*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

I would actually prefer carrying a portable AC adapter than the slim-fit battery

EDIT: I would actually prefer carrying nothing but my Envy

 

45mins to an hour is a pretty good advantage, knowing that you get about 2hrs with the 5830 on the 6 cell. Slap the slice battery and you are looking at about 12hrs of battery life.

 

The slice battery gives you about roughly double the battery time (since it is so thin it doesn't hold as good of a charge as a properly formed battery.) So you're looking at about 4 hours with the i7 and 5 1/2 hours with the i5 (give or take a half hour). All at the cost of an integrated memory controller, 1066 vs 1333 bus, 2 less cores, and using a GPU many times less powerful. Were you honestly looking to get 12 hours of battery life?

 

properly formed battery thats good lawlz

 

EDIT: Well maybe not 12, but 12 will be doable. I'm looking at 8hrs without a sweat.

 

It is. Battery performance is very much related to the physical connections and shape of the electrolytes. There's a reason they don't just use really thin wires to carry high voltage current in overhead lines, and your car battery is shaped like it is.

 

yeah I know, I was in the business for a while. I would assume the slice is a lithium polymer battery that is nothing more than a glorified cellphone battery which doesn't have any massive obstructions or connection deficits.

 

The QPI is the same with all the mobile Core iX processors other than the speed which on a core i7 is faster with support for 1333 Mhz speeds.

I agree that the core i7 Envy config is a much better value because of the 2 added physical cores and the support for 16GB of RAM and that is what I'm ordering. What kinda premium notebook will limit you to 4 GB (probably supports 2x4GB)?

 

Seconded. I'm wondering why the i5 is limited to that... they're using the same damn chipsets so there's no different motherboard to worry about for the integrated GPU. What gives?

 

Does anyone know if the i5's multiplier is locked on battery like the i7?

 

The 6 cell battery is 53Wh and the slice is 93Wh. In tests on my i7-720 w/ 4830 I did not get more than 2.5X battery life with both batteries vs. 6 cell only. This was w/ power save plan, min brightness, bluetooth off, wifi on max power save.

This would imply a max life of approx. 5 hours real world with both batteries based on johnbotts initial 2hr estimate on the 6 cell.

So I disagree with your 8 hr estimate, but I hope I'm wrong....

Also keep in mind that with the slice you'll be toting around an 8+ Lbs machine, on my new order I went with a spare 6 cell (.8 lbs) and no slice.

 

SOmebody with an i5 open it up and show us what its made of.

Iremember when I bought my 9300, it had an identicle motherboard to the XPS 17, but Dell went out of their way to put gigabit on the XPS but not on the inspiron.

 

You should read up on Arrandale CPUs then. Star here:
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3705&p=4

Anandtech got 200 minutes with an i5 540m, no discrete graphics, 6 cell battery on idle. 188 minutes with light web browsing. Put a slice battery on and you can double it. Most netbooks won't even get 8-12 hours.

But does anyone really need more than 3-4 hours battery life? Why is the i7 insufficient again?

 

Yes, there are many reasons to get the i5: 1) cheaper, 2) Runs cooler, 3) extended battery life by 20-45 mins depending on what you are doing, 4) performs very similarly to the i7 in the vast majority of applications, 5) the i7 is overkill for typical day to day stuff, the i5 is plenty of performance for most users out there.

Those extra 20-45 mins of battery life turn into 1-2 hours with the slice. That's a big difference in terms of battery life. The i5 seems to consume very little energy when idling, even less than a p8700 + integrated graphics. SOURCE

It's apparent you don't care about battery life very much. A half-hour/hour is a very significant improvement in battery life. On the six-cell, 1 hour = 50% improvement, which is huge.

How about slap on the slice battery and enjoy another additonal 30% battery with those cells too... for a total of like 2-3+ additional hours of battery life...
I'm not sure about 12 hours, but 10 hours certainly would have been possible.

Johnbotts 2 hr estimate was with Max brightness. He brought that up to 2.5 hours with lower brightness. He didn't mention if Bluetooth was still on or not. If it was on, it would add some more battery life to it. Even still... he was also downloading stuff, which means the HD was being accessed constantly, which again would reduce the battery life. I'm estimating 3.25-3.5 hours (six-cell)/7.5-8 hours (with slice) idling with lowest screenbrightness + wifi off + bluetooth off + only Microsoft Word.

With wifi, you're not looking at 8 hours though. You're looking at closer to 6-7 hours because not only is the wifi adapter on but you are also going to be taxing your processor quite a bit more by running your web browser while using the internet.

