*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

I'm in Montreal, and I have kept an eye on best buy and futureshop for a while now. One thing I'm not sure though is what come with 2199$ price? On the HP.ca website it says that the 9-cell batter and the external optical drive are included but when I called the guy said no. Maybe he misunderstood. Anyone can confirm this? Non of the futureshops or BestBuy have them on display so I can' check myself.

 

I believe the reports from Bestbuy and some international models is they are the quickship model. So a 720 with battery slice and dvd optical drive.

 

Well my accessories already shipped (I just ordered it today at 10am) and they'll be at my house by Friday at 4:30pm EST. The ESD for the Envy is Nov. 11th, but I'll update you if that changes.

 

Yea, I suspected as much. Given the price, and the U.S counterpart priced at 1999$ for the quick ship model. Converting in CAN currency it would be the logical equivalent.

Nevertheless I want to be 100% sure that it is the case before I order through them.

thx

 

it's 6pm est and another day without any shipment notice. it was supposed to ship out today at the latest. i am not very happy, nor am I patient

 

Well, if you are unable to return it, myself and a friend might be interested in buying your scorching hot HP Envy 15 from you

 

Same here. :/.......same timezone and everything.

 

same here. i ordered base with slice and base OD. but really they said estimated date 28th not at the latest. but still............i am just as frustrated. i think HP has great products but this has ruined the buying experience.

 

HP claims Estimated to ship on XXX mean the estimated PC build date

I guess I have some problems with my understanding.

 

Order in production
(Estimated to ship on October 28, 2009)

6pm here(central) ordered Oct 18 Beats LE 820qm 8gb 2dimm BlueRay

 

If you try to call them , they will tell you Oc 28 is not ship date, it's your system's build date



I guess I won't do any business with hp again , they thought I'm fool

 

They still have 6 hours until the deadline is over? lol. I'm kidding I hope they get it out to you. I can't wait for mine. ship date is the 3rd!!!

 

Thats Nutty :/

I have a he!! of a story to go along with mine... HP administration is fubar. I'll tell the story if I ever get the notebook.

 

Actually would prefer if they stall a few days. If it arrives late next week the 21 day return period will cover black Friday.... should a better deal come up.

 

That is a good idea. that way we can see if there is a bigger discount... Smart!

 

I want to hear your story!!!

 

Ok its gonna take a while to type it all up

 

somebody use their new envy to start up an HP hater site. i will join as soon as i get my envy. which has not shipped yet btw

 

OH RLY?

 

So here is my ordering experience:
I went to HP's site super pumped after reading on NBR that they were releasing a 15" version of the Voodoo Envy. I always thought the 13 was a drop dead sexy machine. I looked at both versions and was not ready to risk the etched design. I pulled the triger on a customized Beats edition. Oh Shoot! I forgot to log into Bing to get my 25%. So I called HP and the fun began. The rep was extremely nice. I told her exactly what was happening and she asked "how much is the Bing discount?". I told her 25%. She exclaimed "WOW! I could give you 10% if you want to keep the order." I said "No thank you." and she said she understood. I told her that I would be placing another order as soon as I got my cancelation conformation. 2 hours later I had my cancelation email from HP. I logged into Bing, went to the HP site, and ordered another Envy Beats. A few days later I watched the warranty from the canceled order get shipped, then "refused", and then returned to HP and signed for. No refund was issued. I thought this was strange but whatever, I'll give it some time. A few days later I got refunded for the notebook. Then the new order's warranty shipped out. A day later the tracking info said that the new warranty had been "refused" and was being returned to HP. I immediately called HP. The rep was extemely nice once again. I explained everything. She put me on hold and then came back and said not to worry about it. She said that once I get my notebook to register it with the warranty number in the email and all should be well. OK I thought. I watched the tracking info for the new warranty arrive at HP. This morning I checked my email and low and behold I have a refund for the new warranty, still no refund from the original warranty. So once again I called HP. This time I was transfered to an account supervisor after my explanation. The supervisors name was Coco. I had to explain everything again and she put me on hold. She came back ~10mins later and told me that HP automated ordering system had canceled my warranty. I was like What???? "How did the warranty get returned without an RMA?" I asked. She had no answer for me. I asked "where is my refund for the original warranty?" "Let me contact accounting and find out what is going on with your 1st order and we will go from there" she said. 30mins later, she came back on the line and said she was still waiting for an accountant. Another 30mins went by. She then returned saying that she was going to have to get in contact with coorporate to get this straitened out and she would phone me back. I stressed with her about not messing up my Bing cash back and she seemed to comprehend. That was at 1pm today and I have not heard back from her yet. I am extremely concerned if HP's computers can "automatically cancel" and ship things randomly around the country. No wonder HP's pricing is out of control if these kinds of administration blunders are occuring. I still have not recieved my refund from the original warranty. Oh and when I asked if my notebook was shipping today, I got complete silence and then she changed the subject. Very frustrating and time consuming. On another sour note, I have sold my MSI and will have to ship it out Friday. I was hoping to have the Envy by then but, I doubt that will happen. Looks like I will have to rape the TabletKiosk from my car and start using it until this situation is resolved.

