*HP Envy 15 (11XX / 12XX series) Owners Lounge!*

Check out this thread for benchmarks and battery life tests etc; http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=453084

The slice battery adds 93Wh in addition to the 53Wh of the 6 cell.

Glossy display is brighter, sharper and higher contrast.

 

It's sharper? Brighter and higher contrast sure, but how is it sharper?

 

Because there is no anti glare coating over the display. The matte finish diffuses the image onscreen significantly, the same way it diffuses the reflections.

 

anyone play Metro 2033 on their Envy yet? Debating getting it, but if I'm having to scale back effects to settle for 35fps, it's a neg.

 

Its different. But as a WUXGA display, sharpness is quite good compared to other similar displays with lower res.

 

I was a bit fearful of how I would like the matte screen, as I have never had one. But I love the display. Maybe what JJB says about glossy being sharper, higher contrast etc are correct and as I haven't compared with a glossy side by side I may not be the best judge. But what I feel is if you are a regular user (JJB is a photographer I think?) you cant go wrong with either.

 

Majority of the Thinkpad are matte screen. Glossy definitely better.

 

I do have both screens side by side and there really is a tremendous difference between them. The glossy screen is much brighter; 220 nits vs 170 nits and has much higher contrast ~ 500:1 vs. ~380:1 (as measured by spyder3 Pro calibration system).

The sharpness is also much better on the glossy, but is more difficult to quantify. A good example is the text on this forum, when I go from the glossy to the matte screen the text appears blury / fuzzy. In addition, when in direct bright daylight, I can actually read the glossy display easier than the so called anti glare, the added bightness and contrast do better than the anti glare coating IMO.

Yes there are more reflections but it's easy to see through them on the glossy, the matte screen also reflects bright light and when it does it completely 'washes out' the screen unless you change the angle. These differences would be much less apparent if you could not see both screen side by side, but when you do IMO, there is a night and day difference in favor of the glossy display.

 

I understand. I guess what I am trying to say is that while Glossy is better (I will take your word, coz obviously I haven't see the glossy one) Matte is fine too.

 

Hey guys,

I'm seriously considering purchasing the Envy 15 (with the $300 coupon)... the high res screen, but besides that base config for $1099.

Would one of you mind convincing me to buy it? I still have a few questions that are probably answered in this thread but.. it's a pretty enormous thread. Tried finding some answers but it was.. taking a long time.


Is the keyboard a huge issue? I can adjust to new keyboards pretty well.. the Mac-type keyboards have always thrown me off a bit, but I've never used one for a serious amount of time. And the left-hand column is odd..

How is the build quality and footprint?

And would I really see much performance increase if I upgrade from the i5-430m?


Thanks guys!

 

If you are getting the base model you don't get USB 3.0. Only with core i7.

 

Oh. Well I want to keep the price down, but I also want this to last 4 years... I guess I'll just take the lower price

 

Anyone know how to get back the ons-creen volume and brightness diplays after a clean install?

 

If I recall, it is some combination of the MS silverlight app and one of the mediasmart apps, both in the SWsetup folder.

I don't miss not having it (I just use my ears) because it always would minimize windows whenever I adjsuted the volume and it will drop you out of games I've heard.

 

I notice there is a new version of the Scrybes Gesture app, ver. 1.0.5.0, that uses the newer 15.0.9 driver. Anyone tried it yet? the last version caused me some problems with turning on/off the touchpad so haven't tried this one yet myself.

http://www.uscrybe.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=83

 

Yes I loaded the 15.09 driver today and so far it works great. The 2 finger scroll seems easier (smoother) to 'start' the motion and the 3 finger swipe works much better.

I did get an error message the first try and ended up uninstalling my 4 older driver versions, then worked fine.

 

Anyone else have a problem with the IDT preventing Quicktime from playing audio? I had to uninstall it, but now my audio mute light is always on.

I'm trying my damndest to give this thing a good chance before i decide if i want to return it or not.

