*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Also...Red alert 3 runs on ultra high at my native res at a constant 30fps.

Awesome performance.

 

o sh!t mine is out for delivery in Irvine, CA already and it isnt nov 4th! thanks for the heads up! wooo hooo!!!

 

I am so happy I bought this laptop

I just wish I knew someone with a studio xps 16 to compare the screen quality. Apart from that I'm over the moon

 

hey mike not sure if this helps but I ordered my laptop on the 18th. It was supposed to ship last week on the 28th and now its on a truck today nov 2nd. hope this helps.

 

So 9 days in production, got it.

Thanks Rodimus

 

My wife just called. Mine was just delivered and she it going to bring it to me here at work. I also picked up a used 15" MacBook Pro over the weekend that I found for a sweet deal. It will be interesting to compare the two!

 

To those few that ordered on the 18th and got their shipments delayed... I called HP and they claim it's a customs thing and they f'd up the paperwork. I am none too pleased, they are calling me when they have the issue resolved. Really bad job on HP for us few that got a delay.

 

I would love to see the comparisons - I was thinking about getting a MBP after playing with the ENVY at bestbuy. thanks

 

What comparison would you like? The only comparison I would like to see is the screens.

 

Yea performance is pretty good. Been playing Crysis Warhead for a couple of hours, everything on high at 1400x1050, runs fairly smooth, except the snow level were some noticeable lag was present. I plug it on my 22" Samsung LCD via HDMI-DVI, looks great. But apart from that its all good.

The bottom of the laptob does get hot and the palm rest gets warm (but its far from being uncomfortable). But whats good is that it cools down really fast! After I shut the game down, within 3-4 minutes it goes back to regular idle temp which is quite cool.

 

yes sorry for being so vague - a screen comparison would be perfect. thanks

 

Let me be the first to congratulate you all new owners of this beautiful machine. I am really looking forward for your reviews.

 

I updated the OP with some extra links.

Keep posting, and thanks!
You make the thread, I just keep it with the important stuff in front.
PM me for more updates please. I respond 99% of the time.

 

Ok, just got my Envy, and well.. umm.. it is not turning on. I hope I do not have a DOA unit. I will post pictures of the laptop sometime later.

 

As far as I can tell there is 2x2 gb, not one 4 gb

 

what happened?
not even connected?
does it even start?

 

Well, at least it won't be burning that hole in your pants.

I hope you can get it on. I assume you've let it sit plugged in for a while to charge the battery...?

 

Well, mine just came in, and the news isn't great...

Right out of the box, the top left side of the unit had a three-inch long black scuff mark on it. I managed to rub it off to reveal a quarter-inch long hairline scratch.

Actually, the scratch wouldn't be enough for me to send it back, but it also has a problem with the video card fan; at idle, the fan is 'ticking' loudly, something I didn't hear in the demo units at Fry's. If this is normal I think it would have been mentioned by someone; the CPU fan does not have this sound. Usually a ticking fan is a soon-to-fail fan.

Guess this one needs to go back, before I even got to do anything with it!

 

I'm afraid I haven't experience anything like that And thats real hard lines with the scratch. Sorry to hear it!

And what do people think about the etching? I happen to love it lol

 

Nothing at all. In the process of calling Tech support.

I tried turning it on with battery in and out, and plugged in. Nothing.

 

Have mine up and running as well.

72f in the room. Don't have anything on the machine to check temps, but it is hot after a couple hours of OS settings changes and downloading software.

Hot spot under the processor on the bottom. The hard drive in the lower right felt hotter than the GPU which should be a little above it. The GPU is only running the OS graphics at the moment. Will see if it heats up with 3dmark.

Installing 3dmark vantage now. Will reboot and download/install 3dmark 06 as well.

My hands are getting saturated with heat, so it is hard to judge temps at the moment on the palm rest. I don't think the heat on the palm rests is unbearable, but it may teach you to type with your wrist/palm in the air

 

Yes it does now, I haven't got garbled text in menu items that I used to get earlier. But there will always be some odd sites, but browser based scaling is at its best now and can be used universally though it's a chore for every new page being displayed.

This is due to LCD technology limitation I was talking about. In non-native resolution, LCD screens look fuzzy even if the font size is same. This is where you'd use OS based scaling. BTW, if a font is 4mm tall at 1080p native resolution, changing the DPI to 120 (and keeping same resolution) will make the font 5mm tall while being equally sharp. So, easier to read.

I don't know what OS you use but in Vista and 7, changing DPI setting to 120 from 96, makes a huge difference. My HTPC is set at 144dpi and I can easily browse from couch on my 50". When you use browser based scaling, the address bar is still small, and difficult to read while entering a URL or fiddling with menu bar/options.

No, it's the other way like I mentioned above. Changing DPI scales every UI component like menu text, option text, labels, captions etc evenly thereby making the entire application window more readable. They also support high resolution icons, so even icons stay sharp. Only issue is that some applications are not designed to handle OS scaling and they have problems (e.g. XBMC).

But the fact is, they do make everything (not just text) smaller on the screen. Sharpness has got nothing to do with resolution. Text will be always sharp as long the LCD screen is at native resolution. Some texts can be made larger (browser, VS, Eclipse, WSAD, Office etc), but not the Start Menu items or icons or menu bar or captions etc. And also you have to fiddle with every application. Scaling is the only universal way to make things larger as changing from native resolution will make everything fuzzy.

This is more of a problem for gamers who want to game at native resolution to have everything sharp as well as enough FPS for smooth video. For other non-3D intensive tasks, a modern GPU is too powerful to even notice the resolution change.

 

Aw, that's rude. Really sad after waiting for days ...

