*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

DinTuscAl, does that happen out of nowhere? Or you move the laptop? The bat slice gets fully charged?
What are you doing when that happens?

 

The headphone jack is in and out. I'm using the earphones that came with the iphone and it works. I used the sound recording function on the computer and it works but the volume playback is very low. Maybe it has to do with the iphone headset, I don't know.
Anyone have headset for gaming? Give it a shot and lets see if the results come out differently.

 

Mine shows it as 100% fully charged, I haven't tried it off battery yet and have not noticed "not present"...

 

I also looked at the Best Buy in Toronto, so probably the same model you checked out. I did not notice any heat issues while idle, but the 6 cell battery was absent. Perhaps this adds to the heat overall as well?

I put my ear to the fans and couldn't hear anything, perhaps due to the ambient noise in the store though. The Studio XPS 16 was on display nearby and the screen on that machine seems more refined and slick....the HP plastic bezel seemed cheap in comparison. Personally I think the keyboard and metal casing are very nice, but the plastic bezel bit seems out of place and non streamlined. The sreen itself was nice and bright, clear.

One thing I did notice was some vibration from the hard drive under the lower right corner area(I believe thats where its located!). If you place your hand on that spot, you can feel a slight buzzing sensation. As a comparison I checked out the Dell studio XPS 16 and put my hand over its hard drive area, didn't notice the buzzing.

Has anyone else noticed this, perhaps it was just this particular display model after being handled a lot?

I'm going to wait for boxing day to see if Best Buy or Future shop have sales on this model.

 

Ok, so I think I've figured out the pattern: it is definitely happening when I pick up the laptop and then set it back down, don't even have to shake it. I think the slice battery contacts - being in the center - "sag" and lose contact with the contacts on the bottom of the laptop as I pick it up by the left and right sides. If I set it back down it might/might not redetect the battery immediately. But if I push down on the center of the keyboard a bit, which would be right over the contact terminals, it finds the slice again.

I'll call the Envy tech support group and report it. I hope they'll agree to send a new slice and see if that resolves it. Already got a ton of stuff copied over.

 

Yes. Small vibration from HD. Not very noticeable unless you are looking for it.

 

Perhaps it is due to the weight of the slice itself, that it self-detaches and could be a problem found on most models.
Remember the slice is quite heavy, and some early reports said the connections were not that strong...

Contact support and let us know what happened and how did it go.

Thanks!

 

The Slice easily disconnects if the laptop is picked up and moved side-to-side (the hooks/latches in the front and back are in the same direction... design flaw). Holding it from the bottom though I have a difficult time getting the battery 2 systray issue seen by DinTuscAl.

 

Thanks! I stand corrected. +rep

 

Yeah, the battery info in the tray is a little wonky. After I ran the battery out, then fully recharged, it showed 8%. Then I reboot and it showed 100%.

 

Just called HP to process my return. Pretty painless. Sent me the prepaid FedEx shipping label via email instantly.

When I called she offered the $200 discount as well "after checking with her supervisor".

I never even opened the thing...after seeing the Best Buy unit I really had no further interest, especially after getting my BCB canceled.

 

Yay,

I see that you are also sending your Envy back. Do you have another laptop in mind as a plan B? I am trying to decide what to get. It would be interesting to know what laptop those who are sending their Envy back are considering as a replacement. Maybe a new thread?

 

Named *OFFICIAL: HP Envy 15 "Disappointed Users that are returning and looking for a replacement" Lounge*?

 

LMAO!!!

 

can u create one?

I finally understood how HP becomes #1 customer service


the rep told me

Agent (Marie): "The hard drive is 500GB and the screen is wide so the screen becomes edge to edge."

I guess she think I'm fool?

the bezel is likely 3 cm , how it becomes to edge to edge

 

Surely I will create one if you want so.
Send me your ideas and thoughts of the options of the new thread to me via PM.