 

Strange you had 4 different drivers installed. Mine had only one. Each update would replace the older one and only report one. Uninstalled the only one I had, and updated to the 15.0.9 this is the first time I have to delete drivers to install them.

On a side note, all my previous settings for some reason were left almost untouched...

 

15.0.9 are no go for me, once I double tap to disable the touchpad, double tapping again doesn't do anything and I need to re-enable it from the control panel. sheesh.

 

I would recommend 3RVX as a replacement... it has more options and is not as intrusive as the volume OSD from HP.

http://matt.malensek.net/software/

 

Uninstalling the synaptics item listed in windows uninstaller removes the software application but not the actual older loaded drivers (at least for me). You need to check in device manager > update driver > select from list , to see if any older drivers are still in the system, in my case all 4 of the earlier drivers were still there. The fact your setting did not change makes me think you still had an older driver still installed, my settings did not change until I got down to the generic MS driver as the only choice. Also read below info...

@Flea0

Yep I have the same issue with not being able to turn the pad back on after disabling it. Thanks for pointing that out, I just turned off the tap to disable feature since I rarely turn off the touchpad. FYI; if you restart or can figure out how to log off / on (without touchpad) then the touchpad re-enables itself automatically.

 

I guess you don't own a cat
she ALWAYS goes for the touchpad when she's on the bed with me while I watch a movie.

 

Thanks!

Great little application and it does not cause full screens to minimize when changing volume.

Note to anyone installing this, make sure to view the read me file, it has a lot of options and different skins etc. (need to run application a second time to get to settings window)

 

No cat, but I do have a Cockatoo and she has a very bad habit of pulling off keycaps and loves to chew up the rubber buttons on remote controls....needless to say she does not get near the envy keyboard (so far )

 

by the way, here's something that has properly started to bug me:
pictures viewed with windows photo viewer appear darker and more saturated than they should be, as if my avivo color settings applied twice, once on the whole screen and once on the picture itself...shuffling through pictures is slow as well. someone said color calibrations can be the cause but I don't have any set up, my only color modification is 125 saturation in CCC
any ideas?

see pic.

 

It looks like the windows viewer is applying the extra saturation and the other app is not applying it, but I am viewing it on a calibrated screen so it's hard to tell. The right pic looks closer to the original image I posted (not sure what app that is). If you have MS Office try that viewer and compare.

I know some apps use system settings for color and some override system controls, like photoshop and Nikon capture depending on how you setup program.

I can repost the .ICC profile I'm using if you want to give it a try, but I think it will overide your Avivo settings.

EDIT: I just thought of a easy test, reset all the AVIVO controls to 0 (defualt) and then compare the same two images...If there the same then Avivo is only being applied to the one that changes, if they are still different then something else is changing the colors.

 

xnview is what I use to see gifs and shows what your pic SHOULD look like (confirmed by office and the folder thumbnails), while on the left win photo viewer shows the oversaturated picture. the avivo settings affect everything of course, but the latter seems to apply the saturation twice..

 

I get the same colors in windows viewer as my other apps and as far as speed goes it is extremely fast when 'scrolling' through large .jpegs (8MB), just opened a 120 image folder and it can scroll through all images full screen in ~6 seconds (using right arrow key), when 'clicking' through them it starts as a lower res image but almost instantly changes to full resolution. I can see no way to change the color setting in the windows viewer

You may want to try downloading the Nikon ViewNX program (free) which works for jpeg, tiff, NEF and RAW files. It should manage colors well and is easier to navagate than windows viewer. Here is a the link (USA site): http://support.nikontech.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/61#Anchor-1

 

hmm, problem solved, I think.
I unchecked the "use my settings for this device" box in the color management app.
photo viewer is back to normal but I still have the global increased saturation which is what I originally wanted.

 

I'm trying to connect my Envy to the TV set via HDMI, but the correct resolution doesn't appear in the Catalyst Control Center.
My TV is a Samsung HD ready 40", which runs at 1366x768. Is there any way I can force the output signal to match this resolution?

