*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Has anyone had their units shipped yet for those who ordered from HP direct? It looks like the earliest I'm going to get mine is at the end of the week, but still leaves me hopeful that just maybe they really do have different versions and we're getting the right one direct from them.

 

Dang someone direct me to the post where it was confirmed there is no longer 2 hdd bays, I thought even when people were ordering them someone said that the 500gb option was 2x250gb drives?

 

Well... I just don't care about dual hard drives or losing the extra glare of E-to-E glass. What HP promised in this machine, and the whole point of this machine is: This CPU, this GPU, this memory capacity in this little body.

 

Well said Wretched Gnu! Totally agree

Although HP needs to be careful not to misinform consumers.

Anyway, let's not get off track here guys, this machine is a beast!

 

Yes, that's very true; but for many professional users, 2 HDD bays would make a world of difference in terms of either reliability (automatic backups without hassles of carrying around external peripherals), or performance (SSD + HDD for speed and sufficient capacity).

With the CPU, GPU, and the mem capacity, in this weight class, this machine is already in its own league. But the HDD option really would make it a no-brainer despite the steep price, in other words, the machine that has it all. Without it, many people that would have bought it would have thought about it twice before committing, weighing pros and cons with other designs.

 

Still waiting.... I'm hoping for the same thing. I wouldn't mind at all waiting a liittle longer for a product that was advertised. I really want the cleanliness of E2E and the pimpness of dual hdd.

 

Its still a darn good laptop without all those features, it would have been nice to have them, but I agree that the real meat of the laptop comes from the fact its light weight, 15" and freakin powerful (compared to other laptops in its class)

 

it still doesn't add up. why does the board support raid if you can't house two drives on it?

 

there is still hope for 2 HDD drives, lets just wait and see!

 

It's not like there's a specific RAID controller that HP put in deliberately. It's part of the chipset and you can't take it out. I'd say most chipsets come with RAID support nowadays.

 

Except it's not light weight once you add the slice battery, and the graphics card is only 16% better than the Studio XPS 16.

It's also lacking the glass screen (apparently), and the lid only tilts back to about 110°. Oh yeah, and the touchpad sucks according to those who have tried it. And all the ports are on the right side. And there's no firewire. And the lid is some ugly brown color with a paisley pattern.

I don't understand the unnecessary compromises they made, or the false advertising. What do you get in exchange for the tradeoffs and being jerked around by ignorant customer service and lying websites? The features that the next Macbook Pro will probably have for about the same price, with none of the tradeoffs.

 

I really hope you're right. Just seems as though with each hands on report it's getting less and less likely.

 

no offense, but it's hard to read your post and think you're being objective. based on the previews and reviews, the computer is extremely impressive in terms of internals specs, as well as aesthetics.

you embellish the touchpad issue which was actually addressed in the review.

Those who actually have looked at the laptop up close say the etching is subtle and tasteful (not sure where you are getting brown from). Meanwhile, until those that order actually receive the product they have every right to see.

As for the battery life, please show me an i7 system with similar specs that get around 6 hours of life and weight less than what the envy 15 gets with the slice. Also show me a laptop that has less of a footprint with similar specs.

 

Yep despite all the disappointment i'm getting from hearing from the people who got the machines, that a couple of things promised by Hp is not being delivered I feel like there is no machine out right now with this much power in such a small case.

 

Who says you need the slice? I won't.

...which is not thin and light.

... fine with me...

... ok; I sit when I use my notebook...

That it does. Fortunately for some of us, we use a mouse.

That is unfortunate.

shrug.

The one I held looked great, and was certainly not brown...

 

Sure it's still a nice machine. But I'd still be a pretty dissatisfied customer if my order doesn't arrive with what HP promised. I was really looking forward to dual SSD, or perhaps an SSD+HDD alternative, which would've been a world of difference compared to other laptops and would've been seriously noticeable performance-wise. Because HP still promises these things right from the front page right where the BUY button is:

"A frameless look with edge-to-edge protective display glass"
http://www.shopping.hp.com/series/c...mpid=in_r329_personalization/browse1/home_SDP

"versatile storage options including dual solid state drives in a RAID-0 configuration for maximum performance",
from the "Envy 15 demo" link: http://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/inte...y_15/ProdPage/Other/CSMR/NonIDP&usePopup=true, click Details, hover over "Upgradable and expandable".

These promises are not rumors from media events or misinformed rep agents on a show floor. Again:
These quotes are straight from the BUY page on hp.com.
This is the information that HP gives their potential customers so that they will click the BUY button on the page.

 

yeah that really sux....they did put dual SSD in Raid-0....mmm

 

I agree; there's no excuse for that.

 

Lol Wretched I know the post you were writing about had a lot of hate, but a faulty touchpad on a light and portable notebook would definitely be a potential deal breaker for some however I think they did fix it right? (someone chime in?)

