*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

newfiejudd, thanks a lot for letting the news agency know. I also have to say sorry to hp that I have to spend my money somewhere else too.

 

i havent received a bing cancelation. and it still shows up on my bing account. anybody else still got theirs?

 

No email here.. my bing cash back still shows.

 

my bing cash back still shows and my shipment is now in ANCHORAGE, AK

 

Still in Shanghai... hopefully updates later.

 

Yeah mine's still in shanghai as well, doubt I'll see it until sometime early next week.

 

That's really surprising. I must have gotten lucky then.

 

Guys, I really believe you should open a new thread about Bing and let this one to be about the HP envy 15. I think most readers would prefer to see benchmarks and reviews instead of a detailed report on the CB mess....
My 2 cents...

 

You are absolutely right !

 

mines still in china too. i hope it gets to me before i go to thailand.

 

lol, there's been 141 pages in this thread already and everyone still hasn't received theirs. this is going to be fun for people looking for reviews.

 

Probably going to need a new thread next week

 

can those that bought them from best buy give us an update? have your opinions changed at all after owning it for a few days?

 

Agreed. I posted a second link to a German site giving a review of the Envy 15 (translated...somewhat poorly but it gave a general feel) and I didn't even get a thank you

Oh wells.

 

German site had been posted before. I can't get the search to find anything.

 

hello!
I ordered my envy on the day of the bing discount. My order is still in shanghai and I thought how funny it was to get the free 2 day shipping. It seemed like a good deal when I did my order. But now I regress, what is so great about it if I dont even know when it is supposed to arrive?

 

and I customized my laptop to the 820 and windows7 so my bing discount is $562.50. I just checked and so far so good.

 

Actually it will be really easy; Serg left space at the front of this thread for reviews etc - he'll either post links to external reviews or direct to the relevant post within the thread.

The fact is that this is an owners lounge, and as such many people have faced indecision and then problems once they have made their mind up. Of course you will end up with lots of pages that are not reviews.

Nearly every single "owners lounge" thread is like this. Deal with it.

Everyone wants to be a mod eh. If it was a big problem, it would have been shut down already. Eventually, when things calm down, it may very well be that the first few pages get kept and the rest get binned; but that is down to the mods / admins.

Note that although I quoted you Pooster, this isn't aimed specifically at you - just I've noticed a few posts exclaiming that the thread is huge and it will be hard to find reviews, when in fact due to the way Serg set this thread up in the first place it will not be.

 

yea i'm pretty tired of reading about people having BCB problems. Sorry guys, I really hope u get it all sorted out, and hope neither Microsoft or HP get away with wat they did... but this isn't the best place for that discussion I dont think.

I think its pretty dumb that German sites have reviews up before pretty much all US sites, when the machine released in the US first! But decent info on that link. Thanks for putting it up there.

 

Lisa from MobileTechReview here (the review that was posted much earlier in this thread from last Sunday). I'm still enjoying it and will keep it as my main Windows machine. No hardware or heat problems. Blazes fast compared to my P8600 and P8700 Core 2 Duo machines. Of course the bottom does get hot when playing serious 3D games but nothing out of the ordinary for a machine of this power combined with a thin design and metal casing. CPU and GPU temps are 15 to 25 degrees lower than my 13" Sony Vaio Z550 with the NVIDIA 9300 and Intel P8600, though the Sony feels cooler since the plastic and carbon surfaces don't transfer heat in the same way as metal.

 

Do you think you could measure the outside temperature on the bottom at hottest spot? Let's say after 1 hour idle/light use (web-surfing, email, etc) and after 1 hour heavy gaming, for comparison? (So we have some concrete values to talk about instead of subjective opinions...)

 

I agree. The heat is perfectly normal for a machine this powerful and while running games likes Crysis on it. It cools pretty fast too. After shutting down Crysis from a 30min play session, the fan was on hgih speed for another 3-4minutes just enough to cool the machine back to normal idle mode.