 

Please read the word "estimated" in that statement from HP and realize that that's what it is - an estimation. Actual ship date will be whenever.

 

I have said it tons of times. PM to update the OP. I cant harvest the info on this thread. It grows too fast...

Congratulations. Keep us posted.

Can you do a full review?

Thanks for the pics. PM them so I can upload them in the front.

Thanks for the update.

Those are nice news, finally I can have less cables.

Nice, so it is steady? Doesnt turn off when unplugging the slice? Nice

That is strange...where did you have it?

I agree there. That could be a serious problem

That is not nice to say. Remember it is a public forum and people come here with concerns and questions. Please be polite, thanks!

Thanks Mandrake for the answer.

Strange design, but the intakes are in front and underneath AFAIK.

The SXPS16 is known to have heating issues even with C2D. Unless a redesign was made, I dont think that laptop can withstand the i7.

Although it is an ironic idea, let us wait till more reviews come in.


On a side topic, this thread has grown WAY too fast hahaha it is hard to keep up.
Remember, use the Send Private Message button (PM) if you want me to update the front page. Thanks!

 

bing cash back right now is 15% for hp - for anybody interested in the envy....

 

1080p at that screen size and you'd have to be a foot or less away to notice the difference and it will be slight at that. You have to be closer than about 3-6 feet to see the difference on a 40 inch screen tv. hehe.

 

monoprice.com If they don't make it, it doesn't exist.

 

yes. Also remember that a lot of review sites are comparing the heat of these laptops to macbook pro's, which as we all know run incredibly hot even doing basic tasks. That has been and probably always will be on of the chief complaints from mac users about their notebooks. Heat is all relative. My HDX18t doesn't get warm at all, but then again it's huge.

 

It's because HP uses mostly overseas call centers. They probably borked it up in the system. A LOT of companies are bringing call centers back to the U.S. (even Samsung) because of these very issues. Sprint, Samsung, etc. HP seems to be holding.

 

Pfft! haha you're sadly mistaken if you think Toshiba's laptops are any cooler! My Toshiba P105 gets waay too hot to touch on idle also. That, among other problems is why I'm switching to HP. Toshiba is absolutely awful. I shoulda known something was fishy when they discontinued my exact model after about 2 months on the market. Pathetic

 

both futureshop and bestbuy have the envy 15-1050ca listed with the external double layer dvd burner and the 9 cell slice. so far that's the only model available to canadians.

 

A question for all you graphics experts:

Given the machines I've had in the past, I've rarely bothered to set any anti-aliasing filters in games. But with the E15, let's say I'm playing something like Oblivion. Given the machine's specs, what do you think would be an appropriate filter setting? 2x? 8x...?

Thanks in advance.

 

Like some guy said in a previous page, we are really whining like teenagers here. So far segail11 is the only person with the heating issue, right? We need to have more people before we take it as a fact. How hot is really hot?

I don't know what expectation people have but I can't just expect a laptop with this CPU and GPU wouldn't be hot when both are being used at 100% for several minutes. My desktop with Phenom II and 4850 gets really hot while playing Crysis demo and I have after-market cooling for the GPU.

My 7900GS in the E1705 laptop was even worse, it used to cross 100°C and died twice in last few years without much gaming (I am baking it in the oven every few months now).

So, if the heating is caused by the GPU, I wouldn't really worry about it as long as the laptop is not very warm after 20-30 minutes of of being idle.

 

If you're running at 1080p on that tiny screen you probably won't need any anti-aliasing at all - all edges will be perfect anyway. I don't think you'll notice any improvements. Just maximize all other settings and aim for 1080p at 60 fps with this screen.

