*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

I'm sorry to hear that funndamentals, I saw that it's available at a Best Buy near me, so maybe I'll go check it out this weekend before ordering it. I'm not nearly as tall, so maybe it won't matter to me, but I should at least try the touchpad and keyboard before buying.

 

Sorry if this has already been answered im not too savvy with the forums searches. Anyways i'm in the uk, i've got a hp envy 15 on order from dixons, and ive just made the realisation that I may have been bumped with the non hd display.

Anyone know what the official screen resolution of the 15-1060ea model is, hp website says 1366 x 768, which im really hoping is a typo. I thought they all had hd displays Anyone else in uk got there hands on one yet and can say what resolution their display is?

 

Unbelievable as it sounds, it's probably not a typo. The thread has been discussing multiple sources that confirm that poor resolution, but only for UK shipments! (And possibly others?) I would get on the phone to confirm.

Can UK folk order direct from HP and get the higher res...?

 

You really need to get off of this forum and possibly indulge into other non-internet based activities

In fact we all do. All of us have been heavily speculating over wrong information/typos from the manual (USB 3.0 huh) and promo sites/brochure and getting our BP high for nothing.

The moment we have a user or reviewer with the laptop in hand from HP direct, everything will be clear and we'll forget everything we discussed earlier. So, what's the point anyway We are just spreading FUD and not doing good to the lurkers and newbies browsing this thread.

 

a couple of weeks ago my hopes were extremely high for this laptop. but now after all the confusion and crazyness of this thread. my expectations couldnt be lower

 

It comes with 6GB and 500GB HD, would you even have the major need to upgrade anytime soon? Lol!

If you could fill up 500GB on the HD, this mean you should be backing some stuff off to external drive.

 

I am a bit confused. I thought edge to edge meaning the LCD screen goes from edge to edge and there is no bezel black ring around the LCD screen? No?

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

The Envy 13 is said to be edge to edge, doesn't look like it to me? Unless i am missing something.

By the way, anyone know if Envy 13 performance surpass desktop Core 2 Duo 2.53 ghz for Photoshop rendering?

 

Edge to Edge means that there is a Glass piece that cover the whole screen from left to right. I don't believe a screen exists that has no border at all.

 

I second that. It's not that you could reach out your hand and touch the pixels on the very edge of the screen so this fuss and moaning is for nothing.

 

That depends on a number of factors:
- what the software does
- CPU peformance
- Memory amount
- Memory bandwidth
- CPU cache size
- Disk drive storage performance
- GPU performance, if the software uses GPU.

So there's no straight answer to such a question. You might want to search for published benchmarks on the CPU in the Envy 13.

 

Ah, in that case and explains my confusion of the HP ENVY 15 I saw at bestbuy. The one in Pasadena I saw last week was edge to edge with one single glass covering the entire screen. Oddly the one I saw in Irvine didn't have that glass cover and I can see the indent between the LCD and bezel. I was wonder if that was a defected version of Envy 15 I saw yesterday w/o the glass screen while the Envy 13 had it.

Wierd...but that explains it. thx.

Since that is the case, I think the Dell Studio XPS w/ i7 Core will be the one for me. That looks just a nice and cheaper! It has Edge to Edge..hehe

 

Might be the same situation in Sweden - even official HP docs for the listed 15-1099eo model are conflicting, with some docs stating 1366x768 and some stating 1920x1080 or FHD.

One retailer (inwarehouse.se) lists estimated availability as November 19.

 

So I guess it looks that at least some best buys are getting different versions of the hardware. Here's hoping that those of us who've ordered one with the bing cb are getting the "higher quality" one.

 

Will a laptop bought in the US have any problems if imported to the EU? By that i mean the power supply. Does it work just fine in EU eventhough its meant for the US market ?

 

It should work fine with an adapter, but if you're worried you can always order one from EU for the same laptop so you don't have to mess with them.

 

we use EU plugs in iraq and 220v. and i have american plugs. you just need a US to EU plug adapter. if your worried you can just look on the bottom of the power brick and it will say 110v ~ 220v meaning it will will work on either 110 or 220 no problem.

 

That would make sense for the 320GB SSD or the 500 GB HDD. But it seems a bit odd for the 160GB SSD + 250 GB HDD combo. I haven't heard of such a combo in one 2.5" casing...? Also, I don't think it would be possible to set the 2xSSD up as RAID 0 in this case, as the HP rep said at the launch event... Well, he also said "you can put in two SSD drives in it", which isn't one "dual-platter" SSD drive...

