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

there's a very nice firefox plugin that automatically zooms all pages and memorizes custom zoom settings. I keep it at 120% zoom and everything is easily readable, no strain at all. if the font is particularly small, pinch and zoom and all is well

 

It really depends on your eyesight. It's fine for my friends and I since we're still 17~20-ish but I wouldn't recommend it to my parents. you really get used to it and when you look at any other laptop, everything just looks huge.

Of course this has the disadvantage of you not being able to lean back and look at your screen, but Windows has a magnifying glass thing (although not as good as Compiz's enhanced zoom on linux or OS X's zoom) which lets you magnify the screen around your mouse.

 

same question, anyone with an Envy in hand care to comment?

in my experience an LCD running at non-native resolutions usually looks terrible. distractingly blurry. but it may be that the DPI is so high on this display that it won't be a bother. or the improved scaling in Win 7 will have some beneficial effect in games too.

 

I played a bit of Napolean: TW and reduced it to 16xx10xx (I forget what exactly) and it looked great to me.

 

Actually not true if you figure in the higher resolution on the Envy.

Envy has 60% more viewable area over the 1440 x 900 MBP display based on number of pixels. And 18% more viewable area over the new high res. 1680 x 1050 MBP display.

You are correct about the MBP being more efficient with square inches of screen area relative to form factor area (thinner bezel) but the Envy has significantly higher veiwable screen area based on native resolution, so depending on how you look at it the Envy is more efficient with viewable screen area using fewer square inches. That being said the Apple still has much better overall physical engineering.

 

Just Apples version of the Envy's throttling of the CPU to x9 when on battery.

 

Apple also throttles the GPU clock. The updated MBP only has a measely and a VERY disappointing GT330m which has 48 shaders. This is just an updated 9700m GT.

However, I do prefer the 16:10 screen ratio of the MBP which seem to display crisper text. But I would not trade that with the lower res screen. The bump up to a 1680x1050 res screen is an improvement. Luckily Win7 does a decent job scaling text so I'm not too upset with the Envy.

Since the nVidia chips support CUDA it benefit some of the Adobe apps more than ATI.

@JJB, ATI currently has acknowledged that the present drivers have an issue with DirectX2D acceleration, do the 10.5 drivers fix this issue?

 

Not sure. How would I check or test for that?



Here is a screen from the DX diagnostic tool:

PS; I have found that adjusting the 'clear type' text to the 'boldest' looking choices (darkest text) gives me the crispest looking text when scaled larger in most apps.

 

I usually avoid running non-native resolution like a plague, but I must say it's not *that* bad on a 15" 1080p screen with its super high DPI density. I still see that running native 1920x1080 is noticeably more crisp, but nothing horrible looking like running 720p on a 46" (or bigger) 1080p HDTV, like the vast majority of PS3 games Street Fighter 4 looks absolutely horrible compared to the PC version.

 

it's more noticeable on LCD for sure. i have a 61" 1080p DLP and the HTPC desktop is set at 1360x768, looks fine from 8-10 feet away. i quit getting 1080p movie rips and stick with 720p most of the time, the difference in clarity is there but minimal from this distance. also no complaints about the visual quality of PS3 games at 720p on this display.

DLPs are cheap these days too.

 

Hmm,

After using my envy for a day here are my first impressions:

Looks quite spectacular. Not as cheesy as I thought it would be.

The fans are quite loud while doing nothing. Moreover, 1.7 GB of memory is being used up for some reason.

I've noticed that it arrived somewhat damaged. The area above the left speaker has some paint chipped off.

The trackpad is terrible. While using the multi-touch scroll ability it randomly quits on me and I have to use the scroll bar on the right. (I haven't updated drivers yet :|).

It is quite painful to type as the bottom edge of the laptop is sharp enough to dissuade me from typing for prolonged periods of time.

Hopefully a lot of these issues will go away once I do a clean install.

 

@envious

Win7 manages memory very well so it will use a lot but free it up as needed. A lot of that 1.7GB is being used by the HP crapware running in the backround, you probably have about 75 processes running out of the box, this will go down to under 50 with a clean install.

Update the touchpad driver and make sure to go into the Synaptic 'device settings' (under 'mouse propeties') and play with the setting options, once set up properly it is on par with the Apple touchpad.

 

I don' think a clean install is going to help with the comfort issue. Might I suggest a

 

JJB:
Sorry I didn't respond earlier. Just noticed your reply.

I think I gave you the wrong impression about the game vs Furmark. I meant to imply that BFBC2 is a very CPU and GPU intensive game. You're probably right about Furmark being more intensive than any game out there.

I can't confirm if actual blistering would occur if I were to put the laptop against exposed skin. However, the laptop's bottom got so hot that I could only keep my hand on it for about 7 - 10 secs before I cried out in pain and had to remove it. It really gets that hot. I do believe that if I were to keep my hand there for a period of time that blistering could potentially occur.

