*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Nice review. Too bad the Euro version is being crippled with a lesser screen but now the US also offers the same crippled screen.

We do get the option to choose a Matte or Glossy FullHD which is a great choice and hopefully the Euros will get their upgrade options soon

 

why not just return the envy and reconfigure it with the better screen?

 

jackspade what do you do for a living?

 

Because pastor john is not to walk in the counsel of the wicked.

He go tlike $350 off his OG order that's why

 

Well at least you have the Premier League! I'd trade the NFL, the NBA, MLB, and my left nut for it.

I'm going to call HP and see if they can switch me to complimentary 2-day shipping since my laptop has been delayed. Has anyone else tried this?

 

Why would anyone for the love of !!!!!! want the i5? i7= usb 3.0 and mo powaaa even though most of us never even need it

 

The i5 will run faster than the i7's in many single and double threaded loads. And it uses 10W less power, as well as being on a smaller process. Really... do you ever use all of your current CPU power? I'm typing this on a 2GHz Core 2 Duo and it barely breaks a sweat on most loads. And the i5 is roughly double the speed of this.

 

No i7 is better than i5

7 > 5

 

Price (I cant afford the i7)
Battery Life (need it)
In some cases the i5 performs better than the i7 (so its a good CPU)
New technology so the i5 its on 32nm (runs cooler)
USB 2.0 (I really dont need a 3.0 USB right now and to my country to make usb 3.0 standard will past a few more years (like 2 or more)
and I was specting to have switchable graphics, but for the envy beats isnt the case, I still have the hope that the normal envy has it

 

I think he was referring to the Quad Cores since those are clocked way lower than the current Westmeres.

You can thank Intel for all this naming confusion.

I'm getting the i7-720qm because it pretty future proof and most of the applications I create or run are multi-threaded or will be. Also I don't want a crippled 4GB RAM machine when I can load up with 8GB for a few bucks with the extra RAM slots in the i7 qcore configs.

 

Apparently they automatically expedite shipping for delayed laptops. They said I'll get the 2-day shipping even though I went with the free option.

I asked why it was delayed, and they said it was due to a part shortage. The CSR said they did not have info on which part.

Sorry if this info was covered before.

 

Not that I've seen. Thanks for the info!

 

if the coupon is reposted, the envy beats is still 1799! won't rebuy. but may sell!

 

i sent my email to them and they didn't cancel time to call them up and see what i can get out of it....

its funny how they give you the number to the "escalations" department.

now i've been put on hold twice and now i'm being transferred to the "resolution" department...oh wow no resistance at all. My warranty has been cancelled. of course no guarantee for the cancellation...I suspect they're getting their "hell no" team ready. haha wow...absolutely no resistance.....order is cancelled, no offer of any money just the "its a very good laptop the end" spiel...and now i wait for the the elitebook....

 

I seriously doubt Apple would release a machine with any of the current i7s. Unless they find a way to run them for 7 hrs or so on battery. I highly doubt that.

It'd be extremely hard to find a laptop with 16GB of RAM, i7-820 Quad Core, USB 3.0, and dual SSDs drives for $3K. To me this is awesome deal.

 

You are rich bigcat.

You wanna upgrade my 720 > 820?

And do that ssd for me too as well as my ram?

how much did your whole comp cost?

also, no full hd?

 

Thats sweet. Thanx for the ifno. +rep

 

I called a CSR earlier today, she looked up my order and said it would be filled on the 26th (even though build date says 30th). She gave me expedited shipping (2-day) and $50 credit for my troubles.

She seemed familiar with the envy situation and said the components are in and the laptops will start shipping again by Monday (25th).. She said where I was in the queue I would possibly be filled on the 25th, but more likely the 26th.

 

I wonder where HP get these people from?

 

These guys are held accountable for what they say, right?

 

Doesn't look like. We have been told some really outrageous lies in the last few days.

 

EXTRA! EXTRA! GET YOUR HP EMPLOYEES HERE...

 

i was actually told mine would ship on the 26th as well... she gave me 120 back to keep the order... i couldn't refuse, but can return if i am unhappy anyways...

 

Which benchmark did you find an i5 out performing an i7

 

That is awesome

 

LOL, I don't work for HP. I was just sharing the details of my phone call so others would know. Take it or leave it!

I am ticked about the no switchable graphics, but for the price I am not gonna complain too much.

John

 

So did you guys sound like little girls when you called up or what? I called up and said "I do not want to wait for the envy, I need a laptop next week, I want to cancel" and they said "ok, but...etc etc..." Perhaps I shouldve been less direct and perhaps would have gotten the extra money offer? I wasn't rude or anything, just calm and direct.

its also been over an hour and the laptop cancellation has yet to show up yet the warranty cancelled in under a minute...I smell foul play. maybe they want me to call in the morning and get someone with some cajones who can tell me i want this laptop and i will keep it for an extra $120.

 

How did you do it?

 

i just installed soundpackager on my beats, with a techno theme installed, its perfect!

 

make sure you get some glow sticks so you can rock out while minimizing windows

 

He just got lucky with a nice rep
When you talk to them tell them that you want to take the survey after the end of the call. They better behave nicely

 

i told them that, both of the were in india...is there a different location they use during daylight hours? perhaps the indians aren't authorized for giving rebates?

 

http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=43183,42694,

Looks like the PM55 & HM55 cost the same amount. I can only think of two reasons why they would put the PM55 on the Envy 15 i5:

1. They're having trouble getting stock of the HM55
2. They think that people who want the i5 will upgrade to the i7 if the i5 is intentionally crippled.