 

For those people that think 2 hard drive in one computer is a significant feature, check out:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=388625

Most computers can have 2 hard drives with a little tweaking.

 

Well I've had my BB edition of this laptop since the 22nd. I'm pissed as all hell to find out that there was a bing discount and it doesn't make me feel any better knowing there might be a possibility of this laptop with an all glass screen instead of this cheap plastic bezel. It's amazingly quick and runs quiet except when playing a game. Performance 3-D wise was horrible until I went into mobility manager and changed the setting from Balanced to Performance in doing so screen became brighter and (WOW performance - I know lol) really increased just wondering how they could let this slip out the door with just an 8 series Catalyst Driver when the 9.10 is out for desktop. Finding a driver from mobility modder has given me nothing but bsod. As beautiful as this laptop is, I'm going to return it for a more suitable pc especially since it only has space for 1 hd ...a step down from my gateway fx notebook for half the price. Let the flame war begin but most of the reviews for this laptop mention things it doesn't have or are just plain wrong. Have to think about an Asus or wait for the Mac refresh now

 

I've been using mine for a day and a half now and the only complaint I have with the touchpad is the on/off button. It does work, but you have to push on it hard in the corner (not above the light) for about 5 seconds to turn it on/off. That button did get stuck sometimes when I was testing it and I had to click one of the other buttons to unstick it. However, that only happened when I continuously turned it on and off while I was testing it. In normal use it seems to work fine. Overall the touchpad is no better or worse than the touchpad my hp compaq 6730s has, and it's much better than the awful touchpad my dell inspiron 6000 had (that was several years ago and I still remember how bad it was). The on/off switch really isn't a deal breaker anyway. I don't think I've ever had a laptop with one before.

 

to fix that mousepad go into mouse settings and slide the bar all the way to the left. This make the button respond more like a button instead of dirty finger print reader.

 

Just found the spec sheet for this and I wish I had read it before buying this thing.... http://www.engadget.com/tag/envy+15/

 

You may have missed that there is no optical bay inside the Envy? So what you're referring to doesn't apply here...

 

How big and heavy is the power brick? Is it as big as a Xbox360 Power Monster? Read the review over at mobiletechreview.com but there wasn't a pic of the brick. The slice I've read adds significant weight but I can deal with that but the brick maybe not.

I would've given the Battery Life on this machine as a Pro according to the review. All the other Core i7 Mobile gamer machines peg the drain time at less than an hour with machines weighing more than this one with the Slice installed.

 

Re the combined weight of lappy + power brick + slice:

Shurely, we would only want to carry EITHER the brick OR the slice? If you need extended power, then either you can take the slice with you (and check the brick in with your hold baggage, leave it at home, whatever), or you're going somewhere where power is available, so you'll use the power brick, and won't need the extra battery...

Just a thought.

Charlie

 

I am updating the OP with some info.
Give it a read as it seems to be very reliable.

 

theres a few aussies waiting on your review!

if it has both i pretty sure i'll be getting it. Can you say about how much HN will be selling it?

 

A new video of a Korean Press Conference Discusses the HP Envy 15 and also states that the Envy 15 will support dual hard drives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLRJPkmW2Eo


No information in this video is given about an E to E Display.

 

Just found these:

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/HP-Envy-15.htm

And

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SPyMxCWdRU

Haven't looked into them yet, just found them and thought I would share them...

EDIT: Well, according to the first link, there is only 1 bay for a hard drive... Ouch. Oh wells

 

Have been following the two Envy 15 threads since the beginning and finally has something to contribute with.

I just received an answer to a mail sent to the Swedish HP sales guys. The HP sales rep said that the Envy 15 to be sold in Sweden will have full HD screens (1920x1080). The previous info about the lower res screens is also pulled from the Swedish web page. So the confusion seems to be massive at HP, but at least there is hope for HD screens in Europe. The info about the low res screens is still present on the UK website though...

 

Just got off the phone from HP UK. And she says what ever is listed on the site is what HP UK are shipping...so looks like we (potential UK buyers) are stuck with a crappy screen.

One thing I don't understand is that amazon UK is listing it as 1080p...

 

Thanks for posting this, it's reassuring. Also, this Swedish flyer describes the 1099eo model as FHD:

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-9221SVE.pdf

 

That clears up some confusion re drives.

Specifically the form factor of the ENVY 15 is described as a Single spindle design, which means room for one disk drive. A design with room for an ODD as well is usually described as a Dual spindle design.

Furthermore, this official-looking presentation states:
ONE 2.5" HDD, or
ONE 1.8" SSD + ONE 1.8" HDD, or
TWO 1.8" SSDs.

A possible way to fit two thin 1.8" drives into a single spindle design would be to stack them on top of each other. That's my best guess.

