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

I don't think so. The GPU is half/half under NDA as far as I see it, they do not yet have the production models ready and the rest is standard information. It is quite uncommon that you know details like which panel is used and stuff before users get the units. And to be honest, it would not really change their sales if they released more info. Most of the guys here bought it anyway or won't buy it anyway, and the rest of the world does not care.

I feel like the discussion here is overhyped, just relax and wait a couple of days. If we then find out that the USB is not working porperly or that there is immens keyboard flex or whatever, then there is still plenty of time to be angry.

Right now I am just eagerly awaiting my new Envy. I won't be in the US over Chrismas, so when I return on Jan.5 it should be ready and waiting for me here

 

But you were the one who e-mailed the lady at The Verge for further details

 

I don't think anyone's "angry" necessarily. I think we all just have high expectations and are antsy to find out what the deal is. Especially now that they are actually available and in some cases probably about to ship out.....

From my experience with the HDX 18t I'm gonna wait for that Ivy Bridge refresh and hope by that time all the kinks and potential issues will be worked out. Plus extra options as far as GPUs and internal storage drives....

 

I live on information

 

The 1GB Discrete Graphics AMD Radeon 7690M is just a remade version of the AMD Radeon HD 6770M

You can play Battlefield 3 in medium settings if not high settings because they might have made the AMD Radeon 7690M more powerful.

And my guess is that this is THE best "1 inch" multimedia laptop out right now, beating the Dell XPS 15z and the Samsung Series 7 Chronos in specs.
However, the old HP Envy had serious heat problems for me. If the new HP can reduce heat more then I wouldn't mind the price on this thing.

 

You are correct in saying that it is a remade, but that doesn't mean a bad thing. Daren Gladstone did some game benchmarks on late-prototype models of the Envy 15 and Envy 17.

HP Communities - AMD?s Radeon 7600M Graphics for New ENVY Laptops - HP Communities

A few of us compared them to last gen 6000m graphics. The 7690m from the Envy 15 performs about 10%-15% faster than the 6770m (remember prototype, will probably get better after time with better drivers). The 7690m XT from the Envy 17 performs roughly 50% higher than the 7690m from the Envy 15 in most benchmarks and it just outperforms the 6850m from a previous gen Envy 17.

They are remakes, but they are more efficient by quite a bit, see the post I wrote in the link below for the explanation why these are so much more efficient than the 6000m series GPUs.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/625151-now-available-updated-envy-15-envy-17-envy-17-3d-136.html#post8159119

 

I hope its a really good surprise, like it's actually made of solid gold or the GPU is always in BEAST MODEEEEEE.

 

"Hey nice laptop. Is your GPU overclocked?"

"Nah, it's in beast mode."

 

Nah, I think more than likely what it is is that HP can't release detailed specs until amd does first. Probably in their purchase agreement I'd imagine.

 

+1

100% agree

And even if they would, what would it help? We have nearly 100% confirmation about the GPU by now, we know most of the specs. We even have some benchmarks.
So even if they released everything, it wouldn't help as nobody has tested a 7690 yet - so next people want benchmarks. And that is most definitly not going to happen, no company does that. We have to wait for reviews and benchmarks, but it can't be long no more

 

^^ ASUS does

 

I would definitely buy it just to be able to say that!

 

Considering I have a 1st gen 15 with the 5830 and play BF3 on high, that would simply either match my current performance or lower it.

However, this thing does run hot! I never mind so much about the heat as long as nothing explodes because I never use it on my lap anyway.

 

The 6770m is a better card than the 5830 but you most probably will run BF3 on a higher resolution hence the lower settings.
You could turn down the resolution and turn the settings up I guess.

 

If you have a 5830, I think you have a 2nd gen - 1st gen Envys had 4830s, didn't they?

 

I am looking at this model but cannot decide between the 17 and 15. I prefer that the 17 can take two hard drives and even supports raid 0 but it does not have IPS which I am not familiar with.

