*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Gnu, it does look silver in that pic. ?!!

 

7 uses Vista style scaling, so while it is very uniform (unlike XP), it's just like setting to a lower resolution. Only thing is that it doesn't get fuzzy like setting an LCD into a lower resolution. So, in effect you got a sharp lower resolution screen but your GPU is still working hard to scale everything, resulting in heat. A big negative in my book.

 

It's similar to the champagne-colored cars. It some lighting conditions it looks silver. In others it has a brownish metallic look.

 

There may have been some irony in that post.

I've held the thing: believe me, it doesn't look brown at any angle or any lighting.

 

If you work with photography then a high resolution screen is a godsent. Image detail improves significantly at 200 dpi, even at normal laptop viewing distance. Such a resolution is also closer to print resolution, which means processing such as sharpening can be better previewed. Also the overall impression of viewing an image at 2 megapixels instead of 1 megapixel is quite superior.

Similarly, if you work with software engineering then for coding and debugging a high-res screen allows for more lines of code to be displayed. Maybe the default fonts are then sligthtly too small, but that's just a setting.

 

No, the DWM in Vista/Win7 does not first render then scale. Displayed objects are rendered at the display resolution as far as possible. So the GPU does not work harder just because you change DPI pitch or font size.

 

small text is a small price to pay for the amazing definition in a 1080p display. 1080p media, graphics detail, screen real estate, quality of photographic viewing, etc. We got robbed in the UK, its some sort of sick hp joke. I suppose they realised noone would knowingly buy the 1366 by whatever model, so they decided to force it on the uk market.

 

Went to BestBuy over the weekend to take a look at Envy 15, and it was a bit disappointing. Build quality was not quite there, and there was some flexing. The main issue is that bottom left was just scorching hot. Thing wasn't really doing anything, pretty much sitting idle.

 

Dunno if anyone's caught this review... haven't had time to read the exploding number of posts on this thread yet!!

Check it out if you haven't:

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

Pretty positive so far!

Cheers.

 

that might be an isolated issue with the that particular bestbuy machine as everything I have read about temps have been extremely positive. You have to remember that these machines at the stores are on for hours and a time etc, that might have contributed to the hot temp.

 

Let's hope it's still a mistake despite what HP UK says. HP Sweden withdrew the specs for the 1099eo config that said 1366x768.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VZmbAxxkTY

preview from HP...

clear E2E isn't happening

he confirms SSD raid is possible...

 

I do work with photography (mostly Lightroom) and do appreciate the high resolution when that helps i.e. on my external monitor. There is no point in having high resolution when your eyes cannot resolve it. Also whatever camera you use, it's certainly over 1080p and is scaled down when you view. So, you are losing detail anyway, unless you blow up certain portion to view 1:1. And with a higher resolution screen, you have bigger real estate and the image will appear smaller making it more difficult to see the image quality on the screen, unless of course the screen is physically large too.

Well, once you change the font settings, you get to see less number of lines on screen nullifying the advantage of high resolution screen.

About the scaling, you could be right. I was assuming it's a feature of Aero, and since Aero runs on GPU, I thought scaling would be done by the GPU.

 

It does look kinda gold in the photo.

I went to best buy (Southcoast plaza in OC CA) to check it out. I got mine on order from HP and I can't say I am too happy. However - this is a first impression of a floor model so I'd continue to wait for mine.

First : the 13 looks much nicer than the 15. the flush glass does add a lot to the clean aesthetic look. the bezel of Envy 15 seems plasticy and cheep. and I really don't care for that laser etched design on the 15. it doesn't really add anything to it in my opinion.

I was hoping that the machine will look nicer in person but in fact - it looks thicker then I expected and no - the slice was not attached. The screen didn't look as nice as I expected either. I personally don't like glossy screens but in this case I think that E2E will really improve the look of the unit.

Comparing the aesthetics of the machine against MBP is a lost battle. MBP is so much cleaner and pleasing to the eye then the Envy so I wont even go that way.

The mouse pad is terrible. I didn't care much about that since I am going to attach an external mouse anyway but when I tried to operate it, it was far from smooth.

What I did like ? Well, the windows 7 test scores were excellent. I think that the hard drive score was the lowest with 5.9 and the memory was the highest with 7.2 or 7.3.

As far as competition, unless MBP will have a CPU and GPU revision any time soon (and rumors are that none will happen before 2010), I don't think there is any.

So I'll wait and see if the ugly etch design can grow on me, my machine is due to arrive on 11/3.

