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

If there was an option to not receive a drive I would have taken it. I don't use blu-ray or dvd and have no intention of using them. I have a portable drive if i ever need to use it.

 

I still have not found a way to turn of those two red lights on the left bezel. Is it annoying anyone else or is it just me?

Also, does anyone who received a unit notice that the bottom of the trackpad sticks up (bulges) a bit higher than the surrounding casing?

Image: imgur: the simple image sharer

 

Yes it has switchable graphics. My machine offers the standard Intel card and the AMD Radeon. The control panel even allows specifying which card to use for which apps.

 

Well thank you for finally settling my mind on it. Guess I'll never bother to try and upgrade the graphics drivers!

 

This evening's flight(s) from Anchorage to Memphis (or other lower-48 hubs) probably have not departed yet. As soon as they're in the air and activated their instrument flight plan, they'll show up on FlightAware.

 

Does anyone else have the info "International shipment release" on their tracking? if you do, what does it mean?

 

I have this same thing, and am now kind of doubting it will be here tomorrow? Guess we'll see!

 

GUYS

2 words

NOSE LEVEL

please comment on the noise it makes when just surfing the web (non intensive tasks)

maybe even compare it to the macbookpro

but fan noise levels please n thank u

i was hoping to not hear ANYTHING unless i play a game lol

 

So there is a chance that the envy 15 will not be released in Europe, fantastic

 

The flights on FlightAware are only commercial flights or instrument flight plan private flights. Sometimes they include VFR flights that are using the "flight following" service. BTW, I'm a pilot and fly small airplanes, but I am not instrument rated, and only fly VFR (visual flight rules) for personal business and pleasure.


Not my airplane, it belongs to a friend, but that's me flying it

 

Looks like those are the detectors for the proximity lighting on the keyboard. You can turn it off with f5 but does it turn off the little red lights when the keyboard lights are turned off?

 

I am really annoyed that hp did not put out reviews for the new envy weeks ago. it makes absolutely no sense, since the press event was more than a month ago, and the company offered coupons to entice buyers to fork over cash for these machines. if anyone from hp is listening: you totally botched this aspect of the release.

 

I can't believe I'm seeing this. I guess I might agree with you for a regular DVD player but a blu-ray player is essential for a multimedia powerhouse like the Envy line.

I have a blu-ray on my last gen Envy 17 and I will not watch movies on anything else.

 

I'm wondering if they do it because that's what they've always done. Don't they use the optical drive to load the OS when the thing is manufactured? Then you can burn or buy recovery disks, etc. I realize in today's world there are better ways (bootable thumb drives and such) but does Microsoft even sell Windows on a thumb drive? It can be downloaded to them but I bet in China they still gets thousands of Windows DVDs and load 'em up on the optical drive. Just guessing. I do still play the occasional CD in the optical drive.

 

Agreed = 100%

Great way to do business!
Yeah, the coupons reeled me in.
Hopefully things will work out, if not, I guess there will be a lot of people returning their Envy's.

 

I definitely agree on the blu-ray front. I guess I meant more so DVD media, but the same still holds a bit true even for blu-ray (i.e. portable blu-ray players). Making it an option would prove to be a bit expensive for HP I would think, as they'd need at least 2 different chassis designs to maintain (with and without a slot).

 

As has been covered in this thread a few times, there were no reviews or disclosures about the Envy because HP itself was (and quite possibly still is) under NDA with AMD due to the GPU - and no reviewer worth his salt would agree to review a high end laptop without touching the GPU.

They haven't even got their own marketing people production versions of it yet. They made a call to go with what they had and get it out by Christmas rather than to a proper roll-out.

It's easy to say they botched the release when you don't have all the facts. Their choice very likely was 'the release we got' or 'no release at all until January' and they rightly figured out that they'll make more money selling even a semi-unknown product to us over the Holidays than they would selling a completely-known product in January.

I'm sure they factored in a lot of people returning their new laptops, too. They're clearly banking on enough people being happy with it that it'll still have been worth it. We'll see if they were right or not, but it's hard for me to say 'I wish they hadn't released this laptop at all' when I've ordered one!