I'm going to be pissed if they release a version with IGP working right after my 21 days is up.

 

Well I can see why they would choose PM55 over HM55 if HM55 didn't support RAID; however Tom's Hardware states that "HM55 includes 12 USB 2.0 ports, six 2.5 GT/s PCI Express links, four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, support for four PCI devices, Anti-Theft technology, and the AHCI component of Intel’s Rapid Storage technology suite (not the software-based RAID support)". [Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mobile-core-i5-arrandale,2522-4.html].

 

I honestly had to shuffle trough different sales people until I got a hold of a nice lady, which gave me $50 credit because of the coupon difference when the $350 coupon came out.

 

The i5 will outperform the i7 in benchmarks involving encryption and decryption due to the new AES instructions but that's really about it. It's TDP is only 10 watts less (32 nm is quite leaky at the moment) than the i7 and you lose an on-die memory controller(estimated to cost you 10% in performance), get 1066 MHz bus speed instead of 1333, and lose two cores in order to get a crappy integrated GPU (worse than the integrated GPU Nvidia came out with over a year ago) most notebook venders won't even use. Apple and Acer reportedly didn't like Arrandale. Apple reportedly requested a custom version without integrated graphics.

Hp gives you 3 heatpipes, two fans, and a slice addon battery. There's no reason to pick the i5.

 

The integrated graphics are powerful enough to handle anything outside gaming, which is it's main purpose.

 

well looks like it hasn't been cancelled so i was lied to about my laptop being canceled so i'll call up tomorrow and i'll kick some . Who knows maybe i'll start speaking all different languages they'll really know i'm pissed then hhehehe.

 

it helped that HP reps lied to me and told me my order had shipped. I wasn't overly mean, but I made it clear I was unhappy. She offered 120 and I told her I would have to think about it... I then asked her about the return policy etc... and said I would take the discount but that if it doesn't ship on the 26th I would be canceling.

$1,650 for the base config + dual ssds + battery slice + 1080 glossy display + 50 dollar store credit is actually a great deal.

 

As are pentium processors from 3-5 years ago. If you wanted something just "good enough" for mobile use you'd get a netbook. The Radeon 5830 has a top TDP of 24 Watt (throttled down much lower on battery) vs the Intel IGPs top TDP of 10 watt (which won't throttle down much because it is so weak). The Radeon is 10 times more powerful than the Intel solution. Seriously, I don't know what the issue is here.

 

It took almost 2 full days for my order to be cancelled.

Just relax.

If you spoke with the escalation people and they told you the cancellation request was processed, it will be cancelled.

Just takes time....

 

I agree. Even Flash 10.1 has hardware acceleration for GPU's...I want my 5830 for web pages and videos in addition to all the heavy applications.

 

rawr! 30 minutes != 2 days!! oh well...in time.

 

I beg to differ.
You are comparing a 24W discrete GPU with a 10W integrated GPU. Clearly the Intel will get you a better battery life no matter how the 24W ATI HD5830 throttles itself. Numbers don't lie.

If switchable graphics didn't make a difference nobody would use it. Apple would never get the stated 8hrs of battery life with the 9600M running in the background.

 

How much? A half hour? An hour? Just slap the slice battery on it and you're good to go.

Let's say the ATI GPU throttles down to 12 watts and the Intel IGP throttles down to 8 watts on battery. If you put an SSD in it this easily makes up the diff.

Then like I said, you lose the integrated memory controller, 1066 bus instead of 1333, lose two cores, have an IGP that is 10 times weaker than the 5830.

 

Even with the integrated graphics, doing normal everyday things like browsing the web, or doing word processing don't come close to stressing the chip at all, and it will throttle down considerably. Since the integrated graphics also uses the computer's DRAM, it also does not need to energize addition RAM like a discrete card needs to, plus even while clocked down, way down, the 1 billion transistors in the discrete card will drain a considerable amount of current compared to the much smaller transistor count in integrated graphics. Remember, the current batch of integrated graphics processors can handle HD blu-ray decoding accelleration... they're not as slouchy as they used to be.

Combined with the low voltage, small transistor size design of the new core i5 processors, if integrated graphics switching support is designed into the system, it could conceivably result in significant power savings over the old core i7 Envy's, on the order of 30% or more longer run time doing normal every day tasks. Yep, the MBP's wouldn't get 8 hr run times doing normal things if it weren't for its IGP switching.

 

I just called up and said that I was unhappy that I'd bought my i7 envy 15 and also bought a 2nd 120w power supply and the hdmi-vga adapter and couldn't find anything else I needed. The CSR talked to someone and I will get $75 credited back and I get to keep my almost worthless coupon. Maybe I will get the slice.

How do folks who have the Gen 1 envy like the slice? It seems like a hokie approach to me.

 

The issue is that you're going from a max output of 35W TDP to a max output of 54W TDP when using discrete. That makes a pretty big difference for battery life.

If I wanted some cheap netbook I would have bought one. What I wanted was a competent notebook that I could use away from the desk without the need to carry extra batteries or always be connected to the outlet.

I'm curious, but most of you guys who are saying the lack of a discrete isn't a big deal, did you happen to order the i7?

 

Good point...for those who consider battery life their main priority should probably stick with an i5 using no discrete graphics.

 

The i7 consumes about 18-20 watts while on battery power (as shown on screen caps here), and the Radeon GPU probably around 15 watts while on battery power. Exactly how much of a power consumption advantage do you expect to get with a really weak, almost always stressed, IGP (with a TPD of 10 watts) sharing 35 TDP with the processor? Let's say you get 30% more time, that's about 45 mins to an hour. Why not just slap the slice battery on instead?