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

So the GPU is a 6770m in the envy 15? since HP is not providing details..odd

 

Well, it's the rebadge of it - so some slight improvements, but nothing huge.

 

no orders have moved past "in production" right?

 

I ordered mine on the 7th and it still says "in production" so I don't think so.

 

Its still a hell of a card for a laptop.

Thanks.

Does anyone have one yet and care to comment on the trackpad? It is a synaptics smooth surface (ie. no discrete buttons) correct? I assume it works well, have been hearing mixed reviews on the samsung series 7 trackpad.

 

Nobody here has one yet, all of our orders are only expected to ship out on the 23rd or later if I remember correctly.

Apparently the track-pad is glass this time, and they've improved the sensitivity on it, as well as the multi-touch gestures, but we're not sure since - again - nobody here has it yet, and there hasn't been any reviews posted.

 

If anyone is interested here is a site with the NDA protected slides from the AMD announcement about the new GPU. We now know for sure that it is a higher clocked 6770.

AMD Officially Launched the Next Generation HD 7000M Series GPUs - Lenzfire

Pretty disappointing, especially when AMD said 28NM and new architecture and then just delivered the 6770 with slightly higher clocks. However, NVIDIA promised big and then bombed their next-gen mobile cards as well, so I guess that is just how it is since they cant fabricate 28NM yet.

Just for comparison purposes the 6770M is within 1-4 FPS of the Nvidia GT 555M. In some games the 6770M outperforms Nvidia by a few FPS, in others Nvidia wins. The AMD press release confirms both the clock and memory speed of the 7690 is higher than the 6770 so we can expect it to perform better overall, and thus is should easily beat the GT 555M in every case.

To further put that in perspective, Razer's new notebook the Razer Blade, which really competes with the Envy (thin and light 17 Inch) is using a GT 555M and retails for $2800. The Envy 17 should outperform the Blade without much trouble, and thus the Envy 17 is probably the fastest thin and light 17 inch available right now. It may not be what we hoped, but it is the best possible right now.

Below are the benchmarks for the 6770 and GT 555M if anyone wants to look, or to get an idea of how your favorite game will run (you can look at the 6770 numbers and add maybe 5 FPS to get a pretty good idea for 7690 performance).
AMD Radeon HD 6770M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

To have an NDA after the product is released would be a really disgusting move on HP's part I really can't imagine that being the case.

 

Well... that might explain why The Verge showed the thing for 1-2 minutes and saying nothing but useless crap right?

 

Yeah i mean it's certainly a theory. No matter what though, this is a pretty huge marketing failure for what HP tries to sell as its flagship consumer notebook.

 

No doubt about that... Hopefully (highly unlikely) the reason they've been holding out on releasing details is they have a shocking announcement?

 

It has two small subs right next to one another on the bottom. A HP rep removed the bottom panel for a good 10 seconds and showed me at GDGT LIVE in SF.

 

I think the Verge showed it for that little amount of time because they didn't want to draw attention to it before the review. Then again, that failed because of their ridiculously apple-bias cast. (save for the woman.)

Anyway, back to semi-positive notes. I like the look of the cooling vents so far, on both systems, it seems like they will be able to run perfectly cool.

 

Thanks for your response.

Did you get a chance to listen to the speakers or see anything else?

 

That's a pretty wide rear vent in the photo. My Envy 14's is only a couple of inches wide. Hopefully this means (1) they've installed some powerful fans that can push air out through all those vents and (2) they're retaining the side vent. Come to think of it, my Asus and Dell only had one outtake vent, and my Envy 14 has 2.

 

if you look at the base, you'll see theres only 2 actual vents...according to the assembly pdf that was posted before this is inline with the 2 fans. the top vents look to be just passive. no side venting from what i remember as well.

 

Hopefully the bottom of the lid doesn't impede airflow when fully open for normal use. Looks like it will a bit.

 

It was a pretty loud in the venue. I didn't even bother trying. In my opinion, Beats products (especially headphones) are not too great compared to stuff from Sennheiser, Klipsch, Audio-Technica, etc. However, I would bet that the Beats speakers in here are better than most generic built-in laptop speakers.