 

I just realized that the glossy, plastic film that covers the docking side of the slice battery is intended to be removed (part of the film shapes up as a pull-tab on one end). Once I removed the film I tested again. I still lose "Battery #2" as I set it back down on the desk, but I no longer have to push on the center of the keyboard to get it to redetect.

I am checking literally within 2 seconds of setting the laptop down on a hard, flat desk. I am holding it by the left and right sides with the lid open, setting it down from the rear first, then gently lowering the front side (i.e., touchpad side). A co-worker also lifted it up while I repeatedly checked the battery icon, and it disappeared while he had it off the desk.

On the phone with HP now, they are sending me a replacement slice.

 

I know this is the Envy 15 owners lounge but I thought I'd give some perspective on it's little cousin, the 13 which I got, and compare it to the 15 and some of the problems people have been associating with it.

-Totally cool. I never feel warm air being pushed out by the fans. Consistently cool. The only warmth is on the bottom of the laptop and it's only slight. Nothing compared to my previous HP laptop. Obviously has to do with the considerably less powerful processor.
-The E2E glass and screen is beautiful. I have no problems with glare even though it is E2E (no bezel). Brightness is more than enough (it's brighter than the 15 correct?). Almost too much when there is little ambient light. The tilt for the screen seems to be plenty for me after testing it in multiple lecture halls with awkwardly placed desks and seating heights.
-Slice battery seems to stay on very well. I have not had it accidently detach nor does it feel like it would. It's secured tightly.
-The trackpad seems to be just as finicky as the 15's. Gestures, particularly the scroll are cumbersome and awkward. Hopefully a firmware update could fix that.
-The keyboard feels looser than I'd like. I think the Envy 15's is the same. Feels a little cheap when compared to the rest of the laptop.
-Don't understand why the Envy 15 didn't have an SSD option while the 13 did. This thing flies with the Intel G1 160GB SSD. Windows boots in under 20 seconds (to an actual usable desktop). I'd have to think the 15 with an i7 could get there 25% faster.

Besides the high price tag, I love most things with the 13. It's a sleek, sexy ultra portable and has a great build with plenty of power.

 

The "Beats" audio system is on the inside, not on the outside. It's supposed to make a difference when you plug in headphones/speakers. Not on the laptop speakers themselves.

And in relation to all these returns, could I foresee some refurbs/outlet sales of Envy 15's? Might make it a more worthwhile deal, if there are cheaper Envy's in the outlet sections from all these returns.

 

Aww maaaaan, I was hoping this laptop would be FREAKIN' SWEET so I could pick it up for Christmas. From all the returns it seems like I'm gonna have to start considering other options. Hopefully other good lappies will be released before then.

 

EDIT: FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO COMPLAIN AND RETURN YOUR LAPTOP AND SEARCH FOR ANOTHER ONE BUT ONE SUPPORT ON THE MATTER, tell us your story if you want, and post what you are looking for so we can help you, such as others in the same position.

There is the thread created.

Here you go:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5480884#post5480884

Created, as here, help me help you with information by sending it to me and I will keep it up to date always.

 

By chance, was this the Frys in Irving, TX? I was there Sunday and the Envy 15 would not boot up to Windows. When you tried to boot it, it would display a BIOS error - something about a "problem with the cooling fan". It wasn't a heat related issue because the laptop was never functional.

 

my envy 15 is going slower and slower after I installed NIS 2010,
it takes about 1min 13 s to boot into windows 7.

Compare my previous Y550 with 5400 rpm drive, it's about 19 s slower.

I'm guessing I have to make a clean install later

It lags in IE 8.0, or multi tasks.

 

I'm trying out the MBP 17". I don't need core i7 or high end graphics card but I do want a high quality HD display and overall excellent build quality and decent battery life.

 

Maybe NIS is trying to do a full scan for the first time? I imagine this would use a bit of resources.