 

how do you guys know when your machine is arriving? mine just says it will be built by 10/28...

 

When I ordered it, it said 'Estimated Delivery Date - 11/03'. Also - you chose 2-3 days UPS so you can assume you'll get yours on 11/01.

 

They don't know exactly, assuming yours ships 10/28 it will be three days.. One day customs clearance and two days shipping most likely.

 

hm... mine camed with free 2nd day fedex... but i don't know when it's slated to ship. just know it will be built by 10/28

 

And now its back again... The specs on the swedish website is once again saying 1366x768. Probably the web page is rendered dynamically from some kind of database and depending on what that database contains the web page displays this information. So if HP in the US has all this trouble of knowing their own hardware, the rest of the world doesn't do much better.

Lets just hope it turns out OK when it arrives here in Europe

 

Hmm I just watched the video from Hp. So no E2E I guess. Here's something interesting it says either a SATA hard drive or Raid SSD drives. So I think you can have dual SSDs but you can't have a regular hard drive with a SSD

 

im in best buy now(again)... trying to figure out whether I want a sony fw or hp envy... the envy is HOT...i dont mean sexy hot ....like foreman grill hot. I did figure out how to brighten the screen and i was wrong about it being too dim but its not knock your socks off bright either. Man this thing just has nothing that wows me at all in the build I really wanna love this thing...

 

But the FW is not Core i7!

 

Yeah - I think the only computer that rivals the internals and speed of the Envy is the XPS 16.

 

Not to mention going to be quite a bit larger and heavier overall. I personally set core i7 as a must criterion for whatever I considered before I went with the envy. I'll admit though I did really want to like the alienware m15x, but I couldn't justify the tradeoffs in size and weight compared to the envy.

 

I was cross shopping the Envy with the m15x as well. Really if that thing was like 2-3 pounds lighter I would have gotten it already. But really 9+ pounds is heaver than my 17 inch from 5 years ago.

 

The M15x is a different category of notebook really. The Envy is made to be small, light but powerful, the m15x is just powerful. Plus, one is a gaming machine whilst the other is not. Personally I wouldn't mind pulling out an Envy 15 in the office; but I'd feel odd pulling out a m15x.

 

I agree with what you say, but the Envy does have enough power i think to make it a decent gaming notebook. Not hardcore but def more than for casual gamers. I mean that was why I was cross shopping them. really the Portability won over the slight increase in performance.

 

XPS 16 actually has some advantages over E15 in terms of internals like RGB LED, SSD option and OD. But the thickness and heat issues from their C2D configurations has me worried. I want a machine that can run 24x7 if needed, so it should be cool when idle. And if what Lisa G found out is right, E15 is cooler than my desktop (my underclocked 4850 runs over 50°C when idle).

 

envy 15 is more than powerful for most gaming needs unless you are one of those guys who most have max setting at max possible resolution with 16x aa

 

Yeah - personally I'd rather have my games run at or near 1920x1080 rather than at 1280x720 with 8xaa. For that I think the Envy 15 will suit my needs. The SXPS 16 RGB LED screen is a big attraction, but I'd rather have the slight increase in graphics performance, smaller form factor, less heat and better battery life of the Envy.

 

going lower resolution for game isn't so bad on espcially small 15inch screen

 

I agree;

I thought long and hard about the Sony FW and SXPS 16 since July. At one point, it became clear that the FW would not immediately get the i7 upgrade. For the SXPS, I looked at one of my friend's with a P8700, and her machine was very warm on top near the palm rest and scalding hot at certain spots on the bottom of the chassis. So it seemed to be pushing it to have a T series C2D or an i7 in the same design. I guess that's my backup plan now.

The Alienware M15 is simply atrocious in terms of size to weight ratio. There is no way in Tartarus am I going to lug that thing around day in and day out. It's almost as non-portable as HDX 20, I don't see anyone needing a daily work machine, in their right mind, getting such as heavy, hot, and power guzzling monstrosity.

The envy has pretty everything that I was looking for; and the cooling mechanism now seems to be on the spot as well, and should allow for good longevity. The GPU is probably the best choice in terms of relatively high end capability packged with very low TDP at 40nm for a slim design. The extra RAM slots just are a unique feature that I'm sure to appreciate when time comes to upgrade. The only thing left uncertain would be the HDD options; guess will find that out for sure very soon.

 

I do realize machine is on for hours, however, it's pretty much on idle. That's what is concerning. I'll visit another BestBuy to compare.