I was rather annoyed with the poor information Joanna Stern (the laptop expert woman) offered. For instance, she suggested that users would need to go buy a new Windows 7 license just to do a clean install. You can actually get a ISO directly (legally) from Microsoft without paying anything. You already bought a Windows 7 license when you bought an ENVY 15. You would be using the same licence again. You can also just borrow a Windows 7 disc from a friend or someone that has it and use your existing key as well.

(Please correct me if I'm wrong about that, it's been over a year since I have had to bother with a clean install.)

 

Is it just me who notice the really annoying reflections in all the hands on photos that is out there?

 

That is the good news for my day, is there anyone know the launch date ?

 

hp has terrible marketing, who the heck releases a premium product and buries it on their own site?

if this was apple it would be the first thing you see on the home page

its like hp is trying to suck

 

watch HP do something stupid by then like make it non-IPS or non-Radiance

 

I know the failure of others shouldn't make me happy but I'm fine with this.

Those benchmark tests make me feel better about this purchase. All of those benchmarks are not using an overclocked GPU is that correct? So we could get higher FPS?

Edit: Wait so the 6770M is the same GPU running in the new 2011 MBP?
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-Late-2011-2-4-GHz-6770M-glare.66918.0.html

 

The whole structure of that bit was not about the laptop hardware, it was a series of attempts to make a software case to Josh on the windows experience, which he called poison on a previous podcast and took alot of flak for.

For all we know Joanna is still in the process of reviewing the notebook. But I learned years ago that the tech site folk are by and large apple fanboys when it comes to computers. When engadget and co had one of those mega trailers and did a video tour of the inside, it looked like they walked into an apple store. sea after endless sea of mbps lined on he table manned by all the apple computer followers. It was just the only right and proper thing to have. There was like a handful of tech editors that had pcs.

I am anxiously awaiting my new envy which I ordered 3am pacific time on the 7th, but the one mild wish was that it looked a bit LESS like the mbp. The comparisons are inevitable, and frankly, I do not think the mbp is the pinnacle of design. I still thing the beats edition of the envy 14 or the older 15 were the slickest looking notebooks I have seen, sans the jumbo red B.

They don't need to copy apples affinity for white notebooks, its like white phones, some prefer that but the truth is most people prefer the look of black phones because they look better, and the same goes with notebooks. Part of the reason the beats edition looks so much better is because it is black, on top of the more exotic red backlit keyboard. They don't NEED to make the thing look Soooo similar to the mbp, but it's not a negative. It's more a point withheld than a point against I would say.

 

Yes. The 6770 was recently refreshed into the 15/17 mbp line. The base 15 which used to come stock with the 6490m or 6470m with the option for a 6750m now has the base config with the 6750 with the upgrade to the 6770m

 

I have only owned Apple since my family got our Apple 2 when I was a baby. It has always been mac since then. Right now I am switching because I finally started to realize that there are other makers out there with a lot more to offer. I don't care at all how similar the Envy line looks to the Mac Book Pro. If Toyota offered a car that looks just like a new BMW and has the muscle and specs to match it for half the price I am going to go right for the Toyota. I don't know if Apple realizes that they are in a free market and price is going to win.

 

Lol even more bargain bragging rights.

 

Which only proves that the Envy 15 is still by and far a much better deal by hundreds of dollars.

 

I actually like the style more than the older ENVY lines - mainly because it looks (and probably feels) very strong. Couple that with the HP drive protection, the 2 year warranty, and all the other bonuses - I'm glad I got my ENVY 17 3D instead of an ASUS G74SX-A1.

Agreed, by $1000+ actually. Plus the fact that we're getting the 7690M, which seems to be a faster version of the 6770M.

 

+1 on that. So happy with my choice. Can't wait to get it.

 

Just a question about future upgrades I could make to the system. I am not very familiar with new hardware and was wondering if I did want to upgrade the GPU at some point would it be a terribly hard thing to do?

I wasnt sure that because it was a discrete GPU it could not be removed without a lot of work.

 

I'm sure it will be possible, but not encouraged. HP generally doesn't like people modifying their computers after release, and if you do, I'm assuming you'll lose the warranty.