 

So, I have run into my first blemish with the machine.

I have some uneasiness with the right side of the palmrest. There's a bit of a popping sound when I take pressure off of it. It wasn't there before.

I don't think it will bother me, though I'm kind of anal about that kind of stuff.

 

I had the same issue with the squeaky right side palm rest. I unscrewed the bottom. opened it, then screwed it right back. Now the squeaky sounds are much better.

 

I am looking for an external hard drive. Seeing as the Envy has eSata would it best to go for an eSata external drive or get an internal HD and an eSata enclosure?

Any suggestions for either option?

 

Same issue, i just found this out about an hour ago...

 

eh, I know. I wish the bottom edges were as firmly supported as the top ones..

 

I plan on buying an e-sata enclosure per the advice of JBB. There's a link somewhere in this or the other Envy thread.

I can't think of any reasons why i'd necessarily go for non-built esata drive, especially at $20 for the enclosure itself.

 

FYI: Just noticed the Envy BEATS 15 is back, expensive but available with all options.

 

Seems like a gimmick. The Envy was too expensive already - a $2000 option with Dr Dre speakers is just marketing, unless I'm missing something.

 

Well the Dr Dre headphones are a scam, not worth the money IMO. The BEATS model does have a very cool finsh and some extra software. The price is actually the same as the original envy 15 base price.

 

I think even the current $1300 base price for the Envy 15 is a bit high, but they can get away with it because there are people (like me) who would not have bought from HP if they didn't have the only pony in the show at the moment. $2k for the same product is crazy.

 

But it's black and Dr Dre uses it!!!

/sarcasm

 

Reminder for the page 320 crew, any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Not sure on that resolution but it is adjustable. The CCC has a very thourough help system that should walk you through the process / options.

 

The beats version also comes (At least the original beats Envy did) with a Native Instruments External sound processor which sells for 120$ and the beats headphones sell for a crazy overprice of 350$ (They suck thoroughly as headphones, not so much if you're a hipster trying to impress your friends).

 

Hi.
couple question:
anyone try to upgrade operating memory by self ? I can't find the way how to open laptop because I think second slot somewhere inside, am I right?

I have a strange high-frequency noise from inside. what this can be ?


=====================

ENVY 15 l i5 520M l ATI 5830 GPU l 4GB DDR3 l 500 GB 7200rpm l 1920x1080 glossy

 

considering you have the i5, you have only 2 slots available which are filled with two 2 gig sticks. one of them is accessible from the battery compartment and you need to remove a couple screws to get access to it. the other is under the left palmrest so you need to open the whole laptop up.

as for the VERY high frequency, barely audible bleep...well, that's probably the 7200 rpm HDD. it's the sort of noise only young people can hear, so eh...

 

Thanks. I've tried every option in CCC (I believe), but haven't been able to find a way to force the output to 1366x768.

What I did find by googling is the Powerstrip program though, and it seems that lots of people are using it to override the system. Am I putting my system at risk by adding a custom 1366x768 display mode for external sources? Is there any possible downturn to this?

 

I'll be getting my HP soon and I want to do a clean install:

1. Installing Win 07 Professional/Ultimate
2. Anyone precautions / advice that i should do.
3. I believe installing via USB only works when using estata/usb port (can someone confirm?)

thanks for your help!

 

Make sure and copy the SWsetup folder to an external drive as it has all the drivers and HP apps. You will lose the Corel programs as they are copy protected.

The esata/usb port only applies if you have the i7 processor (w/USB 3.0) since the driver will not be installed for the to USB 3.0 ports. With the i5 any should work.

 

hmm, I've been wondering, how doable would it be to one day grab an SSD to add to the HDD?
on paper, 160GB SSD+500GB HDD sounds like an awesome combination of file storage capacity and app responsiveness, putting the OS on the SSD...