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

Yeah, I hope they aren't trying to be too much like apple by not including one as with the air. After all the envy 15 isn't exactly an ultraportable despite it's slim dimensions and is quite the powerhouse based on its specs.

 

any idea on is the gpu is mxm 3 or not?

 

Think we have to wait on seeing some service manuals or such on it before we can make the call on that like what's going on with the alienware m15x thread.

 

yeah It's really down to those two for me, provided the envy comes in black.

 

Yeah same here. I'm going to wait until the full pricing comes out on both and see if the weight is something I can really deal with. Seems like the battery life on the alienware would be pretty minimal since they don't have their smartbay in this model anymore it looks like. Leaning towards one over the other right now?

 

i think if it comes with an optical drive it will be a base model dvd rw. if you want a blue ray im sure you will to pay extra for that.

i think they should have kept the voodoo name and logo like dell did with alienware.

i hope heat is not an issue because my HDX overheated during normal use. but it was a fixable problem i bought a fan for when im at home and when i take it somewhere i just turn on all the power save modes and turn the screen brightness down helps with the battery and heat when i dont have my cooling pad. i wonder if that slice battery will help with the heat?

that is probably the base model video card. they usually give the specs that will give you the quoted price.

i wish there was an option to put an extra battery in that extra hard drive slot since i keep most of my stuff on externals anyway. ( dont know if thats possible.)

anybody have an idea when that m15x is due out? or any specs? i cant really find anything on it. the thread about it is pretty vauge and i hope it is wrong about the specs it is showing.

 

Jwhit, Its suppose to be announced tomorrow, I think - but nothing more.

Apparently M15x a directly shrinked M17x - here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M15x/en/index.html

Its 4KG, nearly 2 inches thick - but packing i7 too.

In comparison to Envy 15, the AW is more traditional laptop; with just 2 RAM slots, whereas the Envy has 4 - which is much cheaper to upgrade. Nor is the AW a lightweight - owning to its steady metal frame, its twice as thick at 1.92 inches, and almost twice as heavy at 4.0 (vs 2.35 kg).

Though, the Alienware does have a steath mode, according to its Mobile Manual. I think the alienware probably has a switchable graphics though - like in the original. Be great to see something like Intel 4500 GMA + 260m GTX, or even maybe 9400m + 280m GTX. That said, it may turnout they could utilise so-far unused 40nm NV chips, who knows.

Consider that the AW would likely to have a intergrated GPU, they might pitch the sales with decent battery life, especially that they do 9 cell battery. This is self defeating though - even Envy 15 is not so portable to frequent travellers, who would carry a 4 KG 15 inch laptop? I mean with a bag and the power brick, the AW is going to be near 5.5kg, err...

 

yea the envy will defininately win in the mobility department. from what i have read alienware is planing to step up their game even though they are already the number one gaming brand.

 

I just dont see what the missing pieces are on 2nd gen M15x, beyond what's on the manual:

Light weight? definitely not.
Decent portability? definately not.
Overclocking? not sure, but why there are even higher end i7 then.
Lower price? probably not.
Great screen? likely cos even the original M15x's was very good.
Improved cooling? likely- there are 2 fans, GPU is likely to be 40nm (vs 65nm of MK1), air intake is kinda small though.
Improved quality? very likely - with metal body replacing the plastic one.
Better battery? very likely due to efficient i7, and integrated GPU option.
Killer performance? - one thing for certain.

 

well i would really love to see usb 3.0 even though i know it wont. just for future proofing.

would there be a way to add usb 3.0 later? as a mod or something without replaceing the motherboard?

yea the main reason i am upgrading from my HDX is portability so i think AW is out for me

 

That's what I'm waiting for, USB 3.0 to be put into these babies...I'm leaning towards the 13" due to the screen quality and battery life, but I also want a bigger screen with a higher resolution. I wish they used the same screen quality in the 15" version. Guess I'll wait a little til USB 3.0.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Hands-On-HP-Envy-13-Envy-15-in-Review.20675.0.html

found this. the url speaks for it self

 

Sweet find tianxia.

After reading it, I was afraid about the heat on the palm rest being present. I was hoping that would not be an issue anymore, especially with the Envy13. I was hoping it'd stay cool on the palm rest, keyboard, & mousepad area...bummer, guess I'll wait for the actual retail review.

Another bummer is there's no "mag-safe" like feature...this would have actually been a useful copy of the Macbook Pro. I hate how HP notebooks power adapter start to loosen up after half a year or so...

 

Yeah its nice to see the actual english version of it vs. the translation I picked up earlier. Glad to hear about the slice battery coming standard though. Still worried about the heat, but from the looks of it there can still be some work done on thermals since they have a pre-production unit. Think it might be since the final version ships with an edge to edge screen.

 

Hmmm according to this the battery slice and DVD drive will cost $200

http://www.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=848199

 

That's pretty cheap considering the prices of current slice batteries and external drives can easily run into the $400 range...

 

nvm @ 1700 $ you should be paying for a DVD drive some where

 

are there any specs on the dimensions of the laptop with the slice battery?

 

has anyone seen dimensions of the battery? or the laptop with the battery? it looks like it makes it pretty thick

 

Most websites seem to be reporting it adds about 0.5'' or so to the bottom. I think it might be on the link posted on notebookcheck. So overall it should be around 1.5'' for the envy 15 w/ slice battery.

 

Now that I've taken a look at the options for the M15X I'm kinda leaning more towards the envy. If the gpu is mxm and it comes in black we're golden.

 

An aluminum black would be awesome, not that crappy plastic black they put on the limited edition BEATS Envy 15.