Then again, I'm not sure.

 

I think it will depend.

Sometimes the gpu is discrete but soldered to the motherboard/a part of the motherboard (Envy 14's 5650).

 

From the disassembly ..pdf that someone posted back in this thread, it didn't seem to show any MXM slots. The cooling showed 2 different heatpipes, one being over the CPU socket, and the other being over another chip that appeared to be mounted on the motherboard. So I don't think these will have removable (MXM) mobile gpu's.

 

I'm fine with the 7690XT in the Envy 15; it is faster than my old 5830 by a margin and actually feels like a good upgrade. Sadly there is no 15.6" version up on the swedish HP site so I don't know what it will cost here. Most likely it will cost (with a 1920x1080 screen) around the same as the equivalent 17"'er.

But... since I was looking for the 17" Envy this time around, I am a bit disappointed by the GPU in it. If it is a (slightly overclock) 6770 Notebookcheck has it not that much better than the old 5850.

 

yeah. if that's the case it's not MXM.

 

That would be a great perk to this notebook. To bad. Maybe after 2 years when the warranty is up I'll try it

 

I still can't believe that there isn't a single impressions article or review out there, when do you all think we'll be getting one of those?

 

There are some youtube videos but not really anything good. When I get mine I will be glad to share but wont be for a while.

 

HP Envy 15 (Core i7 2860M Processor 2.5GHz, 8GB RAM) First Take - Notebooks - CNET Asia

 

I posted that earlier, sorry

 

Anybody know if the New HP ENVY 17 is raid capable - I see it can be ordered w/dual drives configuration - just want to know if they can be placed in RAID 0 - also if so I would like to replace the slot loading drive w/a BR reader/lightscribe slot loading as well.

 

Lol should have known I have read every page of this discussion. I'm just excited for mine to get here.

 

I know how you feel - I've been checking for new info ever 10 minutes, even though I'm also studying for my finals. Priorities!

 

I don't think any of the previous Envy line (15 or 17) have had upgradeable GPUs and I doubt they'd add that now - too much potential for a customer putting in an oversize GPU and melting the whole thing.

 

Don't know if its already was mentioned, but it will be 7690 in 17inch model:

HP ENVY 17-3000-serien af bærbare computere

 

The chipset's PCH sata controller is capable of supporting RAID modes 0/1/5/10, however in past Envys, the BIOS has been artificially restricted to allow you to only select RAID-0. Of course RAID 5 and 10 are moot points since you can only put two drives into the laptop, but RAID1 would be very nice to have.

You can also do software RAID 0 and 1 at the O/S level in Windows 7 Home Premium and higher editions.

 

That's a real bummer then. You'd think with all the extra space HP would be able to get more cooling capacity and therefore a better card.
In the end this might just be a marketing gimmick, as AMD delayed their release of the new 28nm cards, HP wouldn't want to have a "last gen" card like the 6870, so the 7690 is the highest HP can go on this "new" series of AMD cards to make consumers feel like they are getting something new.

Silly consumers. If not for them this iteration of Envy 15 would not have an optical drive and would be much thinner and lighter.

 

I imagine HP is trying to do everything they can to get us these laptops before Christmas, that is a top priority with most companies, I imagine in the next couple of days that some will get finished and already make to the United States (they come in by airplanes I believe, so should be quick) by the end of the week, if not some might even have them by the end of the week. If not, most of us that ordered in the first few days should get them sometime next week.

As soon as you anyone finds out that theirs left the "Order in production" stage, please post when you found out and when you placed your order, it will give the others of us a better idea what to expect.

 

I'm betting you'll see the reviews 1-2 days before they expect the first units to ship to buyers. They need that much buffer so that the first reviews do come from tech sites, who can be somewhat influenced through agreements and ad revenue, versus buyers, who will be much more critical in pointing out flaws.

I've only bought a few electronics the day ordering was made available. Both times, mine arrived about within days of the first tech-site review. Wouldn't at all shock me if the tech sites have had "pre-production" units on hand for days now actually giving feedback prior to production release models.