*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

@smilepak, yes bing cashback confirmation ~20 minutes after purchase. 56 days left.

 

Still in production

ordered 10/18/2009, 09:00:08 PDT

 

I am still in production today as well, but I have a feeling they are going to start sending out tomrrow. I ordered on :10/18/2009, 07:34:35 PDT

 

Still in production as well. ordered 10/18/2009, 02:37:47 PDT

 

I ordered the Targus cooler with mine. Anyone know if the fans on that cooler blow upward or downward? If they blow downward, they'd be fighting the fans on the laptop

 

Wait it's not edge to edge, like it's just a regular with a piece of glass over, or is it just like a regular with a bezel?

 

In theory, nothing Windows 7 powered (aside from MSDN and other special programs) should be in consumers' hands prior to tomorrow, the 22nd, right?

I hope we all ship out tomorrow too.

 

Anybody know how to connect a firewire 800 (1394b) to this machine?

 

The one on display at BB had a bezel over the glass while the envy 13 was smooth over the entire lcd

 

I'm pretty sure you can't. But you do have an esata port at least to make up for it somewhat.

 

yea i did all of that and the screen was its brightest. It still seemed very dim to me. And i could see myself. It was like i had to hunch over to read text and you combine that with not being able to move the screen back far enough really turned me off. I think the glass is the culprit. The other "regular" laptop screens really popped.

 

Wow. I got so excited!! I was pulling up HP's website in a new tab and then I saw the rest of your post! You sucK! lol

 

not even a little

 

So i'm wondering should I go into best buy and buy it tomorrow?!

 

As long as you don't need to upgrade anything its the fastest way to get it. I think many others like myself got the 25% cashback deal direct through hp so we have to wait on delivery.

 

That would be the fastest way to get it! Plus, you have to pay tax no matter what since HP is in like all the states (I think), so there's no real advantage to ordering it online. If you're going to buy it, you should definitely buy it at best buy and post pictures and benchmarks for everyone

 

Can someone do me a big favor and post a pic of the slot load blu-ray drive once someone here has it? I ordered the DM3 and curious how the two external drives differ in design/look/aesthetics. Obviously, I don't have it yet but wanted to see how similar and different they are.

 

They don't actually have any in the store I'll have to order from them and wait for it to ship from their warehouse. It's the only way for me to get the envy because hp won't let me buy direct. The rejected my order won't tell me why and said that no matter what I do they won't sell to me direct

 

A 400£ bump for a 250£ 4GB stick and a 250£ battery sounds about right.

Keep in mind that with the UK configs you're getting more than with the US configs, in that expensive 4GB DDR3's are installed, one or two depending on config.

As for battery slice pricing, I'm looking at the HP sweden listed price which is 2999 SEK with tax (263£ today), it will probably be a bit lower in the UK.

The 768p screen is likely a typo - wait and see.

 

I have been thinking about getting a good, small, cheap SSD (if such a one exists) to run the operating system off of. Does anyone have any suggestions? I think I'd only be interested if it sells for less than $150. I can't afford to buy a $350 160 GB SSD. Any suggestions?

 

I'll eat my cat if it's not. Why on earth would they produce such a thing? And then foist it only on the Brits? Phhht...

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227393&cm_re=vertex-_-20-227-393-_-Product

I would personally go with this one, OCZ makes some great SSD that are not nearly as expensive as the Intel models, it is a little more than $150 but if spend less than that performance and quality drops

this would be my 2nd choice
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227460

 

I stopped by the Deptford, NJ Best Buy and they, too, had the Envy 15 and 13 side by side. They also had the Studio 16/17 in stock along with the 15" Macbook Pro.

The screen of the Envy is not in the same league as the Macbook Pro. Macbook Pro screen was easily readable under the BB lights. The Envy, even at max brightness, still wasn't in the same category as the Macbook. The screen was on par with the Studio 16's and 17's they had in stock which were both equipped with WLED screens (The Studio 17 models they had were the older 1745 models, not the new 1747 i7 versions).

Weight wise, are you sure this thing is 5.14lbs? Even without the slice, it feels as heavy as the Studio 16 I picked up.

It really seems like a poor mans Macbook (even though it dusts the Macbooks performance wise with that sweet i7 and 4830 GPU). It looks like an HP with a metallic exterior.

Ok, I can verify at idle, the palm rests (on both sides) are definitely warm to the touch. My girlfriend was typing on it to get a feel for the keyboard before I got a chance to give it the once over and she immediately said, "Are the palm rests supposed to be this warm?" I went over to give it a touch and she was right. They are definitely warm. Here is hoping under a decent load it doesn't go nova. The stock model has the 720.

