*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

Vantage scores are close, probably a difference of what background tasks we left running.

I didn't list my P score P4083 3DMarks // his P4145 3DMarks pretty close.

 

No, no, what I mean, is that the links, send me to the same pages, and I cannot seem to find any more info...kinda lost here guys, sorry.

 

What is the Windows Experience score breakdown?

 

1 hour later battery at 11%... Windows recommended stopping playback.

Screen was off (Output through HDMI to reciever).

 

With 11%? Wow, that is high.
Ok, lets do the math.
1 hour of Video Playback, starting at 85% of battery and ending at 11%, those are 85-11=74%
1 hour of video ate 74%, so you should be able to reach 1:20 using 94% of battery? Or did I got my maths wrong? lol

 

Started at 89% not 85%.

89-11 = 78% = 60 minutes.
Therefore 1% = (60minutes/78)*60 = 46 seconds
100% = 100*46 seconds = 4,600 seconds = 76 minutes 20 seconds = 1 hour, 16 minutes 20 seconds for a full charge.
Or thereabouts. I've not allowed for rounding.

With rounding errors removed, it comes to 1 hour, 16 minutes, 55.38 seconds (to 2dp)

However, we shouldn't drain the battery completely, so lets say we stick at 10%, that then leaves 1 hour, 9 minutes and 13.85 seconds (to 2 dp)

 

3dmark 06 (7617): http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=1C1533E0743D394F2B458C619C8F0E81

3dmark 05 (14508): http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=FF687B719CE5965954BE044DB16CA5A4

On a side note I just started to listen to some songs on youtube and the sound quality I feel is quite good for a laptop. So far it seems more than loud enough but I'll be doing a test later with a blu-ray file I have.

 

Mine is running fine. Not too hot (really not even that warm on the palm rests), can barely hear the fans at all. very quiet actually.

Installed Adobe Master Suite Collection CS4 and everything launches fast and works fine. So far I am very happy with the this laptop. Only thing that bummed me out was no E2E, but still 8 cores (W7 CPU Usage Gadget) and running smooth so its a keeper for me.

 

My Envy doesn't recognize the slice battery. I plug it in, move the latches. nothing.
am I doing something wrong ?

 

did you remove the tab on the bottom of the laptop? I did the same things and then looked, there is a small black peal off tab where the battery needs to make contact with the connector underneath. I also rebooted and it was picked up just fine after that.

 

Should be covering the area shown in this diagram taken from the manual:

 

Temps please.

 

HWMonitor is a good way to go.
Link on the OP

 

Is it just for me, or does the envy 15 not quite fully close shut for others. It seems like it can't really sit flush with the main body because of the padding around the screen bezel.

if there's any other benchmarks you want me to run serg just let me know, I posted the 3dmark 06 and 05 numbers earlier on if you wanted them.

 

would you guys mind posting a image of the Envy 15 with the power pack and external dvd reader next to the unit? I have yet to get mine and from a portability standpoint would like to see how much i really need to carry.

 

I noticed this on my preview, thousand posts ago...^^ indeed that worried me. Seems like it wasnt fixed then...

What games do you own?
Lets see the real gaming capabilities of this beauty.

How is life?

 

So, one of the fans in my Envy was making "ticking sounds", as if the blades were hitting a cable a little bit. This sound went away after a little while. However, if I press down on to the right of the HOME button, the sound comes back. Anyone else has this issue?

Perhaps I should open up the case and have a look...?

 

Seeing that this could and will be used as a gaming machine by many, what games do you have that you could test?

I've seen a couple in this thread by the guy that bought his from PC World (sorry, can't remember who you are), but any more would only be better.

 

Ok peeps. It is late here, and I have lectures in 7 hours lol
I am off for today, and considering this thread grows QUITE fast (read: impossible to keep up) if you post more results or something, please, let me know.
Use the SEND PM option, I dont mind getting bombarded by them, and that way you help me keep the thread up-to-date and help others.

THanks!

 

Right now it'll probably take me a bit to get some games loaded up since I didn't get the external optical drive, so I'm going to try and download some demos to at least run some game benchmarks through that.

Currently have crysis pending on the list, and will hopefully have left 4 dead 2 loaded up sometime soon once I get that on steam. If there's any demos you want me to download and test for timedemos I can do that right now. Going to need to wait until I can get the remote optical disk thing worked out.

Thanks again for putting this all together serg, great work. Life's pretty good in southern california, how about for you?

 

I'm not sure if this is covered or not, but I'm curious, as I read there is no VGA port. Does this mean there is no way to set it up with an external monitor?

Also, does this have a docking station accessory or the like?

 

No port for a docking station, but there are various USB or wireless docking stations on the market.

Has HDMI out for external monitor. My desktop monitor has an HDMI port. DVI is more common and HDMI to DVI converters are usually cheap.

 

I'm going to try and see if a HDMI to DVI adapter plus a DVI to VGA adaptor works or not. I'll do that as part of my review for those of you who are interested. I have a CRT to test it on to see if it works or not and what issues come up.