The hottest my CPU has gotten was 75*C. GPU was 70*C. The laptop's bottom is as hot as I'd previously described under those temps. The fans increased speed do kick in and bring the temps back down to 70*C for the CPU and 67*C for the GPU.

 

Sorry guys I am sure it has been discussed but with the i5 processors what type of battery life you are guys seeing? w/ slice and w/o slice, I was told it was still around 3 hours is that right? Thanks

 

There's some info about battery life in: forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=453084 (sorry, it won't let me post a link yet)

From what other people have said, around 2.5-3 hours and 6-7 hours with the slice battery.

 

Out of the box for me it has been giving me 2 hours and 15 min.

 

I've managed 3:21 maximum with wifi on, with slice added at those settings 8+ hrs should be no problem. 6 cell = 53Wh and 9cell (slice) = 93Wh.

 

How quickly does your Envy 15 recharge its battery to 100%?

Mine seems to average about +2% every 5 mins. So to go from 0% to 100% full charge, it would take about 250 mins or 4 hrs and 10 mins.

 

Not sure because I never see the light change color. But 4+ seems a bit long. The charge circuit by default charges to 90% in a fast charge mode then (if attached) does the same 90% to the slice and then back to top off the 6 cell then the slice again. I do know that the last 10% either way will be much slower than the 1st 90% because it will be doing an equalization charge.

 

@okashira

Hmm.

Well I don't think that would be an option D:

Does anyone else think that the edge is uncomfortably sharp? Is it just me?! I've heard about this problem before in passing but it hasn't been brought up that much in these 400 or so pages.

I'm using a padded wrist glove right now...

This problem just might be a deal breaker for me unfortunately

 

I found them annoying too for the first couple weeks, then I got used to them. mostly, you start to place your hands in a way that reduces the pressure on the edge.

 

The edge on my first one was not at all uncomfortable, though there were people complaining that theirs was pretty sharp. Might be a build issue as I couldn't notice it at all on mine.

 

hrm. now that it's been mentioned, I noticed there's a very thin line of paint coming off the right side of the front edge, where my palm sits while I use the trackpad. that is annoying build quality wise. what's the point of having magnesium casing if you need to paint it with something that comes off after a month and something of use? I will be royally pissed if this starts happening to the actual palmrests. the possiblity that this laptop will look worse than a plastic one after a couple years of use would be ridiculous, to use an euphemism.

 

Go try typing on a 13" MBP, then you'll know what a sharp edge is.

I love the touchpad on the Envy 15, the only thing is the 3-finger flick thing doesn't work. It's the next best thing to Apple's enormous touchpad.

I haven't touched any of the stock drivers or software yet. Let's see if it gets better with a more up to date Synaptics driver. HP sure installs an enormous amount of crap in there just like their printers. I stopped buying HP printers for that reason (gulping expensive ink didn't help it neither). The current Dells are almost totally clean in comparison. It took a good 15 minutes if not more before I could actually do anything on the Envy out of the box; 5 minutes at most on the Dells I received recently, as clean as can be for a preloaded OS.

 

I've been reading a bit about people complaining that the edge of the Envy15's are very sharp. I wonder if people are actually "typing incorrectly". If you're resting your palms on the palm rest while you type, that puts a huge strain on your wrists while typing. It may not seem like much, but you could be damaging your carpal tunnels. And let me tell you, you don't want to do that

I never noticed how bad my typing was for my wrist health until after I turned 30. I wasn't able to use the computer for extended periods of time anymore, which sucks as I do Software Development. However, a relatively small shift in the way I used the keyboard (plus changing how high I placed the keyboard to make that more comfortable) fixed that. Basically, I try to keep my wrists unbent - so the back of my hand is relatively in line with my arm. According to several Ergonomics training classes I've had to take, your joints like 2 things - right angles at the waist, knees, shoulders and elbows and straight lines for others - neck and wrist.

Which to me means that the "sharp" edge on the Envy 15 will not matter to me.

 

If you actually end up doing this please post the results. Aside from my keyboard-issues (which I will remedy shortly with a warranty claim), the cheap plastic scratch-easy bezel is my biggest complaint too. I would love to see if there is something reasonable to do about it.

 

Also, I've complained in the past about the mail-in warranty (I've only ever dealt with in-home or parts-only Dell/HP warranties in the past), but I was able yesterday to purchase the new HP in-home extended warranty upgrade. Just waiting on the package to arrive to register it. I even managed to apply my $50 coupon to it (from my original i5 order-delay) so the price was good too. I'm hopeful my eventual keyboard warranty-repair will be a pleasant process with no downtime.

 

Will do. I am actually thinking of doing it this weekend.

 

Is that considered in-home service without the need to send your laptop for repair?
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...Type&v1=2-year&product_code=UN011A&catLevel=2

 

I think they still reserve the right to have you send it in if it's a whole bunch of things going wrong, but yeah, for most things apparently they just send somebody out with a part.