 

For an hour of light to moderate use (web surfing, email, Dreamweaver, Photoshop and MS Office) two hot spots on the bottom reach 105 degrees. The palmrests measure between 90 and 100 Fahrenheit (one side is warmer and I tried to keep my ever-freezing hands off it ).

 

F.E.A.R. 2 brought the two hot spot bottom temps up to 108 to 112 degrees after 30 minutes of chasing Alma (the rest of the bottom surface was many degrees cooler). The GPU temp stayed between 50 and 57 degrees, generally hovering at 50 to 55 during gaming. CPU temps were likewise relatively cool, esp. relative to Core 2 Duo machines. The palmrest temps didn't rise more than 3 to 4 degrees above the above mentioned light/moderate use temps.

For all tests, the notebook was either on a wooden desk with a thin place-mat underneath or on a lapdesk with a rigid top surface. I avoid bedspreads, pillows and other stifling surfaces when using notebooks .

 

Just to be clear, you are measuring the 100+ temps in degrees F and the 50+ GPU and CPU temps in degrees C, correct?

Are you using a special utility you installed to measure the CPU and GPU temps, or are you getting those measurements from software provided on the Envy (Windows 7, an HP utility, the BIOS, etc.)?

 

Thanks for this well-articulated info. This is about what I expected, given my short time playing with a store model.

 

CPU/GPU temps are centigrade, surface temps measured with a temperature gun are Fahrenheit.

CPU and GPU temps are from CPU-Z, Speed Fan and etc. since HP utils doesn't provide this info.

 

Looks like it keeps cooler than a Macbook, despite having pretty much 3 times the power, lolz. That is some really good cooling. I'm suprised that's only how hot the bottom gets, Macbooks can hit almost 120 degrees!

Btw, Lisa, how did you confirm that it was GDDR3 VRAM, and not DDR3? Some graphics diagnostics performed by others reported DDR3.

 

Would you mind giving the exact model and product number of the machine you purchased (usually located on the underside of the computer). Please do NOT post your computer serial number as that is for warranty and registration purposes.

 

Yeah. Im looking at it, the Dell Studio XPS 16, ASUS g51J, etc. Basically anything with an i7, decent graphics card and decent heat dissipation.

 

Hey just a word to the wise. I too have the Envy 15 bought it the day it was released from BB. I picked up a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse to replace the previous model. This new one only requires 1 AA battery has an on/off switch and works on every surface I've tried. It's much bigger than the prev. model and fits in the hand nicely. Literally the best mouse I've ever used. There's a rebate available from buy.com that takes 10.00 from the site's price but you have to print out and mail the pdf which is no longer listed but I can send to you, as long as you pick it up nlt the 31st of Oct. I think it has to be mailed in with receipt copy and upc nlt Nov 30. Hope this help ya.

 

Very interesting, thanks a lot for the numbers! The CPU/GPU temps does sound slightly hot (comparing to my own home-built desktop - I don't have much experience with notebook chip temps) but manageable. The outside temps you measured sounds good to me.

But you said that Sony Vaio Z550 reached even 15-25 degrees (I'm assuming F) higher on the CPU/GPU? Crazy hot there. I guess notebooks are hot then, and it seems the Envy is doing really good (especially for the perf).

 

Sounds like a good, quality mouse there. (But not bluetooth and no USB cable use-while-charging, right?) How big is the new model in inches/mm? Logitech.com says only says it's "compact"...
The wireless USB plug looks crazy small on pictures...

 

now my package is in OAKLAND, CA

 

Maybe this thread should be called the "future owners" and the people who already have an Envy 15 could start a "real owners" thread. This thread just moves too quickly between users who haven't received their order and those that have the unit and are trying to provide the rest of us with useful information. Unfortunately it seems a lot is lost within the pages and questions that have been resolved keep getting reasked... For example, someone opened the Envy 15 and put the model of the GPU memory in their post, which showed it was Samsung's GDDR3 (despite software and HP personnel claiming otherwise).

 

Mine is saying it's in transit from shanghai, but gives the 4th as the estimated delivery date...