 

Those that have run Vantage benchmarks what drivers are installed? Your GPU scores seem way low and ORB listing your cards as "Generic VGA" might be a flag that there's a problem.

 

http://s921.photobucket.com/albums/ad53/Genryu/?action=view&current=GraphicsDriver.png

Took a screenshot for what catalyst is saying it has. Would appreciate any help on whether I should go ahead and update the driver or not. Just worried about stability with new ones.

 

Hi, I had both of these concerns too. FWIW, here's what I'm doing (or will be doing; my Envy 15 continues to be estimated to ship tomorrow after ordering 10/23).

I expect to order the http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/computer/categories/cables/1/accessories/NP031AA%2523ABA?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN HP HDMI to VGA Display Adapter (NP031AA#ABA) for $39.99 which says it works for Envy 13 and I'm hoping will work for Envy 15. (Has anyone tried this? If you do, please post!) I need this to connect to VGA-input projectors.

I will use the Envy mainly as a desktop but have become very used to a regular (not generic usb-style) docking station with my current laptop and initially intended to only get a laptop with a proper dock. But I went ahead with the Envy 15, and no dock at all because in my case I figured any other dock would only save me about two connections. My thinking:

Envy w/o dock connections needed: 1 power; 1 monitor; 1 usb; 1 speakers

Envy w/usb-style dock: 1 dock connector; 1 monitor (dock doesn't support it)

So this is actually only a difference of two connections; not enough of a difference (in my case) to warrant the dock.

Details: I only expect to have four connections, w/o dock, because I will put all the various usb's into either a usb hub or into my new Linksys WRT610N shared usb ports so there will only be one usb connection to make despite multiple usb devices; I'll use wireless instead of wired network connection if the "N" wireless is as fast for me as my not-terribly-fast dsl anyway; I have a network printer so no cable needed there. Of course, your situation may be different; just thought I'd post in case it helps anyone.

Can anyone poke a hole in the above for my case--am I missing something? Thanks for your help!

Larry

 

Saw the envy 15 and 13 at bestbuy earlier today.My main interest is the envy 15. I only had a few minutes to play with both of the models.

The palm rest on the envy 15 was warm but not in a way that would cause any discomfort.The bottom of the notebook was hot to the touch but it really shouldn't bother anyone.
both of the models build quality seemed very good compared to other consumer notebooks although 3 of the keys on the hp 15 were broken. But I can associate that to the fact that people don't treat the notebooks there with care. I saw a person smacking a DV7 really hard a few times.
The envy 13 had the slice battery attached to it unlike the 15 which had the basic 6 cell only.
Two things I really didn't like about the 15:
After seeing the envy 13 next to it the lack of edge to edge really bothers.
Second, I liked the smooth feeling of the envy 13 which was nothing like the feeling of the envy 15 etched design.
I will be going back to bestbuy tomorrow with benchmark tools and hwmonitor,cpu-z and gpu-z on a usb flash drive.

 

Just got home with mine after a long drive to the FedEx station. It appears both the slice and internal battery were fully charged. The battery charge light is white which is supposed to be a full charge. I got it a day early. FedEx tracking said it wasn't due until tomorrow.

 

My thoughts exactly. I much prefer the 13 for looks. I believe HP will release the Edge-to-Edge on the 15 sooner or later. They're releasing dual SSD/HDD options in a couple weeks, they might release the edge-to-edge right then. Also, they may add options for no smooth top like the 13 and a lesser etching design.

I'm sending my 15 back and waiting for the updates. I'll take it with E2E screen, dual SSD, and probably less etching.

 

I wouldn't count on a edge to edge model coming out just yet. The reason it was omitted looks like it was for the added weight, and as far as the dual SSDs go I hope they offer some decent pricing with them. Since unless there's been a recent internal redesign it's going to be dual 1.8'' drives which might be pricey depending on the model used.

 

Well if you're up for it you can try the Win7 9.9 beta drivers from AMD:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...ev=9.9&ostype=Windows 7 Beta - 64-Bit Edition

...or the modded certified 9.1 drivers linked in this thread:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=264&threadid=121414&enterthread=y


If you're not sure what you're doing though you can always leave it up to someone else to be the guinea pig.

 

I don't think weight is an issue at all. All they'd have to do is add it as a custom order option. Not like everyone will be stuck with it then. I really don't get what all the fuss is about weight. I mean, what a bunch of wimps that can't carry 1-2bls more lol. It's a power user laptop for crying out loud. Edge-to-edge is usually PLASTIC not glass, even though they call it that (cause of the glass like effect). Hardly enough weight difference to worry about IMO.

 

I was introduced to this laptop on Friday last, to which I laughed at it. I had to return my Pavilion dv7 because of a fault...and well...Saturday, after being encouraged (by my brother and looking up the specs) i am now the proud owner of an Envy 15.

Um, I know there are no "function keys" but looking closely at the top row buttons, it does show "f1...etc". How do I go about being able to use those keys?

 

I think everyone should return their Envy 15 notebooks to force HP to deliver the specs everyone though they were getting.

