HP Envy 15 - $450 Coupon of $1399

Thanks for the tips.

Unfortunately I boxed it up almost instantly so I'm unable to attempt the driver fix. Perhaps my expectations of a premium notebook were too high but after waiting a month only to have the first 30 minutes end up so disappointing I couldn't wait to send it back.

It was a great deal but even if the driver update fixed the skipping issues I doubt it would solve my other gripes; screen angle (really sucks when operating in bed), mouse button pressure (really have to push down), girly design. I also don't think you should have to skin a premium notebook or forever be stuck saying, "..but it's laser etched". Yes, I realize some of my criticisms are opinion but it also felt really bulky.. not something I'd like to carry around. Perhaps that's because I come from the land of 13" (m1330) and should have known better..

Maybe I would have grown to love it, or perhaps I would have found more flaws (like the high pitched whine), but when I spend $1,000 I expect to fall in love right out of the box and not have to make major sacrifices just because it was a good deal. After suffering through about 15-20 minutes of trying to remove the immense amount of bloatware with a dilapidated touchpad which made scrolling extremely annoying and simmering inside about the flower design I could take no more. It honestly felt more like a kick in the balls than Christmas.

This laptop may make a lot of sense if it's primarily sitting on a desk with an external mouse but for an on-the-go power user I would not recommend. For me, my next move is probably slimming down to 13", a touchpad with discrete mouse buttons, optimus, and an understated shell design. Hopefully I can find something reasonable.

 

I finally got mine today. It was what I expected, nothing more, nothing less. I like the look of it and personally I have no problem with the touchpad so far, but I've only been using it for about an hour.

I'm planning on doing wiping windows. In the driver thread, do we need the Intel Rapid Storage driver (for 320gb hdd)? Also, did you guys keep the recovery partition?

 

My friend picked up the first Envy 15 I received. I wiped the whole thing out, did not keep the recovery partition. I did make the recovery DVDs, just in case who knows if HP for some reason demands to have it reverted to factory settings. It will be the first thing I do when I receive my replacement - wiping out all factory partitions. I have owned many laptops.
This HP has by far the most amount of crap ware installed.

As far as drivers go, I mostly went straight to the OEM to get the latest whenever possible (wifi card, chipset, RST, video, etc). The RST will install the latest SATA controller driver.

PS yes it runs much nicer after I wipe it out!

 

I'm moving from a 13" model myself (Dell XPS1340). When I first picked up the Envy 15 I was pleasantly surprised by its weight - it *feels* lighter than the XPS1340 with the 9cell battery because of the way the 9cell is hanging down the back. It is in fact about the same weight as the XPS1340. I was a bit hesitant about 1080p on a 15.6" screen, now that I'm used to having a nice 1920x1080 desktop, it'll be hard to go back to a cramped 1280x800 screen.

Every laptop has its shares of flaws. My two biggest gripes are the restrictive screen opening angle and the lack of a backlit keyboard. I'll live with those flaws for: beautiful 15.6" 1080p screen, in a solid all metal yet slim and light (for a 15") chassis; powerful GPU more than handles my very light duty gaming needs; dual hard drives (SSD+HDD); the big touchpad (I have no problem using it). I'm going to stuff 8GB in here, with the 1080p screen and 160GB Intel SSD it'll be an awesome VMware laptop.

I was in the same boat you were - only ordered it because of the big discount. I was perfectly happy with my XPS1340. Now that I'm used to having the screen real estate and powerful GPU, I can't go back. Ask yourself if you'll miss those things going back to a 13" model.

 

Wiped it clean and installed most drivers, much better now.. down to ~45-50 processes from 82 in OEM installation. I think I still have to install the HP Quick Launch drivers to get the function key shortcuts working (can anyone confirm? don't want to install more HP crap).

 

It's wasn't so much the weight that bothered me, it's the overall bulk. Which is probably just a byproduct of having a bigger screen which also increases the keyboard footprint a great deal. I'm no doubt accustom to the 13" M1330 but the Envy felt like I was caring around a desktop replacement albeit a slim one. Which wasn't my goal.

Ya, my priories are different. I'd rather sacrifice screen size for portability and I'd ultimately prefer optimus because my need for a gaming quality video card is a secondary priority at best. I bought it because the deal seems too good and ultimately, for me, it was. But the silver lining is I come out of it with new found knowledge that 15" laptops, restrictive 90 degree flexibility, floral designs, fragile bezels, and touchpads without discrete buttons are simply not for me -- even if on sale.

I just hope my refund is as quick as my return.

 

Send it back. I suggest letting your girlfriend pick your next laptop for you.

 

Unfortunately she knows less about touchpads than I do.

 

although said May 6, 2010 by 10:30 AM

But showed
On FedEx vehicle for delivery

 

Good call. First thing I did aside from creating restore discs was to wipe everything with a fresh Win7 install and then grab most of the updates from the driver thread. I never bothered to re-install the HP Quick Launch drivers as I don't see much use for them, but if I can re-map them, then I'll consider it. I also needed to wipe the machine in order to break the RAID0. It came with G2s and TRIM/data redundancy was worth more to me than a marginal performance increase.

My only issue that I had was cracked hinge underneath my period key that would cause the key to lift up when I hit the top of it. Rather than send it in, I fixed it with the slightest amount of carefully applied plastic adhesive and now it works perfectly.