Looks like I need to call and ask fedex what they meant by 2-day shipping.

 

Ditto, mine says the same thing

 

They count it after your pacakge is released by US custom,

I guess they assume it will be released on Monday.

Fedex is slower than UPS compared to interneation shipping. ( I had experience with lenovo before, way faster, even with ground. )

 

nrgiuerngineribrgingfr!!

Sorry for that, I had to release my excitement! So I'm sat typing on my UK Envy 15. So I came home for the weekend from university and trotted along to my local pc world and zomgnowai they had an Envy in!

First thoughts...damn I'm struggling to type on this keyboard...my last laptop was a 13.3", so small keyboard but hey...its a lovely keyboard, its just going to take time to adjust. I also keep hitting the function buttons that dont require to press function anymore lol. I do not want to print this page off! hah, jokes.

Was worried about the crappy 720p screen but seeing it in person removed that worry for me. Nice, bright and yeah. happy. Not too worried that you lucky people will have 1080p no more

Second thing that that "got to me" was the hinge cover. Everything looks well built apart from that...cheap plastic that creeks...but again, not fussed.

Give me time to adjust to this keyboard and I shall be back with more details. As i type this the fan is barely audible and the heat is ok. Cant believe how light this is (No slice)

I'm happy

 

What is the temperature like with the slice on the unit? Does it cause any overheating problems? Also how limited is the opening angle of the screen? How many degrees can it open? I would plan on using it on my lap.

 

Lap is fine for the angle of the lid opening, but it doesnt go much further than that. Cant help with the slice, sorry.

 

Yes, those function keys are really in the wrong place, we've grown accustomed to having them above the numeric keys on the top row. I also didn't actually like the feel of the keys themselves; but I still prefer them to a non-isolated key keyboard design.

I just went to PC World again and the palm rests were still far too hot. I was really hoping to convince myself to buy this machine.

By the way, PC World are lying. On their website it says Full HD display, but in fact it is not. I've already emailed them, and trading standards about it.

 

Hmm, I don't know what to say about the palm rest. Mine is fine, and so was the palm rest in PC World. After I play some games on it i may change my mind. Ill admit though that the only place that is warm atm is the palm rest, but not hot. Just warm.

 

So it looks like US is getting 1080p whereas Europe is getting 720p panel and no 820 option, for a significantly higher price. This is simply beyond my comprehension.

 

Well the machine in the PCWorld I checked had been on all day, so that was likely a contributing factor. Thing is, my notebook is on for 10 hours a day (8 or so at work and then some at home), so I need it to be cool. I don't doubt you about the temperature on your machine, but I know what I felt in store, and whilst it wouldn't have fried an egg, it was certainly uncomfortable for me.

Hope you enjoy your machine, any chance of some benchmarks - 3d mark06, crysis, etc? I want you to have good scores, but I also want you to have bad ones so it doesn't begin to change my mind about buying this machine

 

I would be more than happy to...but (don't laugh) I don't know how to
I'm off out now, but as one man once said...I'll be back.

 

People, people! -- you're not supposed to put your palms down when you type! You'll get carpel-tunnel syndrome, for one thing! Didn't your typing teacher tell you that? I remember mine used to mount a stern-looking puppet called "Mr. Berty" on our typewriters (yes I'm old) to oversee our hands if we were caught putting our palms down.

 

It's the 1050NR (Quick ship model that's also available at Best Buy).

Someone compared the temps to a MacBook Pro and the ENVY does have an advantage with 3 fans shrouded in copper and heat pipes. There's also a lot of space in there by notebook standards. I think moving the optical drive out was the right decision (even if it is a pain) because there's plenty of room for heat circulation and dead air above the motherboard for heat to hit and cool/expel before it reaches the palmrests and keyboard.

 

Yes, except the palmrests on the Envy are slightly raised higher than the keyboard. So it's not so bad. Besides, it's not actually when I type that I use the palmrest, it's the bits between typing, you know, the thinking part

 

now in LOS ANGELES, CA