HP Envy 15? i7 meets 4830+15" screen!

I personally think it was a mistake. They put in $799 for everything as a placeholder. When the site went live, they were suppose to update it with the correct prices at the time. Now they see the mistake and are trying to rectify it, so they took them down. That's my educated guess as to what happened.

 

I wouldnt expect to see the downgrade options for a while. IMO, HP is limiting the customization process to help keep parts shortages, shipping delays and the bad press that accompanies these two problems at a minimum. They put those screwy prices on the site to keep people from choosing those options. I dont know whether they dont have those particular parts in supply or on order or they just dont want people customizing a cheaper version of the Envy 15 while the system just debuted.

Brick and Mortars did this same thing when Windows 7 started shipping. Just incase some stock boy did put it out early, they priced it at like $10,000. A price that high keeps people from buying it and if someone does actually try to take it up to the register they would hopefully catch it and be able to keep it from being sold early.

Or they could have just been placeholder prices for when they actually start offering those parts.

 

I am talking about the UK model, and replying to a guy who was also talking about the UK model. Thats why I was using the £ currency and my location says Europe and I referred to Amazon.co.uk.

The UK model appears to be 1366x768. With no res upgrades at all.

 

Thats only temporary. Foreign sites always lag in options.

 

Just to clear it up, I am from England, and here the only option available at the moment is 1366x768.

We're not all from America you know

Yes, the UK site lags behind the US site for HP, as with many other retailers. Shame, that price was looking pretty good, bet bumping it up to a decent res will kill the price.

Plus, they are bizarrely only offering 4GB or 8GB, but either way, they are using 4GB SODIMMs regardless, 1x 4GB or 2x 4GB. Ouch, money is not really an object, but I do hate paying ridiculously through the nose.

 

thanks. i will wait until tommorow then i will call them if i dont get an email. i checked my bank and they already took the money.

 

LoL atleast you have a purchase option. Canada BORDERS America (for the americans on this board who weren't aware [i kid, i kid]) and we don't have the release. The Hp Envy 13 is on preorder status at the Futureshop.ca website... for like $2100. HP Canada's shopping site has no mention of their Flagship Premium Brand. I know we've only got the population of California... but common! How hard is it to ship a few of these machines 4 hours north of Buffalo to the local bestbuys. Atleast put a press release up on the damn HP site lol.

 

C2D support probably wasn't really HP's call. C2D (BGA 956) uses a different socket than the i7 (PGA-989). Might not be able to fit a C2D and i7 motherboard/chipset in the Envy chasis. Arrandale uses the same i7 socket (PGA-989), so could be an option in the future, and has a similar power profile to C2D.

C2D had many chipsets, but the most recent has 7w TDP (PM45) +5w for the versions with IGP (x4500HD). i7 uses intels new PM55 chipset with a 3.5w TDP.

 

It's because their first shipment from their factories over in China came preconfigured so they could get the machines out in time for the Win 7 launch. Give it a month month and you'll see more configurable options. Right now they are just trying to make sure there are enough machines to go around and to do that means less customization.

 

What bothers me is the price tag. for a lot less you can go macbook pro, with a slot loading drive and just bootcamp Win 7.

The 13 inch is appealing, but wow no dvd or blu-ray drive and pretty poor battery performance. It's not all about the games. Some of us do video and sound editing as well. hehe

 

do macbooks come with Blu-ray now? Didnt think they did...

 

So you think that HP is just throwing a bone for the europeans, so they could have something with the name ENVY, it doesn't matter of course that 768p screen is middle ages.

 

Yeah, you can go MBP that has a slot loading drive and bootcamp Win 7. But then you dont have i7, 16GB of RAM, dual HDs, dedicated video card or high definition. But you are right, its not ALL about the games...

 

I'm picking up a MBP as well as the Envy 15 (the latter of which I will play around with and decide if I want to keep) but there is no denying that, especially with the Bing savings, the Envy 15 is the beefier machine for the money. As for the drive, I suppose having an external or internal OD is a personal choice, but I can't remember the last time I needed to burn or even play a disc on the go. I have had the need for an SSD boot/applications drive and a second larger drive for files.

