NOW AVAILABLE - Updated ENVY 15, ENVY 17 / ENVY 17 3D

If Apple can call more pixels "Retina Display" then HP can market IPS quality as something as well

HP has the worst marketing I've ever seen

 

Forgot to post mine:

Price: $2,769.99 ---> $1,885.89

HP ENVY 17 3D edition customizable Notebook PC

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2760QM Processor (2.4 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.5 GHz)
• 1GB Discrete Graphics AMD Radeon(TM) [HDMI, DP]
• 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 1.05TB 7200 rpm Dual Hard Drive (SSD 300GB + 750GB 7200 rpm)
• No Additional Office Software
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
• 17.3-inch diagonal Radiance Full HD 3D Infinity LED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) with Wireless Display Support
• Full-size Radiance backlit keyboard
• Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 9 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 9
• 2 year limited warranty included

 

Wow, you almost hit $1000 off, that's incredible!

 

The disclaimer on the Care Pack says "United States only" but since you're in Canada, will you be able to carry it to your Washington mailing address place if you ever need to use that extended warranty?

 

It's a gamble to buy before product info is available, but I've done it with other products many times before. The reason it's not all out there is that it's much easier to build some production capability and inventory before marketing too much. I always find the irony of the Apple craze more that people wait in lines when they know there isn't enough supply to meet demand. But Apple is a world-class marketing and branding company.

I don't think the Envy line can fail if it addresses the heat issues alone. Previous Envy PCs have been selling despite HP giving the impression that it would be getting out of the market. With HP's return policy, they're putting some skin in the game too. Can't imagine they want a bunch of early buyers returning their products. That would kill their comeback thoughts.

What I would expect from HP is that they make every effort to have the first consumer PCs after proclaiming commitment to the business get off to a good start. Sales need to be a bit higher than expected and quality needs to be dead on. When I viewed the HP marketing of these machines, I didn't even begin to think they were selling high-end technology. They've been selling the premium look and feel to go along with pretty good performance. Put the fruit logo on this thing in another country and it probably could pass as a decent knockoff of a MBP.

I don't think HP has sent these out for reviews just yet because they're waiting for some of these coupons to expire. I don't think Envy line will be discounted like this very often.

I'm betting they will ship on time or 1-2 days early. If you configure now, the ship date is 12/26 or later so it doesn't look like there's any cushioning or shorting on the production end.

I'm also pretty sure that since HP's still relying on selling traditional HDD, they couldn't have pushed too hard since the HDD supply still isn't back to normal levels.

I'm just looking forward to mine arriving.

The only BS thing I see them doing right now is charging separately for the two-day shipping for the warranty that ships weeks before the PCs are available. That's pretty shady to me.

 

Mine's similar. I got $1121.01 off. Different warranty and hard drive (got the 300GB ssd + 750 HDD). No way did HP plan to discount their new/or end-line Envy line with this code. If the case can't be made for them marketing better, there's no way I could see them planning a 33% discount.

 

Anyone know if third-party makers do the spill-proof keyboard skins like Sony does for the Vaios? Not worried about me, but I can't say the same for everyone in my household.

 

One area of concern - if you look at the 'specs' page on the actual Envy 17, it says 6-cell battery and 5.25 hours. This is not the 'World-class battery life of up to 8 hours' advertised here:

HP Envy17 | HP Envy

I wonder if the 5.25 hours is from the previous Envy 17?

 

I got a total of $1031.11 off, but it is spread across two identical 17 3D machines on the same purchase order. Still that's $515.05 per machine discount, and the company gets to expense them off this year's taxes along with a forklift upgrade of the entire office network (using Dell servers, desktops, )

 

That's the plan. I've never really had to get an HP repaired though. My toshiba had to go in 4 times conversely.

 

I had seen the 5.25 hours, honestly if it gets 4 hours of real use then I will be fine with it. I think the previous Envy 17 was only quoted at 2.5 hours and tended to get like an hour and half, that might be a few refreshes ago though.

I suspect the "Up to" 8 hours is with the 9-cell battery that isn't available yet, however, other articles have mentioned 8-9 hours and said it was on the 6 cell. At this point there just isn't concrete information, hopefully in the next few days HP will get it together and tell us exactly what we all just bought.

 

I'll be happy with even just 2.5 hours. My old laptop is down to less than 1 hour of battery

 

One other thing to consider is that the 17 3D says that it has twice the brightness of the regular 17 inch (to offset the 3D glasses obviously), that has gotta eat some additional juice.

 

Has anyone tried using the 33% off or $400 coupon with a quick ship model?

 

Quick ship model looks like it is the old version, 2.25 hours of battery life, Radeon 6850, etc.

 

I'm at 1.5 battery time on my current envy 17 with a 6 cell. If you can really get 8 hours on the refreshed version then that's awesome. But, unless someone proves otherwise i doubt it is even close to that.