 

Anyone knows how the envy 15 compares with the Dell m6400 q9300x in terms of performance?
Tks

 

Windows 7 scales text nearly perfectly. Have been using it for a month and its great.

 

How about the Studio? Not Studio XPS, the Studio does come in i7. The Studio 1557 model.

 

I purchased a SXPS 16 with a T series processor a month ago. The thing was a beast performance wise and the monitor looked AMAZING. I was worried about the heat as i couldn't put it on my lap (has to rest it on a book or on my desk) and the touch pad would get really hot (40C+). Still i would have kept the bloody thing if Dell hadn't shipped me a laptop that wasn't stained on the cover. I told them to ship me another one and they shipped another stained one!

Needless to say... lack of build quality inspection + heat issues have made me look else where.

Not sure if the E15 reviews are correct so far, as many people have said the BB models they've checked out are running at high temperatures while idle... here's hoping its just a case of using pre-production models for display purposes...

The FW is a nice machine, but for the price it's quite underpowered. DRR2 ram, and lower speed processors make it rather dated. The one good thing is Sony has been traditionally good with managing heat output of its laptops (probably because they keep them relatively underpowered). My old Sony FZ series is going on 4 years old now, still runs relatively flawlessly on Vista and is only now starting to constantly put out heat from the vent... even then the air is no where near the temps that were coming out of my SXPS 16!

As a side not i believe i've figured out why the vent for the SXPS 16 was pointed at the screen. The air that was being blown out of it would have injured any exposed skin were it to blow out of any of the sides. Many people thought the screen blocking the vents was a design flaw... it was infact a brilliant way to redirect the scorching hot air away from directly contacting the user when the laptop was in their lap (because from that angle the screen would need to be close to fully extended).

 

Hi there. I just came back from my walking day around London.

What a lovely city, its been 9 years since the last time I was here. So for those who know, I got lost in Tottenham Court Road and walked around for an hour until I found the PC World (after asking about 4 times... ) Well, finally I found this lappy and I got to play around with it for a while.

So here are my impressions:

First off, the laptop had not the battery inside, so it was REALLY light.
Secondly, they had it locked with some proprietary software, so I couldnt really play a lot with it, and I didnt have my camera with me.

Start:
I found the laptop to be BIG! I am sorry, I am used to my good old Dell Vostro 15.4" and it looks smaller (I would say the Envy was fighting in size with the FW besides it...).

Heat: The palmrest were lukewarm, kinda ambient feeling, and considering my hands were frozen (and I tried to warm them up with the laptop, and I couldnt) those are great news!
The vent was working, and pushing air all the time, but it was not noticeable.
The lower part of the case felt warmer than the upper, but by any means hot. It was warm only.
I did launch some vids, some demos, pics, and music all the time trying to get the GPU to do something, or at least the CPU.
The fans were quiet and the heat was nowhere high.

Touchpad: I loved it! It is kinda tricky to learn to use it, but after 10 minutes it is really nice! I could even navigate having both fingers on it. Although that was rather strange. I must admit I tap the touchpad all the time to do clicks (and that is why I hate Macs, I cant tap them...) so the touchpad/clickpad was by no means a problem.
I did try the locking thing. It is like a fingerprint reader, you keep your finger pressed there for 3-4 secs and it works. No it is not a click (at least this one).
The right click button was very responsive, and the left one too. It did register all the things I did, and I could even get the turning thing to work.
The texture is nice, and the touchpad is large, but I found it smaller than the MBP's one.
Overall, I like the touchpad a lot. It was nicer than mine, and the larger surface is a NICE thing to have.
What I didnt like was that indeed you cant rest both fingers at the same time, as it wont recognize what you are doing, but that wasnt a problem for me, I always use only one finger, and tap it...

Audio: After launching several songs, vids and demos, the sound was not impressive nor jaw-dropping, but was really good, considering it is a laptop. By no means it gets closer than my dedicated loudspeakers and sub-woofer, but compared to my current laptop, they were noticeably better.
What I didnt like was that you press to go higher with the volume and you cant tell unless you are paying attention. Some sort of graphical thing would be nice on the screen.

Keyboard: As of now I have been tipping on a MacBook, so the chiclet style keyboard is starting to grow in me. I liked it. But I like my Dell's better. Is it because I am used to? I think so, but I changed from Desktop KB to laptop KB in a week...so I adapt easily. What I didnt like was that the keys felt not THAT stiff. I mean they are good, and the tipping is nice, but I dont know...something was different to what I am used to...
The layout indeed is uncommon (especially the UK one...sorry, no offense). Uncommon is not bad, it is just new. I think after a while is all the same.