Once I saw the M15X had a starting weight of 9 lbs and 2inches thick, it was a no deal for me. Yeah, the thing may be powerful as all hell but I would like some portability in a laptop.

 

I'm thinking they'll have black as an option. At least I hope. Still hoping for a backlit keyboard as well.

The thing about the m15x is it looks clunky to me. The thing is nearly the exact same size as the M17X so whats the point? If I do get the envy I will miss all the cool lights though .

 

i hope they offer the matte screen. i hate that reflective glass. and i dont like the power plug is on the side instead of the back but i guess nobody is perfect.

 

It's still pretty thin...

 

Yeah that's pretty much where I'm at too. There's no way I'm getting another laptop that heavy after the disaster that was my first Toshiba P25 17'' 10.0lb giant.

As far as black goes, I hope it's an option too and they did mention that there'll be custom designs per the laser-etched flower pattern they've shown already. Not sure if I'd want a matte black or one with a laser-etched pattern though given the choice.

 

Custom laser etching would be SWEET! Where did they mention this?

 

Just announced from Dell.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/23/quad-core-core-i7-720qm-slips-into-dell-studio-15-17-and-studi/

So far we have the Envy 15, the Alienware m15x and now the Studio 15/17 and XPS 16. I'm kind of torn now between the Studio XPS 16 and the HP Envy 15. Looks like the Dell's have the i7 820qm while HP 720qm. That much of a difference?

 

I'm going to be interested in picking up either this or the M15x in November when they come out, but I wonder: what kind of CPU/RAM/HD combination are we likely to get at the "starting price"? Or, put more bluntly, for the same rough specifications, which will probably cost less: the M15x, or the Envy 15?

Edit: Just saw the above post. Throw the Studio XPS into the mix, so it's either the Envy 15, M15x, or XPS 16. The XPS 16 will be the cheapest, but I wonder how much it costs less compared to the Envy 15. If it's not too outrageous, I'm strongly leaning towards the Envy.

 

I'm hoping for matte black personally.

 

Well you know the whole laser engraving thing they have with the flower-like patter on the lid and palmrests? At least in one of the videos I posted earlier I believe they mentioned multiple designs as I can't see everyone being happy with the current one they have. So not entirely "custom" in that you get to directly upload your own design or anything, but options at least on what goes on there.

 

Hmm...sounds like I am going to have to go back and find said video.

That's really great news though that they have multiple options to choose from. TBO, the flower design wasnt my favorite but not a deal breaker though. Hopefully that also means that I can get it in plain aluminum like the Envy 13 so I can laser etch it myself!

 

So do you guys think the price of the 15 is set in stone or will it fluctuate down or up?

 

Yeah the starting price from what's been said will include the 720 processor and the 1GB 4830 ATI card as far as what's been told. The high-resolution screen and blu-ray will of course cost more. After looking at the m15x though with similar options tagged on I think they should compare favorably to one another on price.

The only issue I have with the studio xps 16 is that a lot of people in the dell forums complained about the terrible heat issues and battery life. Of course some have no problems at all, but packing in a mobile i7 can't help those matters much. Hope dell found a solution.

 

I'll go try and find the article. I remember reading or hearing about it somewhere.

Found it --> http://www.markstechnologynews.com/2009/09/hp-envy-13-envy-15-thin-and-light-laptops-get-unwrapped.html

And another one --> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352822,00.asp

 

Hp states that the envys will be launched to coincide with the release of Windows 7 on Oct 22.

Do you guys think it will be available for order on their website that day or will it be physically in stores like Best Buy as well?

 

I could see it in stores like best buy but I doubt they'll be there right on oct 22

 

Might have a lower introductory offer to compete with the m15x and others in the dell lineup.

 

if $1800 isnt the base price then that means it is including some things maybe a moderate set up. lets hope so

 

I'm hoping so. if the base price is more inline with the m15x the envy would win.

 

Unfortunately I think it's still starting at $1799, but you do at least get a better starting video card. Not sure about the rest though since they haven't released anything else yet for sure.

 

i wonder how much the 16gb of ram will cost? anybody planning on getting that much?

 

Definitely not from HP when I customize it! I see that they will overcharge for the 4GB ram sticks when you could easily go online and get it much cheaper

 

I wonder if the $1800 price-point includes HP's instant rebate. Almost every performance notebook has a $200-$250 instant rebate on HP's site. It would be nice to shave off $200-$250.

 

The ram needed is DDR3, which is really expensive already, let alone 4 of those single 4GB stick... The cheapest one I could find costs £182 each:

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin=gbase22.4&prodID=B214562

£182x4=£728, which is roughly $1200. Few ought to need that much - what's important, is that upgrading to 8GB (2GBx4) is actually affordable right now, which is a stepup from most laptops. Maybe in the future ppl will get 16gb, when the price drops...

 

Do you think they'll offer ati's 4850 and other variants of the video card as upgrade options?

 

Doubt they'll offer the 4850's because of their increased power draw. If anything it'd have to be a 4860 since that's basically a 4830 with higher clocks and the option for GDDR5 ram.

 

If they do, it would be great. I think its very unlikely though.

 

so the M15x came out today and i was checking it out. you can get the
920XM with it for a mere $950. im sure the envy will offer 820QM which will be good enough for me. 920 comes with a really hefty price tag.

i also think ati's 4830 would do it for me. with 8gb ram. AW is charging $800 for 8gb DDR3 at 1333MHz. so the ram is definately a DIY.

 

It'd be interesting to see how much they charge for a 1366 x 768 to 1920 x 1080 resolution upgrade. Hopefully around $50, or would that just be wishful thinking? :X