 

The 100% load is not what the discussion was about. segail11 stated that it was too hot AT ALMOST IDLE and on battery power to place in your lap. I agree about waiting to see but, you have got to admit that this comment was disturbing. Whining!?!? I am gonna drink some wine

 

I haven't seen anyone complaining about heat when running games at 100%. Those who complained about heat talked about the issue when the Envy is running idle.

I think people want to be able to browse the web and read email while sitting with the Envy 15 in their lap, without getting burned. That's my understanding of the heat complaints.

Note that other parts can get very hot too, not just CPU and GPU. I'm thinking mostly of the HDD, memory or even the battery. Personally I'm simply going to ignore all subjective reports about temperatures until I've tried it myself with my own Envy - especially if it's a retail purchase and not ordered straight from HP.

 

Ditto..

 

Ah, that's what I wanted to hear! Thanks

 

For the idle heat issue maybe more aggressive fan settings in the BIOS or in an HP fan utility (if they include one) could keep it cooler. The trade off would be either fans kicking on to full more often or running at a little higher speed all of the time.

Even with that I don't see cooling 45w all through the heatpipe on the top. Some heat is generated on the underside, some heat transfers to the underside, and it has no where to go but into the metal shell. Plastic would resist this heat and transfer less, while metal will absorb it much faster.

Bottom line if you want to use a metal laptop on your lap, in all likelihood you are going to need some sort of protection. I personally use a 1 inch binder for my D830, which is a plastic shell laptop with a hot spot right under the processor (almost exactly centered vertically+horizontally in the laptop). I like the angle the binder gives, but may pickup a thermapak for the Envy depending on how loud the fans are (idle, tweaked, maxed).

Another passive solution is the iLap. Thermapak/ixoft pads and the iLap (passive solid aluminum desk/lap stand) seem very popular on the mac forums when notebook coolers are discussed.

 

Dell did this for the SXPS16 from what I have read.

 

Like i said earlier I'm only worried if the heat causes, parts to fail, stopping the overclocking that i7 is supposed to do and finally causing the laptop to turn off from the heat.

 

I'm seriously worried about these heat isssue reports, but from experience, the body can feel temperatures even 10 degrees above skin temperature as hot. I dunno has it been done already but can we get an actual temperature reading...anyone with the Envy have access to a IR temp sensor or a thermocouple they can hook up to various parts of the laptop???

 

I agree that you should be pretty happy with the higher fps and 1080p image w/o AA, but test 2x and 4x out with 1080p resolution and see what you like best. I'll be installing Fallout 3 GOTY edition when I get it and will try and take some snapshots and/or fraps recordings so you can get an idea what games with Bethesda's gamebryo engine run like. I'm personally hoping to run FO3 at 1080p with 2x AA and some AF...

 

I thought that person was trying to play some games on the lap and found it too hot. Almost all others including Serg found it normal while browsing or otherwise in light use. And since these display machines run 24x7, I am actually quite happy about it.

I too wouldn't judge until I have tried it myself. BTW, I meant CPU and GPU would be the primary source, others will mostly absorb and with efficient cooling, they should be within limit (or so I hope with my experience with HOT 7900GS in my E1705 ).

I just hope the fans are not too loud at idle as that'd be an annoyance but so far everybody's experience including Lisa G is positive. Having metal casing is also a good thing to help dissipate the internal heat. I wouldn't ever try to play serious games with it on my lap. It's not very convenient even if you forget the heat.

 

If the display model at Best Buy was any indication I had to put my ear directly next to the laptop to hear the fan. The store was noisy (like 60-70 db) and my guess is the fan was 20-30db... But I'm no machine, so its just a guess.

 

I was reading some of the user reviews on the hp website. They all say it runs warm, even hot while doing small tasks. This is turning bad. HP really rushed this laptop, they could have done better. I don't mind it getting hot under load, but i want to be able to surf the web with it in my lap...

 

That's really nice to know.

 

Do you have link to those reviews?

 

I noticed that some of those reviews are based on impressions of the laptop, not actual owners.

Edit: Except for "the Professor".. thanks L3vi!

 

I was just looking at those reviews too. I love the long one by the "professor" who didn't own it, but got to play with it. I'm not sure how seriously I can take it as he claims the screen only opens to 90 degrees. (!) Apparently this professor needs to brush up his geometry...

 

it is aluminum and if you look at the MBP, which is similar designed, that runs very hot too. I wouldnt worry too much about it

 

Ur right, but the review by the professor really raises some concerne.

And for u who asked for a link, can't since im typing this on my phone.