 

Yeah, my problem is if it says 5.25 but is actually 2.5 - I had the slice battery on the old Envy 15 which was very useful but made the thing a giant brick. Does seem weird that the new 15 has an 8-cell but the 17 only has a 6-cell.

 

I think HP is pretty close with their quotes though. For the old 17 they quote and 2.25 and reviews show it tested at about 1.5. That is really close in battery terms. I will take 4.25 hours of battery life and be happy.

 

SOS
I see here in swedish site of HP, that there is the HP Envy 17-3000eo model that has 1600x900 display?
Is it right? I thought that all new 17 3xxx models have Full HD 1920x1080 display...
What do you think?
Handla direkt från HP - HP ENVY 17-3000eo
From the other hand if you click down where it says : Hela specifikationen - Datablad (pdf), you will see that there is nowhere information about the display. I don't understand why...
I ask this because I also see that in the US site of HP all Envy 17 models have FullHD displays...

 

Will the 8 cell be available later? If so, I can live with 6 until I need a new battery.

 

The Envy 17 without 3D does come with a 1600x900 display.

 

One of the special offers right now is get some money off the 9-cell but they just don't have it listed. I assume it will be available very soon.

 

From where do you know that? I couldn't find any information for the 3xxx series that says 1600x900...I knew that the previews 2xxx series comes with both displays because I was thinking of buying one...

 

The new Envy 17, even without the 3D, says it comes with a 1920x1080p HD screen, on the HP USA website.

 

That is exactly the reason I am asking this...

 

Is the Swedish website showing the new 3rd generation Envy or still the last year's model? I remembered reading somewhere that HP wasn't going to release the new one in Europe until after the first of the year. If it is the new version, that's a real bummer if HP is giving you a lesser screen on the non-3D model.

EDIT: Just looked, and sure enough it looks like you get a lower res screen (1600x900, BrightView Infinity) on your entry-level non-3D Envy 17, and a step up to 1920x1080 (Radiance HD) option with a more expense pre-configured model.

Doesn't look like you can customize them either, only choose from pre-config models.

 

It shows the new model on photos, also it says "new" and of course it says "3000" which is the new...also has models 3010 3015. If you click the link you can easy see this.
Handla direkt från HP - HP ENVY 17-3000eo
Except this, you will see the other specs like "HD 7690M" which means that it is a new 17 model.
Do you see any other site in Europe that has the new Envy? I cannot find anything else.

 

Norway and Denmark are showing both the old 2100 and the new 3000 series models, the base entry level 17 model on both those sites has the 1600x900 screen too. Germany, France and UK websites still only have the 2100 series.

Looks like the USA and Scandinavian countries are the only lucky ones to get the 3000 series Envys first

 

Yes and they dont have the manual configuration choice...so if someone wants a FullHD 17 in Sweden the only choice is to buy one with two HDDs hahaha...I think this will change in some days and there will be the choice of FullHD and one HDD...

 

How well are we expecting this laptop to perform? Including build quality, battery life, and all the ins and outs.
I am at the point where I need a new laptop and this laptop just jumped into play. Before it was only the XPS 15.

 

Where does it say 1600x900 for US one?

 

So in the end this laptop does have gddr5, can wait to see in game fps numbers to see how much of an improvement it is over the 6750

 

It doesn't. We get the 1920x1080p as the base-level display on US Envy 17 non-3D models. The Scandinavians get 1600x900 as the base-level display on their 17's.

 

Oh man. I've been getting new notebook fever lately. Tempted to sell my Envy 14 (which I got for about $680 after Microsoft accidentally gave me $700 instead of $350 in cashback) to my sister for a little less and get the Envy 15!!!


Anyone here wanna tell me about any discounts available?

 

Does anyone have experience with HP Total Care? Is it worth it?

 

Without any coupon codes at all, HP is right now giving $250 instant discount on the US website. Right now there's a coupon code that gives $400 off (not combinable with the $250) , and there was one that gave %33 off, but it's uncertain if it still applies to the Envys anymore.

 

I have great news for you guys. I wrote to HPs chief blogger today (at least that's what he calls himself ^^). He is the guy who posted the first benchmarks. Enjoy


my question:

The specs of the Envy 15/17 are still not really clear, can you help me out here?

1.) Which panel is used for the FullHD screen on the Envy 15? TN or IPS?
2.) What graphics card do these laptops use? Do both have the AMD 7690XT with 1GB GDDR5 ram? If yes, is this a rebranded AMD 6770m?
3.) Do they come standard with the Intel 6300 Ultimate WLAN?
4.) Which brand is the 160GB/300GB SSD? Is it an Intel 320 Series SSD?
5.) What happened to the Blue-Ray option that was mentioned on the HP Envy website ( HP Envy15 | HP Envy it says Slot-loading Blu-ray4 optical drive (optional))

I would be very happy if you could answer these questions.



his response:

HAH! (sorry -- meetingmania today)
On the bright side, I do have the skinny for you now. I'm putting these answers in the other story where you originally asked the questions as well...
Sooooo.....

