Radiance is Back

try use paypal? i think paypal works with some international credit card

 

I feel you. I can't even start to explain how complicated it is buying in the US from my country. Had to buy the one from Amazon last week (the only site that accepts credit cards from here), and while I don't mind the processor and memory, I regret so much not getting a Radiance . It's been killing me, I hate my machine already! The 1600x900 would've been awesome for my programming needs...

 

I hear ya. I got my envy a few days ago and am loving it except I really wish I could have gotten the high res screen. I also do programming and the extra screen space would have come in handy . But at any rate I got my e14 for $800...so it was still a great deal, even though I would have LOVED to have the radiance

 

Radiance is only for the 14" machines isn't it?

 

I think you still can return the laptop to amazon if you bought it last week.


Paypal request USA address for shipping also USA location account. I cannot create a US location paypal account because it needs a US Bank account

 

are there serial numbers on the screens, keyboards and batteries?

Like can they tell the difference between one radiance screen on a 1000 CTO and 1100 CTO and a 1150 CTO screen or are they identical?

 

i seriously doubt they'd take a returned computer apart and check all that. it wouldn't be cost efficient. i'm sure they turn on the returned computer and if it works and thats it.

 

How about November 1st? That's when I bought my Envy 14 with brightview. Kind of a hail mary but worth a shot I guess.

 

You have 21 days to return to HP, no questions asked. If the coupon is still available I would definitely send it back.

 

guess the coupon is gone

"The coupon entered does not apply to the items in your shopping cart. Please review the coupon for products included in this offer. "

 

its still there, you just cant use it if your signed in as a student/employee discount

 

ah i see..I am trying to order thru my gfs epp account..thought I can cut the price down more.

I guess you can't use it too if you are outside the US..tried it again without logging in with the epp account..still the same results. *sigh

 

Initially tried ordering while logged in as employee/student to see if I could double-up my discount using the -$500 coupon. This did not work, so I logged in w/ a different account to apply the coupon (a much better deal than student/epp).

Just ordered me up a...
- Core i7-720QM Quad Core (1.6GHz 6MB L3 Cache) w/ TB 2.8GHz
- 8GB DDR3 RAM (Compared to other Manufacturers like Lenovo, the Memory upgrade here was reasonably priced)
- 500GB 7200 RPM Drive
- AND OF COURSE the 1600x900 RADIANCE DISPLAY

... I've been eyeballing the Envy 14 (E14) for quite some time now, but I've been hesitant to pull the trigger until the Radiance Display was brought back. My 10" netbook sports a 1366x768 screen, and I couldn't reasonably invest in a premium laptop like the Envy w/ the same resolution as my meager netbook. Physical visits to the MS Store confirmed for me that the BrightView screens were simply "nothing special" as had been documented by numerous reviewers who all gushed over the Radiance.

Screen real-estate (high-resolution) is one of the most important things I look for in mobile systems, and the Envy 14 is the only 14" notebook sporting such a display at this price point and w/ this level of build quality.

The $500 coupon plus the return of the Radiance pushed me over the edge to pull the trigger here.

NOTE ON SANDY BRIDGE (SB) -- Before I saw the $500 coupon, I was content to wait for the E14 to get the SB treatment (assuming it would come any-day-now). HP announced the availability of the radiance (for a limited time) on their Facebook page, and there was much discussion around the availability of SB+Radiance. Although it has been taken down since, an HP employee did let-fly in the comments section of that announcement that the SB E14s were on-tap for September (Fall). My line of thinking was that w/ that long to wait, and the improbability that similar $500 discounts would be offered of SB configs this year... This was a plenty fast and quality built system at a GREAT price point. Even if SB were available today, I wouldn't be paying a premium for it unless the benchmarks showed and EPIC improvement in performance.

Build Date is 2/2/2011... Can't wait.

 

i totally agree with you..

 

Hi all, now that the Radiance is back I've finally decided to get an Envy 14. The only thing holding me back from getting one earlier was the resolution on the Brightview screen. Now before I order I have 3 quick questions. How is the battery life on the i7 processors? How much heat do they produce as opposed to the i5? And just how much of a performance boost do they offer over the i5?

Sorry about the noobish questions, I've never owned a 'premium' laptop before and I want to make sure I get the perfect build. Thanks for any help.