Screen: I couldnt get to see what the resolution was, but it did NOT have E2E in this place. I wasnt turned down, I liked it. The screen was very clear and bright. The colors seemed quite accurate and crisp. I dont understand the "pop up" thing, so dont ask me about that, but I can tell I liked it. It was BIG and WIDE! This is the me wanting a 16:10 ^^
Back to topic, the screen, it was really nice, and I think a E2E wouldve make it too glossy. In fact it wasnt a mirror this one. It was glossy, yes, I could see some lights reflect from those on the ceiling, but is not the mirror I experience on other laptops, where I can see myself rather than the image. So that is a win for me.
What I didnt like is the height. Dang those 16:9 are crippled things. It just doesnt feel right. Who knows, I like my 16:10 but the WXGA is a no-go.

Performance: since I couldnt really tweak around with it, is not like I had too much to give on this. Sorry, if you want me to report on this, wait till I get mine and get some time to play with it and learn it.

Body: Ok, here is where it might get the longest. I carried it a bit, and it felt like my Vostro (which is supposedly light, no idea, I feel it heavy...). It did have a kensington lock, some security things and the charger, and no battery, so it felt light but heavy on a side. Kinda strange.
I found some VERY VERY MINOR flex on the palmrests IF you press stupidly/abnormally hard. So no problem if you are resting your hands there.
The keyboard had no flex to report.
The lid I pressed it and moved it, and no flex that you can say "this thing flexes", only some minor that if you move one corner to the front and one to the back, you see the screen flex? (does it make sense???). Dont worry, it is not something serious, it is the regular, as most screens do.
I did find it thicker than the MBP. And even thicker than some other laptops. The lid seemed thicker than a WLED normally one, I would say as thick as my CCFL (well, not that much, but you get the idea, it was thicker than normal).
The body seemed quite clean, and the pattern is unnoticeably, seriously it was quite hidden. It was there, believe me, but it is not that you say and you go "oh god, what is that on the lid?". Very understated.
The design seems very clean and nice. I liked that it wasnt busy and with corners and squared...
Something that disliked me A LOT was that the lid on this particular model DID NOT CLOSE THE LAPTOP PERFECTLY. I mean, c'mon, even the MBP when closed is almost sealed, this one left a gap between the lid and the body. Is it to protect the screen? No idea, but c'mon, close it completely.
It does have rubber feet BTW.
And there are some rubber things around the screen, and those dont let the screen to seal the laptop, it wouldve been nice to have it completely closed.
The body is WIDE! I mean, that thing is wide. Again, coming from a 16:10 with a small bezel (I must say, my cheap laptop is not that badly designed...) to a 16:9 with a regular bezel it is quite a change.
I need to compare them one with the other though...
Oh BTW, dont get me wrong, all those 15.6 laptops are bigger than this one.

Am I forgetting something? If so ask me (not about performance)

Overall I liked it, and there are not many tradeoffs for this one. I think youd be happy with this purchase.

 

The problem with the studio in my book is that its an i7 stuffed into a $599 bargain basement chassis. This gives you a fast laptop, but with lots of compromises built in,

For example the keyboard on the left side near the enter will flex when you type with some force. The screen is not stiff or resistant to torque and will bend quite significantly. The hinge does not feel any good when you open it up and i have a feeling the rubber coating on the exterior will not age well.

If it were any good, i would have gotten one rather than waiting for hp to get their act together.


@serg is the flex on the monitor significant? I have a thinkpad and it doesn't flex at all. Not sure if this will be a problem..

 

you are definitely right! But i think this i7 stuff is blown out of proportion. Im not a HARDCORE gamer, but I do game when im stuck in a hotel on the road alot. If the trade off is all this damn heat and battery drain i think a centrino2 chip with 6mb cache is well enough. An i7 is overkill for most users, and im starting to realize that it probably is for me too. Besides as hot as this thing gets running a windows 7 demo...i dont want to be around when this thing hits "turbo mode"...you could tailgate on that thing. I know the one review is stating that the temps are cool, but I have a hard time believing that. It had the warmest palmrest in the store for me. (they didnt have an sxps16 lol). I had a dell 1530 that went into nitro mode if i gamed on it too long and dont want to go back down that road.

