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

For all we know, Ati could launched slightly tweaked, but rebranded 4830 and 4860 under a lower name in the new series. E.g. 5630, 5660. Cos both chips are already in 40 nm.

The high end chip might take much longer to surface, if they are indeed more powerful.

 

As if there are complaints about the 4830!

Show me a 1" thick lappie that weighs 5lbs, that has an i7 and a better GPU...

This thing is a MONSTER, and extremely inexpensive given the specs!

I'm all over an envy 15.

}:^!~

 

Absolutely right, Capt'n Corrupt.

High performance and portability dont normally play well - but this seems to be an exception, with a superlative package...

 

That is harsh K-Tron, thanks for the advice I knew there had to be a reason you were so adamant!

 

I wonder if any other companies will come out with similar notebooks now? If nothing shows up more appealing (probably won't ) than I'll take my chances with HP.

 

Agreed. I am waiting till October when the i7 is unleashed and if no other company has even announced their own i7 laptops, then HP will have my business.

 

I think as far as powerful machines go I think you'll definitely see something from alienware on dell's end considering they're a main competitor of hp. MSI I think has already said they've got some products lined up as well.

I do wonder if anyone will turn out something so thin and light with a core i7 however, because that's a pretty amazing feat on hp's end. Just worried about the heat with such a small aluminum enclosure, so here's hoping they have a solid cooling system worked into it.

 

Any ideas on the power consumption/TDP of the Core i7 mobile?
In reality it can be cooled quite easily. I had 125 watt AMD Opterons cooled by a 3/4" passively cooled heatsink and it never really got that hot. As long as there is enough airflow to dissipate the heat, it is not a problem.

I know the i7 mobile isnt going to use anywhere near 125 watts like my Opterons, so it should be very easy to cool.

The grade of copper in laptop heatsinks isnt really "good" copper.
The best copper out there is 98.7% pure copper. I bought two 6" cubes which I milled to make my own heatsinks. Total cost $200 per cube
No laptop heatsink I have ever seen uses it, they are usually tin plated copper or 50-60% copper composite

The more surface area the better.
I custom milled full copper heatsinks for my homemade laptop
The additional surface area and mass really cuts down on fan noise. I can have the fans off for a pretty long time, before the fans automatically kick in to cool it down.

K-TRON

 

TDP is 45W for normal and 55W for extreme.

 

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/09/18/intel-core-i7-for-laptops-first-review

This sure gives a promising outlook for what we can look to see with the envy 15.

 

The part I love the most is the 3.5hours with a 4800MAh battery!

I'm hoping that HP's quote of the 7hrs using the slice is a guesstimation. The PC PRO article referenced seems to suggest that on non-intensive apps (or when in powersaving mode) the power draw is quite low. Start doing anything intensive, though, and the time is cut down dramatically.

}:^)~

 

Hey, I'm not complaining. On the contraire, I'm absolutely stoked. This or the upcoming Clevo/Sager W860CU/NP8690 will be mine ... soon.

 

any idea on how much more the battery slice is gonna cost us?

 

I know that Clevo/Sager will be releasing their W860CU/NP8690 around the same timeframe as the ENVY 13/15. The W860CU/NP8690 will have the new Intel i7 processors and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M GPU; this is all in a 15.6" notebook! Quite impressive ... however, it definitely won't be as thin or as attractive (that depends on the beholder, I guess) as the ENVY 15, but it will have a much more powerful GPU and superior (I'm guessing ... ) cooling.

 

HP hasn't released anything concerning the price of the battery slice. If I was a betting man, I wouldn't say anything less than a $100, and most likely closer to $200.

 

yeah thats what I was thinking as well. it's too bad we can't have an integrated gpu with the i7 stuff.

 

I'd say $200-300.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.com/HP-Envy-13-Envy-15-im-Hands-On-Test.20514.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Newseintrag.54+M581d8792fb5.0.html

unfortunately theres no english version of these.

the biggest problem i see is the price stated as starting at... considering the price boost of up to 100% and more from the base price on certain hp consumer & business notebooks (eg. dv6 or 8730w), i dont think that youll be that satisfied with the hardware you'd get for the stated prices.. and their memory is called "gigabyte ddr3" - whatever this is supposed to be.. i personally would prefer gddr3 or more.

but lets see. i still hope hp waits with the 8540p/w until they can put in a dx11 gpu.

 

Do you mean something similar to what the M17x has (i.e. the Nvidia GeForce 9400M along with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M SLI)? That definitely would be ideal ... but we can't have everything, eh?