 

New BIOS F .24 A just posted on the drivers thread HERE

I don't see it posted on the HP site yet but the notes say it surpercedes the F 1B A (sp48005). If you try it please post any issues.

 

Im still on F.18 and everything works perfect. Am I missing anything by not upgrading?

 

I cant keep up with ATI anymore. 10.6????.....new video encoder... New CCC....New chipset driver....switchable graphics(not that we can use it)...
http://strags.com/

 

Hehe,

They actually announced back in Jan that they would start rolling out drivers everymonth. I just hope someone at ATI decided to play with a 4830 as a side project and comes up with a fix.

 

Every month?? Do you what we have to go through to uninstall and install the new drivers?????

 

You never owned an nvidia board did ya?

 

not on a laptop. I have the 285 card on my desktop an updating the driver is very easy just install the new version and thats it.

 

Yeah but they still put out versions like crazy.Which, imo, is better than waiting a year for a driver to come out and find out then that your machine is obsolete... I just think it "feels" like ATI is trying to bring better support.

 

Bring it on....Im not complaining if they enhance things, but my take is I wish they just make it as easy as just install without going thru uninstall, driver cleaner/sweeper..... and all the mess.

 

Keep in mind, these are leaked. No official drivers since 10.3. I'm inclined to wait before going thru it again.

 

It's optional. No one is forcing you to upgrade your drivers. Is everything working now? Then why update?

There are also good reason not to upgrade as well since new drivers could come with new bugs. An example being the last Nvidia driver update cause some cards to fry themselves and had to be recalled.

Monthly driver updates are usually for the performance minded crowd who want eek out every extra frame on their machine. If you're gaming fine now and you have no issues with new games being released, then there is zero reason to upgrade your video drivers.

 

Anything that brings fps improvements, stability and lower temps are welcomed. That's what incline people to upgrade.
If you read carefully, my question is not whether I should upgrade or not... my question is why don't they make the upgrade process easier without having to uninstall the previous version.

 

I purchased Motorokr bluetooth headset. can't get envy 15 to find it.
charged batt, turn off wifi, checked in discovery mode, whats wrong?

 

Also, my phone found the motorokr in 2 secs.

 

JJB:
Thanks for educating me on the fast charge mode up to 90%. I was unaware that it existed. So far, I've only charged my laptop from 88% to 100% and must have been in the slow charge mode. I took those slow recharge times that I observed and extrapolated it to figure out the total recharge time (obviously erroneously since I didn't know about fast charge mode).

Which light changing color are you referring to?

Do all laptops have this slow mode "equalization charge" that you mentioned or is it unique to HP laptops?

Any thoughts about my post with my listed temps and the extremely hot laptop bottom? Do my listed temps indicated there's a problem with my laptop? Like I mentioned, it cools down (bottom, etc.) in only 3 mins after gaming has finished.

Thanks.

 

Your processor temps don't look out of line it's the heat that you are seeing on the bottom of the case that seems out of whack. I don't know what to tell you other thna try calling HP Envy tech support and see if there may be a known issue about this. Or you can try to get an exchange based on the problem.....

 

I am fed up with HP's service. I just got my laptop back from the repair center over the corrupt F.1B A BIOS Flash (and they still left it F.18 A when they could at least get me F. 1B A in-house :/ ) and it came back with tons of scratches on my new Beats bezel and they even took off the protective clear-static tape I had on sending in to PREVENT them from scratching it up. There goes 84 of my dollars down the drain epically. I contacted them again and demanded they fix my bezel with care and the CS guy pushed my case to the case management group as he is powerless anything more than just servicing. I am fed up with HP and the Envy. I felt like this purchase was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made. If this doesn't go well, I might sell an Envy and modestly head to a Lenovo Ideapad Y560. HP's service treatment, shoddy workmanship and releasing a not so stable BIOS all in 2 months of ownership is infuriating. However, I am interested now in acquiring an Ideapad now and never again going HP.

 

Interesting. I guess I'd be more concerned about the specs and the purpose of the laptop rather than the bezel, but I guess if I'd gone to the trouble you had of replacing it then I'd be annoyed, too, though what you're describing could've easily happened with Lenovo or Dell.

Y560 is an interesting alternative. Weighs less, GPU isn't great but isn't bad either (5730), costs a bit less with the i5, but the screen resolution isn't very good.

If you have a care pack rather than just the 1 year warranty, I'd call and swap it for in-home service (which they will probably agree to do at no cost since they've put you to some trouble). Much easier to make sure stuff isn't being scratched when the tech is in your living room and you can watch.

 

It's posts like these that make me real concerned about the laptop I have in shipment now. I've been eagerly waiting for this thing to come and if it arrives with a bunch of issues I'll be seriously upset.