If everyone returned their systems, HP would probably get edge-to-edge going sooner than they planned and launch their dual SSD configs.

Why do people put up with this crap? I sure won't. It's a nice system but they false advertised and don't tell me they couldn't have E2E on this thing.

 

Yes it is. One of the key selling point of this notebook is that it has power but remains relatively lightweight. Brilliant; let's make it heavy and lose one of it's USPs......

The more customised the notebook is, the harder it is for their support team, and the more expensive things will be overall as a result of having to train people in different things and having to stock a wider variety of items.

Personally, I think this machine is expensive enough without adding to the costs.

With reference to weight. Well, if that's not an issue and you want the edge to edge glass, go buy a Studio XPS 16. Need power; go try the M15x or the Clevo. How difficult do you think it would be to make a "swiss army" does everything you want for everyone notebook??!!

Not true: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=391282

Even a thin layer of glass can add a fair amount of weight. The display behind it will of course be the same material as any other display.

 

Do you notice some thin horizontal stripes on your display ? look close, especially when displaying darker colors. is this just mine or is it normal ?

 

I don't know about others, but I had the Dell SXPS 16 with E2E RGBLED. It was plastic not glass.

Your point about Clevo and Alien/Dell makes no sense at all. Size and weight are 2 different things. I don't mind the relatively small difference the E2E makes. I do mind a 2" think space hog.

The problem here is that people were mislead to think it came with an E2E screen. It was stated on their site and it was shown in pictures. Why are you talking about it costing the company more? It should have come that way, they advertised it. They are already making a KILLING off people with their overprices crap products IMO.

To add 1 more screen option won't hurt them one bit.

 

We don't even know if the 40% off deal will happen. Last year PC sales were in the dumper, this year may be a different story. We won't know until later in the month.

 

It doesn't have it; we know this now. Don't order, or if you have already, cancel it. Otherwise, complaining here is really really the wrong place; all people will see is someone having a cry.

 

I can't see any horizontal stripes on my display.

By the way, about the track pad. I don't see what the big issue was:

• Two-finger scrolling worked the first time for me, and has worked as expected every time I've tried it. And no, I don't need to have my two fingers aligned perfectly horizontally - I just put them where they would naturally be if I were dragging something up/down with two fingers.
• Turning it on/off works every time I try it.
• Pinch zoom in/out works as expected.
• Mouse buttons work as expected, no extra pressure needed. But I rarely use them except for the RMB (I normally tap to left-click). It's interesting that the trackpad works all the way across the surface - even over the mouse buttons. I like that.

 

Oddly enough I've had this issue happen with my DV9700 and my HDX18t as they age. Very oddly, I did not think that would happen with an LED screen. I figured it was just the CCFL's coming through as the notebooks age. Though it is completely unnoticeable except on the boot screen with the all black background.

 

No issues on the horizontal lines for me either. I just got a blu-ray file on here so I'm going to try and test that on my tv and see how playback is on it.

@Phinagle I'll try and install the drivers once I run spyder pro on it to get a better color profile. Something about the colors seems a bit off to me, but it's probably because I've always used calibrated monitors.

Also does anyone know how to get a time estimation to show up for the battery life? It just gives me percent battery life with no real hour estimates.

 

HI, I just received my envy 15 today

It's a little slow, compare to my t400s

I'm wondering how I can change the brightness of this laptop, does anyone know ?

whatever I press either fn+ f2 or f3, nothing happens

I have to manually press windows key and X to reach mobility center. so I can change it

Does anyone know how to make hp's keys work? I know there is ambient light sensor on the top,

I tried it, it doesn't do anything.

 

@yun: The fn keys are reverse mapped.

basically you don't push the fn key before you push any of the function buttons like on most laptops. Just push f3 to brighten it (do not push the fn while you do this) and it'll get brighter.

This works for all the function keys unless you change the settings manually.

 

By default the function keys are not set to act as function keys first. So try pressing F2/F3 without the Fn button pressed.

There is a setting in the BIOS to change this so that they act as function keys first, media / special keys second (i.e. whilst pressing the Fn button).

 

The F1-F12 keys are inverted by default on this laptop, so fn+F2=F2, F2 = dimmer.

So you use fn+FX key to send F2. Hitting F2 alone does whatever icon HP has on there (dimmer). You can disable this in the BIOS to return the key combination to the normal order (fn+FX= Icon).

 

thanks, it works.

 

Oh no, did Hp do this again, where they have the battery only show up as percentages and not remaining time? I need to know remaining time. I don't know what 43% is.

 

The fan is constanly running, but it's still under acceptable range.

How's XPS stuido 16's noise? Because I ordered a studio xps 16 before, i'm still thinking about which one I should keep

 

I got my Envy 15 up and running and its awesome! Initial observations: 1. temperature is not an issue for me, seem normal compared to other laptops 2. no fan clicking others have noted 3. Packaging was very apple-esque. 4. Waiting to connect my slice until main battery fully charges.

Let me know if there is anything anyone wants to know.