The fan noise @ idle being loud is greatly overstated. I had to put my ear down next to it to actually hear the fan going (which it was).

The case construction seems pretty solid, including the lid, but not on the scale ht the 15" Macbook. The overall feel, quality wise, is definitely higher than the Studio 16 but definitely nowhere near the Macbook pro 15"

I would not pay $2000 for it. For those who BING'd it up, kudos, but I definitely wasn't impressed for the normal price tag. The screen was average; the build quality ok.

We watched the BB personnel scrambling to get palettes upon palettes of Win7 laptops out. Since we stopped in a bit late after dinner, we got to see the beginning of the Win7 armada. I've never seen so many palettes with stacks of HPs. Dells, Toshibas and other laptops. It was a frenzy.

 

The choice I face is between the ENVY 15 and the studio xps 16. Unfortunately, I don't think I will have a chance to see them both next to one another (no Best Buy in the UK) and was wondering how much bigger/chunkier the xps 16 is compared to the ENVY? Cheers

 

yea i think 25% cashback was what this laptop worth it to many of us

 

This is worrisome - it's supposed to be 300 nits which is at least as bright as the MBP. I doubt that you were really looking at full brightness though.

Notebookcheck measureed the 17" MBP glossy screen to 258 nits max, and 224 nits average, and that screen has a reputation for being bright.

The German review of the Envy 15 measured some 230 nits on a preproduction sample. It would be interesting to get some more measurements from production samples.

 

Here in Stockholm Microsoft is arranging a Windows 7 launch event on Friday, with some suppliers including Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others.

 

......................plugs ears and repeats "greatest laptop ever!! greatest laptop ever!! greatest laptop ever!!"

 

I'm still waiting for a flipping review before I even think about buying it...gaaah!

 

Wow this thread has grown over the night! Lol

I took the time to read all comments, and I notice there are some things that dont quitr fit...yhe screen for example, it is supposed to be very good and bright, some people reported that the heat on idle was almost non-existent, though we have one review (page 3 for me, should be 5 or 6) that stated when idling, it was warm.

Kinda confusing. And the weight area also seems to disagree. Is it because it is subjective? HP has announced 5.2 with the 6 cell, and some previews and hands-on stated it was very light (if you take into consideration the massive screen size). What I mostly want to know is about bat life with no slice in there, after all, the stock model a lot of peeps got didnt carry it. And HP only uses the slice included timing...grrr

Fundamenntals, if you have a pic, would you mind poisting it? Thanks!

 

Arent specs like NITS subjective to the manufacturer who makes the laptop?

 

Well, I would hope not. Surely it would be a standardised figure. Companies would be making silly claims then. I could be wrong.

 

I was wondering if anybody knows when the HP Envy 15 will be released to asian countries. Because I want to know if I can wait for this notebook or just get a MBP instead.

 

nits == candela / m2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nit_(unit)
This is an absolute measurement, in standardized ISO units.

Display brightness can be easily measured by a colorimeter such as Eye One Display 2, or a spectrophotometer such as Eye One (I have both).

While the estimates on nominal brightness sure are subjective, actual measured levels are not subjective, and can be directly compared (assuming proper measurement was taken, of course).

(I'm right now using a Thinkpad T61 with a horribly bad backlighting. When I got it in May 2007 max brightness was 223 nits. The CCFL backlighting has now faded to 68 nits, and is getting measurably darker by the week.)

 

What about a vat of molten steel? Did you see a vat in the store with some kind of heat source under it to keep the steel hot? Something to cerimoniously drop the Vista PCs into? Or perhaps a pit of fire, or an altar to burn them on?

 

Damn, you just love MBPs, don't you? Never saw anyone saying MBPs these many times in a post here. I too read 300 nits in some review and he was saying it would be more usable outdoors compared to other laptops in any case, I am going to BB today, seeing is believing I guess

 

I'm going here in about an hour. I'll take my dSLR camera with me and get some really good pics of it. Be back in a few hours...

 

Ok, so I ordered it but I am smacking myself right now.

I wanted something to replace my work laptop, a Dell D630. It's only about 6 months old but it is just not powerful enough as I run VMware Workstation with plans for 3 OS's. Also, I travel a lot so I wanted something fairly light and durable.

