*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

This MS BT mouse seemed like a better option to me...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826105238

 

It makes sense for me...

Put it this way, the intakes are in the front, pulling the fresh air inside. The fans at the back are pulling the air, it gets warm, and it is thrown away by both the underside of the case and the sides.
I mean, it works for me that way (the logic).

If underneath they were intakes, that would be a waste, considering that the exhausts are right there, so air would come in and then leave and have no effect on either the CPU nor the GPU. Just passing by the fan, making it more busy.

 

Just got back from Computer City and unfortunately the Envy 15 they have there was 1366x768. And because it was running windows 7 even more vertical screen estate is lost to the task bar than with Vista or XP

So my hope for a full HD Swedish Envy is not high. And the presale in Sweden is obviously misinformed.

 

I see what you are saying but fans need an intake and exhaust right, these fans normally intake in the black-fin center and use centrifugal force & aerodynamic principles to move the "fluid" air. Those "black-fin" blades are right above the bottom vents. Your argument also has 2 exhausts and no intake for this fan design. It would not be a waste as the fan is surrounded by the heat-pipe heat sink, get the highest volume of air across it and back out the case.

 

What is the screen quality like for the 1366x768? Brightness? Colour quality?

 

It looks a tad tiny for me... Usually anything called a notebook mouse makes my hand hurt.

 

LoL that means people using the cooling pads actually end up with warmer laptops than without using them?! To the person that recently wrote a personal experience on the product: were you using the cooling pad all the time? What was the laptop like when the cooling pad wasnt on there?

 

I agree, I am hoping it is not too small. If I remember I will post again when I get home about this, as it is "out-for-delivery" now...

 

Seems mine is in China as well. It is frustrating I just today get the information that HP missed the cutoff or whatnot, when they emailed that they shipped two days ago so I was expecting it today. Not happy with this.

 

Thanks a bunch

 

Also...you mentioned less "screen estate" you can right click on the task bar...properties...use small icons. This basically makes the task bar similar size to vista

EDIT: I'm referring to Windows 7 BTW

 

I don't think blowers / centrifugal Fans can exhaust out the center. They also only go one direction, suck air from the center and exhaust out the edges. You can not reverse this flow. Most designs block off the directions they don't want air to flow with a shroud leaving the exhaust to go out one side.

Blowers / centrifugal fans change the direction of the air flow (example: vertical to horizontal). Compared to normal fans that blow in the same direction their fins face.

 

I agree, this is what I was trying to clarify. Again, I believe the bottom vents are intakes. This would be especially good when the slice is attached and the tiny dent/gap on the slice used as an intact (if it were an exhaust dent/gap I believe we would be in a bad situation with this design... dumping hot exhaust on the slice...).

 

Is there anybody left that hasn't received a Shipped notification that ordered on the 18th other than me?


My Order is still in production when I bought my laptop on the 18th at 3:34pm EST and my estimated ship date was the 28th.

 

from what I see, you and me are the only ones... i ordered at around 2:30est... I am pretty pissed. One person's that shipped ordered his/hers on the 19th!

 

I bet $50 that the Envy 15 runs cooler than the Macbook Pro 15"

Any takers?

That is what we should be comparing this too.

 

my shipment was picked up at Oct 29, 2009 6:55 PM in china as well

it just updated with shipping estimate its gonna be at my doorstep on nov 3rd

 

From my perspective the screen brightness was quite good, but not mind blowing. The colors were the same way, good but non tn panels (desktop monitors) are better. I haven't really seen that many good laptop panels to compare with, so I can't compare it to the class leaders. Also, the screen glare was actually quite OK even in the store with all those lights.

 

Sorry man, I ordered mine Oct 19 at 8:12 PDT and mine is shipping with the rest of the group. Look at it this way, it will give you another day to return it if a BF2009 deal from HP comes out... No one hear is getting it before Monday, you will probably get it Tuesday...