 

Nope, it's really not all about the games. A lot of us do a great deal of editing on the go these days.

And yes I'm aware that apple doesn't have a blu-ray drive internally because they don't want to pay the blu-ray tax. Also, Apple's 13 inch macbook pro is what, 400 cheaper? hehe.

 

Hey, let's not start another Apple vs PC fight

Oh hold on, isn't that what HP started when they pinched, er I mean designed this notebook....

 

I never understood why people say the MBP is cheaper. Wouldn't it make more sense to compare the Envy 15 to the 15" MBP? The 15" price ranges from $1,699 for the lowest spec to $2,299 for the highest spec.

So why do people continuously claim that the Envy 15" is rediculously more expensive than the MBP, when they are comparing 13" to 15". If you compare the right sizes together, a 15" Envy spec'd to approximately 1,899 is right within the range for the 15" MBP.

Now I will admit that the 13" is a different story, but that's not what I'm discussing here.

 

The big thing in my book that Macbook Pro's have on the Envy 15 is the switchable graphics for less heat + better battery life. It really toasters my stroodle that they didn't include that feature on the Envy 15 when they included it on the Envy 13.

For a lot less? You lost me there. The only one that is a lot cheaper than the Envy 15 is the 13", and the 13" doesn't have a 1080p screen or an i7 processor or a ridiculously good video card (oh, that's right, none of the Macbook Pros have as good a video card...Muhahahah... jk.. ) or dual HDDs or expandable up to 16 Gb of RAM or a night vision LED webcam or. . . . you get the idea...

With the 25% cashback + 10% student discount, I got about $625 off the tag price = $1300 (including an extra Slim Battery pack) + tax = exactly $1475 total, which is only a bit more than you'd pay for the lowest level 13" macbook pro. You just can't buy a comparable MacBook Pro without going to the 17" for the 1080p screen... and we all know you're about to drop three grand on one of those if you choose to go that route... So far, I really think the Envy is the way to go, unless the track pad is wretched (I have heard mixed reviews, some say its great and amazingly well done and other say it is too funky to get used to... I think it has a lot to do with personal preference)... or the laptop is like a living, breathing inferno on your lap. lol

 

How did you get such a good deal? Thought you couldn't mix the student EPP discount in with Bing Cashback...

 

Wait you could combine the cashback with other discounts? How'd you manage to do that?

 

It could be that it allowed it at checkout, but he might have a rude awakening when his Bing cashback is denied per HP's stated policy about that deal. If he gets it, great, but I wouldn't want to risk losing $450 cash back for $180 back.

 

Good luck to him. Hopefully his cashback doesn't get canceled.

 

is anybody planing on getting a docking station due to lack of ports? looking for a recomendation. i want the toshiba WUSB dock but its like $250 and i dont know if envy is WUSB enabled. any ideas?

 

I'm hoping they're able to take advantage of the connector they have on the bottom of the envy for the slice battery for some future accessories such as a dock connector or something else. Assuming it was designed with additional accessories in mind.

 

It's impossible to have switchable graphics because there are no more Intel chipsets with integrated graphics (due to it being shifted to the CPU). We'll have to see the heat, the i7 should actually be a lot more efficient than the C2Ds since it can shut off cores, and the 40nm GPU is very efficient (though not as much as the integrated graphics). If you compare WHr of the batteries, the difference is only like 23WHr (100WHr for Envy vs. 77WHr for MBP, both give ~7 hours, which is a measly 3W more than the MBP).

 

It wasn't the EPP. It was the Academic discount, which is actually allowed to be stackable while the other kinds are not allowed. At least, that's what they said in the 25% cashback thread, and I wasn't the only one who got the additional 10% discount. There were a couple others in the thread as well. I suppose it might be cancelled. If so, back to HP it goes! I can wait until there is a 40% discount or something similar.

