it straining my eyes. I guess Ill just wait and hope bestbuy will carry both models so I can see them myself before buying one.

 

If you look on the envy 14 datasheet, there appears to be no option for a 1366*768 screen, only the 1600*900 (i think this was the same for the envy 13)

 

You can increase the the size of the letters if its straining your eyes. thats really not a problem. My eyes are still young so I like the small text.
For me a higher res is a must for multitasking and graphic design. Plus general browsing is more pleasing when you don't have to scroll too much.

 

No one seems to realize/know that the screens on the 13/14 are not identical. Both radiance, yes, but I specifically remember the 13 having a 400 nit display, the 14 has a 350 nit display. Both incredibly bright, but that may wash out the extra energy needed for the larger screen due to lower brightness (but still incredibly bright)

 

Based on my experience with the hi-res screen option on the E15, Windows 7 does an excellent job with font scaling - I scaled the standard font size up from the default, and still experienced very crisp, readable text. So I wouldn't be too concerned about small font limitations on a high-res screen.

 

I formerly had a Sony Z which had a 1600 x 900 resolution on a 13.1" display. Great panel, to be sure, but a little too high a resolution for a little too small of a screen.

To answer your question: if it's an option after all, yes, I'm going for the 1600 x 900. That extra 1.4" should work just fine for me.

 

Oh, and does anyone know anything about my docking question? Just looking to know if a one-stop docking "solution" is available on Envy notebooks. Would be nice.

 

No. As of now none of the upcoming Envys and the current Envys has a one-stop docking platform available, nor it appears there are dedicated ports on the models to enable such platform in the future.

 

Like others have said... You can increase the font size by 125%, 150%, or more in Windows 7 all while keeping the hi-resolution. So it's really not a big deal if you are worried about the font being too small.

 

with the touchpad deally, one of the hp guys on the video on youtube said they with synaptics completely reworked all the touchpad drives so i assume they improved it from the envy 15?

 

No, from what I understand, they reworked it to make it worse and provide more frustration for their buyers.

 

That's too bad. I know I remember some sort of half-dock, half-extension from HP, but I forget how it worked. I'm just looking for the simplest approach to using an external monitor, mouse, keyboard, possibly some external speakers, and a USB hard drive as quickly/efficiently as possible with an Envy. It's a small thing -- ten seconds? -- but it'd be nice to avoid having to screw with cables all the time.

 

I really like the power in the small chassis, as compared to a Macbook Pro. People say you either get a thin, lesser-powered Macbook Pro, or a clunky but powerful PC notebook. With the Envy series, you get a thin, relatively light notebook with the power of one of those "clunky PC's". I'm waiting for some reviews (cooling particularly), but if this turns out well, I'll be upgrading from my Macbook to an Envy 14. People say the OS makes the deal, but when you're literally getting a MBP for cheaper with better hardware, you have to ask yourself about the value of an OS. HP is really doing well with notebook design these days, and Apple can really no longer claim the lead.

And 14" really is the sweet spot between weight/size and performance for notebooks. A 5650 really is good, and the 1600x900 display was a real surprise.

 

Sums up my perspective on the Envy 14 perfectly.

 

To support his claim... the total dimensions between a Macbook Pro 15 and an Envy 14 are not too extreme. Obviously the differing screen ratios changes the shape.

Envy 14: 14.01" (W) x 1.09-1.11" (H) x 9.33" (D). 5.25 lbs with 14.5" screen
MBP 15 : 14.35" (W) x 0.95" (H) x 9.82" (D). 5.6 lbs with a 15.4" screen.

Considering the superior power (and screen) packed into the smaller Envy 14, I am impressed.

 

And add starting at half the price, and

 

I'm looking forward to replacing my MacBook (Late 2007) with a ENVY 14. OS X runs well enough on my MacBook.

I just need something that runs Windows and with a little more power than the current CULV Alienware m11x. Then again there's a rumored summer update for the m11x. I'm not in any rush. I have a viable desktop and my MacBook hasn't decided to die, yet. I do have to take it into the AASP though. It's acting up.

 

When is Envy 14 coming?

 

June 29.

10 chars.

 

19th June

 

Well, for mouse, keyboard and hard drive you can use a usb hub to plug those three into. I imagine if you spent some time and the port arrangement worked in your favor you could do something like ziptie the usb cables and monitor and speaker cables together and use that as a "dock" connector with 3 ends. Slightly easier than plugging in all five things, for sure.

 

Actually I was wrong initially, according to this press release posted by Engadget, it's June 27th.

HP Envy 14 and 17 officially official, Envy 13 slowly waves goodbye -- Engadget

Now where did I get that 29 number from....?

 

providing this thing gets some decent reviews and the battery life lives up to whats been hyped (and alienware doesnt make a thin portable with similar specs and battery life) I'm getting this beast.

It's pretty absurd the specs they crammed into this thing at the price point considering what apple charges for computers that are less powerful.

 

too bad the 5650 cant play starcraft 2 on an external monitor at 1920 x 1200 and all ultra settings.

 

Whats the status of international warranty on this??

 

I really hope the Envy 14 comes to the UK. would be a real shame if HP decided not to bring it here.

It would also be great if they actually allowed some customisation to be done to it.

Will have to wait and see....

 

does anyone know the price and when this will be available in australia?

 

The touch pad on the Envy 15 is actually very good. The bad reviews on the Envy 15's touch pad are all from the initial launch. Since then, HP and Synaptics have provided updates that allow it to function really well. It's large and has a great feel to it. Once you customize the options to your liking, it becomes a pleasure to use with all the gestures. It's not perfect but in many ways, I enjoy using it more than a MBP.

 

yer same here.

That's why Macs are so much better recieved in the uk, mainly coz of their online customization options and student discount. If HP Uk did this as well with the envy series it would be great.

 

Yes i agree. Its really wierd how some companies just refuse to allow customers to customise their laptops.

But now that i think about it, they have actually said that they are allowing users access to the mother board. So technically we can upgrade the processor if we wanted to. Maybe even the Graphics Card.