*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

I also just received this date.

 

Got a free 16GB flash drive. Pretty nice, although I shipped it to the wrong address and wont be able toget it for a few weeks. oh well.

 

I'd disagree with that. I have an I7 and mine is not bad. I push it pretty good with a huge 72 project visual studio solution and photoshop. It gets warm but never bad. I do have the dual ssd so maybe that helps.

 

Do hard drives make it hot A LOT???

Yea, at least it's not MACBOOK PRO hot, I'm DOWN FOR ANYTHING D4A neeka

 

hey, i'm wishing i had an i7 now, w/ 3.0 usb. really expected IGP, but oh well. can still return my envy beats... although its worth much more than what I got it for ($2099 now for the base model, anybody want an i5 beats for $1600, I'll just keep my headset). I can do that and get the i7 regular edition. Or a macbook pro, or the G73JH...

 

To those who have gotten their Beats system please post the Driver version for the 5830 Catalyst S/W.

Also for those with have the i7 quadcore is it just 1 USB 3.0 port or 2?

 

So glad I went with I7 820qm instead, usb 3.0, 4gb of ram (bought 4gb more of Hyper X PC 10600 on newegg), 500gb HD, 1080P Glossy screen. I also used the 300 dollar coupon. Got 50$ back from complaining about the 350$ coupon, got 50$ to the hp store because order was delayed, got 50$ off for complaining about the order delayed. All in all I love HP, I feel sorry for taking advantage of them because I m making off like a bandit. There is not another computer with the Envy's quality build at such a bargain. My savings totaled 450$ thank you HP, I will buy from you again.

 

Hi my beats is i7 quadcore, I beleive all usb is 3.0, my 5830 Driver version 8.670.5.1000

 

I did 3d rendering test on my i7 820qm, it renders faster compared to my sager 12lbs laptop with Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz

It runs hot on full 3d rendering, but not as noisy as a desktop.

on webserver its warm not hard, I do also have the dual ssd

 

I don't see why you guys are surprised that some of the envy's are going to ship on Jan 26. If you read the e-mail it specifically states that there is a good chance that the laptop would ship before the 30th date. The reason for the date of Jan 30th is because they are required to ship the laptops by at least that date. The date was created as a 10 day estimate to give them time in case something unexpected happens.

 

You can try to sell yours on ebay. Now that the beat edition is no longer offered by hp, i think you wouldn't have much trouble getting ride of it.

 

Are you going to threaten to return it once you get it to score another $50 or $80?

I don't feel *too* bad about asking for the $50 refund since I paid $2500 and bought the $350 3 year accidental plan - which should be pure profit if they built a good product (and I'll take especially good care of it - there will be a 50 foot Cheeto-free zone around it enforced with laser cannons).

 

I think the majority of us who ordered non-Beats Envy refreshes are putting way too much faith and confidence in the 3 or 4 instances in which people have had their Envy Beats editions arrive (super early I might add). 100 or so pages were spent convincing ourselves why it made so much sense that the i5's and i7's would carry USB 3.0 and the i5 switchabe graphics, yadayadayada, but after a handful of Beats owners confirmed or denied features in their units, everyone is cancelling and complaining. Is it not plausible that the (outgoing) Beats edition could carry different specs? I recall two separate i7 Beats owners receiving system memory with different speeds. How does that happen? Maybe the same way a Beats i5 arrives without USB 3.0 and a regular i5 arrives with USB 3.0. Why is it that only the Beats edition went out but not the regular versions and then also, the Beats edition, coincidentally, just becomes discontinued?

I'm just saying, let's wait until we start receiving shipments of the regular/non-Beats version before jumping to conclusions. Who knows, you might like your unit when it comes in even if it is missing USB 3.0 and utilization of the IGP. Don't forget, most of us ordered this thing two weeks ago because we got a great deal on an already good machine.

 

Hey there... no fair speaking sense in these here parts

 

I had hte following criteria for buying a new laptop, if not for these I would have bought it over christmas, since there were some really good deals:

- Great keyboard
- Prefer 16:9
- 3 hour + battery
- Good build quality
- USB 3
- SATA III
- Switchable graphics
- Arrandale(obviously)
- $1099 or less(ie. the price of the MBP 13")
- 300mbps wireless n
- eSATA
- HDMI
- Prefer HDMI/Displayport or just Displayport with audio support.
- < 5lbs weight.