 

if you're releasing a new high end laptop and need to put reviewers under a NDA, then you're doing the whole "business and marketing" thing wrong.


hp.com doesn't even promote that these laptops even exist. heck, even on the envy page they are burried on the bottom. this isn't intentional, this is just blatant idiocy.

 

I built them myself.

GR Research AV2 x 5 Left,Center,Right, Right Surround, left Surround
GR Research AV1 x 1 Rear Surround
Rythmik 15" servo controlled subs. Left, Right

I have a Marantz AV7005 with audyssey and using a spectrum analyzer I have the system pretty well dialed in without adding bass traps or other sound absorbing materials.

When they say you can feel the music that is what my system can do.

It really blows people's mind when they come over and listen to it.

Now back to the program.

How are all those pictures coming along?

We are getting desperate here! No more finger nails left to chew.

 

I pretty much agree. Many people want to wait for reviews before they buy, releasing the notebooks this way does Nothing to take that action away. What it does do is give those who needed/wanted a laptop sooner a chance to try it out sooner.

Plus the early adopter route is not exactly littered with danger, if any of us really don't like something, we can simply return it.

 

I agree 100%. I'd rather have this thing in my grubby hands RIGHT NOW (I'm picking mine up soon) rather than wait a few more weeks for proper reviews to come out. Looks like HP had a real tight release deadline for the Holidays, and unfortunately due to this and the AMD NDA, it lead to this situtation. But hey, HP gave us one fricken third of the price OFF of the price and 2 day delivery.

I'm getting a premium laptop, one third discount, received it AHEAD of schedule and in time for Christmas, and a 21 day return policy. Hard to complain.

 

Looks like Fedex Flight FDX14 just left Anchorage bound for Indianapolis about 45 minutes ago. My shipping status just changed to reflect "Departed Anchorage" at about the same time. Looks like my Envys are going to Indy first, then who knows... maybe direct from there to D/FW or perhaps to Memphis in the middle.

FlightAware > Federal Express Corporation (FX) #14 Flight Tracker

 

Does nobody know what "International shipment release" means in Fedex Tracking?

 

Means it cleared customs

 

mine has been to and departed Memphis already and is en route to arrive tomorrow morning

 

Thanks so much, looks like it might be delivered tomorrow - here's hoping!

 

That is a weak excuse from the company's perspective, and it is entirely not sensible from the vantage point of the company's customers.

we need to know what we are buying. finding out only after ordering and then returning the product does not engender faith in hp, no matter what hp's reasons. and receiving a product before reviews only allows disgruntled customers to frame the product, rather than the company's marketing department.

i hope the people in the company with clout also see things this way.

EDIT: i'm not trolling, just expressing my frustrations, since i've never had this experience with any other computers i've bought.

 

I don't think anyone has. This is pretty much unheard of as a business strategy (or lack thereof). But as long as people are buying them, I guess it works for HP...

 

My shipping status just changed, too. I think our Envys are headed to Texas on the same airplane. Thanks for the update.

 

Has anyone who has gotten their 15 posted GPU-z yet?

I went back a good number of pages and didn't see it.

 

Mines on the same flight I think.

Kinda annoying that they sat in Alaska for a whole day.

edit: this is taking my obsessive buyer problem to a whole new level. Normally I just watch the fedex tracker. Now I am watching flights

 

My second envy has International shipment release so should ship out tonight to Memphis. This has the 160g SSD I wanted.

My 1st one left Memphis on the way to Appleton,WI where I can go and slap the return label on and have it sent back. It had a 500g HD but was too late to cancel.

Overall everything is looking pretty good from my end.

I see the overall big picture in I got One nice laptop that was almost half of the MBP price.

It is not perfect but better than the Samsung Chronos I looked at.

It has faults like anything else but think about it if you had to do it again with the info we have now would you?

I sure the hell would.

YMO

 

It's kind of funny reading these forum posts in regards to shipping.
Some of you know exactly minute by minute detail and destination of the plane that's carrying your laptop. Others are willing to drive/cross what ever border necessary to receive their package, just relax, take a deep breath.

When relatives/family come visit us we could care less.
""F them just let them wait at the airport, when I get there I'll get there".

 

No not yet.