 

the battery on the i7 hardly gets past 2h:30 with light browsing, minimum brighness, and low power settings.

It does get warm when playing games, but not overly, I got like 70-75 using hwmonitor.

I returned it for an i5-580 and a radiance a few days ago. As people say the i5 can last up to 5 hours and still do pretty much the same gaming wise.

 

Looks like I'll be going with the i5 then. Is there a difference between the 560M and the 580M other than the .13 GHz turbo boost increase?

And one final question, if I use the 6-cell slice battery that they offer with the build, will it increase the amount of heat that builds up in the laptop? Or does it have vents/fans in it to aid in heat dissipation?

 

the slice battery should not make it warmer, especially that the envy 14 doesnt have big air vents on the bottom. It will make it thicker and add about 2 pounds.

I personally went for an extra 8 cell as they are light and easy to change.

If you havent made your purchase yet, some people reported the coupon may have expired ..

 

I cannot speak to the 'heat' or 'battery' impact, but for evaluating the relative performance of the processors, I used the PassMark.com to look-up the performance benchmarks to see the relative performance gains among the processors available.

It should be noted that the i5s are the only chips that have 'switchable graphics' which is a battery saving feature for folks who don't need full-on discret graphics in thier everyday computing.

I personally went w/ the i7 because the performance jump was the greatest increase per $ and I run plugged-in more often than I run mobile. I'll likely purchase the extra battery slice if I find I'm running into longevity issues on-the-go.

 

2 lbs? Really? I might have to go with the 2 8 cells then. I need this thing to be a laptop, not a dumbbell

I figured it would expire before I got a chance to use it.

 

slice battery slightly over 1 pound, but you definitely do feel it. I still think its a better choice since you dont have to remove the internal battery, you can just go straight 7 hours..instead of 3 hours, shut down, swap, turn on, then 3 hours again. It also holds slightly more power than the regular 8 cell

 

someone weighed it at 900 grams, so about 2 pounds. I decided not to buy it as an upgrade @ $200 since they sell it for ~$150 in the parts store.

 

I went with the I7. It doesn't offer much of a performance boost unless you call for it, but it doesn't generate much heat either. I can get around two or three hours with mine, but I'm never far away from an outlet anyways so the hit doesn't bother me. If I ever need to trek into the wild suburbia and be alone with no human contact or available power supply, that's what an extra battery is for.

Really I looked at both processors, estimated the time I would ever be away from somewhere to charge it, and went with the i7 because I'd rather have the quad that will do anything I need it to for a few years than last for five hour gaps it'd never see. Yeah, the i5 probably would have been fine for processing, but I prefer to spend a little more and go with certainty.

 

2 or 3 hours with the basic 8-cell that comes with it?

 

It is not 2lbs..

 

Yes, that's some three or four item combination of the following: coding, Skype, possible Minecraft multiplayer, some websurfing and YouTube, etc. You can get decent battery life from it, you just have to work a little harder but it's not as if it's a brick away from any outlet. Cutting down the processor usage on battery helps quite a bit, since you have four cores and eight threads, you don't lose performance for simple things such as that. Brightness turned down obviously, but even on power I don't turn it up much as it's BRIGHT.

There should be a battery life thread on the front page for the Envy 14, first post leads to what times people have been getting for processors and what they do/settings they use. I follow that mostly and some other tweaks.

 

I got the slice battery as another part of my discount. I dont need it and figured I will be able to sell it for $100-150 on ebay. So by getting the slice battery with your order its like getting $600 off

799 to 749 for this computer is how I see it now!

 

And its refurbished in the parts store. Thats why they offer a cheaper price with a core return. $150 refurbished or used and cleared for resale.

 

yeah some people mentionned theirs didnt look pristine but worked fine.

 

my friend has one it came looking like it was used thats all. It does sit on the bottom of the computer after all. Hes a homo and standing behind me.

 

I bought one last night from the parts store. The guy guaranteed me it was brand new.

If you look online at the parts store they have 2 different ones with the same part #, one for $120 refurbished, one for $127 brand new.

Paid $152 tax included, delivered to my door next day air. Pretty psyched.

 

hmm I wonder if my friend got the cheaper one.

 

Is it just me, or is the Radiance display option no longer available on HP's site?