I am replacing my desktop to save some space. Anyone got the Envy 17? What do you think

 

if you don't mind the size, go for the Envy 17. The screen is top notch. I have seen the 2000 series, wow. IPS is nice to have (better viewing angles) but the MBP also don't have it, and their screens are pretty neat. If you are ok with MBP screens, then the Envy 17 should be great for you as well. If you get a nice deal for the 3D version, go for it, it has 50% more brightness then the non 3D version (+3D which is a nice gimmick)

I have been on a desktop for 8 years, and I changed to a Gaming notebook 17" with a top notch TN screen, I am more than happy with the screen. I just figured out that 15" is more fun (you can carry it around more easily, a bit less mass on your lap if you sit on the sofa, all that stuff)

BTW: IPS means in plane switching, it is a dual transistor layout compared to TN, which is a single transistor layout. IPS has better viewing angles, but larger response times and it is darker (or needs more power due to stronger backlight). TN is fast, cheap but lacks a bit on the viewing angle side. It is very well developed and very common. You barely see any laptop with any non-TN screen out there, so don't think too much about it. There is crappy TN screens (which are awfull, like the HP Brightview ones) and good ones which are pretty nice (like the Radience ones). Again, nice to have, but the 17 3D screens are on the top end of TN, there is little difference.

 

Wasn't there a choice between the 4830 and 5830 from release? If not, then I'm not sure; I ordered from eBay that time since the UK release was far later and I didn't want to wait so long when my XPS 13 just up and died on me.

How much time was between the first two generations?

 

I have other laptops that will be better for on the lap. What I prefer most about the 17inch is that it supports 2 x 2.5" drives and has raid 0 support so it makes a better desktop replacement. It also has the full keyboard. I have no interest in 3D.

I read that this laptop was released just recently. Does that mean no one really has it as yet? I can't even find a review.

 

Nope, no one have received their units yet and there has not been any real reviews either.

 

I am also surprised no one got one yet. The tracking info on mine shows it will arrive on monday or tuesday so maybe i will be the first Envy 17 owner (at least the first in this thread ).

 

What made you decide on the 17inch model instead of 15? I cannot find any detailed specs on the machines. How many hard drives can the 15" take?

 

Be sure to unbox it and show us all about it! Hopefully our systems start shipping out on Monday..

 

The Envy 17 3rd Gen's are what we all are waiting for, HOWEVER, if you want info on the Envy 17 2nd Gens, the model we all are pretty much using, check out this thread ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...d-sandy-bridge-2xxx-series-owners-lounge.html) it is packed with info and you should be able to get a really good feel for the Envy 17 model (both 3D and non 3D)....

 

So can we all expect to see a nice UNBOXING video to boot? I can pretty much guarantee, it will get pounded with hits and reviews!!!​

 

Why would I want the old model? I am looking into the new model only but information on the specs is really weak. How many hard drive slots does the 15" model have and does the 17" model support. I don't understand HP does not provide detailed specs.

 

I have no interest in 3D whatsoever either. But the 3D panel refreshes at 120hz opposed to 60hz, so everything is smoother; also it is brighter, so easier to use in more environments.

Those are a couple of advantages over a non 3D panel. I got Envy 17 3D (with 33% off coupon) and will never use the 3D feature, but the other two things stated above appealed to me (otherwise I would have waited a month or two and got a non-3D Envy 17)

 

My first post but have been reading this thread since I ordered my envy 17 3d on launch day.

I've never had a notebook with a ssd and went with the 160/750 dual drive option. After seeing that many of you went with the 300gb not sure I made the best decision. Is windows installed by default on the ssd? When I run out of room on the ssd and install programs on the HDD will performance be worse than if it was a single drive system? Any other advice how to work with this configuration? Thanks!

Steven

 

I don't think a refresh rate of 120hz is worth the extra $200.00 for a feature I wouldn't use. I also read 120hz refresh is taxing on the gpu. My HDTV also has such a refresh rate but I keep it disabled and see no difference.

 

Could have gotten a higher quality SSD for much less than what HP is charging.

 

It's Intel so am sure fine - your comment is not helpful

 

Hey Deihmos,

The suggestion to look at the older model is only because there are a lot of similiarities between the 2nd gen and the 3rd gen Envy.

As for hard drives, the 15" can support one hard drive because of the size (though people have mentioned the possibility of removing the DVD drive to add another drive in there). Also I'm not sure if the 15 has an mSata slot to place an mSata SSD drive in there. And the other benefits of having the 15" is easier portability because of the size and the ISP screen upgrade.