I know the FW is a little underpowered in comparison to the envy, but for me it seems really powerful for what I need it to do without the radiator qualities. And the only reason I started looking at it was after i realized how big the envy was. If you add up all the envy's accessories your bag will weigh more than the FW will easily.

 

lower speed processors? You can put the same chip in it as any other computer minus the i7s. And they dropped the price of it.

 

Good one Serg. I always knew people are complaining because they are used to their current touchpads. One just has to be patient for a day since it's a new and better thing. The driver may not be perfect yet, but that will not take long.

I was just wondering (and you may not know since you wouldn't have seen the BIOS), is there a way to turn off 2 cores permanently? So that it works more like an Arrandale and consumes even less power. I am sure we'll be able to underclock both the CPU & GPU in near future.

 

And yes, that 16:9 screen will take some time for me too to get used to. Both my personal & work laptops have 16:10 screen ratio and I'd miss the extra height.

 

I am on similar boat. If I were to get a laptop, it better be i7 or not get one at all. I already have a C2D desktop to do my game and photoshop stuff. Why get another C2D. I would need something better.

I need it to be light, portable, and good enough for casual game whenever i have the urge (i.e.: WOW, EQ2, or whatever comes across similar to it).

Alienware "WAS" nice, until their recent design. I find that to be absolutely ugly with 9lbs of weight.

I thought about Falcon NW ( http://www.falcon-nw.com/) but it is an over priced Clevo or Compal or whatever. Alien is the sameboat)

Envy 15 is nice, would prefer NOT having those flowery design. A simple color would be best. Way over priced, but heck if they can squeeze that and still be under 6lbs..i am amazed. I dont care if it is single or dual HDD. E-E is nice to have, do agree Envy 13 looks better.

I would love to get an iCore Macbook Pro 15 and just run Windows 7 ahahah..MacOSX is nice, but i got no apps for them.

 

Just think of it as gaining space horizontally

 

That's impressive; getting lost on a straight road even after having been given directions on how to get there - the only thing I didn't tell you was which direction to go from the tube station ;o) OK, so it's a long-ish road, but still.....

Did you see if it was in any of the other numerous computer stores along there? PC World tends to be a bit ridiculous about their security etc, whereas some of the smaller boutiques etc would not have been.

 

This is a really tough one deciding whether to keep this laptop, i'm still in the process of sending back a studio 15 i7 dell laptop because they messed me about. On one hand I am disgusted by hp's decision to bump the uk market with cheap low res displays. However on the other i've got to respect the fact that there really isn't much else in terms of competition out there in terms of portable stylish laptops with this kind of spec. Damn I hate hp, its not even like they gave us the choice, I would of paid more given the option for the FHD screen.
I think i'll just have to wait till my laptop turns up on Saturday. Maybe if I give hp another call and vent some more anger I can let some more steam out, then maybe i'll be ready to accept my laptop when it turns up. You never know they might have made a mistake about the screen resolution on the uk sight (yeah right!)

 

I think its the same two models that ship to every country except US.
The 720, 1x4gb, 500gb hdd, low res screen, no slice battery.
The 820, 2x4gb, 500gb hdd, low res screen, slice battery

As far as i know, US is the only place where you can customize your laptop. Every other country its pre-spec models.

I was hoping for some decent models, but they just dont fit my needs. The one i like the most at this time is the US quickship model. But we don't have a spec like that
So im waiting patiently for other models to surface.
If you take the dv6 it has about 10 different models to choose from, so hopefully it wont take long for HP to give us some other alternatives for the Envy 15 as well.

 

Yes, it is frustrating that HP don't give you the option of customising anywhere but the US. I'm sure there are many people that would wait longer to get the machine they want rather than simply what was available pre-built.

 

Comparing C2D and Core i7 is not a good comparison at all. The Envy is definitely a great first try at balance between high performance and ultra portability. The build quality is not bad but there is some flex in the screen and body. At 5.2 lbs its lighter than the Macbook Pro but the Apple is definitely stiffer and feels more solid.

I would prefer an E2E for a cleaner look but not a game breaker for me but am hopeful that the online BTO models will have these. RAID SSD configs is not a big deal for me either since I'm not going to spend another $700+ for such a build anyways. I'm convinced future builds will have this an option. I suspect a config refresh in the next half of the year.

I wasn't impressed with the brightness until I played with the wallpaper backgrounds. The Fry's model looked brighter I think because the light sensor was off while the BB model had it on and was overly sensitive.