*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

I was going to suggest a UDMA CF Expresscard reader (ultra fast and able to keep up with the fastest UDMA CF cards), but then I noticed the Envy lacks an Expresscard slot. What were they thinking?

Downside of USB 3.0 CF reader (would need to support UDMA modes) is it's just something else to have to carry around! I like my Expresscard reader for my Sandisk Extreme CF cards...it's always there!

 

Very simple ilovelamps.

1. They allow OSX to use the onboard 9400 instead of the 9600, in windows it is locked on to the 9600 only which uses more power and generates more heat.

2. In windows, the keyboard backlighting cannot be turned off, so it is always on, wasting more power.

3. In windows, the processor does not throttle appropriately, thus drains more battery even when idle.

4. Overall bad driver support in windows over OSX (microphone does not work in skype, low speaker volume overall)

5. Since the system runs hotter most of the time, it will be forced to have the fan on all the time (thus wasting more battery power)

All of these are frustrations of a bootcamp user =X

 

Heh I completely missed your sarcasm. Doesn't work will in intercultural forums like this one (or maybe I'm just old and uptight hehe), tags is not such a bad idea.

 

Wow. Now I am starting to reconsider the mac. I always assumed I would have the choice of windows or OS X on a mac, but if I can only realistically use OS X I would rather have a PC.

 

They don't they just make crappy drivers for Windows so it doesn't perform as well as OSX. Current MBPs have huge batteries. To compare battery life you need to compare to a proper windows laptop with a huge battery and good power management. My Samsung X120 gets 9 real hours (C2D SU7300, Win7 x64, 4GB mem) and hits the scale at 1.56 kgs. Not saying Apple isn't good at power management, just that there isn't a 2-3x factor. More like some percents maybe.

 

Question... the limited angle of the lid really bugs me, I'm 177 cm (5'10") and cannot use my Envy 15 in my lap without looking almost straight down on the screen. Has anybody looked at the drawings in the maintenance manual to figure out how to modify the hinge to allow more tilt?

 

my old vaio i had weighed in at about a kilo and it would get 7 hours surfing the web (firefox) chatting (gaim now pidgin) and writing homework (word 2003) it had some of the sweetest power management software I had ever seen, of course it only used an IGP as well.

 

Darn it. I tried to call and upgrade my shipping and they cannot even do that once you get an order number. Balls!

 

I am wondering if todays holiday is causing shipments to not go out.

 

probably not? i just went to a ups store and mailed something

 

Yeah, CTO's ship from China and I doubt the Chinese care about MLK day

 

Good deal, I got what you mean. My point is not only battery size or the like, its the fact that Apple had the ability to create a form factor with a DVD burner, kepboard that lights up, & more and still has the ability to fantastic battery life. Show me 1 pc with the same form factor/processor/graphics as a MBP that can get 6-8 hours of battery life. *** crickets*** None.

The larger issue is that Apple couldnt buy the tech because there wasnt any, so they created their own. They patented it and its working great. This is what makes a good company great. They cant find, so they make, where the Envy seems to copy some of the characteristics that makes MBP's so desirable, but just wasnt able to do it all the way. Im sure if HP, Dell, ASUS, Acer, had the ability they would no doubt have a 1 inch thin metal laptop with core2duo that could get 6-8 hours battery life. The fact they can only get that amount with some baloney ulta low core intel cpu or humungous battery that sticks out like a 3rd leg speaks volumns about HP's lack of ability.

Like I said, OSX really pushed Windows 7 to be really good. I like it. I was hoping Mac would push HP towards a total notebook, not just looks. Im not gonna buy what I think may be a Porsche when in fact its only a kit-car with a volkswagen motor!

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/battery/

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/battery/watch.html

http://blogs.computerworld.com/apple_to_pioneer_use_of_silver_zinc_battery_technology

 

I was kind of wondering the same thing. This may be a paid holiday for HP employees. I suspect their call center follows a different schedule than the average worker bee.

