HP Envy 15 G2 questions

First of all, a little backstory. I'm a Canadian in Canada, no way eh? Anyhow, something more relevant about the laptop. The first I heard about the Envy line was that it was a gorgeous laptop with a great display and above-average speakers. However, it was fundamentally flawed with a horrible trackpad and overheating issues(present in the 13, but further aggravated in the 15). After the spectacular fail of a release, I dropped the Envy out of consideration.


To the present, I've recently started looking at a huge array of laptops and have taken the Envy into consideration again. From what I've heard, the Envy 15 is in its second generation(I need a full-HD laptop and won't be considering the Envy 13). It now comes equipped with a i5 processor and the HD5830.

My intended usage for the laptop is for it to be a multi-media laptop. I should note that i want it as a media VIEWER, not as a media PRODUCER. processing power is irrelevant; I want it for its looks, not for its brains. I also want to be able to take it to university to take notes and such(DO NOT bring up issues of portability and screen-size).

with that in mind, I'm looking for the following attributes for this lappy:
-quiet

-more quietness

-preferably dead-silent(the guy in the seat in front of me - less than a foot - shouldn't realize the laptop fan is running)

-cool-running (i don't really care about the internal temps of the components(within reason), but it should be cool enough to put on my lap for 1080p playback and at minimum, web browsing and music playback)

-best in-class screen (both brightness and viewing angles are important - moreso the viewing angles. I do NOT need great color accuracy, although it shouldn't be horrid either)

-large trackpad with gestures

-switchable integrated graphics (i should emphasize that this point is very related to heat output and noise. i only care about it if its 'needed' to help alleviate heat and noise issues)

-4 hours battery life when viewing 1080p video with high screen brightness and wifi on(no bluetooth)(with or without the battery-slice)

-USB 3

-*i'll think of more things later*


so...does the hp envy 15 g2 meet my standards?

ps, it doesn't seem like the g2 envy is available in canada. someone confirm or deny?

 

almost all failed

 

I guess there is still no notebook meet your need in this world, unless you buy 2 or 3 batteries in a row.

 

It sounds like you have some clear goals for what you want in a laptop. That makes it easier to pick one that suits your needs, so lets see if the Envy will meet your standards:

- Quietness: i own an i7-720QM quadcore version of the Envy and it is certainly not dead quiet (especially with the "fan always on" turned off), but quiet enough for my needs. I have no experience with the i5 but people in here seem to report, that it's much cooler than the i7, so you should pick that version.

- Cool running: as i said above, choose the i5 version.

- Screen: this is one of the strongpoints of this laptop. I have the 1080p glossy version and it really is nice. As i was dead set on a Macbook Pro 13" before buying this, i would say that, even though the screen on the MBP is nice, this one is better. Gotta love the high resolution.

- Trackpad: a lot of people here seem to hate the trackpad. As said before on this forum, it's a matter of either hating or loving it. I really like the trackpad, mostly because of it's size and the gestures. It's not as good as a Macbook running OSX, but it really is functional in Windows.

- Switchable graphics: can't help you there. The Envy does not support this, but the 5830 downclocks itself to almost nothing when running on battery, and heat output from the right side fan is minimal, even when running games.

- Battery life: i cannot stress this enough; CHOOSE THE i5 version. My i7 manages to squeeze a puny 1½ hours of battery life out of the 6-cell. I have bought the 9 cell slice only because of this fact. Haven't recieved it yet, though, so can't comment on that.

- USB 3.0: here you have to choose; battery life and cool running over this feature. The i5 models currently do not feature USB 3.0, only the i7 does. They both have eSata ports though, which should be equally fast.

Cannot coment on the availability of the Envy in Canada, but some forum members here are from Canada and own Envies.

 

Envy doesnt meet your criteria.

 

The only point I'd challenge you on is USB3 - what do you need this for? Envy's eSATA is going to be better than USB2 or USB3 (in addition to having cheaper devices available since you can just get a regular SATA drive and an enclosure).

The big trade-off with the Envy is battery life vs. portability. There are basically three routes you can go:

- Regular 6-cell on an i5. For light usage, you'll get somewhere north of 2 hours. 3 has been reported but I've never had such good battery karma. 2 1/2 seems to be do-able.

- Spare 6-cell - Best compromise as it adds hardly any weight to your bag (0.8 lbs) but you have to shut off the system if it's not on A/C power to replace the battery. A minor nuisance but you're doubling your battery life for a very marginal cost.

- Slice battery (9-cell): This is nice because it adds a battery rather than simply replacing the battery, but less nice because it adds 2.7 lbs to the machine and therefore kills the 'highly portable' selling point. It doesn't ruin the looks, though, since that's one of your priorities. I went this route and like it - I only bring the Slice along if I know I'm going to be somewhere with no AC power for a while but it doesn't disappoint. You'll get more than 4 hours of movie-watching with the Slice - I think it's 7 hours of light usage, so my un-scientific guess for watching HD movies would be about 5 hours.

Switchable graphics: No ATI notebook has switchable graphics yet. The NVIDIA switchable graphics notebooks out there don't have cards as good as the 5830 (unless one has come out in the last week or two). But if this is a requirement, then the Envy won't cut it.

The i5 on regular usage is cool & silent. One of the quietest laptops with this much power I've seen.

The Envy isn't a perfect fit for your requirements, but I don't think there is any laptop out there that is (unless you don't care about the GPU).

 

alright, the core i5 version and battery slice version sounds pretty good to me.

its kinda disappointing that it doesn't have USB 3. i wanted it for the faster charging and overall future-proofing, but its a really small loss anyways.

also sad about the lack of switchable graphics. was planning on using the integrated GPU for its flash acceleration. anyone know if the radeon [properly] supports flash 10.1?

how is the heat on the bottom of the lappy? will i start getting warm very quickly from it on my lap? usually pentium dual-core class laptops don't bother me(as a reference).


like i said, processing power is irrelevant to me; well, a bare minimum is important, but the core i5 430 is FAR above that bare minimum. as well, i'm very comfortable lugging around 10lb 17" laptops as it is; so portability is never a concern for me.

one more thing for me to consider though is the power adapter. i need it to be small enough to carry around in an external easy-access pocket of my bag(i have both a messenger bag and a laptop backpack). pretty much the smaller, the better. cord management is also a plus. I've been looking at the HP Slim Travel Power Adapter. what are your thoughts on it - mainly does it work? (feel free to recommend other universal adapters, but i REALLY hate how the replaceable tips pop off of those really easy)

 

Search the owner's lounge threads (there are two for the Envy) for power adapter info - I think Kensington makes a good slim one, or at least slimmer than the stock adapter, which is not small. I don't have one but there are folks there who do.

 

You are looking at something with too much performance for your needs. More performance = more heat + more noise + more battery consumption. No exceptions! You probably should be looking at something with a low voltage or ultra low voltage processor.

 

What Chasse said, or you could wait for the Macbook Pro line to be updated. They might meet most of your criteria.

 

right...but how does the heat and noise compare to the macbooks?

 

I would like to know this too.

 

I can only compare my Envy to my girlfriends white Macbook (latest edition), which i would say is not entirely applicable because of the difference in performance.
However, when compared the Macbook does not get as hot as the Envy, especially under the bottom. But note that they are made of different materials with different heat transfer qualities.

I have not used a Macbook Pro for extended periods, so cannot comment on that.