Haha, I can't wait until I get my Envy so I can dissect it. If there's just room for one HDD, I think I'll wait until Intel comes out with their 320GB SSD XM25 G2 and just use one of those. (I thought it would be out by now actually.)

 

HA! Big smack in the face to all those busta's whom said that there was no E2E available.

 

The power adapter that comes any Envy 15 works with 100-240V input, so you just need a cheap form factor adapter to fit it into the wall socket (no need for a full transformer). You should also be able to buy power cables from HP separately - the part numbers for Britain or EU cables are in the manual.

Besides the form factor of the power cable - no other problems.

 

anyone know whats the difference between the Envy 15 and the Envy 15t? When you guys got the confirmation order did it say envy 15t? Mine does.

 

If I remember correctly, from a previous post, it means that you picked the customizable version and not the quick ship model. Anyone ordered a quick ship model that can confirm this?

 

Been lurking here awhile and thought I'd chime in.

I have a theory about the dual drives: The standard height of a HDD is 9.5mm. Intel makes the X18 160GB SSD which is 5mm high. Samsung makes a 1.8" HDD that is 5mm high. Put them together and you have a 10mm height. I suspect there is room for another .5mm. This would explain why in the early marketing they talk about 160X2 or 160 plus a HDD. So as long as you have two 5mm drives it should be possible, along with whatever adapter HP needs to provide. This seems like a bit of a letdown because you can't have 2 standard drives. The thinner drives tend to have smaller capacity and lower specs.

Checked out the display model at Best Buy. The trackpad is weird. The buttons click from about halfway down but the click doesn't register until your finger goes past the button line. The audio is terrible. I tried to play some music and wondered if it was muted, but the volume settings were all the way up. I had to crouch down and put my ear up to the speaker to hear anything. The lack of edge to edge glass does not seem to be such a problem. One benefit is more space so that the keyboard doesn't rub against the display, which is a known problem.

I have already ordered an XPS 16, but the Envy was in the running, and if my order is delayed I may reconsider.

 

I got one from Fry's today. I'm just cracking it open now.

 

Just got from best buy. Overally I liked the laptop. Well built, doesn't look too much like a MacBook - just close enough. I confirm that it has some problems with attaching the slice battery - had no time to figure out what is the problem. The screen was good - picture was excellent even with the best buy lighting. Surelly the have no idea about second hard drive.

Based on device manager it has Intel ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E/PCHM SATA RAID Controller, that gives me idea that it might support RAID and second drive.

 

Did you remove the tab over the connector for the battery on the bottom of the laptop? I had no problem with the slice and it seems like it is attached quite well.

 

I have the Envy 15 (1050NR) in for review and I've opened it up. There is only 1 hard drive bay.
The machine is very cleanly architected and no corners were cut to make this cheaper to manufacture.

BTW, though HP's assembly manual states that main RAM is DDR3-1066, the machine shipped with DDR-1333MHz.

I'll post photos of the innards in our full review on our site, hopefully by Monday. We'll also shoot some gaming footage--Crysis and the like.

 

Thank you jda99, Mout1, and pdagal and congratulations! Whenever you all can upload pictures and/or videos I (and eveyone else!) would appreciate it so much! Have fun, update us with further information (pros, cons, and thoughts/opinions) and most importantly - enjoy it!

 

Well, that does it for me, I'm going for Clevo W870CU. HP's credibility dropped to 0 for me and I gladly say: HP go frack yourselves

 

BTW: The screen is pleasingly bright and color saturated. I turned off the ambient light sensor which runs it too dark. The display does not have edge to edge glass which is a good thing in my book because there's less refraction and glare (though it's plenty glossy and glary already-- I hate the gloss display trend).

It runs cool and quiet and is darned fast. Very nice and certainly a unique machine given the form factor.

 

WOW. im still not entirely satisfied by this though due to the claims by HP. Im happy to hear about the ram dispite further misinfo from the manual

sorry to see you go but i can understand. i have always been a fan of HP but this situation with the envy has really turned me off.

good news thanks for the info

 

How do you turn off the ambient light sensor?

 

i have an hp netbook with Edge to Edge and the same hinge as the envy and it doesnt even come close to rubbing the keyboard.

 

Go to advanced power settings then look for the display sub settings and it's listed.

 

would it be possible to get some high res shots of the laptop?

 

Here's an odd little preview I hadn't seen before:

http://laptops-reviewed.com/2009/laptop-reviews/hp-envy-15-notebook-review/

... with some odd specs, re: graphics that I've never seen:

Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500MHD
[or]
256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce 9300M GS Graphic Card

 

Did Fry's have one on display? What was the pricing at Fry's? Might have to check this one out myself.