 

The Asus k42 in this test also has a 63Wh 6 cell battery and 14" LED 1366x768 dislplay.

 

I've read all these articles

It's actually an 8cell battery with 63Wh. You maybe right that 8hrs is too optimistic, but let's look at some numbers:

Assuming you are doing 'light web usage' and that the Envy 15 supported the use of the Intel HD graphics.
The review battery was 63Wh, the combined 6cell (53Wh) and 9cell slim fit battery (93Wh) add up to 53Wh+93Wh = 146Wh in total.
Let's do some 4th grade math:

63Wh -> 188mins
146Wh -> x

x = (188*146)/63 = 435.68 minutes = 7.26 hrs.

And how much does the i7 QM get with the slice combined?

For me personally the choice towards the i5 was because of the lower TDP and the lower heat output. Also the difference between the performance between the two is minuscule enough for me to lean towards the i5 (assuming it featured switchable graphics).

 

If there was only one fans to cool the Envy (like on the MSI or Dell equivalents) I would agree with you about the 10 watt less TDP being significant, but with 3 heatpipes and 2 fans, and aluminum/magnesium case, no optical drive to block airflow? Envy runs a little warm but nothing to really be concerned about.

 

I agree with you that the cooling design is quite efficient, but I've read enough reviews online and I've worked with an i7QM test unit to decide if it's hot or not
I don't know how possible this is, but if the multiplier on the i5 is unlocked the i5 has a lot of headroom for overclocking making the i7QM obsolete. I know that's wishful thinking but that's all I have left right now.

 

You overlooked 3 key points;

1. Subtract 7% because power plan shuts down at 7% remaining (6.75hrs)

2. These tests and johnbotts were 1366x768 displays, the 1080p versions will use more energy

3. You have to figure in additional TDP for the 5830 at idle/light usage which is unknown but will be higher than the Asus which did not have a discrete GPU.

 

The calculated time is for an i5 540M with an Intel HD Graphics system [the test unit they used]. Maybe I've missed some small negligible factors but thats +/- 3-4 mins.

 

Unfortunately the slice doesn't actually get 93 watt hours because of the way it's shaped. It's technically a 9 cell battery but you only get 6 celllife because of the long, thin shape that doesn't hold as a charge as well. The advantage you get is you don't have to swap batteries while charging it up or while using it up.

 

bluetooth was on during my battery tests. and i never ran them down to zero, only to about 35 percent. and i was constantly downloading via steam during the test. i think 3 hours is possible w/o bluetooth and casual surfing and word processing.

regarding temps: i played dragon age and it got much hotter. not macbook pro hot, but hot.

 

Maybe, but for me no matter how you look at it having an integrated GPU that you can rely on is a definite plus. The end.

 

We do not have an intel integrated HD option with the i5-540m! No switchable graphics from HP, we will be using the ATI 5830 at all times which IMO will use much more power than the test unit you keep referencing.

 

Thank you. That was my main point

 

This quote states the oposite of your last post ??

 

I think what he is is saying is that the power draw from the 5830 is negligible, since the asus with integrated graphics gets almost the same battery life, when you consider that it has a larger battery.

 

JJB I was debating with Chasse if having switchable graphics made a difference thats all. I am aware that switchable graphics is a no go for the i5 currently.

 

Understood, sorry for confusion.

What I am stating is there will be IMO a significant difference using the 5830 versus discreet graphics. Let's say the 5830 averages 6W or 25 % of GPU TPD (wild guess for example) So 6W over 6hrs is 36Wh, this is equal to 25% of your total battery capacity or more than an hour less battery life....

 

You ignored the integrated IGP's power usage, so the overall saving is less.

 

If you look at thebattery life johnnobots is getting with his non-igp system (2.5 hours) and you look at the battery life anandtech is getting with the igp, 14 in screen, and 8 cell battery (would be about 141 minutes on 6 cell light surfing), where is the SIGNIFICANT decrease in power usage?

 

True to a point, the IGP shares power within the i5's 35W TDP. If more demand is placed on the IGP then less power availabe to the CPU, so max power usage not more than 35W. With GPU (24W TDP) and CPU (35W TDP) max usage could reach 59W. It will depend on how much demand is placed on the overall system.

Again you need to figure the additional power for 1080P display and additional no load idle for the 5830 into the equation (unknown factor) this will use more energy than the IGP solution.

By your example, 141 min on 6 cell and using my results of battery life with slice (>x2.5) you would get 5.8hrs, less 7% (for win7 reserve cutoff) = ~5:25 with 6 cell and slice. Factor in the unknown figures from the above paragraph and IMO we will be lucky to get 5 hrs with light usage.