1) The panel used in the Envy 15 is IPS
2) the graphics should be the AMD 7690XT....that's all I've heard for the time being on that.
3) They come with Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 Wireless (3x3)
4) The SSDs are from the Intel 320 Series
5) To clarify, only the 17-incher has a Blu-Ray drive. The 15-incher has DVD

Better late than never, right? ;p
Hope that helps, Rubenstein!


here are the original posts:
http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/The-Ne...-New-HP-Laptops-and-Desktops/bc-p/75881#M5441
http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/The-Ne...ew-Envy-15-17-And-A-New-Look/bc-p/75875#M5438

 

YES! Very glad to hear that the panel on the Envy 15 is IPS and that the GPU is the 7690 instead of the 7670 (not that we know exactly what that entails in terms of performance, but, hey, 90 is better than 70, right? Right.).

I feel much better about pulling the trigger yesterday for one.

 

Thanks for getting some of this figured out.

Still no final word on the specs of that 7690m XT yet though, really bizarre. It's also seeming more and more like both the 15 and 17 use the same GPU, which isn't really a bad thing, but kind of makes the 17 pointless IMO. Why would you want the bigger size without a stronger gpu? Except for blu ray I guess.

 

guys, between the i5 and base i7, is there a big difference in heat and noise for every day use? or is that only when you start pushing the CPU?

 

Pleasure

It's not only about speed. 17" is nice as it has a big screen, which is especially nice for video -> see blue-ray and 3D. And you also get a Numpad and dual harddisk.

I am not saying this is better, but I see the point in it. And I guess that they will add a stronger GPU when it comes out or at the next refresh.

For most people, even the Envy 15 is overpowered, there is a reason why the 13" MBP is selling like crazy ^^

nope, more or less no difference, only if you stress them. Get the i7 if you can

 

But according to the substantial difference in gaming benchmarks, it's unlikely that the 15 and 17 are using identical GPUs. At the very least, if they are the "same" part (i.e. 7690m XT), the version in the 17 is clocked faster and/or could be running GDDR5 as opposed to DDR3 in the 15.

@Rubenstein: thanks a lot for making me regret skimping on the 2-day shipping option! You've managed to bring my hopes for an IPS display on this thing up from nearly-non-existent to cautiously optimistic

 

Some of us just want the bigger display for... well the bigger display
Seriously, I need it for HD video presentations and as a semi-desktop-role. Sure I wouldn't mind a faster, more capable gpu, but this one will be more that adequate for me since I don't need it for FPS games.

 

Yeah the difference in benchmarks posted earlier seems way too big for just a difference in clock speeds.

If they are actually still different GPUs, then why the are we continually being given wrong or incomplete information. HP needs to learn how to release a product, I am just all out pissed at this absolute stonewalled bull now.

 

you are welcome. I got the confirmation now from a tech-supervisor, a sales-rep and the HP blogger who disclosed the benchmarks, I guess it's as safe as can be without hands-on.

Yeah the benchmarks are still strange, but if you remember, all the other Envy 15 that are sold around the world have a 7670, so this might be one of these units. We'll see, everything looks very good atm, and we can still send our laptops back.
If they deliver everything that we know right now, then goodbye MBP. The king is dead, hail to the king ^^

 

the 15.6 has a 1080p screen too, that is actually IPS according to this info, and the 17 inch screen isn't (at least that's what was reported earlier and seems accurate with this new info.) 15.6 vs 17.3 isn't a huge size difference, same resolution, and IPS has much better color reproduction. So arguably the 15 would actually be better for hd video editing or photo work, plus if you're using it for presentations aren't you connecting to an external projector anyway?

 

17.3" is 23% bigger than 15.6"

This is a nonsense discussion anyway, there are people who want a 17" laptop so there is a market for it. That's all that matters. Your personal preference (which is the same as mine btw) will not change that.

 

Not using it for video editing, just playback in front of very small number of viewers (2-3). My current laptop is 15" and I'd like a bit more. Also the blueray player is desired. I'll also be using it sometimes as a desktop replacement and my 50 yr old eyes need all the help they can get there. I rarely have access to an external projector either. I think the 17" is the right size for me even though the little bit extra portability of the 15" would sometimes be nice. If the blue ray player would've been available on the 15, I probably would've bought one 15 and one 17, but such as it is... I ordered two identical 17 3D models, to get the brighter bigger screens. I bet they'll do just fine for me.

 

Well if it suits your needs then that's good.

 

Agreed. Except there's one thing that would prevent such a crowning: HP's own craptastic-ignorant-disastrous marketing department.

Sure, in SOME ways, they've managed to spend too much time marketing a "good" product as a "great" product (I'm looking at you, 1st Gen Envys...) instead of spending that time making a great product... I'm sure AMD's mindblowingly-underwhelming cop-out rebadge announcement threw a wrench at HP's own announcement, but in the end, HP's own really failed on marketing the actual launch of this thing.

My nerdrant aside, purely on the specs alone at this pricepoint, no doubt about it there could be a new king.