 

Ahh, that I didn't know. That gives back some precious lines of pixels

Still, i think the resolution is bad. In my line of work I use the computer for programming among other things, and then the resolution is needed. My girlfriends computer at home with a 1280x800 screen is enough for web browsing and watching movies.

 

No the center of the fan is an inlet. The fan is forcing the air from the center outwards and the outlets on the Envy are on the back (partially covered by the screen but still there) and the sides. It's the traditional design in notebooks, very few systems deviate from it.
The CPU and GPU are cooled by connecting them to heatsinks at the outlet via heatpipes, the rest of the system is cooled either by conduction to the chassis or by air sucked from one or more secondary inlets (in the front of the Envy).

 

Yup, the intakes are front and underneath, exhausts at back and sides. The theory being that if you are gaming you wont have the slice on (you'll likely be using AC power), so the intakes underneath help cool things down.

If the fans blew the air out underneath the laptop this would be ridiculous. Firstly it would overheat the slice battery when attached - which would decrease it's lifetime; and secondly hot air rises, so it would be blowing it out only to have it heat up the entire underside of the notebook as it tried to rise again.

 

I was hoping it would get hot enough and with the air blowing out the bottom we could get it to fly or something. (Special feature, Thrusters!)

 

Okay, thanks. I guess there's no Envy 15 in my near future then.

 

Geez.. how is that two business days?? You did get the 2 business day free shipping right? Just curious.

 

During what situation? High ambient room temperature? Idle on battery? Full load on A/C power? I'd take your bet if you were talking about full load on A/C power, because the i7 would consume much more power than the C2D (even if the Envy's cooling system was more efficient, though even that is just speculation).

 

If you put it on a cooling pad ( a decent one, read Zalman NC2000, Cryo LX etc ), played Crysis at full settings for an hour, overclocking your GPU as much as possible, set the cooling pad to full power and block off all other exhausts.......

Shame they just logically cannot be exhausts on the bottom - it would have been cool to watch. A definite selling point - "The lighter than air notebook"

 

yea it still show up as 2 business day shipping

 

Maybe since ppl are saying its' so hot we could advertise it as a blow touch? Or channel the air so it keeps your coffee warm? I mean it could all be great!! heats ups hotpockets while you WOW. Now there is no excuse to leave your computer.

 

I just got mine in the mail. I havent played around with it much, but it is a small mouse -- similar to a logitech v470. I bought it because it was the only decent portable mouse I could find that had both bluetooth and forward/backward buttons.

 

What the????? look at this email I got from bing:

We want to let you know that your Bing cashback transaction(s) listed below were updated. This could have happened for one of several reasons. Your purchase is not eligible for cashback rewards if you used a separate discount, coupon, or promotional code, if you violated the Microsoft Service Agreement, or if the store notified us that the item(s) were returned or exchanged or that the transaction was canceled.

I never cancelled anything, what the heck is going on.

I didn't use any other discounts with this.


They are not honoring my 450 cashback

 

I thought about it, but then... isn't there a power-saving setting (for when you're using the battery) that includes turning Bluetooth off? I'd like to be able to do that and still use a mouse -- but I have no idea how much power it actually saves... Any thoughts?

 

Hmm that's a real bummer. Well, thanks for checking. I think you're right, the only config I have seen for Nordic countries is 15-1099eo so they will all be the same - at least for now.

That Dell M6400 is looking better.

 

The keyboard just stopped working. I took it with me to a meeting this afternoon (first time i've traveled with it since I bought it). When I got home I turned it on and the keyboard was dead. So much for build quality.

 

I bought this one last night, after experimenting with some at Best Buy with an Envy 15.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834995753

What's the deal with the keyboard?!?

 

If the vents are the openings for the blowers, then they are intakes. Blowers can only go one way AFAIK--- From the round side to the narrow slot.

 

So it's small like most mice that are labeled "notebook mouse?" Is it comfortable to use consistently or should I save money and get a normal wireless mouse?