 

Hello?

Shipments from China, anyone?

Pre-configured machines, maybe. Definitely not CTO's....

 

Well I am another MBP user and now envy owner.. I even used to own a iphone. I had to trade the phone in for a verizon droid and am much happier almost every app I liked on my iphone is also available on my droid (or a clone of the app is available).

As for the laptops. I agree after using the MacOS for photshop I was also in need of some pc apps for work. Boot Camp is worthless the speed in fusion running windows 7 is much faster than it was running native in bootcamp. As stated battery life was horrible also and I found that my batteries died pretty quickly after converting to bootcamp full time.

Also the magnesium alloy used in the envy is 35% lighter and 20% stonger than aluminum. I can vouch for that since my mbp was always having the slot bend down to prevent using the dvd drive. I had to keep prying it open with a screwdriver.

After having two oem batteries and a third party battery go bad I figured it was time for a change.. also I was tired of the "we know you need to come back to us becuase you can't buy these from anywhere else" attitude that most of the apple CS people had. too much like a cult.

As for the Envy I have and still have my share of problems if the upgraded model I orderd still has the lines in the screen and the C4 processor states locked on during battery use it will quickly go back and I will order another Sony F11 or some other i7 based laptop. (not a dell already tried that maybe a lenovo ugly but they don't have nearly the problems).

 

I give you the aluminum, unibody fabrication--it just radiates quality construction--but Apple's not exactly the "small company" you suggest. It has a market capitalization that easily rivals Dell and HP.

Don't be a tool. That user registered merely to troll this forum by posting a clearly inflammatory rant, ridiculing the originality and quality of PC computers, as well as against deriding its userbase at large. Whether or not he made any sort of point, it was lost in his generally offensive tone and was furthermore not relevant to discussion in the HP Envy 15 Owner's Lounge. It was posted to stir up trouble. That is all. The mods removed it before he got what he wanted.

The issue is two-fold:

1 - Drivers were not developed for the macbook's hardware so the power management is not optimized. Under Vista/XP the system exclusively uses the 9600GT video chipset.

2 - The default chip being used on the new unibody is the 9400 Nvidia chip which is a low power, low-end-performance chip. So it draws less power and the battery lasts longer. Under OSX, if you switch to the high-performance mode, which utlizes the 9600GT chipset, then you will see a drop in the battery life; at least 1.5 hours to 2 hours less of life.

The core of the problem is the quality of the Boot Camp drivers. The boot camp drivers allow very limited power management, therefore there is no real possibility to run Vista or Windows XP without heavily using battery resources. I don't think there will be any improvements in the future as Apple in not really committed to deliver better drivers (the present BootCamp power management drivers have remained virtually unchanged since BootCamp 1.2 beta, March 2007). Just have a look at the threads about BootCamp especially about the problems that are plaguing the new MacBook Pro (mid 2009) i.e. poor sound quality and no microphone in Windows.[/QUOTE]

Come on, really?

 

MLK is probably not very important in china

 

Yeah, Fedex worldwide does not shut-down for US holidays

lolo

 

I knew of the battery life issue of windows on mac. but 2-3 times better just seems so out there. Is it drivers, hardware issues or purely software, a little bit of both? how about those who crack the osx to run on windows hardware, is the battery significantly improved as well?

 

wasn't aware that they came from China.

I think I was looking for a good excuse for me to stop hitting the F5 button on the order status page

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_new_year

 

^

Not until 2/14/10

 

but they start celebrating it beforehand.

 

So the Chinese take a whole month off? lol

Dang.

I'm moving to China!

 

Not a whole month, but quite a long time. Try to buy anything from China right now and there will be delays.

 

Still in Production for me..

 

not really, they don't really start celebrating until the eve and one or 2 days before the eve, but then after that, in China there's only 5 Pubilc holidays after the new year. and almost all manufacturing begins to resume on or before the 5th day. however its up to the discretion of each company, and the urgency of their clients

I know this because I used to work with Chines factories. They don't take the whole month off because they have to make things for so many other countries out there nowadays..