From bleeding fingertips

 

Question. Would you be less frustrated if instead of hp releasing the notebooks in December, they held off until all the ducks you deem right and proper were lined up later January 2012?

If yes, too bad, I'd be more frustrated having to wait longer to try the laptop. And frankly, the top down reviews of a few tech sites are often less valuable than seeing first hand impressions from people in forums like these. And getting the notebook to them sooner seems like a better way to go.

 

As an HP employee, I agree this is not the ideal way to go about promoting these products, and I also am frustrated about the lack of information/details/reviews.

However, you cannot under-estimate the importance of the holiday season - as we have seen here in this forum, there are plenty of people willing to go out and buy this without knowing all the details, and the people here are mostly pretty knowledgeable "enthusiasts". Think how many other ordinary consumers are out there, that don't understand about graphics cards and panel types, wanting a new shiny super-duper-all-singing-all-dancing computer for Xmas, and don't want to pay the premium for an Apple.

My expectation is that for those people that want to wait for reviews, they will still wait for the reviews, and make the decision to purchase in Jan or Feb (I guess), so from the company's perspective, it makes no difference if they launch in Dec or do a better job in Jan.

For all those people desperate to buy a new computer for Xmas, launching in Dec might catch some of those, whereas launching in Jan definitely loses them.

That's my 2-cents worth anyway. Sub-optimal for sure, but makes sense to me why they chose to do it this way.

 

@edvb

We got 1/3 OFF! We knew the risks (not much risk, considering 21 day return policy). Was a no brainer for me.

 

THANK YOU. MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY

And 1/3 OFF!

 

Those people still wont get one for the Christmas season because the only place to buy them is buried in an unmarked page on the HP online store.

If it's not brick and mortar stores, 90% of people will never know about it. And this computer won't be in brick and mortar stores for weeks still. So they miss out on holiday sales to most customers, and off a bunch of enthusiasts at the same time.

 

Our new laptops are presently at 33,000 feet and traveling at 560 knots (644 MPH) somewhere over northwestern British Columbia, Canada

FlightAware > Flight Track Log > FDX14 > 21-Dec-2011 > PANC-KIND

 

I can still get 1/3 off if i order today. Or up to December 31. Or probably after that as the coupons continually seem to appear.

This 1/3 off carrot in front of your face is probably built into the price of the product anyway, and you're clamoring for an illusory discount.

 

I might be taking this the wrong way but maybe Darren's comments about having a hard time finding people at HP who aren't on holidays right now is indicative of how much they really care about this launch? Seems like an empty house at HP would explain a lot of these complaints...

 

I also think that many of us would still buy the laptop even if we knew what we knew today.

We got a laptop with metal construction, a slot loading optical drive, hard drive protection measures built in, a decent mid/high level video card, a slew of customization options, and 1/3 of the cost OFF.

The closest you will get to this computer with the same specifications would be something costing $1000 more. Think about that for a moment.

 

I was talking about the differance in price for a 15" Mac Book Pro with the same level of parts.

Sorry if I did not make myself clear on that one.

 

Or, no one there wants to (or perhaps is allowed to, which is another joke in and of itself) talk about it, and the "everyone is on vacation" line is a convenient excuse.

 

I definitely understand the company's financial reasons for launching this way as well as its restraint by the NDA. I will conclude by saying that, as a first time HP customer, it's a little stultifying, and others agree with me
Dell Offers a Better Online Buying Experience for Laptops than HP and Here’s Why….

I will give hp the benefit of the doubt that this is not a normal hp launch.

 

The idea of an NDA on a product that is actually in customers' hands though...

It's just ludicrous. I'm fairly certain if they're not allowed to discuss a product, they're not allowed to sell it on the open market.

 

Why can't they just drop it off the plane for me?

 

I'm a bit confused. When trying to play Flight Simulator the game seems to be reading only the Intel Graphics although the graphics are all set to ultra high 1080p and working great. Is there a way to know exactly what graphics i'm using? GPU-Z is giving me numbers that don't seem right like clock rates at 100mhz

 

100 MHz would probably be the idle speed, and the card isn't running at its max clock when sitting there with nothing happening.

If FSX is playing well, you're not on integrated graphics.