The actual models released initially seem to differ in that no dual drive configurations are offered. My guess is that we'll see those configurations in a few months, and that an upgrade to for example dual SSDs will be possible.

I don't think dual 2.5" drives is important. However, I would have liked to see an SSD boot disk for speed, combined with a 2.5" HDD with large capacity for storage. The 1.8" HDDs just aren't enough.

Also, the last page of the presentation states " C2D in Q1".

 

I guess one intel x25 G2 is enough.
I won't count on the upgrade though, you need a different hdd cage for 1.8" as per the repair manual.
Thus unless Hp is willing to oblige, ain't gonna happen.

That said, good 1.8" drives of any kind are hard to find so nothing to worry about. It would have been nice if they told us this straight though. Looks like Hp Korea knows what's going on at least

Anyone knows if the best buy model is the same as the hp one? Warranty still by hp?

 

No crap I'm not being objective. I'm pissed at HP for misleading us rubes.

HP has lost a customer for life. You know the page still says it has a glass edge to edge screen?


Looks brown to me

 

It's supposed to be champagne coloured looks more silver than brown to me

edge to edge will be nice, though I am not sure it would be better. The apple fanboys have been moanng about the lack of matt screens for ages now. A Matt screen by default can't be tt bad right?

I do see the draw of e2e though. Looks prettier. I imagine if there's dust under the glass it will be an epic pita though

 

Time to move to Dell Studio XPS 16, it has E-2-E!

 

It's not matte. It's the regular glossy plastic, with none of the benefits of glass like scratch resistance. If that's what you prefer, fine, but I ordered a notebook with a glass screen. I also ordered dual HD bays, a silver lid, and the opening angle you expect from every laptop unless given a spec that says otherwise.

 

then you're colorblind, because that's not brown.

 

If it doesn't look brown, maybe it's because your screen is set to a 9300k color balance instead of sRGB

 

right, maybe you should actually go look at one in person and get back to me. and don't tell me my eyes aren't calibrated. i get it, you're mad at hp. join the club, you can be president. i am too, but i'm not going out of my way to bash the laptop and exaggerate things.

 

Is there any case to order the notebook with ssd drive

 

I for one will more than likely be sending my laptop back, just out of pure disgust that hp thinks they can dump all their non fhd display on the uk market. It was a key specification for me, and I cant believe i'm paying more money taking into account exchange rates than my "american cousins" yet receiving a crappy specification.

I have emailed hp to let them know this, I even tried phoning them but after being passed between three different people I realised the monkeys know less about the laptop than I do!

 

It couldn't be browner!

 

I don't know why so many people are hung up on the FHD resolution in these tiny screens. Yes, FHD gives you a bigger real estate but is it really usable? My Dell E1705 is 17" laptop with FHD but the text is just too small. Yes, I can change the DPI in Vista and that's what I have done. But then what's the point?

Many applications are not developed to be scalable and you need to turn off scaling in those applications. End result? They are hard to use. Yes, I am not very young, but I don't use glasses. My 15" work laptop has 1440x900 and it's way more readable and quite good in terms of real estate. My previous job's 24" display with 1920x1200 screen was really nice. Big enough for this resolution but my E1705? Definitely not. And this Envy 15's screen is just 15.6".

In my E1705, I can't tell the difference between a 720p video and a 1080p video since the screen is just too small. While using Photoshop or Lightroom I see the advantage of the real estate, but 1440x900 is probably good enough for most people. And gamers can gain a few fps without sacrificing sharpness.

 

For me 1440x900 is optimal on a 15.4" (or I guess 1600x900 on a 15.6) but I figured since the scaling is supposed to be good in Win7, 1080p would be fine.
1366x768 is too low though

Here is a screen DPI calculator
http://members.ping.de/~sven/dpi.html

The 15.6" 1080p is 141.21 PPI
The 15.6" 1366x768 is 100.45 PPI
Dell's 16.0" RGBLED is 137.68 PPI
Dell's 15.6" 1600x900 is 117.68 PPI (I like this one)
Dell's 15.6" 1680x945 is 123.56 PPI (replacement for the 1600x900 that you get with the i7)

An old style 15.4" 1680x1050 is 128.65 PPI
An old style 15.4" 1440x900 is 110.27 PPI

The 24" desktop 1920x1200 is 94.34 PPI (but you sit much further)

 

I think 94ppi is good enough for average human eye when viewed from 18-24" distance and anything around 100ppi just good enough for everybody. As long as you cannot see the individual pixels when up close, it's good enough for you. More is just useless beyond that point.

 

I was afraid 1080p would be too small for me on a 15.6" screen(I'm very happy with 1680x1050 on my 22" lcds) but win7 does do a good job of scaling. It's completely different than XP, which was horrible.