I hope it's just a glitch where the battery terminals are not properly connected.

 

Was it too cold? Can you wait for a while and let it come to the room temp and then try again? Not sure how cold your place is. Just in case.

 

Just opened my Envy. My fan makes the same noise. It sounds like the fan blades are hitting something.

 

Oh God.

People, start posting this things. Perhaps the first batch has this.

 

Hahaha.. Rexian, my sig was the reason for that comment. Checked battery terminals..no dice unfortunately. It is unfortunately going to have to go back. I look forward to everyone's impressions though!

 

Got it

 

Have you tried unplugging the battery, pressing the power button till it drains all. Take out the RAM. Put it in again. Connect battery. Connect the charger, let it charge for a while, and try to boot up to the BIOS?

 

no...will try that in a bit. Thanks Serg.

 

Sure! No problem.

Keep us posted on how it goes. After this entire ordeal for the Envy 15, you should be able to use it.

 

Maybe the power supply is bad and not the laptop. Do you have access to another HP 120W power supply? Or a local store that may let you plug yours into their Envy 15 power supply?

 

Left and right side fans sound the same on mine. Probably bad fan or a wire out of place?

BIOS has limited settings (used to desktop motherboards with overclocking functions). Probably normal for laptops (work manages my current laptop, so haven't ever checked it out).

BIOS does have a setting for the function keys. I beleve it called them 'Action Keys' extended text talks about f1-f12, so should be easy to find. You can disable the action keys, so it reverts back to standard order (F1-F12 are active, laptop functions accessed through F key + fn keys).

3dmark vantage score: 10358 CPU, 3397 GPU
http://service.futuremark.com/home.action?resultId=1560386&resultType=19
Default settings for the test.

The GPU area of the bottom got a little warmer during the test. The CPU area got hot enough that I couldn't keep my fingers on the hot spot for more than a few seconds.

3dmark 06 still downloading.

Downloaded this temperature monitoring tool, looks to pick up sensors for CPU, HDD, and GPU.
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

 

I know the batteries will sometimes come pre-charged with some juice. Even with both batterys on, it wont power up. Going to try Serg's suggestion, and report back.

 

Mine literally just came in less than a minute ago. Once I get a chance to play around with it and snap some pictures I'll be sure and put up a full review. Got anything in particular anyone wants me to check?

I have a dell xps m1530 for comparison as well for anyone that's interested

 

Genryu, those are great news.

Peppe1 if you dont mind I will post that result in the OP.

Keep us posted Bubbamel

Genryu, can you compare the temps? The screen brightness? Colours? Contrast? The size of the adapters? The physical size of the laptops? Height, width, depth? The weight? The run time with no slice? The temps?
Use HWMonitor, CPU Z, GPU Z, HDTune, to benchmark the laptop please.

Thanks!

 

update: no go folks. My friend, came over with his, and it sure is nice. Seems like it is running pretty good temp wise so far. I will see what else I can gather from his machine. Noticing a bit of lag on power saver and typing. Everything else is pretty smooth though.

 

Could anybody help me confirm HP won't charege something like restocking fee if I return a open box envy to them within 21 days of the delivery. Been hurt by the BCB cancellation, I almost don't trust what they say on the website anymore.

 

Genryu,

Is there a HDMI to VGA adaptor in the box?

Also someone posted earlier that the computer only outputs stereo and does not output 5.1, (post #1571) can you disprove this?

Also how is the heat with the slice on if you purchased the slice?

 

No restocking fee, they are refunding me my full amount before I even mentioned I had a problem. I am going to wait and see everyone's impressions.

 

Bubbamel, is there no action at all?
If you know how to deal with taking a laptop apart, check the HDD, the CPU and the GPU are well placed.

Have you tried with your friend's charger? Battery?

Try swapping batteries? Try turning on with only one stick of RAM inside?

 

What are the CPU and GPU temps after an hour of normal use (browsing, outlook etc)?

 

Really interested is seeing the temps...

Right now my Thinkpad W500 is CPU=53C / GPU=59C just doing normal stuff with a disk copy in the background.

 

Seriously?? I just read that the Turion II x2 from AMD runs at 41-45 on regular. That is a lot lower than 53 on regular...

 

If you already decided to return, refuse the delivery. Or else you'll have to pay the shipping. There is no restocking fee for first 3 weeks AFAIK but you pay shipping.

 

When I contacted them to continue my order after I had cancelled due to the Bing Cash back fiasco, I asked that question. I was told no penalty. However, I think I read somewhere the shipping is non-refundable.

Here is the policy from HP's web page:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/return_exchange.do?jumpid=hpr_R1002_USEN

 

Just got mine. I had to use the power cord to start it up. It is sitting there idling as I download stuff onto my portable USB on the desktop. So far so good - i hope?

 

If you call HP Support, they'll issue an RMA# along with a link to print out the return shipping label. they told me not to refuse, since they might get confused, which I don't doubt You pay shipping to (which was probably free 2-day), they pay shipping back. I just printed out the label and will be shipping it back before even opening it; I am curious to see it's performance, but it's not worth it without the Bing CashBack, so I'm just shipping it straight back.

 

I pretty much already decided to return mine before I even received it. After a couple weeks of playing with it of course.

Very disappointed with the single HDD bay and no Edge-to-Edge glass display.

BTW, I guess you can use two 1.8" HDDs, if you rig them in, or somehow get HP to sell you the dual HDD bracket. But, it's not already setup for two HDD's, right?

 

Oh wow, I forgot to mention that I did use my friend's AC brick and nothing at all. I checked everything to make sure everything was in place and connected. Nothing. My friend did state that when he first got it, it would not power up either until he plugged it in. Ever since that he has been fine.