Has HP killed the Envy line?

No more 13 or 15in, the 14 came no where close to meeting the original hype or even numbers released from HP, the 17in seems to be ok though.

Is it me or has in 6 months HP destroyed what they were building with the ENVY lineup? Machines that dont meet what was originally stated, supply problems, quality issues. While some of these things cant be avoided in some form or another the ENVY line seems to be plagued with all 3. I cant remember a laptop line that got so much hype and promised so much and have hit a brick wall so hard.

Just a couple of months ago it was rumored a new 15in with some updates and fixing known issues, a nice 14in was on the way that held a lot of promise, and none of that really happened. WHile I am sure there are many of you that are happy with their 14. I just fee like as it sits the whole lineup is wasting away and HP isn't doing anything to fix it.

I know this is just my opinion, but does anyone here agree? disagree?

 

I love my envy 14, it's fast, convenient and real pretty. But I do agree with you that it could be loads better.

I don't understand why they chose dual HDDs over switchable graphics on the 15, why they settled with just a 5650 on the 14 and 5850 on the 17 when they are completely able to fit more powerful cards into what are supposed to be top of the line laptops. Neither do I understand why they can't do simple quality checks they seem to do so much better for less expensive laptops. So many things are missing from what are supposed to be premium machines.

However, it's not gonna kill the line, and the envies definitely won't die any time soon for one simple reason - there is no competition. The fact is that although it isn't perfect, the envies have a unique blend of performance, portability and build quality that you simply cannot find in any other laptop. Sure, there are macs, but some people like windows. As long as no other brand makes something similar, people will continue to buy envies, and hp will have little incentive to improve on them. That's kinda sad, really. These things have so much potential but hp, being a firm after all, chooses to focus on profits, and the specifications have been designed with that in mind, to not conflict with each other.

It's great, but it could be much better.

 

I would have liked a better vid card in the 14 (Hey who wouldnt want more power? ),but the 14 ran every game I threw at it well. I tried out FFXIV, DMC4, Borderlands, and WoW: Cataclysm Beta and the laptop ran them fine.

Its perfect for me. Gets 10 hours of battery when I need it (Classes. I have the slice), and when Im home, I get to play games at good settings.

 

I received a perfect ENVY 14 so many of the issues some are experiencing are foreign to me. The ENVY Radiance shortage isn't good for business but it's also a sign of just how many ENVY 14's they've sold. When you exhaust your supply chain, it's hard to speak of a product being a failure.

The ENVY 15 is really the stepchild right now, because in truth, it overlaps a bit to much with the 14. Honestly, given the choice of buying the 14, 15 or 17, it becomes fairly clear that if you want more portability, a better screen and better battery life, you choose the 14. If you want a multimedia beast, why not just spring for the 17 and get a better video card, more screen real-estate and the processing power.

Both the ENVY 14 and 17 were basically $700 cheaper than their Mac equivalents initially when speced out the same. Combine that reality with the high demand and you get a lot of notebooks rolling off the factory line in a 4 month time period. In the high volume low profit PC market, that means you're gonna get some quality control issues. For most of this time period, the ENVY has had an 80% approval rating (There's a Poll on the site somewhere that asks about the quality of your ENVY). That's 8 satisfied customers out of every 10 buyers. The best any manufacturer is gonna get is 90% and you usually have to be a low volume high margin boutique outfit to get numbers that high.

In comparison, check the Mac forums and observe how many issues Macs have in comparison since the ENVY is considered as one of the main PC competitors to the Mac book Pro line.

 

Very well put!

Seems like people are getting caught up in the microcosm of these forums. As far as I can tell people love the envy and sales seem to be soaring, HP appears to be scrambling to get things together after such an immense response. I've found over the years when you look at an online forum you are most generally going to find people having problems, so trying to take the discussions here and apply them on a large scale is going to give a drastically skewed view of a product.

If you look on HP's website they actually do have a 90% approval rating for the E14 at the moment. Which is rather impressive because most people omit leaving a review unless they had a problem.

 

You make some great points here. Regarding the Envy 15, I would say the trade-off is poor battery life and no optical drive. It's thinner and lighter than the E14, yet it is one of the few laptops available with 4 DIMM slots for buyers who run demanding apps that make use of lots of RAM. The 5830 is cut from the same die as the 5870, and when overclocked it also delivers excellent frame rates running games at 1920x1080. And although the radiance screen is brighter with more nits, the "Brightview" 1920x1080 display is more than "radiant" enough for me as I often find myself dialing down the brightness because it's too bright.

I need a 1920x1080 display (which is not available on the E14) because I work with 1080p video files and it's the only way to view them at native resolution.

I wouldn't be able to use the Envy 17 because it's too heavy (7.51lbs vs. 5.17lbs), too bulky (1.52" thick vs. 1.04" thickness of the E15) and it only has 2 DIMM slots.

 

I had a 15 configured similar to yours. It arrived with 4 keys broken on the keyboard. They refunded instead of repair because it arrived defective and I was never able to order a 15 with i7 and 16GB again. The 1980x1080 resolution was beautiful. Now I tell myself that 1600x900 is as good on my 14.

I think the 15 was the best choice in the Envy line (for me at least: price, size, and performance)

 

"They just don't make 'em like they used to."

Blame capitalism. I always do. It's the same for every consumer product in America since year 2000.

 

HP was probably so amazed that they made a decent product, that they dumbed everything down. Now they're back to sub-mediocrity, where they usually belong.

I only hope they realize their mistakes and fix them asap.

 

Damn. We need to go back to 2007. Pre-netbook era, when notebooks were decent.

On the other hand, E14 is relatively cheap now (not that cheap, but certainly cheaper).