 

How about some positive experiences? Anyone like theirs and planning to keep it? Mine broke, I had to return it, fry's was out of stock, and I've been waiting 5 days already for them to get more in stock... but I'm still planning to buy another one. I thought it was a great laptop (right up until the keyboard stopped working - I'm buying the extended warranty next time).

 

I like mine, I think I will probably keep it. That being said, I have only logged ~3hrs hands on with it.
Has anyone tried to wipe it and do a clean install? Are the Win7 License keys for the preinstalled OS somewhere for use as a reinstall?

 

I am over the moon with mine. So far no problems with heat or fan noise. I don't know why people keep moaning about no edge to edge when it was stated that the 15 lacks it (see link)

http://gizmodo.com/5359331/hp-envy-hands-on-macbook-pro-clone-better-than-the-real-thing

"lacks the flush glass display" If I am wrong and that is different to edge to edge then I apologise.

Performance is top notch to, I unistalled Norton straight away and got AVG free and Comodo firewall running.

I would have liked is a backlit keyboard oh and a better 6-cell battery life. Apart from that, so happy I got this over the macbook pro/studio xps 16

 

Ok people.

I am off for today. Enough <strike>spamming</strike> helping for a day for me and it is quite late now over here...hahaha

Keep me posted! Cyall tomorrow.

 

I did a clean install of Win7 but I used an msdn copy of ultimate. I believe the keys should be under the battery (not the slice, the other one).

 

Windows 7 Product Key is located under on the machine under the battery.

You will need a disc from another source to install a clean windows 7. Then activate with your key.

 

I'm almost finished up with my review and will post it up hopefully sometime later today (or when serg gets back). Are there any last things anyone would like me to test out/check?

 

I'd expect Serg to be gone at least 8 hours. As he is living in France at the moment, it'll be gone midnight now and unlike me, he's probably sensible and actually sleeps at night.

What have you covered off in your review so far? Just the top level areas you've done - we can then have a think about what else should be included.

 

Any thoughts on whether the key is for an upgrade or full retail key?
Also, I have never dealt with a "backup partition"... any tips and tricks or a how-to would be much appreciated!

 

I have a section for packaging and design, overall build quality, heat and noise, performance, screen quality, battery life, and then just final conclusions and side notes.

Didn't realize the time there, guess my review will be up sometime tomorrow then (pacific standard time)

 

Did you have a slice? Are you providing any battery life experiments in your review?

 

Anyone have any thoughts on the effects of bloatware loaded on the Envy? Which do we think are the biggest hitters on performance? Which are worth keeping? (poll?)

 

I didn't purchase the slice so I can't give battery life numbers on that. But I basically did a few run throughs under various scenarios for battery life.

Namely, light usage while typing notes in a lecture hall, video playback of a blu-ray title ripped to the hard drive, and a bit more intensive casual use including music playback along with webbrowsing. I used the HP custom power profile for all my tests.

 

I probably wouldn't tinker with the partitions unless you are sure you have a re-install path.

I believe someone posted in this thread his experience try to restore from the HP recovery partition and it failed unless it was on the original hard drive.

No idea what the key is for, but either one can do a full install. Upgrade just might have to do two isntalls... Cnet has couple articles on it.

The part i saved was this :
1. Do a clean install at boot without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process.

2. When the installation is finished, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number.

The above lets a 'upgrade key' activate a clean install.

 

Sound quality (though of course notebooks tend to be pretty bad anyway).
Quality of the keyboard / touchpad & any difficulties using them.
Connectivity - though this is documented anyway - guess it just makes sense to put it all in one place.

I'm assuming in the performance section you are including all the typical figures (3DMark, HDTach / HDTune, File copy, WEI (as valuable as it is and all that), PCMark, WPrime, Boot time, Shut down time)?

Oh and in the conclusion, I'm guessing you've included arguments for and against the notebook?

