The Mother of All Envy Comparison Tests (17, 15, 14, and 13)

We all know Envies are awesome machines, but which one to choose, that is the question. The big and powerful 17? Sleek, optical drive-less 15? All around 14? Or the much underrated 13?

Yours truly had the very rare opportunity today to gather all 4 of these babies together in the same room. Having played around with all of them, I would like to share my thoughts on all of them to give (especially potential buyers) what each of them are like.

Here are the teaser pictures.










I'll separate the discussion into categories and present the characteristics of each laptop in the categories.

Screen

This is probably one of the most important categories for Envies, since the brilliant high contrast, high gamut and high resolution screens are what enthusiasts like us sought after but could never get among the sea of crappy mainstream laptops. Tired of staring at a 15in screen with only 1366x768 res and abysmal contrast and brightness? That's why I got my envy.

13 (GF's): Unfortunately I don't have the insane DPI 1600x900 radiance screen, but the 1366x768 is pretty decent for a 13in and has an INSANE brightness level. Various sources measure it to be around 400nits, and I can definitely confirm it. At full brightness it is almost blinding, even the lowest setting is perfectly fine. Contrast is very good, and the color gamut is off the roof. I have to dial back the saturation a little bit cuz it was TOO colorful for me.

14 (Mine): I'm one of the lucky few that sniped a rare radiance off of ebay. I also owned a non-radiance version before that, and I can tell you that the difference is night and day. The screen is just plain awesome, not quite as bright as the 13 but it's more than enough. Like the 13 it was a little over saturated so I had to undersaturat the blue a little bit to look natural. 1600x900 seems like a pretty good res for a 14in, although I wouldn't mind a 1080p. The only thing is the white level, which is not as crisp as I hope it to be. But that's just me being anal.

15 (friend's): 1080p is just plain awesome. There's so much screen real estate I donno what to do with myself. The white level is definitely crisper than the 14, although the brightness is the lowest among all the Envies. But hey, that's only if you compare it to other Envies. Taken in a vacuum, it is still a very darn good screen.
Note: 15 has an adaptive brightness sensor thing that can get annoying sometimes, I haven't figure out how to change it yet. Also it takes a more than several presses of the brightness key to adjust the level, since each level only varies a little bit, which can also get a little annoying.

17 (Mine, selling): This is probably the most well balanced Envie screen. 1080p looks awesome on a giant 17in. White level and saturation are just perfect, and brightness is only a little bit shy of the 13.

Build Quality

This measurement is another thing that separates the Envies from the mainstream. All Envies are solidly built with magnesium-aluminum alloy that is smudge proof and quite sexy.

13: Solid all around, only a little bit of flex on the top case when you push down, since it is so thin.

14: Also solid all around. However earlier models suffer from keyboard flex but was fixed in later revisions, at the expensive of a slight increase in weight.

15: Just as solid as the 13. But the screen is almost as thick as its body, so there's no flex there whatsoever. But this particular unit I have has a little bit of flex on the right palmrest, maybe just a fluke.

17: Solid Solid Solid (see a pattern here?). Besides a tiny bit of keyboard flex on the left hand side, this monster is built like a rock (and weighs like one too).

Performance:

A machine is not premium in term of performance if it can't play SC2, that's my philosophy.

13: Switchable graphics is nice, but the 4330 is so anemic, it can't really do much with modern games. But then again this is meant to be an ultraportable since it also has a low voltage processor.

14: I have the Core i5/Radeon 5650, which is a pretty potent combination for a midrange gamer. Unfortunately HP decided to underclock the already poor batch of 5650. The highest stable clock I've gotten was 520/850, which is still lower than the reference clock. Plays starcraft on high/medium at 1600x900.

15: This one is also core i5, with a much better 5830. Fortunately it was not nerfed so it is overclockable. Can play on Ultra/Ultra at 1080p

17: i7 720qm/5850. Sounds pretty good until you realize the 5850 is severely underclock AND undervolted, making it only marginally better than the 5830, and worse than 5830 if the 5830 is overclocked. Plays SC2 on ultra/extreme at 1080p.

I/O

The trackpad is sorta of a love-hate thing. Most people hate it. But if you tweak it enough (I have installed reli's modded twofingerscroll, works butter smooth on all of them), it is actually very usable.

13: Keyboard is non-backlit, bummer. Port selection is very minimalistic. 2 USB, HDMI, and a headphone out, sufficient for most people's usage though.

14: Backlit keyboard, yayy. However the brightness is pretty weak and uneven. Pretty standard port selection, two audio out is a definite plus. But absence of VGA can sometimes be inconvenient. Optical bay is unnecessary for me, I took it out to save about .4lb of weight.

15: Non-backlit keyboard just like the 13, but with some useless shortcut keys to the left. Port selection is minimal as well. Basically 13's + eSata and ethernet.