As for the 17", the benefits are two drive bays for your HDD, the addition of an mSata slot for the SSD (for a possible 3 total HDD), more speakers on the laptop, an extra displayPort (two instead of one on the 15"), a Blu-Ray player instead of a DVD player on the 15", a faster (according to recent info) graphics card, and of course a bigger screen. There may be a few other things that are different.

The differences between the 17" and the 17" 3D is mainly the screen. I also don't care about the 3D screen. 3D gives me headaches, but I still bought the 3D version thanks to the discount coupon. Why? For two reasons.

1. 3D screen is a lot brighter. 50% brighter is I'm not mistaken. This makes it a very powerful screen that I can possibly use outside if I need to.

2. It has a 120hz screen. This means that everything will be much smoother. If you've seen the difference between a regular TV and a 120hz TV it is something along those lines. I love the fact that everything will look smoother on my desktop, screen movement, programs, games, movies, everything will look smoother.

And I will probably never even touch the 3D portion of it, unless I want to show it off to friends and family.

Also, this 17" 3D model that I'm getting is my desktop replacement. I bought this, rather than a desktop so that I can move it around the house or even outside in the summers, so if you can, I would suggest, in my humble opinion, to go with the 17" 3D if the coupon is still available, if you are looking for a 17". If not, the 15" would be great too because it's easier to travel with.

 

Remember you also get 8GB (I think $60 upgrade, though at newegg it costs $40 or under for 8GB) of ram opposed to 6GB and the Blu-ray player comes by default with it (I believe a $75 dollar option). So the 3D panel that does 120hz, is brighter, and supposely better (contrast, color gamut, etc) if you compare the normal 17 and 17 3D from the last gen (can't guarantee the difference with new gen since we can't compare yet) for roughly $65 if you were planning more than 6GB and a Blu-ray Slot Load drive. So the difference isn't as much as you think price-wise.

If you are worried that it will tax these GPUs so much (they should have no problem handling it, they are fairly powerful), you can set Windows to only refresh the screen at 60hz.

I don't know what brand or TV you got, but some HDTVs claim 120hz, but they really aren't, they are just slightly faster than 60hz and claim higher refresh rate because it. I want a 37 to 46 in LED HDTV with 120hz, except most of them don't fall in my price limit (I will wait until they do), but the ones that meet that criteria with the in the price usually don't have real 120hz, just claimed 120hz (I know crappy marketing by those companies, another reason I am comfortable waiting for the better companies to get into my price range)

 

Hi! Sound like you took a great combo IMO.
160GB is quite a lot. Windows "only" takes up about 40GB so you should be able to install all of the programs on the SSD. If you fill it up, put the programs you use the most on the SSD since they will run faster.

I think a lot of people choose the 300GB version and have it as their only drive. Since you have a 750GB for file storage you will be fine.

 

I think you have a pretty good combo of SSD/HDD. Seems I read something about HP not installing the OS on the SSD but I could be wrong on that. Many folks will suggest doing a clean install of Windows to get rid of all the bloat that will be installed by HP so it would be easy enough to install Windows on the SSD at that time. I have the 160Gb in my laptop and desktop and still have about 125 Gb free space. Just careful what I install and where. The desktop has another drive for storage but the laptop does not. I store stuff on thumb drives and external drives and keep the laptop SSD pretty clean.

Perhaps you could have gotten a better SSD for the price but the Intel 160 SSD have a really good reliability record and that is important to me. Either way, an SSD upgrade down the road should be easy enough should you need to do it. I think you made a good decision with your setup.

 

I agree with BackSmack here. I got the 80GB msata, since they are all Intel drives, they are only Sata 2 (3Gb/s) though they supposedly the highest quality drives from how most people regard them (this is my first SSD, so I have no experience with them). If you don't think it is enough, start saving and wait for bigger Sata 3 (6Gb/s) Intel's or buy one from another company that already has Sata 3 drives as options.

 

Thanks both for your posts! I ordered the recovery disk - does that work for a clean install?

 

I got the 160gb SSD along with more storage as well. What I did was just checked how much storage I actually use on my desktop (not counting my documents) and that helps determine how much space I actually needed. I was around the 100gb mark (I have several games including MMOs in that limit).

I plan to store everything else into the secondary storage. So I think you will be fine with your current setup.

 

Just giving you the option of getting the SSD card separate as HP over charges. An intel 160GB SSD is 260 on newegg with no tax if you live outside of NJ and CA. I have two SSD drives in raid 0 in my desktop. I think 160GB is a lot of space. Just store pictures, documents, music, videos etc on the other drive. Do you really use 160GB worth of programs?

