HP Envy 17 - coming to the US in May 2010

I couldn't agree more.

When I look at my Envy power adapter, it looks identical to the power adapters from previous years and I can't really tell much difference between this and an old Toshiba adapter I still have from the late 1990s.

I'm not as familiar with the power adapters for other brands of Windows laptops, as I have used mostly HP laptops for the past few years. Have any other Windows laptop manufacturers stepped up their game in this area? Anyone with a VAIO or Dell Adamo care to comment?

I believe there is a great market niche here for any third party making universal power adapters who can come up with a sexy, slim design.

 

like this one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kensington-120W-Laptop-Notebook-AC-DC-Adapter-Charger_W0QQitemZ260542286626QQ

ordered that for Envy 15

 

Looks nice, much better than HP's!

I checked the Kensington site http://us.kensington.com/html/16414.html and they have one model that is the "Ultra Compact"
4.5" x 2.2" x 0.8"

And another that is the "Ultra Thin"
5.9" x 2.4" x 0.8"

Do you happen know which one that eBay post refers to?

 

This one is 0.7" thick, but not sure if it works with the Envy. Gotta love the brand name, though, "Sparkle Power, Inc." ;-)

http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/65-watt-SPI-Slim-65-Laptop-AC-Adapter.php

 

This is hard for me because I had been suich an HP fanboy for their consumer products, even learned the hang of getting pretty good customer service. But check out Laptop Mag's annual survey of customer satisfaction and it will tell all. It's too much work to own and maintain an HP consumer line computer! I would strongly urge anyone to consider the Probook and Elitebook alternates. I know they can be too much compromise for gamers, but if you can get a decent gpu in a business line HP, don't think twice - do it!

Also, any company that tries to copy a competitior as formidable as Apple with a trackpad, and can't even get it to respond to basic commands - same on the TM2, by the way, after a YEAR, just doesn't desrerve to have our thousands of dollars. If you are a gaming enthusiast, then maybe the Envy makes sense; for any other kind of user, it is a flawed machine in a world where much less flawed ones are available, for the same or less money.

 

The more I think about this and read the thread, the more I realize that you have nothing to worry about: HP will always screw it up with a new model. They have just about never gotten it right the first or second time. The Envy 15 is a perfect case in point. There has been a lot of buzz about it and it has some awesome components and an attractive package (I'm convinced that, regardless of patents, no one has the guts to spend the R&D and design products like the MBP. Ok, the Dell Adamo is pretty sharp, but they have yet to prove they can make it into a fully functional DTR or gamer, so what is it except a coffe table ornament.

At least Asus, Acer and even Sony to an extent try to meet consumer wants and needs. All but the latter tend to go for much lower price points than the MBP or Envy, but I am convinced that if Asus tried to make a really sleek, poweful, non-gaming (but respectable gpu, switchable, of course, they could do so and get it right mechanically and electronically the first time. HP's consumer laptop division just doesn't have design, engineering or quality control operations in place to ever produce a successful high end computer. The dv7 and dv8 are fine when coupons bring their prices down to $850, but load them up with RAM and SSDs and they become $2,000 disasters waiting to happen. An "entry level" Core i5 Envy, when coupons or Bing CB brings its price down around $1,000 is certainly a great deal for a gamer, though I assume we're still talking abysmal battery life (why, when a Dell SXPS 16 w/ Core i5 and ATI 4670, admittedly a step down from the 5830, but not enough to make a big difference, doesn't overheat and gets 3.5 hrs on a charge with wifi on. And now almost eveyone has some form of switchable graphics but HP - except on the TM2 tablet! Why can they manage to switch between an ATI 4550 (admittedly a very weak GPU, but discrete nonetheless) and the Intel integrated grpahics on the fly, but not on a single other HP product?

Potential for greatness - blown!

 

Can you elaborate on your Bing issues? Was it pending, then suddenly cancelled? When was it cancelled? Before shipping, as it shipped, or after shipping?

I don't think HP guarantees youll get G1 or G2, or even intel drives. Just says 160gb SSD's. Even for G1's it's a bargain. The trackpad, well.. you have read that you can change / update drivers now.

Anyways, losing the cashback seems pretty compelling reason to cancel to me. Why do you think they cancelled it?

 

Besides the trackpad which you covered, what flaws do you feel the Envy has?

Thousands... well, mine was $950 after coupon. Will be approx $840 after tax if I get my bing cash backs.