Again I hope i'm wrong, but I don't believe 6-7 hrs is possible.

 

If your looking at getting 8 hours from an ENVY look elsewhere..... perhaps a netbook. The batteries may not have a huge capacity, but they will have a longer lifespan than most other type of notebook batteries out there (around 3-4 years which is twice the lifespan of batteries today). They are Lithium Polymer which means in 6 months of usage, the decay of the cell will be much less than other batteries you find on practically any other notebook on the market. Maybe its something to consider.

Netbooks would make an excellent compliment for the envy than even having an integrated graphics on the notebook (which does not make the envy that much better when the integrated graphics is on). One for power, one for everything else.

 

Look below...

Johnnobts estimates 3 hours surfing with wifi on once he turns off Bluetooth. This means that you can probably add about 30-35 mins onto that time once wifi is off. Which means... 3.5 hours... take that times x2.5 = 8.75 hours.

I don't think that you'd actually get 8.75 hours, but probably closer to 8 hours. This doesn't seem crazy. Pretty basic math actually. Again, 6-7 hours seems possible with wifi on... 5.5 hours if you're doing a little heavier web browsing or turn up the brightness a little. 6 if you do light browsing with the brightness up a little, 7 if you do light/text only browsing with the lowest brightness. Again, this is with the i5 processor, not the i7.

Anyone tried to see how long their i7 lasts while idling on minimum brightness with a word document open?

 

Huh? Either it's 93 Wh or it's not. The # of cells is irrelevant, only voltage and capacity (Wh) matters.

 

Not true.. efficiency plays a big part and many things drive that including shape and temperature.

 

there its no envy 15 beats anymore!!
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...r_store&landing=notebooks&a1=Category&v1=ENVY

 

LOL! maybe they took it down to refresh? or they just ran out.

 

can someone tell me if/how i can use my coupon to order the
External Tray Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support with 2 USB Ports which was a $50 upgrade when customizing but i cant find it on the site for solo buy.

 

There's no solo buy of it. I think you might be able to order it as a part if you had the part number, and I'm not gonna check through the forums here to find the part numbers for you I don't think the coupons will apply to that anyway...

 

So you're saying the 93 Wh capacity rating is not correct? What is the true capacity then?

 

Nope, I just got off the phone with someone who was trying to help me yesterday get my old order re-established and apparently overnight they got an email that the customizable LE hit its End of life at midnight so it can no longer be ordered They seemed to still be able to order the pre-configured one but not the customizable version

 

Not sure this is the drive or not it doesn't mention the 2 usb ports tho:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/computer/categories/cd_dvd_media/1/accessories/KZ253AA
You can order it as an accessory but it sells for $89 in the computer accessory section.

 

Wow, sorry to hear about all of your frustrations with the I5 builds. If it makes you feel any better the I7 is fantastic! Here is some good news on the Envy...

I've had mine for about a week now and have been using it regularly for development and PhotoShop work. It crushes all my co-worker's Dells and Lenovos which is a lot of fun. The heat has not been an issue and the screen is very crisp and bright. My only gripe is that I'm having issues with the DVD burner making recovery disks. I'd highly recommend the Revo Uninstaller to remove the crap that HP sticks on this thing.

Someone mentioned in a previous thread that this thing looks "grown up" and i couldn't agree more. Some of the other laptops in this performance class have all sorts of weird lights and colors going on. My Envy is sleek, sexy and understated.

I got the dual SSD option and have been very pleased with the performance. Best of luck with your new orders!

 

Is yours the 1080 screen? Glossy or not?

 

It is the 1080 Ultra Brightview glossy. Very sharp - no lines.

 

Congrats on your laptop! Hope you are enjoying it, as I am enjoying mine.

In fact my Envy crushes all desktops at uni, from Celeron D, Pentium M to Core 2 Duos...and compared to the C2D P7450, this thing is a beast. A friend's Dv6 took 3 hours to render a screen, my Envy takes 10-30 minutes if not faster. I did a quick render yesterday, mounted a piece on a background, hit the render button, and 45 seconds later it was done...

 

The i5 should also be snappier than any of the C2D's by a fair bit, but not nearly the rendering margin as the i7's. Heavily threaded loads = i7 win.

 

Rendering is where the i7 shines, since it does it as a octa core. But the i5 well beat the living @#$ out of the C2D too. Fast speed and double the threads. Dont underestimate the raw power of the i5. It may not be an quad+4 CPU, but still, for the tasks it was designed to fulfill, it is an overkill.

 

Exactly. I'm looking forward to some serious game performance and battery life