I love this laptop. Now I need to prep the M1330 for sale.

 

My Envy wasn't due until Friday, but it's on the vehicle for delivery today. (I'm in Los Angeles County)

 

Out for Delivery as well.

 

Mine was delivered this morning. I'm excited to check it out after work.

 

Man. Mine went out with y'alls "Friday" but shipped Monday. But mine's just sitting in Memphis with Clearance Delay with a big red mark on the Fedex tracking page. How did you guys end up with essentially overnight shipping ?!? And no trip thru Memphis. I'm in Houston.

Oh well.

 

this is ******* ridiculous.
i got my hp today and i have to send it back because my backspace key is broken. apparently one of the components fell out under the key (i opened it up to take a look) suggestions on fixing this? there's only one plastic piece that hooks on under the key

 

Send in for repairs or use some adhesive glue to glue it back in.

 

Mine arrived in Memphis this morning at 12:13am local time, but was there for less than 4 hours altogether before getting on a plane for LAX. Arrived LAX at 5:47am local time, then went to a local sorting facility and was on a truck for delivery before 8:30am. Still hasn't been delivered yet, though (as of 3:30pm).

 

Got mine in and am playing with it at the moment. I don't see any problems with the keys or bezel (knock on wood). The only thing I can't get past is how huge the power supply is. It's freaking huge compared to my old Dell computer. It also uses a 3 pronged power plug which may give me trouble in the future. Usual power supply for my old dell was 2 pronged and the power supply is 1/3 the size.

 

I'm hearing a high pitched buzz/whine from it. This isn't good...

 

The three-pronged cords on power supplies seems to be the norm from my experiences. Only Dell seems to be different.

Power supplies are generally relative to the power consumption of the computer. Since the Mobility HD 5830 + i5 or i7 combo sucks juice compared to most of what's out there today (save for "desktop replacements"), the power supply will be "unusually" large. I do wish that it was a bit smaller, though I am happy to say that it doesn't even get warm from my experiences, while many I've had in the past get significantly hot.

 

which part?

 

Seems to be originating from the upper left quadrant of the keyboard. Could be the fans, in the bios (hit F10 at startup) I turned off the fans and the noise went away but I'm going to reinstall things first. Someone in another thread mentioned the high pitched whine and it may be from the gpu coils.

After turning off the fan, the palm rests get uncomfortably warm.

 

So I've this computer for a few days now.. and the poor workmanship on my backspace key and the shorter battery life is making me lean towards returning my envy to hp.

With that said... I do enjoy the sleek feel of the envy and the really (really) nice screen res. So do you guys have any suggestions for an envy look-alike that's not a mbp?

 

envy 14, the new envy 15, or the 17

 

Or you could just get it replaced/fixed. My envy15 is great. The new 14/17's have their drawbacks, the 15 still stands alone...

 

Do you think so? I am torn right now between the Envy 15 received at a huge discount (just over $1,000 after taxes, etc - says a lot coming from CA!) and returning it and waiting for the Envy 14. The backlit keyboard, removal of shortcut keys on the left side, and apparent more screen tilt angle is really making me consider these. Just wanted to pick your brain for your thoughts.

 

Other factors to consider:
-5830 vs 5650 difference
-Screen resolution; also I'm unclear if the quality of the 14" panel is better/worse
-The wait; it seems like it could be a month of more
-Price; we aren't exactly sure what "baseline" is and what "upgrade" would be, the $999 price might include weaker components than you are expecting; with the 15" you know exactly what you're getting
-Build Quality - what if the 14" suffers worse build or heat disappation?

 

ya the PS is a brick. i got a kensington slim power supply on ebay for $29 shipped, there is a dealer with a bunch of them. it's half the weight and thickness. then you can contact kensington for the correct tip (N30) and they send it for free.

 

I love my 15

 

What did you guys use your $25 coupon on? Just curious because accessories are currently 20% off and the HDMI to VGA dongle comes out to around 13$ after shipping and handling with the coupon and 20% discount.

 

The graphics cards are going to be the biggest difference, as well as the resolutions.

The Envy 14 will have a 1600x900 screen.. we don't know yet if that's the base, or if that's the max either.. there could be an upgrade to 1920x1080. The Envy 15 certainly has the 1920x1080 screen. HP said that the Envy 14 will be using a radiance display.. so you know it's going to be bright and beautiful. I don't see there being too big of a difference in quality of screens.

Price... the $999 is probably the lowest res screen possible, 4gb ram, 320gb HD, and an i3-330m. I think this is a pretty reasonable assumption... The i3-330m to i5-430m is probably only going to be a $50 upgrade.. just like the Dv6t.

The Envy 14 isn't too different from the Envy 15.. so I assume any problems with the Envy 15 will carry over. The Envy 15 did a great job cooling the i5 processors... and the Envy 14 won't have as powerful of a graphics card, so it's reasonable to assume that the machine will keep quite cool as well. Though only time will tell...

 

The 5830 is very powerful but also very cool from what I recall. Very low wattage so very low heat.

1600x90 will be the max resolution I think the usual 13xx by 7xx will be the base most likely. I can't imagine doing full HD on a 14". I remember seeing the Vaio Z with the 1600x900 getting eye strains from the teeny icons.

And yes. External heats were painfully high, but internally the Envy 15 runs pretty cool.... It's this whole metal thing. It just sucks up heat like mad and spits it out onto your wrists.