 

Oh no! Jeez I hope that the problem can be resolved...

 

It doesn't even work at the boot screen, so it's not a software issue. USB keyboards work fine though. I think it's going back to fry's.

 

Exhaust on the bottom would work just as well as intake on the bottom, assuming you could physically make a blower do that. Blocking an intake is the same as blocking an exhaust as far as air is concerned.

Also, hot air doesn't really rise. It floats on top of cool air. So if you have a fan moving the air, it doesn't matter at all.

 

Sorry that it is defective. Best of luck with whatever you get next...

 

It's like most notebook mice. It's comfortable for me, but it's really a personal opinion. Go to a store and try out a notebook mouse -- that should give you a decent feel for what this mouse will be like.

 

If anyone lives in the uk and want to phone hp for anything at all dont bother their customer service agents are complete monkeys. The two times I talked to them I couldn't even find anyone that knew what a hp envy 15 was? They didn't know what it was ? Eventually on my last call i told them to forget about the computer since it was the hdmi to vga convertor I was after, after being passed between 3 people and then given the number for their official uk parts supplier I was told that the hdmi to vga convertor was only sold in the us. HP have know updated their support page to include the uk version of the envy and looking through the manual on the uk version i can clearly see the hdmi to vga convertor listed as an official product.Anyways looks like no hdmi convertor for me, any americans wanna post me one over

Anyone wanna come round my place and give me a good kick just to reinforce how stupid i've been jumping on the bandwagon of a new product like this before its been released and before i knew it was the right computer for me. Ive got an envy on the way now with a crap screen instead of the fhd version and no vga port which i desperately need.

 

Thanks for the info - I'll do just that.

 

i7 would generate more heat than a C2D only when it's running in turbo mode for all 4 cores. The 45W TDP is more of an idea, the cooling would draw this much power when the CPU is running in highest possible speed. Without the turbo mode (which is more like an overclocked state), the TDP would be much less and I doubt it would generate any more heat than a C2D during normal operations.

Intel doesn't list the TDP in 100% CPU load for laptop i7 without the Turbo mode, but from my experience in desktop overclocking for a 37.5% gain (1.6GHz to 2.2GHz for all cores), the TDP would increase by at least 50%. So, my guesstimate for TDP without turbo mode, is about 30W, which is better than Yonah, just a bit more than P-series. With 4 cores, the CPU would be in less load for same amount of concurrent tasks and probably would generate less heat. And with more efficient cooling, this should beat MBPs.

 

I was considering buying the Envy 15 in Sweden but 1366x768 simply does not cut it. Which Computer City shop did you go to? Did you take note of the model no of that particular model (i.e. could Computer City be selling another model than the one found online on i.e. Prisjakt.nu).

Finally, how much did it cost at Computer City?

 

I visited the store in Barkaby. Unfortunately i didn't get the model number. The computer was just recently unpacked and it had no information sheet. The price was 16.990 Sek.

There might be a remote chance that it is another model, but since their web page is listing it as the 1099EO it should be the same as the rest of the stores in Sweden (and the HP web page). Funny thing is that some store is listing it as Envy 15-1599, but it still has the same article number as the 1099EO at the HP web page, so I'll guess that's a typo.

Hopefully I'll get another answer from presale tomorrow and that may clear some things out.

 

Does anyone know the special "Premium Envy" customer service line for US purchases? I'd like to call and complain regarding the now Nov 3rd delivery date, when I was sent a "Shipped Notice" on Oct 27th, but I'd like to make sure I'm talking to the right people.

 

Don't think they gave out any such number, but maybe the people who got it from B&M might have gotten it in the box. I was under the impression that the "premium" service was for warranty and troubleshooting issues for once you get the machine.

 

I´m going there tomorrow to have a look.
I really, really wanted this computer when I first saw it online...but now??? I really don't know anymore