 

Most likely they will but will restore all the bloatware and configuration that came from HP in the first place. I'll burn recovery disks straight away then set about changing things. Good idea to have recovery disks just in case of any problems down the road.

 

My other HP laptop had an option to do a minimal restore skipping all the junk. The restore CD does not do a clean install of windows but it can be done if you have a windows 7 install cd. There is also an option to create your own restore dvd so there is no need to buy them from HP.

 

This is my first post on the forum after lurking one year or so! I've been considering buying an Envy laptop for a long time to replace my 8 years dying Inspiron 8600 but I'm glad I have waited as the revisited version looked really awesome.

The laptop is already there in some shops in Belgium. So those of you of who ordered a 15 or 17, I had a Envy 17 in my hands a couple of hours ago and all I can say is that it is the most stunning laptop I've ever seen. It is really impressive, classy with a top notch build quality. Seems really sold and I couldn't observe any external glitch in the finition.
The keyboard is really great, no keyboard flex, and the backlight seems very efficient. The display is also stunning, very bright with good viewing angles. Same with the touchpad. Of course I couldn't really try a lot of things as the computer was locked on a demo.
So you guys will definitely enjoy your news toys, I'm pretty confident !

As for me, I really have to keep my head straight to not pull the trigger right now. The price is 1999€ with blu-ray, a 160-750 combo and a I7 2670.
I want to wait for the release in France, supposedly mi-january because it could easily be 200€ less but now that I had this wonder in my hands...

 

You can use the recovery disks to do multiple kinds of restores, one of them including just the OS and drivers and none of the stuff or extra applications that HP adds to the OS.

 

I recently ordered the Envy 17.
I'm so worried about the Radiance Full HD Infinity LED-backlit Display.
All my desktop screens are matte & I have never used glossy screens before.
I wish there was an option for an anti-glare screen.

The laptop will be used mostly indoors in places with little to no glare.
This will also be my desktop replacement/with 2 external matte screens.

Do you think I'll be happy with the overall quality & picture of the screen?
I'd hate to return this laptop too, I'm already sending back an un-opened dv6z.

 

Thanks S.L. for details from a real user (not an HP employee, no offense Darren, I trust your judgement, or a News Media Journalists because I just don't like their assessments of laptops in most cases). It is good to hear that the quality is everything that we have been hoping for.

Any other details you remember and care to share would be very much appreciated by all here.

Thanks again for the assessment above.

 

Thanks! I'm hoping to run Rift on this - sounds like this will work out.

 

I was heavily considering the dv6z, but waiting for Trinity APU from AMD. Even through this screen is glossy, it is much better than most because of how much brighter it is and the higher contrast so glare should be less evident. These screens are far better than what comes on the dv6z, though I was looking forward to a matte screen when I got that one, but the quality of the Envy series and the Concierge Envy/HDX Service (plus it being 2 year warranty) is worth quite a bit (I have a HDX which I had to work with HP Concierge Envy/HDX Service a few times, there is truly nothing like the level of service anywhere else in the industry that I have found ever). I say even though I like to support AMD and their new innovated APUs and think the dv6z is a fantastic laptop, the Envy in my opinion is worth the premium cost over the dv6z.

 

Darren, would you know if there are plans to release an updated Envy 14 in the future? Similarly, can we expect Ivy Bridge refreshes sometime? My current Envy is still running great and I can't really justify the new purchase yet (although I try).

 

Thanks for the reply.
In regards to the dv6z, I'm not putting the laptop down. I think I would have been very happy with it. I did order it with the Anti-glare LED (1920 x 1080)
screen.

I just wasn't to sure what laptop I wanted & when I started researching the Envy laptops, I said to myself, "I really want this instead". The $300 price difference will hopefully be worth it.

I have not received the dv6z yet, even though it will be returned, the HP sales rep said I could try it out and still return it for full credit + no restocking fee.
Should I open the box & try if just for the curiosity?

 

You're welcome.
Like I said I couldn't really play with the laptop and it's Christmas time so the shop was more than crowded.
I may add that the analog audio control is really cool and doesn't feel cheap. Also I don't know the material used for the bottom but the machine really feels like almost unibody. Definitely my first impression is : premium !