 

Whats this about horizontal lines on the screen? Can someone show me an example?

 

there's a thread at thenextbench on it. i had a panel with the issue and HP really wasn't all that helpful. i refused to send my unit for repairs and just did a return rebuy. if I get the new envy with a messed up panel, i will not purchase another envy.

 

FWIW my 3 year warranty that was shipped out of southhaven, mississsippi, has been delayed another day...19th>20th>21st...not sure if this speaks anything about fedex but hopefully you guys wont have this issue with the laptop itself.

 

How many people have checked out the forums on www.thenextbench.com ?

I'm not trying to divert people over to this forum as this one is much more active and informative. A dedicated website seems nice in theory but so far HP doesn't seem to be executing it very well.

I wish the HP engineers were more involved and provided some interesting blog material that provides additional insight.

Certainly not perfect, but at least these blogs are kind of interesting:
http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/

What are your thoughts?

 

Lol. I guess child labor isnt so bad.

 

I am just south of baltimore and my 3year warrenty got here the day after I ordered my new evnvy.

the last time I saw a problem like that it was a bad address or a miss typed address ... you may want to call and verify...

 

I know have had some private chats with a couple of hp techs on some of the HP forums and as it turns out they are having to severly edit their posts due to some legal action on the envy. real bummer since we were just starting to get somewhere with nailing down a problem.

 

as in a company in cuerpintino might be suing hp because it could take away their market share?

 

I got ya man. Didnt realize my critique needed to provide props both ways. I guess Ill just have to be more balanced in my wish/wants categories for the HP Envy 15...as to not hurt peoples feelings. FWIW, I wish Apple had a Express card slot, 97% world usage, and didnt cost an arm and a leg!

I also dont like apples, I like oranges and pears! The apple peel always gets caught in my teeth!

 

Well....I came home and unboxed my Envy 15 - beats edition - i7 Hybrid HD, 6 Megs of Ram.

Below is my hardware config:


(Its my first time attempting to post a pic---hope it worked).

Well it Shows once again....HP Reps do not know what they are talking about. Its states in the config USB 3.0, but I do not see a Blue USB port. Looks the same as before.

Back to setting up the ENVY --Looking pretty sweet about now! (fingers crossed)

 

Omg. seeing that screenshot makes me more excited for mine. =D =D

 

there it is...usb 3.0 NEC hub. you did the 13whatever by 7 whatever screen right?


You should just expand every one of those menus let us soak up the hardware configuration and see where it fails to be consistent on the hp website

 

Very cool...which wireless card is included?

 

Now open it up.

I want to see where the USB 3 controller is.

 

call HP or fedex? My address is correct on the order page, but it doesn't mean sausage fingers over in mississippi got it right...

 

Will expand some more in a bit. Unfortunately I now have the 1067 Mhz Ram. D'Oh

 

Hey...he has to play a little first. I definitely would be curious if it seems faster with the 5830. Benchmarks? Notice anything else different compared to the old one?

Anyone else expecting one today? What about tomorrow? Finally something to talk about!

 

Congrats, now I'm ticked because 2 different sales people today swore to me that the Beat wouldn't have USB 3.0 so I changed my order because of them. Of course changing the order did result in me getting a bit better price that ended up covering the cost of adding a 2T personal drive / 4 yrs of Lowjack / Wireless router and a USB hub plus a little cash back. Oh well, teach me to be impatient.

I second yatesd's question, which wireless is installed?

 

well said! lol

 

Attached is a larger view of the Device manager

 

What are the temperatures like how loud are the fans! I wanna know everything! =D =D

 

Woohoo 6200 wireless!

 

if its not too much trouble can you check out the multiplier issue with the cpu when you unplug it? maybe HP fixed it and didn't tell anyone.