17: Same backlit keyboard + number pad like the 14, also weak in brightness but seems more even. Generous ports selection, USB 3.0 is a huge plus.

It is also worth mentioning that due to the rigorous reinforcement plates under all the keyboards, they are basically semi-spill resistant. I've spilt a whole glass of coffee on my 14 (I immediately powered off of course). After I took the computer apart to wash the keyboard, I noticed that not even a single drop of coffee leaked onto the mobo. Props, HP.

Heat

This category is more of a weakness for the Envies, as their thin chasis + performance parts is not very heat friendly.

13: Since this is the weakest powered one, it also runs the coolest. Most of the time the fans aren't even on. When under load, fans on each side of the laptop (yes, two fans on a 13in) does a pretty good job at keeping everything cool.

14: Also has two fans, one is always on, which can be sorta annoying. But thanks to the low TDP of the 5650, even underload it doesn't get very hot.

15: This is where the problem begins. The fan settings aren't very aggressive, so when just watching youtube videos, the 5830 can heat up very quickly (non-switchable) and make the entire bottom of the laptop quite warm (a la MBP style). Underload however both fans kick in and keep the temps to a tolerable, albeit still quite warm level.

17: Probably the most notorious overheater of the group. Even with a nerfed 5850, the left side still gets hot like crazy under load thanks to its single fan design. After a couple of HP warranty repairs mine got a little better, but still no where near the coolness of my Asus G73.

Aesthetics

Another selling point of the Envies. All of them are pretty darn sexy IMO.

13: At only .7in thick and 3.7lbs, the lightest and IMO sexiest Envy. If it had a better graphics card and a backlit keyboard, I would be all over that.

14: Has the potential to be sexier if it ditched the optical drive. I took mine out, but it is still on the heavy side for a 14in. The beats edition is even sexier with the black and red color theme, but it is also over half a pound heavier.

15: Also has the potential to be even sexier if the screen weren't so thick. Omission of optical drive is a def plus in IMO, unfortunately a lot of dumb consumer didn't think so and complained. QQ A similar beats edition is also available but quite rare.

17: As a DTR, it is reasonably bulky and still retains the Envy look. Not portable at all however.

Audio

Beats audio is a pretty much just a marketing gimmick. They just boosted the audio out and didn't really bother to improve the speakers. Only the 17 has a pretty decent speaker set thanks to its subwoofer. 15 sounds nice but gets muddy at higher volumes. Speakers on the 14 and 13 are pretty much a joke. Dell XPS 15 still remains as the king of laptop speakers. Listen to it once and you'll never think about laptop sound quality the same way.
I do have the monster headphones by Dr.Dre that came with a Envy 14 beats, and it does sound a heck of lot better with the envies than ipods or other laptops.

Battery Life

13: By far the best. 4 hours on the stock 4 cell, and 10 hours with the 6 cell slice.

14: Could be a lot better with better mobo management. People are getting over 15-17w in drainage when core i5+intel IGP should really be around 8-10W. So it's about 4 hours + 4 more with slice

15: i7 versions suck, only last 1-2 hours. i5 is much better, 2-3 and another 2 and half with slice.

17: DTR's battery is more or less a UPS, so an hour and half at most.to be informative. Lemme know if you want know anymore about these machines.

Price

13: 600-800 Refurbed. Def a good deal if you can get a 900p with 160GB SSD

14: 700-800 used and 900-1100 new for non-radiance. 1100-1300 for radiance if you can get one.

15: 800-1000 used.

17: 900-1200 used, 1200-1500 new. 1300-1600 for 3D

Well this is all I have for now. Thanks for reading this and I hope you've found this informative and enjoyable. Let me know if you have anything else you would like me to add!

 

woah, i didnt know the 13 was that slim!

very nice review

 

updated, 10char

 

Thanks for the comparison!

Not a very significant question, but how do the screen opening angles compare across all the Envies? The Envy 15 screen only opens to about 110 degrees, which is terribly low. While it's just barely enough for use on a desk, it's a pain to try to use it on the lap.

 

Good question, I was a little bother than 15 cant open much too.

13: about 150, so more than enough
14: less than the 13, just enough
17:in between 13 and 14, more than enough

 

Edit:

The Envy 15 actually has THREE cooling fans, with 2 on the CPU.
Its HDD is also in the 1.8'' form factor, and there' are two slots. The reason why there's some flex in the right palm rest is cuz there's only an empty secondary HDD slot in that area.

 

2 fans on cpu and 1 on gpu...imo it should have been the other way around because the gpu fan is always maxed when playing games

 

Ha. The first picture of them stacked is very cool.

 

I own the 13 and adore it. Of all the machines I've used, installed and fixed over the years (I'm admin and all that jazz so see a lot), the 13 is the ONLY machine that I've kept for more than six months. Still have it, sitting there, looking very pretty. The screen and keyboard are my favourite, with the battery life arriving a close second.