I was actually quite disappointed by the lack of most of these features in the laptops previewed at CES. The Envy 15 was my "rebound" because it was the only laptop with good build quality and an Arrandale. I also considered a Thinkpad T410, but it had no HDMI and the estimated ship date was "4 weeks or more". I figured there would be some better options in the near future, so I bought the Envy with the full intent of returning if a competitor makes something that ticks more of those boxes on my list.

Right now I basically prefer the Envy to the Thinkpad ASSUMING the keyboard is good, the touchpad is good, and the battery gets me through a day of classes. If it doesn't, it goes back and I get a Thinkpad. But if it does, there is also still the option that the refreshed MBP does more of what I need and the Envy goes back regardless.

 

Can you posts some pics of the ports? I believe the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 might have blue connectors instead of the white. I don't think the shared eSata/USB port was going to be USB 3.0.

 

I get your point, but it's already been confirmed by the staff at HP's website that non Core i7s will not have USB 3.0 (Core i7 620m does not count as a "real" i7 since it's based off of arrandale architecture) and that no version of the Envy 15 has switchable graphics support .

If you were looking for switchable graphics as one of your main criteria in your notebook because of battery life, then the Envy 15 no longer suits your needs. The switchable graphics is a big deal to those of us who care about battery life. If you plan on using your envy as a desktop replacement or with it always plugged in, I can see why you wouldn't care about battery life. But there are those of us who are more mobile and want to be able to use a more power efficient GPU when we're doing non-graphics intensive tasks.

In all honesty, 3 hours of battery life with the lowest brightness and wifi on isn't very good if you're on campus 5-12 hours a day. And I remember the original review of the Envy 15 stated that you could only get through half a normal length move on the 6 cell battery.

I'm still going try out my notebook, but it's an understatement to say that I'm pissed, especially with how HPs customer service blatantly lied to everyone by saying that the Core i5s would support switchable graphics.

 

Actually, a 10 day estimate for my order would've been the 28th, not the 30th, so that can't be how they came up with the date.

 

Okay, well I was thinking about picking up a cooler pad for my new toy. I have used a lot of CoolerMaster products and am considering one of 3. Is anyone using any of these or what are your opinions on which one might be best? I've arranged then in the order of preference:

Notepal X2 Notebook Cooler

Notepal X1 Notebook Cooler

Notepal Infinite (BLUE) Notebook Cooler

CoolerMasters main page for pads

Has anyone had any experience with any of these or an opinon on which might be best for the Envy 15?

Much Thanks for useful feedback

 

I am under the assumption that the first batch of Envy's were being sent out on the 18th and 19th. The delay e-mails were coming out the day afterwards per how their system works, which would be the 19th and 20th. My guess is the estimate may have come from the last day the e-mails are sent out. More likely though is that the 30th is the last mailing day of the month. Does HP work on Saturdays?

 

When did they blatantly lie to everyone that the Envy 15'w with Core i5's would support switchable graphics?

 

This delay kinda makes me wonder tho. The only i5 Envy 15 that someone has here is a beats edition, and nobody received a normal i5 Envy 15 yet. And then mysteriously, they have a shortage of parts for some reason.

Lots of people called tech support or customer support and they said that there would be switchable graphics.

 

Actually if you go back thru this thread and I think also in the 2nd gen thread ppl did call and talk with HP and were told it would. I ordered an I7 so its not an issue for me personally but I know I've seem posts here that ppl were told it was switchable with the I5.

 

I'm thinking that with the disappearance of the Beats and delays of our i5's systems, there might be a chance that they do use a chipset that support switchable graphics. Probably a small possibility but let's hope.

 

Nothing to be read into the Beats disappearence. I was all set to place an order this morning after working with someone over Resolution yesterday evening and when I called this morning to pay for the order it couldn't be done. Apparently during the night an email was sent out to HP personel that the Beat LE had hit it End of Life cycle as of midnight last night. The person I was working with even tried to pull some strings and was informed they didn't even have any more parts to make more

Now that doesn't mean tho that there isn't just some software oversite with the few I5's that have gone out thats needing to be addressed to enable switching on I5 systems. I hope, for those with I5 orders this is the case.

 

A few people calling customer service and got some uninformed information that was sketchy at best is not exactly the same as telling everyone it's included. I'm not sure all of them even said it was included. Weren't all of the calls in after everyone from the first coupon ordered and IT WAS ALL JUST SPECULATION?