 

interesting. dont think this is really true but man it would be nice

kind of a strange review. i could see getting the GPU wrong early on but this article came out today

everybody from this thread who has had a hands on said it wasnt too warm at idle.

 

I wonder what they mean by "fully expandable just like a PC." Most laptops can have their hdd, ram, and cpu upgraded. I wonder if the difference is the video card? Probably just wishful thinking on my part.

 

Working on doing the video and image production right now. We'll have some photos and videos up late this evening or tomorrow morning on MobileTechReview.com and a full review Monday or Tuesday.

 

Hi Lisa,

I look very much forward to reading your review as there seems to be a lot of confusion in regards to the HP Envy 15. Although it may not live up to the initial hype it still seems to be an extremely impressive package considering its size.

I am first and foremost looking for a notebook that is capable of heavy duty virtualization. Until now, the only machine that has fit the bill has been the Dell Precision M6400 which can be equipped with a Core 2 Quad CPU, 16GB of RAM and has up to three hard drive spindles (two internal HDD bays and a removable optical bay that can be substituted for a third HDD adapter).

However, the M6400 is a 17” unit with an enormous power brick, making it less portable.

The HP Envy 15 on the other hand seems to be similar in size and weight to my current workhorse (T61p with 8GB RAM and dual SSD) but at the same time outperforms the M6400 CPU-wise while allowing for 16GB RAM.

What bothers me is the uncertainty regarding the internal HD bays. I am hoping that the machine can take two Intel X18 160GB SSDs internally and that the eSATA connector is sufficiently high performing so that I can quickly transfer projects to and from the internal SSDs using an external drive hooked up to the eSATA connector.

If I may suggest two issues for you to explore in your review.

1.) Is it possible to equip the HP Envy 15 with two Intel X18 SSDs internally?

2.) Is the eSATA connection supplied by the Intel chipset or by a third party chipset? Historically, third party chipset solutions have resulted in far worse performance than those provided by Intel. Even more interesting would be if you could test the performance (latency and throughput) of the eSATA connection compared to the internal SATA interface.

If the HP Envy 15 can be fitted with two internal SSDs and has a sufficiently fast eSATA interface, I will be able overlook the glossy 16:9 format screen and the lack of a touchstick / trackpoint.

Best regards,

Jörgen

 

well this is the first time i have heard anything like this concerning the envy 15. i know there are 2 ram slots that are supposed to be eaily accesible but as for the rest of it i will only say that it is unibody so this thing will have to come apart for most parts to be upgraded if it is possible.

 

jwhit3367: It's not hard at all to open it up to access the other RAM slots, HDD and etc. Just a 20 or so screws on the bottom that need to be removed so the top (keyboard deck) can be lifted.

But yes, there are 2 RAM slots that are billed as "user-accessible" by HP and accessing them requires removing only 3 screws and one cover plate.

 

Jörgen, there's only 1 drive bay and one SATA connector. It uses an Intel RAID controller.

BTW, the Envy 15's power brick is pretty darned large-- required to charge 15 cells I imagine (internal 6 cell plus 9 cell slab battery).

 

Many thanks for the quick reply and info. In regards to the drive bay, I was hoping that by observing the proprietary HP SATA connector on the motherboard one would be able to tell
If it would support two drives using a y-cable or something similar.

 

Lisa,

very much looking forward to your initial impressions, as well as your review. Would love to clear up the rumor on the video ram as well. Thank you!

 

i know i said i have given up on this thing but peeking back in here has made me think of some questions for anybody who receives one this week...

This thing(the beats version atleast) is being billed as some musician's laptop but is there a firewire port?

Its also being billed as portable, but when u throw the slice, the optical drive, and the brick power adaptor all in your bag arent you looking at close to ten pounds worth of stuff?

sorry im just really trying to convince myself that this laptop is really not going to work for me.lol.

 

Isn't the 160 gig Intel X18 SSD 8mm thick? If so, 2 wouldn't fit stacked in the drive bay-- (is that what you want to do, stack them?).

 

quick question, I want to get a laptop stand for this I was looking at the logitech Alto™ Connect Notebook Stand + 4-Port Hub someone who's seen the laptop how far back can the screen actually tilt? I mean I don't need it to be 180 degrees but can it go past perpendicular quite a bit like the MBPs?

 

There are two versions of the X18. The latest version (34nm) specs show 5mm.

http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/mainstream/index.htm

 

Why is it I can't find the 3dmark score that someone posted in the other thread? I searched for "3dmark" in both this and the other, and get no results...

Edit: Oh, larsv posted the results and typed "3d mark"