 

@lovelaptops, I think your kind of exaggerating the problems of the Envy. All I got from that is that you hate the trackpad and the battery life isn't too great. One of which can be tweaked to work better. I understand battery life is a problem. But regardless, the Envy 15 is a fantastic machine for the price.

 

Wow. Thank you. I was thinking to myself, "Holy Crap. What's going on here? Another over-the-top drama queen post about this laptop."

I swear, the Envy really attracts some wild opinions.

It's funny you mention 3.5 hours, with wifi on, because that's exactly what the Envy can get with a little tweaking and care. See JJB's posts. Interestingly enough that's about what a MBP will get in Windows 7. Now, in reality there IS a gap, I mean, the MBP does have a significantly weaker GPU, no support what-so-ever for quad core processers and a battery that doubles the weight of the Envy's battery, but, amazingly, after a little tweaking, the Envy's battery life is a significant percentage of the MBP's in Windows 7.

"...but load them up with RAM and SSDs and they become $2,000 disasters waiting to happen..."

Man, you can't buy writing like that. You should work for an Apple review mag or something.

 

Yeah, not having switchable graphics drivers for Windows 7 restricts the MBP to discrete graphics only, which is a big disadvantage to Apple's approach. I started a thread about the new MBP switchable graphics here; I think there's plenty of discussion to be had there.

 

Well, I used to be excited about hP envy's too, especially the possible mythical envy 17, but the bottom line is that hp has been making crapish computers lately. So I have to assume they will screw up again with the 17'' envy...
If you look at the envy owner's lounge, you can see a laundry list of problems people are having with their "new" envy's. It's like this 'potentially' great computer with great design and high end components, if you can get it to work. I'm sorry folks but new computers ought to just work.

-and if you think i'm just babbling let me tell you my experience. I bought an envy 15 in march. I took it out of the box and tried to turn it on. The screen took 10 minutes to turn on after I turned on the power(I thought it was a first time start up thing..). Of course I tried to play a game on it right away to check out the 5830's power, (bad company 2) and every time I pressed the volume button up or down, it minimized the game and sent me the desktop. I called tech support and they said there is nothing they know of to fix it. I searched the forums and found that this is a known problem but was able to go into the startup processes and disable the on screen display for volume controls and that fixed the problem, at the cost of disabling some of the media keys on the keyboard. I mean it's a new computer come on what a pain. And then so I go back to playing bad company 2 and it keeps crashing, and then i think it's the game, so I'm surfing the web to find and answer, and it crashes again and again. No blue screen of death or anything, just it turns off, then turns back on(like it's restarting) but the screen never lights up. Then it crashes for like the 10th time, and can't ever get the screen to turn back on again. Literally, press power, it makes noise, but screen does not turn on. tried about 50 times. Next day, sent it back to HP for a refund.

So, like the other guy said, HP just can't make a quality high end laptop it seems. Obviously their quality control sucks the big one. It seems like almost everyone buying an envy has issues with it out of the box, from blank screen errors, to running to hot, or just crashing or u name it, so I have to figure that the 17'' will be no different. I mean, they could really have a quality product with the envy if they just took some time to make it work properly, but it seems like they are just churning them out as fast as they can and just throwing them together so they can sell the hype (oooh look at the sleek sexy envy and all it's primo specs) rather than making sure they get it right. I mean, the week before i bought my envy, there was a $200 off coupon. The week i bought my envy, there was a $300 coupon, two weeks later round beginning of april there was a $450 off coupon(if $1399+ config price), can anyone see the pattern? If this computer was so great I doubt they would be selling it like it's on clearance.

But with all that said, it would be a pleasant surprise if the envy 17 just worked well, and there weren't a zillion problems with it. It just seems that companies like apple wait till they have finished polished products when they release them, but hp puts out crap that out to be still in lab testing.

 

just a couple of thoughts:

1.) That post might be enough to cross the Envy 17 off of my list. No matter what the source of your problems were, tons of issues out of the box is poor quality control.

2.) Some of your game issues may just be related to drivers. I know it's a pain to find and update them with new ones, but maybe it would have helped?

3.) My understanding was that those who ordered i7 quad Envy 15's were having problems, but not so much the i5 owners?

4.) The Envy line does not constitute "high end" for HP or anyone else. If you want HP "high end" you have to go to the small business section of their website and look through the "elitebooks". THAT is high end and high quality. though I agree that considering the Envy constitutes the best of their consumer-grade products, they've been a big letdown. But they do still make quality laptops.

