Just received my refurbished Envy 14 w/ Radiance

I've been reading this forum for awhile but finally pulled the trigger on a refurbished Envy 14 w/ the Radiance screen direct from HP Remarketing. I was worried about defects (and other issues that I've read about on this forum), but luckily, no real ones exist. I also purchased a Samsung 470 256GB SSD drive separately.

Everything has gone perfectly thus far. I picked up an i5 450m with 6GB of memory configuration for just over $1000 and I must say that HP's re-marketing service was excellent. It shipped the same day and since I did Fedex 2nd day shipping I received it two days later. I also purchased the HP 2 year warranty for $180.

I can't find any signs of the machine being refurbished other than a slight rub mark on the right hand edge. Very minor and I didn't even notice it for a few hours. Otherwise, the rig is perfect.

The Radiance display is gorgeous and absolutely don't regret getting it. I'm moving from my Fujtisu S2110 12" 1024x768 display, so being able to work on something side by side or opening up Firebug in Firefox and still seeing most of the page is just amazing. It is also extremely bright on full. I've scoured for bad pixels and have found none.

As far as the SSD is concered, everything worked as expected. According to the Intel SSD Toolbox, Windows 7 and the Samsung SSD magician tool, TRIM is enabled and working. Benchmarks are yielding the advertised read/write of the Samsung 470 (220MB/sec r/w) and I'm getting that. I'm booting to the desktop in just under 20 seconds after POST and it just amazes me how fast I can open applications (namely, having Photoshop up and ready 30 seconds after hitting the power button is just incredible).

Also, I haven't officially timed my battery run down, but I was comfortably using this machine for about 3 hours at a coffee shop today running Photoshop, EditPad Pro, Chrome, Firefox and IE with wireless on and screen at roughly 50% brightness. By the time I left, I still had 39% battery left and I started with 80%. This is on a clean Windows 7 Home install.






In conclusion, buying refurbished was a great decision for me. I've very impressed with this laptop and am very happy with it so far. I would also highly recommend jumping for the radiance screen. I don't have perfect vision, and I still don't find myself squinting or having trouble. It's just right.

 

Awesome!

Must be pretty happy getting a perfect refurb. Looks great in the pictures, and your little 'cafe' test surprised me haha.

Hope you'll be happy with it.

 

Nice!...Enjoy my friend. You were very smart to get that 2yr. warranty. Looking good.

 

Hey there!

Good to hear your refurb unit is perfect (well, almost!). Good decision getting the SSD and the warranty too.

 

judging by your first picture the text does look pretty tiny. I think I will stick with my brightview for a while.

Still, great buy. If I had it to do over again I probably would have went with the i5 instead of i7 but I do like knowing it's there just in case.

 

Does refurbs come with 1 year warranty or is it just 90 days since it is considered home systems? I read somewhere a guy bought envy 15 refurb, and it came with 3 year warranty. That was 2-3 months ago. I can't decide if I should wait for Sandy bridge updated Envy's early next year, or should I just bite a refurb with high resolution display. If HP doesn't offer higher resolution next year, I'm not going to buy a Envy at all.

 

I would considering buying a refurb, but HPA does not offer refurbished laptops just servers and blades to my understanding, if they do can somebody point me in the right direction?

 

As far as I know, all refurbs come with a 90 day warranty. I paid $180 for my 2 year warranty. They also offered a 3 year.

If by HPA, you mean HP America, then yes, they certainly do offer refurbished laptops. I purchased mine by finding the Envy I wanted on this page: Refurbished business products, noting the part number and calling their outlet number (1-888-385-5408). All Radiance display equipped machines say 1600x900 in the description field. Hope that helps.

 

Funny, for some reason I thought everyone who is saying HPA is refering to HP Australia...lol, am I wroing?

KJ

 

I could very well be wrong.

 

Yea I was referring to Australia sorry, next time ill just say Australia lol. I don't know how I missed that correlation.

 

I was seriously considering if I should jump on a refurb with 160 GB SSD. For $1095 + $100 (hp care 2year accidental damage warranty, pickup and return).
It has little older core i5-450M which doesn't matter that much.

But then, if I just give up the high resolution screen, with $1000, I can get a core i5-460M with 640gb hdd, 4gb 1 dimm ram, two batteries, two ac adapters and 4 year lojack, and default 2 year warranty.

I decided to wait until early next year when sandy bridge refresh comes. I hope they have better battery life and higher resolution screens. Otherwise, I'll just have to get MBP13 in April.

 

Well, Im just planning if I get one with a low res (looks like it) that If possible ill send it to HP and ask nicely if they can pop in a radiance if they come back into stock . The sandy bridge looks nice, but you know I don't really find how good it is for me. Im a student, so I do word processing/video editing/games so I really have no clue if I should hold off. I don't think I should though.

CONFUSED!

 

You could hold off and wait for whatever is *possibly* coming down the pipe. And then you can hold off on that too, because of better possibilities in the future.

As with all tech, you just have to pull the trigger and enjoy what you have. There is always something better to come. Just choose what you want and don't look back.

In the very near future, I will probably stop reading this forum to avoid news of the latest/greatest -- (until I'm ready to purchase again).

Edit: Sometimes it backfires as shown with the lack of Radiance screens now.