 

peppe1, I have done 4 clean installs in the last week and I am confident in do so with an upgrade disc. My understanding though is that the key is different for full retail and upgrade, and that you can't use them interchangeably. So my issue might be having to track down a Win7 Pro Full retail (I already have Win7 Pro upgrade).
Can anyone confirm if the key is a different type depending on if the version of Win 7 is full or upgrade?

 

Is there a laptop battery benchmarking tool? I would be happy to provide experimental data with my slice and my Envy for use in any review.

 

Just wanted to chime in regarding video playback on computers, in general.

Video playback is pretty much the simplest thing you could possibly do on a GPU. There's not much that is simpler, except for not drawing anything at all. The GPU is 99% idle during video playback.

There is no "acceleration hardware" for video playback on a GPU. However, since the GPU is a programmable processor, you can write a GPU program that decodes video on the GPU instead of the CPU. GPUs aren't as easy to program as a CPU, but it's possible. Because of this, a GPU program may even decode video slower than if it was running on the CPU (this varies from GPU to GPU and the skill of the programmer). I would not consider this as any kind of "acceleration" but rather "offloading" the work from CPU to the GPU to allow the CPU to do other things at the same time, since the GPU is just idle and not doing anything anyway.

Video decoding can be done in a million ways, but normally it's also a pretty simple task for a CPU. It should be possible to write a video decoder that is optimized for battery life. Very often, the programmers who write movie playback software are extremely sloppy and waste CPU unnecessarily (and battery life).

Something _would_ be heavy on the CPU would be if the playback software was doing "Photoshop-filters" on the video frames in real-time. Like how TVs have started to do a lot of processing on the video signal. But I'm not aware any computer software that does that yet...?

(Just wanted to vent a little of my frustration about glossy "PR speak" that bullet-point "HD movie playback" as something that shows off the performance of their hardware....)

 

can someone tell me how to use hp mediasmart webcam ?

It appears black and white, how to change it to full color? thanks

 

There are several. The ones that pop to mind are MobileMark and BatteryEater, however MobileMark is a paid for application.

 

On a different computer, I used a full install disc from MSDNAA and the key for a pre-order upgrade and it worked just fine.

I installed it with no key though, and then used the "Change product key" thing under the system control panel.

You could probably torrent the Pro full install. Microsoft seems to care more about where you got the product key than the actual software.

 

I thought that there were some software programs available that do take advantage of the GPU for video playback by offloading work on to it as you said. If you know of any that I could use I'd be glad to test it out. I'm only concerned because I'd like to eek out a bit more battery life and I'm thinking the core i7 throttling might be the issue at hand. This became more apparent when I was running a blu-ray sample file playback test, which I was hoping to off-load via software to the GPU.

I've included a bit about the beats audio and the internal speakers and I talked about the keyboard and the touchpad. I went over the connectivity with regards to video and checked it out on a CRT, LCD, and a rear-projection tv as well.

I forgot to time for boot time and shut down times, but I'll go ahead and do that in a bit once I run the video playback test again.

I've got some comparison shots to the dell m1530 too for reference with regards to size and I gave my 2 cents on buying advice too.

Any other tests in particular that you want to see? Cinebench, etc.?

 

is there a way to stop the auto dimming? i have lights on behind me and as a I move, my screen adjusts to the light. Its kind of annoying.

 

I totally forgot about cinebench. To be honest, there are more that could be run, but if you have that list I gave you then I'd have thought it would be plenty to give people an idea.

Of course, gaming wise you could try Crysis. It's the one everyone uses to compare gaming in reality.

 

This might be a dumb question, but I'm going to ask anyway.

Do you think the CPU or the GPU gets hotter?

I just came back from Best Buy. Played with one of these that's been running all day because I was curious hot warm it gets, mainly on the palm rest.

The CPU side was a little bit warm, but not uncomfortable. There was nothing on the computer though that would stress the GPU at all.

I'm going to be using this machine for some reasonably large 3-d CAD models (Revit, specifically). Your thoughts?