 

Uh ... here's the English version: HP ENVY 13/15. (Someone posted this link earlier in this exact thread ... )

You have to realize that HP is targeting the ENVY 13/15 at a completely different demographic than their more mundane consumer notebooks; they're going squarely after the Macbook Pros demographic, i.e. the "premium" notebook demographic that Apple dominants. And consider ... Apple's highest end 15" option which costs $2300 will be outperformed by the base ENVY 15 (which costs $500 less), it doesn't look like a bad value, now does it?

The ATI Radeon HD 4830 in the ENVY 15 will come with 1GB of GDDR3 VRAM; it states that in the English version of the above article.

 

From what I saw on a few websites, the slice battery might be included standard with both models. Not sure about this one though. Unfortunately it is looking like there will not be a backlit keyboard option like I was hoping.

 

I completely agree. Btw I think I was the one that posted the link earlier. It's a good value at $500 less than that top macbook pro for core i7 and an ATI 4830 which clearly outclass any macbook pro. It's likely that apple will wait for mobile i5 early next year for their next update. Still I kind of wished there was an Nvidia option for the CUDA support.

 

If that is the case, I would be impressed with HP. Not trying to nickel and dime us, but - who are we kidding? - you know they will.

Considering that the ENVY 13/15 should be customizable on their website, there still might be hope that HP will include an option for a backlit keyboard. I mean ... quite a number of their consumer notebooks have that option. I guess we'll found out soon enough.

 

It really depends on what websites you are reading. Some are saying that the slice batteries are included on both models, while some sites are saying just for the Envy 13. Same thing goes for the external USB drives. I have read a few sites saying that the drive will come with the Envy 13 and 15, while others say it will be optional for both.

No article I have read has mentioned a backlit keyboard though, which is a bit disappointing, but since I am a touch typist, not necessary for me. I hope HP will let us start choosing options on their site so we can spec out what we want to pre order.

 

Yeah I'm hoping for a backlit keyboard and I know for me it would really come in handy.

http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-hps-drool-worthy-envy-13-and-envy-15

Here's the link I saw which had the slice battery included along with the external dvd drive with the regular packaging. Figured that's good reason to believe it hopefully comes standard.

 

Wow! It looks as if both the external drive AND the slice battery are included as part of the package (envy 13 -- hopefully envy 15 as well). It seems that HP is looking to provide a premium experience and not just a premium laptop. I really, really like this angle and it's one that apple has capitalized on for some time.

I would also like a backlit keyboard, but currently I'm typing in the dark (pitch black) and I can still see the keys perfectly from the light of the screen. I think a backlit is more cool looking than it is functional.

The envy is GORGEOUS when you see it moving around. The magnesium alloy shell has a deep rich colour to it that makes it look very regal, and the curvature accentuates the thinness of the device. I even like the laser etching. It gives the laptop a luxurious finish that's not too in your face. It's a head-turner plain and simple.

Have you seen the black 'beats' version? It's also very gorgeous. It should also provide a point of differentiation from the 'it looks like a mac' crowd. The pictures show a shiny shell, but it looks like a render. Hopefully it'll be the same metallic finish, only painted black (metallic paint).

This is like a laptop dropped from the heavens. I was looking at getting a dell 14z, but I'm glad that I waited. The envy 15 is around $600 more than the configured version of the dell, but the specs and the style make it a much more attractive option. Honestly, at this price it's a steal! I'm looking forward to playing around with the config options.

Also, I think a good setup would be a primary 32G ssd and a large secondary HDD. That way, all boots/apps/documents are loaded silently and lightening fast. Media on the other hand doesn't really require speed for streaming and could easily be placed on hdd storage. The dual drives is one of my favorite features. AMAZING!

I can't wait!

}:^)~

 

The translated review from these sites claim the Envy 15 seems to heat up quite a bit in idle mode, with "strong fan activity". Loud when idle is not a good sign. Sound pollution is something I strongly consider when getting a new laptop and I worry the Envy 15 may not be the quietest model around. I guess its too early for most reviews...or previews, to address the sound this model emits.

The design seems to have a generous amount of air vents but what do you guys think of the potential noise levels of the 15?

 

Well I don't think they got their hands on a final production version, so maybe the extra heat and noise is only a pre-production issue. Although considering the how thin the enclosure is plus the aluminum it has in there it was bound to run at least a bit warm.

As far as noise issues go, again what they observed could be because of a pre-production unit and they didn't say how loud it was overall. They could run very quiet like apple ones or literally like a room fan like in my compaq.

 

Nice looking little(use that term loosely) laptop. Looks powerful. I assume that it will still have the optical drive still built it?