 

It was listed neither in the specs of the notebook, nor in the manual. At any point. A few people were told it might have switchable graphics, BUT that was only after the Official HP Envy Forums confirmed that there would NOT be switchable graphics available on the i5 Envy 15. Those who called in simply chose to either ignore or not believe one official HP Envy mouthpiece and rather put their faith into much less reliable general HP Customer Service representatives (who had previously demonstrated their lack of knowledge regarding the HP Envy refresh)... A few called till they heard what they wanted, and everyone else who simply wanted to believe--despite the evidence to the contrary--chose to do so.

I had an i5 on order, and I followed this thread just as everyone else did. At best one should have been merely hopeful of switchable graphics, and only someone rather niave would honestly be completely shocked at this point. Of course, that's not to excuse the HP CS representatives, who were entirely disorganized did in fact end up feeding some people incorrect information... but honestly, the indignant attitudes some have displayed is too much.

 

I am also surprised how casually people post about different technics to take advantage of HP.

I have seen more evidence of consumers lying on this forum to HP rather than the other way around. Just don't complain when customer service continues to go down hill and prices go up.

Do your research...if you aren't fairly confident you want the Envy then don't order it.

 

you might want to hold off on calling some of us liars. it's insulting to say the least

 

HP could have avoided these issues by simply getting all their information straight prior to selling a product. I mean the main Envy 15 page still lists the video card as the HD 4830.

 

At least HP has a nice return policy on the Envy. If my Envy 15 i5 really doesn't have switchable graphics, which is almost a certainty now, I'll use the computer for a few days and figure out if the battery life is good enough. If it isn't, I'll just return the unit.

Now if HP had been clear about the lack of switchable graphics, I probably wouldn't have even bought the computer.

 

yeah, I will be returning mine, I'm not sure if I'll even open it or not. I might just leave it in the box and ship it back. I knew people were having bios issues but they seem to have gotten worse with this update, i'm not waiting or hoping they fix things like ACPI management or multiplier issues. Naturally this shouldve been ironed out well before the machine made it to market.

edit: depends if this assclown from ebay actually pays for my laptop....sigh...ebay is terrible....always....

 

Do we know for sure if the i5 Envy's have the multiplier issue?

 

the correct answer is "wait and see when you get yours"

my answer is "yes" via johnnobts.

 

Didn't know that john posted the throttling....

 

someone did a screen shot of cpuz showing 933 mhz unplugged....might have been the other fellow who got his beats before johnnobts

 

Was it an i5 though?

 

oh woops, it was an i7

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5753936&highlight=cpuz#post5753936

 

So there is still hope!

lol

 

indeed, its interesting how his screen shots show his i7-720QM running at 1995mhz...thats essentially an i7-920QM which is like $1000 more than the 720. lucky fellow.

 

Businesses try to make the most profit they can through price differentiation: charging different prices for the same product to different social or geographical sectors of the market. Coupons are a major way this is done because the savvy shopper will bother with locating coupons or waiting for coupons whereas someone who doesn't care about price will not wait or spend the effort.

HP is trying to charge many, many different prices by raising and lowering the price day to day or week to week and by offering coupon codes.

However, customers get angry when they find out that some people got a better deal than others. If this is upfront, like charging less for senior citizens or children, most people are fine with it. But if the distinction is arbitrary, such as which rep you talk to when contacting the company or what hour you clicked the purchase button, then people can get pretty upset and might demand to be treated like the other customers (the desire for fairness and being treated as equal is quite a strong trait in many cultures).

The people on this forum are very savvy customers and are obviously getting the best deal, because they are willing to invest the time to research and compare what deals are available. If HP didn't want to play this game, they would charge one price and would be inflexible as far as discounts go. However, when the the price wildly fluctuates and they start bribing people to stay happy, then it's in the best interest for customers to band together and share information.

 

i can test the throttling issue with the i5 if you want, how do I go about doing that exactly?

 

yay! dl these

Prime95
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=205

CPUZ
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

run CPU Z and check out the multipliers when unplugged and running four threads on prime 95 if it clocks up to speeds when its plugged in the multiplier on battery issue is fixed.

 

Did I miss something? Have not heard of a multiplier issue with the i5 series, thought that was the i7's.

 

everyone has problems with everything...get some test then everyone will know

 

I WOULD have bought it. Not because I don't care about switchable graphcis, but because I was dumb enough to believer their battery life estimates. I thought that they really were trying to match or at least get close to the battery life of hte MBP.

 

ok, unplugged, multiplier is x9
plugged in, multiplier is x20

 

unplugged core speed is 1197, plugged in is 2660

 

oh wow thanks

 

did that help? need more specifics?