 

-just a quick response to what u said
#2 :I know my fair share about computers... even build a desktop a long while ago. I updated the video drivers, and another driver the tech support guy said to update, but couldn't do any more because I couldn't get it back on... in fact while updating drivers hp's support site didn't even have my video card listed as an option, it only had the older 48xx whatever, not the new 5830, and that was on the page that came up after i typed in my model # as directed by tech support. So i had to try nvidia's page for a newer driver. I knew more about the envy 15's than either of the 2 tech support people I talked to. I mean, the tech guy I talked to said that he had "never heard" of the volume button minimize games problem that i had, but when I googled it, google pulled up a forum post where LOTS of people had that problem, and the guy with they solution said that HP tech support helped him figure out the solution after 45 minutes... That's just terrible. I mean so I have problem A(volume buttons kicking me out of full screen apps) with my computer and I talk to tech support guy #1 and #2 and neither has ever heard of my problem, but since hp tech support is so disorganized, tech support guy #3 can't tell the guys I talked to(or report to some central database thing or something) that he already fixed the problem I'm having and knows the answer.

#3: I don't know about problems on i7's being worse than on i5's, but mine was an i5-540

#4: ya, I have heard good things about their business lineup like the elitebooks or whatever they are called. I personally would not want one for my use because I really want a large touchpad on my laptop, and a thin as possbile form factor w/core i5 or better. (the envy was my last hope of not having to resort to getting into bed w/ Mr. Jobs..)

In fact, before i took the plunge for my envy 15, i read all the reviews, and problems people were having, and I thought well, I'm sure all those people just got the lemons, and I have heard the gen 2's are a lot better so I bet mine will be fine and I'll really like it... I was wrong obviously. In fact theres a couple forum posts I read somewhere with one guy on his 4th envy because the first 3 they sent him were bad, and in his post he decided to finally give up and get something else.
But as this is a thread about the 17'' envy, I really hope hp has learned from their mistakes & can turn their act around with the 17'' envy.

 

The Bing issue was fairly complicated and specific to my situation. I was in China when I placed the order and I made sure that every i was dotted and t was crossed to get the 20% Bing promotion. But there was a security hold put on my credit card by the bank due to the origin of the order. By the time I connected my bank rep with an HP CSR in the US at my expense (China blocks the HP 800 support number as well as the AT&T international access number), it was 24 hrs later.

I suggested to the CSR that there might be problems with Bing due to the lag and that I probably should cancel/reorder now that the card was cleared. The CSR checked w/ a manager and they insisted there would be no problem with Bing. Of course, after the order went no Bing discount showed and both MSFT and HP said there was nothing they could do. Then HP refused to allow me to cancel the order, even tho I was in Shanghai (where the machine was being built) and the office I was visiting was on the same floor as the Shanghai HP office!

You're correct that HP doesn't guarantee G1 vs G2, but I had deliberately waited until all the posters on the Envy forum were reporting that they were receiving G2s. I do heavy database work and TRIM support is important to me. Turns out that HP reverted to G1s for about a month until they resolved some issue and are shipping G2s once again. In any case, you gotta figure at some point they'll run out of G1s.

I have used Bing cashback successfully in the past, but due to MSFT's complete unwillingness to help me on this order, I will not use it again, ever. I've dealt with phone bots that were more intelligent than the Bing CSRs.

 

I belive than i found some spec about the envy 17. I search on google with the name give by hp sopport and for the 17-1001TX i found:
CPU - Intel® Core™ i5-540M Processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L2 Cache)
Display Panel - 17.3 diagonal HD+ HP BrightView Infinity LED Display (1600 x 900)
Standard Memory - 6144MB 1333MHz DDR3 (2 Dimm)
Hard drive - 640GB 5400RPM
Optical Drive - SuperMulti 8X DVD±R⁄RW with Double Layer Support
Networking⁄Wireless - Integrated 10⁄100⁄1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector); 802.11abgn + Bluetooth
Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5850 Graphics with 1GB GDDR5 VRAM
Operating System - Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Web Cam⁄MIC - Yes
There are alose a photo on the same site : http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/4bcda9f6041656ca273fc0a87e0106b3/Product/View/XC8833
So it seems to me a good new because the entry level has already a ATI 5850 with 1G og GDDR5.
On a other site i found the HP ENVY 17-1006TX with these specs: i7-820QM 4GB 17.3 W7
PS: English is not my native language. Excuse the spelling mistakes

 

looks like our prayers have been answered..

i'm not getting it tho. 15" is already large enough for me.