So, between Sunday morning and Tuesday night, I configured the laptop and put it in my basket and pulled it out- at least 6 times. I just kept checking to see if the config would change. I wasn't going to pull the trigger just yet as I told my work my intentions and he told me to hold off and he would see what he could do. Ok, fine, but by Tuesday night, I was done holding off- so once again, I added it to my cart and checked out. I forgot to click the damn 2 day free shipping!!!! GRRRRR

So, I call HP no less than 2 minutes later and ask them if they can apply the 2 day shipping instead and maybe refund me the $29. She transferred me to a supervisor who said she would have to cancel the order and I can resubmit. Ok, fine. Btw, this is all because I have to go to Chicago for 5 weeks on November 9th- so I wanted to make sure I would have it before that. With the 5-9 day shipping, I can't be sure.

So, I get an email yesterday that says the laptop is already in production and may or may not be able to be cancelled... DAMNIT! But, they did cancel my extra A/C adapter. Thanks Idiots!

Oh well, so I guess I am in wait and see mode. Hopefully it hits production and Ships before the 30th date. Anyways, here are the specs..

820 CPU
6 GB ram
Battery Slice
External DVD

I am also going to pull the trigger on an extra 2GB DIMM and a 120GB OCZ Vertex Turbo, once I find out for sure if the order went through. Otherwise, it will probably be January before I have the chance to order again

 

my impressions exactly. You have a much better way with words than I do. I thought i was crazy about the weight. I swear this things is 6lbs. I picked up other laptops that were listed at 6lbs and they seemed similiar. I cant seem to find a listing for it with the slice on. Does anybody have a number for that?

 

Well, this HP is almost direct competition (and it looks around the same) so why not?

Thanks! That would come in handy!

 

I read somewhere I think it was notebook check that the preproduction 15 had 1366x768 screens. We can tell if the ones are BB are pre productions if the screens are 1920 by 1080. Does anyone know?

 

Right, that hasnt been mentioned. What is the resolution on BB models?

 

Some of the preproduction models had 1080p.

One of the guys mentioned that it was hard for him to read the text on the screen (probably because of such a high resolution). So I would imagine that the BB models are 1080p. I'll be able to answer all your questions in a couple hours though

 

Quadron, especially, if you can "play" with the computer, check the RAM speeds (CPU-Z) and the VRAM (GPU-Z) if you can...

About the weight, those who had the chance to use it, what laptop you own ATM>?

 

it was 1920 X xxxx...

@Serg....I used to have a m1530 (stolen).

I didnt have a hard time reading the screen cuz of the resolution. The glass seemed to dim the screen alot IMO.

 

I had a HDX 16 before buying the Envy 15. I would say that the Envy 15 with the slice felt a good pound lighter than the HDX 16 did.........The slice on the Envy 15 felt like it added more weight to the laptop then it probably did.

 

ok, thanks for that, since weight is a subjective thing.
My brick-laptop (that also has the calculations power of a brick!! hahaha) is quite heavy, and the drop in weight will come GREATLY appreciated for me.

 

well i had an HDX dragon so envy will be atleast 9lbs lighter

 

Ah yes, Notebookcheck.....the bastion of accuracy.

Link? Did they test the 84 or 85 panel on the 15"?

And a screen that is bright would be the 400 nit W700 or the 300 nit + RGBLED on the Dell Studio 16, 17 and M6400. (Or we could go with field laptop screens at 600+ heh). If you're sitting in a dark or mildly dim room, any screen 175+ will do. It is exactly when you are under harsh light that good screens shine.

And unless there is a hidden control for a, "secret super bright setting...." on the Envy 15 I am unaware of.....

I agree wanting a true production level unit being run through the mill.

The fit and finish is definitely PC'esque. In your hands, it feels like a cheap MacBook Unibody knock off. But it definitely is a step above your average Windows notebook build wise, IMHO.

I'm going to go back today and play around with the Envy 13" While they crammed the newest CPU in the Envy 15, The Envy 13 with its killer screen and size might be the sleeper hit.

I also want to see if I can get prime95 up and running on the Envy 15, as I have a feeling it will start glowing a few minutes in.

 

For those getting squeamish HP has a good return policy:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/return_exchange.do

Keep the original packaging.

You can request a return (full refund w/ tax) or exchange within 21 days after delivery.

Process:
Call (888) 999-4747, Request RMA
They email you a FEDEX shipping label

Within 5 days of RMA request:
Print shipping label and put that on the original packaging
Black out any original FEDEX labels
Add RMA number to box
Drop it off at FedEx and you are done.

With the free shipping most of us got I don't see any out of pocket risk in trying the Envy 15 out for a couple weeks.