Expanding the hard drive on the 13 isn't that bad and I put an intel 1.8" 160Gb SSD in mine, but, the memory upgrade is not for the faint of heart. We're talking, pretty much, a near full strip down to get at the Dimm slot located under the motherboard near the rear of the machine. Aggghh.

The trackpad can annoy people but as soon as I realised that I needed to use one damn hand, i was away and fine with the thing. Heck, if I can complete Plants Vs Zombies with it, I'm sure that you'll be fine.

Thank you for a fantastic review and if tech sites would get off their backsides, they would have done such a review by now.


P.s. I gave in and ordered an Envy 14 a few weeks ago and seeing the SIZE of the 14 compared to the 13 has me worried. (HP Envy 14, 8Gb, Radiance, fitting a Crucial 128Gb SSD and have TWO slice batteries on the way)

 

Yeah transition to the 14 would not be an easy one if you're used to the tiny size of the 13. Even with the slice on, the 13 is still more compact looking. And 14 with a slice is just atrociously thick and bulky. It's handy in a transatlantic flight though, so 2 slice + original 8 cell should last you a cool 12-14 hours.

 

So far, I'm liking the 14. It's a really solid machine and the increased strength of the screen housing and rubber frame is great. The Envy (we have two here, one mine) 13 can suffer from 'keyboard' pressure marks which is a right pain.

The slice(s) have yet to arrive and once they do, I can make the final decision.

Fitted a UK keyboard today and the trackpad ribbon cable is a right %$£££"2

 

Ive never experienced keybord flex on E13, maybe yours is an earlier model?

 

What is this reli's modded twofingerscroll? I have the envy 17 and I find it frustrating to use the trackpad especially the two finger scroll. Is this like a downloadable app because I could find anything when I googled it.
Thank you!

 

This contains everything:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/563791-definitive-guide-envy-trackpad.html

tell us if the driver works for the E17

 

I hear that HP severely underclocks the GPU on these Envy's and that when you clock the GPU back to just a normal speed for the GPU it overheats the computer and shutsdown.

 

That might be true for the earlier gens of the E17, but not for the E14

 

That is a pretty noticeable different in size from the 14 to 13, more noticeable than the other jumps and that is the smallest screen size difference. Nice work and +rep. You might want to use thumbnails, though. Those of us with standard definition have to scroll down forever just to post.

 

lol, I'm assuming everyone here have a beautiful full HD ultra high resolution infinity radiance explosiveness screen that can display all those pixels with ease...

 

What's the Hardware ID on the E17's screen?

 

Sorry I don't have the 17 anymore. Anyone else have a 17 at hand?

 

Dang I wish they would bring back the 13!! Its sooo sexy!! Yhey need to come out with a Beats 13 edition. Come on HP!!

 

One of the most RARE review ever.

+ rep

Thanks

 

nice write up. FYI the Envy 17's heat issue has been substantially reduced earlier this this year. The present GPU is a 6850 and procesors are current crop of Sandy Bridge i5 and i7.

 

I would imagine sandy bridge chips run a lot cooler. Also what's the clock on the 6850? Is it underclocked? And did they make it switchable?

 

Sandy bridge itself is only a small improvement in TDP, and on that basis alone there is a strong inference, based on experience in the wild, that HP made a cooling system improvement to the Envy 17 on or just prior to the Sandy bridge introduction. I don't know what the clock speed is on the 6850M, but in the Envy 17 the graphics are fully switchable, yes, to the on-board (Intel) GPU. the latter supports DX10 but not 11.

 

Thank you so much for the time you've spent to prepare this comparison. I have doubts between 15" and 17" models.
Have you tested 15" one with IPS display? Basically, I've heard that it's better and provides for more realistic colors than TN, isn't it?
I want to use the laptop for playing (mainly Sims3) and Internet browsing. What do you think, a 17" isn't very heavy for a girl?
I'm not planning to carry it with me, just using withing my flat. I'm looking forward to your thoughts. Thank you very much in advance.

 

If you've heard that the IPS on the 15 produces more realistic colors, it certainly hasn't been on this board, as it can't properly display red and only has a 60% gamut.

 

Precisely. The 1080p panel is bright and has great viewing angles. But it display red with a very obvious orange hue, so colors will appear washed out. It's fine if you don't care about color accuracy and gamut. But if you do any kinds of photo editing it'll be really obvious.

Other than that the laptop is probably one of the most well-rounded machine out there.

 

timjuliani, ncc1701k, thank you, for me it's crucial to be able to edit photos. Thank you very much, now I'm inclined to buy 17", at least it doesn't have this "orange" issue.

 

Barbie, I have an external monitor for Lightroom, but the orange issue bothered me enough in general use to return an otherwise great machine. If you are planning to use the laptop screen for editing, definitely don't get the 15.