I sure hope you are right, but if the i7 is more efficient, then why is the slated battery life only 3 hours with the six cell battery and 7.25 hours with the six-cell + nine-cell? If it had a C2D + switchable graphics we'd be looking at probably 6 hours of battery life with the six-cell and 12-14 with both batteries together, instead of just 7.

Has anyone heard exactly how thick the battery slice is and how much it weighs? Initial estimates that I've heard indicate less than 1/3 inch + less than 1/2 lb. Do we know for sure it is less than a "half pound"? Sometimes it looks more like 1/2" and .8 lb. Any thoughts?

 

Do I need to know anything specific about shopping with HP?

Yes, customer should note the following when shopping with HP

1. The cashback percentage offered will apply to your entire order, before taxes and shipping costs.
2. Entering a coupon code at the payment page will void your cashback. Also, beginning 10/2009, the Friends & Family program, HP Academy program, and the Employee Purchase Program can no longer be combined with cashback.
3. Instant rebates and automatic free shipping on the HP Home & Office site will not void your cashback.
4. Partial returns of an order will be recalculated and the cashback will apply to the new total purchase amount before taxes and shipping charges.

http://www.bing.com/shopping/pages/faq.aspx#DoIneedtoknowanythingspecificwhenshoppingwithHP

i was looking to do the same, if it works post it. If it works i might try it black friday

 

The i7 is more efficient when idling, but not under stress. The Penryn CPU's use a flat 25 TDP, the i7 can climb well beyond that when it gets going on all four cores.

 

Indeed, but when intensive, a flat surface shoudl work perfectly.

 

Only 3 hours on a 6 cell battery is very,very good for a notebook with a HD screen,a quad core cpu,and amazingly good graphics. Hopefully the i7 can shutdown 2 of its cores to decrease power consumption.
The notebook i have gets 3 hours at best with a 6 cell battery....

 

It can shut up to 3 if they are not needed.

 

Sooo, I got a call back and they declined my order and won't let me order this computer online. Anyone have any idea where I can get this laptop? Also I'm out the 400 dollars because I can't get my Bing cashback, Hp really screwed me over on this.

Also because i cannot order from their site I can't even get HPA discounts either.

 

So if a P processor takes 25 watts constant, what does a i7 with one core running take? If that's true, then realistically, if you are just typing a word document, you should hardly be taking any power (thus, maybe it could be realistic to get 4+ hours writing a word document without wifi + bluetooth, i.e. taking notes in class), but if you were doing gaming/video editing/rendering you could say could goodbye to your precious battery life.

Would it be possible to run the notebook off of one HDD instead of two, and thus get a longer battery life? I suppose it would be better just to get SSDs if that's your that concerned.

 

I have a build date of October 28th. Anyone have one sooner? Do our resident HP gurus know if HP usually builds and ships out before the so called build date, or is it pretty accurate?

 

Why did they decline the order? Shipping/billing address name etc not match?

 

I recently found a review of the Envy 13 on Cnet. I especially took note of the part about the touchpad. They liked the touch pad and even listed it as one of the laptop's PROs (though they had some troubles with the multitouch gestures)! Here's what they had to say about it.

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-envy-13/4505-3121_7-33771086.html?tag=mncol;lst

 

I didn't think it completely shut the cores down; but it does run them at half speed.

 

They said no idea, call customer service and explain your disappointment, go buy at best buy. That's basically what they said.

 

That was a little something I picked up off of ATI/AMD's website related to the release of the Radeon 4830/60. Here's the link: http://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityradeonhd4800/4860_index.html

Someone should compile a list of links and reviews related to the Envy 15. It could be pretty handy. (I'm too lazy...)

 

Hmmm, did you buy on credit with HP? Not sure if they offer it in your country mind?

Other reasons could be that the address on the card you used is not matching the address you want it delivered to. Dell operates this policy in the UK to help prevent fraud - I had to phone up my bank and get them to put my work address on my account as an additional address before they would ship there.