 

Yeah it's not. they got rid of it again from the looks of it

 

To make up for a series of problems, errors and delays including a delay in processing an order I placed for an Envy 14 w/Radiance last Thurs, HP just offered me an upgrade to the 256GB SSD on my Envy 14 order for no additional cost. Sounds like a great deal, except the Radiance is no longer available. Basically I was given a choice of accepting the offer or waiting to see if the Radiance display becomes available again.

With no clear picture of when the Radiance will be back, I took the offer, but I have to say that I still feel like I got the short end of the stick because I was perfectly happy with the 640GB HDD whereas I hate the BV display. I'm pretty PO'd, but I'm hoping that I'll be sufficiently impressed by the SSD that I forget about the display.

 

Im actually pretty happy with my BV display but I decided to return it to get the radiance just for the heck of it..if I end up not liking it as much as I thought I would, maybe we could do some kind of trade, radiance for your SSD =D

 

Take the SSD. Sell it on eBay...and you have yourself an Envy 14 for dirt cheap. LOL. I ordered the Envy 14 with Radiance after being unimpressed by my BV, mostly because of the speckling. I'll post my impressions. I am actually starting to get used to the BV after all the annoyances and disappointments I had earlier. I am still returning this once my Radiance gets here though.

 

I might be interested in a trade, but will have to see how much I like the SSD first, and whether its advantages outweigh its disadvantages (small size) and the disadvantages of the BV display.

Not a bad idea but would only sell the SSD if I knew I could get a Radiance - otherwise it wouldn't be worth it to me just for the cash. I am hoping, however, that either the BV display on this unit is better than on my previous unit and/or that I like the SSD so much that I decide I can live with the BV.

 

(what i'd do) Trade for the radiance. get a 90g ssd. later on get a cheap external drive.

 

well if we trade it would have to be like this, my radiance+500gb hard drive for your BV+SSD (or we can trade entire notebooks minus RAM and battery if things get complicated). In that case, if you get another SSD you just need an enclosure for the hard drive you have inside.
Also, the brightview isn't a bad screen at all. It's only bad if you compare it to the radiance/IPS panels etc., for comparing simiar 1366x768 screen on other notebooks, the BV comes out on top

 

The brightview is not a bad screen, I have seen much worse. But I had a chance to compare it to an ASUS U35JC ($750) , the BV has so much more glare and the viewing angle is kinda narrow. Though, in semi darkness it was fine: sharp pixels and good color rendering (it only has problems with glare and ambient light).

So when the Radiance and the coupon came back, I jumped on the opportunity and returned my 1st build. I don't like to do that but I didn't want to miss that opportunity.

 

I had an Envy 14 with the BV display for a few days and really disliked the display. I know a lot of that had to do with the fact that I was coming from a different 14" notebook with a killer 1600x900 display, but I also compared it to other 1366x768 displays on other notebooks, including within HP's own family, and found the BV to come out near the bottom. HP told me they thought my display was defective and asked me to send it in for service (which is what started my whole saga), so perhaps the new unit will be better.

Not at all my experience - I found the display to not be very sharp or crisp and colors to be muted and overly warm.

 

HP Envy 14 Radiance displays sold out... forever

 

Any updates on future availability of Envy 14's with Radiance???

 

Nope

10char

 

It ain't coming back......

 

Well, not that its of any hope, but first let me say, NEVER SAY NEVER.... That being said.....it may very well be true the Envy 14 may not have a "Radiance" display, but they may get a nice display from another manufacturer....instead of Radiance it may be called, "Vibrance." Or they may develop a whole new product....

Whatever is coming display wise, is anyone's guess. For those who have the Radiance and are loving it, keep it safe. Treat her nice. For those waiting for something around the corner....hope it comes soon. You guys have displayed great patience.

KJ

 

What a nice post!

 

Regardless of what it is called, I have absolutely no doubt the new Envy 14 will have a high resolution, high brightness, contrast and color gamut display option. Now that the dv 6 has a 1080p low glare display, it would be brand suicide not to offer a better display with the Envy. In fact, given the near perfect display on the Dell XPS 15, the superb display on the Envy 17 3D, the good to excellent displays on the dv6 and 7, I would say there is a near 100% chance the Envy 14 will have a display that is at parity with the best of them. Bet on it.

 

I agree it would be ridiculous to upgrade those notebooks to FHD and leave the Envy 14 that far behind. Since the dv7 now has FHD, I hope the Envy 17 gets a blu-ray burner.