I think I will wait for the actual english reviews before I make up my mind. Translated reviews are great sometimes but even as great as google is, I dont trust its translations 100%. This thing is a beast so I expect it to be warm. Whether or not I put up with it will really all just depend on what the other manufacturers have to offer with i7. And again I will wait till Notebookreview or other sites get me temperature of the laptops while under a heavy load

 

Does anyone know if these use mxm3 so you could upgrade the video card down the road? The 4830 is a great card but when your spending $2gs on a laptop that I would want to be able to use for average gaming as well its nice to know you can upgrade a few years down the road.

 

I don't know why it should heat up in idle mode, this is supposed to have the lowest i7, and the 820m (one step up) was reviewed on pcpro with idle power usage less than 1/5 of the idle power usage of a q9000 (~20w vs ~100w) - so I assumed idle temps would be far lower. Maybe HP are stretching how thin an i7 can be a little too far - but what I'd really enjoy seeing would be a hackintosh version of this... imagine being able to convince apple fanboys you've got a normal macbook, then switch on something with twice the computing power, twice the graphics power and higher resolution and whatever beats sound actually is...

 

It would be a shame to run OSX on such great hardware. This thing deserves the power of Windows.

 

Har har.. Fanboy's unite!

It'll be a great computer for running any OS. For example: I'm planning on running Ubuntu as a virtual session/dual boot, but it would be pretty funny to run OSX on this thing. Maybe I'll run it in a virtual session to tease my friends!

I can't get over the price! I'm waiting to see what the other manufacturers have in store, but this is going to be a hard one to beat! HP FTW...

}:^)~

 

Most likelu HP won't let you upgrade the GPU.

You know that's the entire system right. The Q9000 CPU alone does not idle at 100W... While the i7 is definitely less, it's not going to consume 5x less power...

 

Yes, the Clevo/Sager W860CU/NP8690 will have a built-in optical drive. And, yeah, the W860CU/NP8690 is definitely on the large 15" side, but, then again, it has two fans inside the chassis which means it should run much cooler than the ENVY 15. If you're looking for another uber-powerful 15" (Intel i7 processor and a "Class 1" GPU) notebook, the Alienware M15x will be making "landfall" on the 23rd. I have my eyes on that notebook too.

 

This is a stupid question but since both the Envy 13 and 15 will be of a quasi-unibody form, will there be access panels on the bottoms to add more ram, change hard drives, etc?

 

If you search around Engadget, you will see pics of the Envy being dismantled. It will be easily upgradeable.

http://www.engadget.com/photos/envy-13-and-15-hands-on-1/

 

I'm really disappointed that the Envy 13 doesn't have an eSATA port like the 15. Is there a reason for this? Does anyone else consider eSATA essential for any new notebook?

 

Agreed eSATA is a must for any new computer. I wonder if any manufacturers are going to toss USB 3.0 on a laptop anytime soon?

 

I believe Fujitsu has a prototype laptop w/ USB 3.0 but I don't believe any manufacturer will release a laptop w/ USB 3.0 in Q1 2010 for the Arrandale release.

 

I really hope this laptop can be modded to fit a 1TB HDD.

I wonder what kind of sleeves they will make for it. Hopefully something classy with black leather or something.

 

basically yes. I can't wait to see what options hp will give us with this beast.

 

Do you mean fitting it with the non-standard 12.5mm 1TB drive from western digital? I don't think it'll fit in the envy 15 considering how slim it is. You can usually fit it in for thicker and larger laptops, but hopefully a standard 9.5mm 1TB drive will come out soon enough.

 

Yeah, I guess I'll have to go with the 640GB for now. But, I can always upgrade I wish they had 500GB SSD out so I could raid them.

I wonder how the Envy will do with audio latency for pro audio and stuff.

 

There are a couple 512gb SSDs from toshiba and others...just they're running around $1500 or so right now last I checked.

 

I think you guys are forgetting that, after getting rid of the DVD drive, they made space for dual HDDs.

 

http://blog.laptopmag.com/exclusive-interview-with-stacy-wolff-hp-director-of-design-on-hp-envy

After watching this video it looks like both the optical drive and the slice battery will unfortunately not come standard since it's always referred to as optional. Not sure how much they'll charge, but once you start adding them in the price might not be so enticing in the face of other competition coming out soon (such as the alienware m15x). Here's hoping it's still not going to be too pricey.

 

here's hoping HP will realize that was a bad mistake.

 

Yeah, I've been seeing everywhere that the external optical drive is optional. Unfortunate. Hopefully HP will address this issue in the future, especially given the Voodoo Envy 133 comes with an external drive.

 

I was expecting the external drive to come standard at the very least.