 

Advertised battery life is never the real thing. I'm predicting a realistic battery life of about 2 hours and 45 minutes on max energy saving options while word processing or other simple tasks, and 6 hours 30-55 minutes on the slice.

 

Yeah I'm thinking the same thing as far as battery life goes. Still even 2:45 isn't too bad for a quad-core and a good deal better than other i7 machines are getting. The slice though basically gives you a 15-cell battery, so I'm sure it'll do quite nicely for anyone who needs those extra minutes away from the plug.

 

It's supposed to shut off the core completely.

It is more efficient at all power states since it can accomplish more work for a given amount of time. Just because it consumes more power at any instance, doesn't mean it's less efficient. If all threads are utilized, it will consume power for less time since it can complete a given task much faster than a maxed out C2D.

100WHr is the combined power of the 6 and 9 cell slice, compared to the MBPs 77WHr battery. Just because the number of cells is high, doesn't mean power capacity is high. The 9 cell slice is really thin and hence does not hold as much charge as say the Dell Latitude or HP Elitebook slice battery.

 

Well on my desktop i7, turbo boost can kick in even when cores are not completely shut down; i.e. they can be in any state other than C0. C1E for example is not completely shut down; it is not processing any work, but the clocks are still running (all be it at a reduced power level) and it still processes snoops.

After looking through documentation here I can see no evidence that the i7 - 700/800/900 mobile series is any different. However, it is late here, I could very easily be missing something.

 

bookmarked and b back l8er, bro,

 

Yeah I have a different shipping address because I'm in college and my Billing is back at home. Looks like I can't get this notebook online then. Best buy says it's on preoder, any idea when it would be going on sale there? the 22nd? I'm out 500 bucks because no bing!!!

 

Correction: Advertised battery life is USUALLY not the real thing. Examples: Acer timeline laptops claim 8 hrs = 8.5 hrs if you're very conservative. Dell Studio 14z. Claim 6 hrs = 6 hrs if being very conservative with Windows Vista (Not win7 yet). Asus 1000HE claim 10.5 hours = it's possible, but difficult to achieve the stated 10.5 hrs. All I'm saying is that sometimes laptop battery run times actually add up to what is claimed, but I would say that 70 percent of the time they do not, and thus fall just short by about 10%.

This is all such speculation. When are we going to get a nice, hands on, detailed review, like one of the NBR reviews of the Envy 15!! Arg!

 

Where did you get the watt hours for each of the items? I thought that the six-cell was a 57Whr, and if you get 3 hours with that and you get an additional 4.25 hours with the slice, that means that the slice has to be 1.4x bigger than 57whr. It has to be closer to 85whr by itself, which would be closer to a typical 9-cell battery, which would place the combined whr around 142whr. Where are you getting your combined 100Whr number from, because it just doesn't seem accurate. I could be wrong.

 

I didn't say that turbo boost couldn't kick in when cores are not completely shut down, because you are correct in that respect. But that doesn't mean cores can't be shut down.

Quoted from this thread a while back:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5361365&postcount=343

It links to a detailed PDF. Here's some info:
- The internal battery weighs in at 41 Wh
- The slice battery weighs in at 62Wh
- The slice battery is about 0.33" thick (one-third inch).

Specs were taken directly from FCC PDF.

and my reply to it (which is basically the same as what I've said here):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5361414&postcount=344

 

I hadn't seen that post. I've only been able to read about 80 pages of the 126 pages of this huge thread.... lol Sweet. Well, I couldn't find the 100whr thing because I couldn't find the PDF. I saw a jpg, but it wouldn't download in full-size. Thanks for the info though; I believe you. This has really helped quell some of my fears about it being to crazy hot/bad battery--because you're right! If the MBP is getting 7 hrs with 77whr battery, the Envy 15 isn't far behind in terms of power use; and we're using a dedicated GPU the entire time! I'd say that our rig is more efficent than a MBP if it was just using its dedicated GPU. YAHOO!!