 

Is there a way to tell what the upgrade option on the screen is? obviously 16:10 which sucks but maybe they have a super high rez option which i could live with.

What about weight?

 

looking fantastic.

 

I just hope they refresh the 15 inch with switchable graphics when they release 17 since I'm in the market for a new laptop and an Envy 15 with better battery life would be really perfect.
Does anyone think they will?

 

ATI is doing it with MSI, I don't really see why not.

 

encouraging specs. meh price. probably approaching 3K with an SSD and the higher quality screen. no switchable graphics.

looking forward to reviews and benchmarking.

here's hoping it's a winner.

 

Too bad about the whole "no communication" within HP and their factory and Shanghai office. It's pretty common. Same with Lenovo.
Did you consider walking up to the office in person and trying to deal with it? I would have been tempted and quite determined.

MSFT? Too bad about the Bing Reps. But how about the HP India reps? The Bing reps can't possibly be dumber?

Looks like 16:9 to me. Hmm, 17.3 inches.
Weight? My crystal ball says 0.7 lbs lighter the 17" MBP.

Price... do you forget 25% BCB or $450 coupons?

 

I understand that you're upset but a few things...

First off is that BF:BC2 has been giving ATI users a ton of problems since it's been released and not just ENVY users. All users, desktop and laptop. ATI has been working to fix more and more of these problems as their newest "official driver" the Catalyst 10.4 Preview fixes more of the horizontal lines as well as map loading times. Also, I believe that updating the system BIOS has helped some people with the system crashing. I could be wrong though.

Another thing, the techs probably don't know about the volume downsize problem because that's the way it's supposed to work. It brings up the on-screen display to show your volume which causes full-screen apps to downsize. While it can be annoying for those of us who play games I'd assume most other people either don't mind it or find it handy to be able to see how high their volume is in reference to the maximum volume?

 

yep--meant to say 16:9. i get that stuff confused every time

 

How's your Mandarin? Mine's pretty rusty so, no, I didn't consider barging into their Shanghai office.

 

Right, so they did use a GDDR5 video card after all. One fatal mistake avoided.
I'm not surprised by the seeming lack of switchable graphics; they've shot themselves in the foot with that, but it isn't fatal.

 

Let's just say it's a little rusty. You mentioned office building, so I am assuming engineering and management... I would expect to find a decent number of English speakers there.

But it looks like you might come out ahead anyways. Now you can reorder with 25% BCB. That is, if you still want one.

 

Has anyone looked at the GPU arrangement in the Envy 15? I forget, is it solderied to the mobo, or is it plugged in or connected some how? What kind of solder connection is it? I know it's separate, somehow. Already wondering about the possibility of slapping the 5850 in the Envy 15.

I would be kinda pissed if they added switchable to the 15. But of course I would be thrilled if it was a BIOS update. In any case, It would be a smart move on HP's part. There must be a reason it didn't make it into the 2nd gen Envy. I think it's something to do with the chip-set - needs to be swapped for a HM55 or something from the current PM55. The PM55 being originally chosen for the Core i7 quad core QM series chips with no integrated video.

It seems like even with the PM55 there should be some way to enable the integrated and disable the dedicated GPU, even if it requires a BIOS switch, or even a new BIOS for integrated only.

 

depends on if you have time to wait for those deals to crop up.

 

While it is possible to make use of the IGP with the PM55 chipset, that chipset lacks an output path for the video signal from the IGP which makes it impossible to use the IGP as the video adapter. It would only be of use for computational purposes.

 

Ironic statement, given you seem to be waiting now, even with a good discount currently available. Will you have a sudden requirement of no wait as soon as the Envy 17 comes out? It would certaintly be understandable if the specs are what we hope they are!

 

You mean the PM55 doesn't support the use of integrated AT ALL even if the laptop was designed from the get-go without a dedicated card?

 

the good discount doesn't apply to a system not yet officially made available

my time table has always been open until final information on the Envy 17 was made available. preferably with a couple of reviews for it and the 8740w.

chances are that 25% discount thing will be gone by the time the Envy 17 goes on sale. and who knows when something like that will come up again. could be next month. could be August. You never know with these kinds of discounts because they're unpredictable.

once I see all my options and have decided which affords me the least amount of compromises, I'll be ready to purchase. waiting for the unpredictable (coupons) is not really part of the equation...though I'd be willing to way a few weeks to see if anything interesting along those lines pops up.

hope that makes sense.

 

I mean what I said. To rephrase, though, there's no way the IGP on PM55 could output a video signal given that there's no physical connection for it to do so. PM55 doesn't have Intel's FDI bus for sending video data between the CPU and the PCH, nor does it have video outputs from the PCH.

 

I can say for sure that it's not plugged in. I've taken my ENVY apart to apply AS5 to the processor and GPU and I'm STILL not really sure how the 5830 is connected. I believe it was JJB or Pita that referred to the connection as "Frankensteinish".

 

I'll pay full price b4 I use Bing again. If I can get a good enough discount from HP on the 8740w I'll order that. My rep quoted 17% but folks now claim to be getting 23%. Otherwise, I'll wait to see what the Envy 17 brings.

 

The HP sales rep assured me that the core i7 Envy 15 can be upgraded with any laptop graphics card currently on the market. Although I have received inaccurate information from HP sales reps in the past.

 

Does your rep have any info on an Envy 14 in the works?

 

Just that it is coming, but they were not told when the 17" or the 14" would be released.

 

may 4th for 17

 

I like that: short and to the point. Can we take it to the bank? That is, if we can find a bank that is solvent and hasn't been indicted.

 

To a fellow S/W developer I feel your pain. Losing the Bing promotion is obviously a black mark and is unexcusable. The trackpad feel is a matter of taste and coming from a Macbook it may be disappointing but I personally don't have any problems with the trackpad not having owned a Mac. And lastly, the SSDs are a crap shoot since some users got the latest version and some didn't and its shameful of HP for the lack of transparency.

I do have a problem with the short battery life and the slice doesn't help alot since it adds another 2 pounds. Another 6 cell would have been the best bet but I bought a Kensington PSU which is half the weight of the HP Powerbrick which helps out.

 

I've used many types of pointing devices on many systems over the years, but the Envy's was the only one I couldn't get used to. I much prefer the el cheapo touchpad on the Asus netbook I bought for my godson. For me, the ultimate insult was when I was programming at night on the unlighted keyboard in the near dark (so as not to wake significant other), accidentally double-tapping in the wrong place and disabling the touchpad. And there was no way to re-enable it! Altho I now know this can be reprogrammed, whoever made this the default should be forced to listen to Vogon poetry as punishment.

The battery life hasn't turned out to be all that important to me. I always buy extra batteries for my laptops because I never want to be down in a critical situation. I do a lot of traveling for my job, but almost all my flying is international and I fly business. Nearly all airlines have 110v plugs now in business class. It's usually possible to find a seat next to an outlet in the lounges and as long as you have a universal plug adapter, most modern power supplies can handle the various voltages and currents.

I did try lugging the slice around on a recent trip to London. Altho it is well-engineered, it adds 2 lbs to the laptop and changes it completely from a really easy-to-carry package to more of a luggable one. Must admit that it significantly extended to life, as I discovered one night when I forgot to plug in the machine. Am thinking of just a spare battery if I go for the 17. Will definitely look at the Kensington PSU...the HP one is not only heavy and big, it's just ugly.

 

Was planning on buying a MBP 13 inch, but I think I'm going to wait until the Envy 14 pops up, hopefully by next month.

Hp seems to have lots of coupons and promotions.

 

I just wanted to clear up something about the prices on the link posted earlier because they seemed so discouraging. I checked up on the same site what they were selling the Envy 15 for and it was well over $2000 even after converting from AUD to USD. That seller is selling both the 15 and 17 at an inflated price. The starting price of the Envy 17 will likely be around $1700-$1800.

http://search.dse.com.au/search?w=HP+Envy&sessionid=4bce8a5201ada27a273fc0a87e0106de&ts=new

 

did u notice the 15 kept the 5830 and the 17 got the 5850

 

so the Envy 17 is available in Australia but not in the US? strange!

 

much better. here's hoping.

 

Marshman, how is the touchpad working for you in bootcamp? I am planning on buying that exact same computer (mbp i7 17''; w/ the 256ssd) but I keep reading conflicting reviews of the touchpad being "much better" with bootcamp 3.1 but also that the touchpad "still sucks and is intolerable" w/ bootcamp 3.1