Voodoo Envy, the new 13" offering by voodoo

because his head is up his own butt a bit, but i think he is right on this. no montevina support to me makes it automatically crap as you dont go and pay premium for outdated tech.

orriginaly me and K-tron fought because i thought voodoo was overpriced with their 700dollar paint job..... and now im defendng and he is attacking? lets just agree that voodoo sux and swallows hp. voodoo is HP's B***h

 

hehe K-T was more ref to the fact that every large org, wrong metrics are put in place and that's when you get crappy support, responsibility is pulverized and you don't get things fixed, no-one takes charge and if you end up speeking to the same person, the only reason they put an account manager on you is to sell more and they don't really give a toss about you as longs as they make the money.

 

Well before the acquisition, I needed a floppy drive for my laptop, cause I need to install xp sata drivers. Well I would send a phone call, and then I would get one of the three reception girls. Then I would give them my invoice number/build number, aka so they know you are a customer, then they look up you in the system, and then hand the phone over to one of their 8 or so tech guys. Well the wait time was at most 15 minutes, cause he needed to dig up a external floppy drive for me. You know their customer service was great. When I bought the laptop, I could call, speak to the receptionist, and they would know you by name, and say, hey arent you the guy with the black u709? You know it was nice. I would get email updates with pictures/videos every thursday, and it was a great experience.
Just recently about two weeks ago, I had to do a name/warranty transformation, on a system I bought. I call and get a very unknowledgeable hp personnel on every occassion. Then I tell her it is a M855, and she has know idea what it is. Then she puts it into the computer and comes up with nothing, cause she typed in my invoice number wrong. Then on and on, so I ask for Roz, and then I wait to speak to her, and she puts me directly to Ravi or Judith, who are in customer care, originall voodoo employees, and then it was like bam, it was finished.
Then I call to get my system shipped, and I get another wonderful highly qualified hp sales personnel. Then basically the same nonsense occurs until I get to talk to an original voodoo staff.
It is much more of a hassle now, since their new staff are very uneducated, and very underqualified. To me, customer support and warranty are big, the determining factors. To have to wait and deal with incompetent fools is not what I paid for, and it is really frustrating. I had never had this problem before the acquisition, cause you could call up and speak to one of the 35 people who worked their, and most of them knew you by name.
This has all changed my friends, and now it is all hp support, unless you ask for a voodoo staff by name. But you hp/voodoo owners will never have that kind of relationship with teh voodoo staff, so teh voodoo techs will not know your situation at all.

Hp is in it for the money, and unfortunately Rahul is too, so he compromised some of the best parts of his business, and now tech support/customer care is nonexistent and only hp staffed.

I hope you see why I am disappointed. When you have a problem, and want a solution, you will have the knowledge of hp staff to look forward to.
Dont ask me for the voodoo staff's cell numbers cause I am not giving them to you. You have to pay to have awesome service.

Anything not backed by the best people, and the best warranty is crap to me, cause when you have a problem, these are the only things which matter.

K-TRON

 

When is this coming out???

 

You can pre-order it now, estimated ship date is July 16th. They haven't said when online ordering/etc will be available.

 

Um, why don't you just create a slimpstreamed Windows XP OS disc with the SATA drivers you need using nLite? So much faster and easier, and you wouldn't have had to go through HP at all.

$7,500 dollars worth, if I remember correctly.

 

Where can you pre-order it from? I didn't notice any links on the official site.

 

You should be able to order them in the next few days. I think they were supposed to tell the public on the 20th or 25th.

Actually it is very interesting the whole floppy thing. I tried using a different floppy drive I had, but it wouldnt work. Supposedly you need a windows certified external floppy drive for bios installation. It must be true, since I tried every floppy drive I had and none worked. I learned from the tech guy that teac and mitsumi are the only manufacturers which make bootable windows certified floppy discs. Well after I talked to them, they sent the floppy drive and I got it in 3 days.
This occured about 11 months ago, when I had never heard of slip streaming. Anyways, I am glad I have this floppy drive, it is a real life saver.

K-TRON

 

If you so want to mod the HP notebooks without voiding warranty, you can go for HP's certified tech program which provides you with a certification equivalent to that of an HP field engineer. This means you can service your own notebook and others as an authorised engineer, receive reference materials and order parts through their dedicated sales channel.

 

you can call them or email them to go on the pre-order list, they will then call you ~first week in July to finalize the options and stuff

 

LMAO.... ouch!!!

 

this is quite the novelty item. Much like the Mac Air, i personally wouldn't consider it to be a wise investment. But to each their own.

 

My Cell? LOL! No way. Gotta keep that under wraps.
But I can always be reached by email or our forums.

 

I'm sorry to bother you guys with my view but I don't get it. Well, these systems must be for suckers that wouldn't mind paying more then $4500 for a cool chassis and good service. Well for that ammount you better do more then answering my calls.

The inside of these Voodos can be bought in any mega PC super store, yes it can. That is what the guy is calling revolution in computing. Who can ever take this guy seriousely.

Comparing these systems with cutting edge car brands like Ferrari and Lamborgini it is a insult to any car lover. At least those brands designed their engines and have a history of high end engineering. It is not just the chassis, it is everything from engine to the design of the tires and on board computer and so on so on and son. Is pretty much hard work!

Have fun,

Trance
PS: By the way, the system looks very nice indeed. But get a MacAir and install Vista on it. It will cost you half the money most probably, and it is lighter, thiner and you have a wow experience all the way too, and look it comes from someone that at least developed the OS (years of research on it). With all due respect the Monkey inspired logo must be talking directely to potential buyers IMHO considering the promissed revolution on offer and the price tag that people are talking about.

 

MBA: $1,799 + $240 Vista Home Premium = $2,039
Envy 133: $2,099

Half the price???

Yes, you can find Vista for less than that, but still. The MBA is nowhere near half the price.

 

By the time you config a system that will boot Vista it will prolly be 2x a MBA.

All kidding aside the Envy looks like a nice machine. If I didn't have bun in my wife's oven it would be on my short list.

 

Also, the envy comes with an external optical drive, apple charges $100 extra.

 

Trance,

some folks want something different... some folks dont mind paying to get something a bit more "individual"...

"suckers" may be a bit too strong a word... no?

yes you can get the parts off Newegg, PTS and P-PC sites and build yourself the best and the latest watercooled rig... but please... let's not go down that road... honestly, you can get a Yaris to get from Point A to Point B, but folks who have earned the money and want to indulge oneself gets Porsche's and Ferraris and what not...
comparing Cars and Computers is not a fair comparison... yes... and in some cars, it is actually an investment... but believe me... regardless of the way it's built, the cost, the performance value... it's main function in an everyday use is to get you from Point A to Point B... and you will hardly tap into the full potential of a "performance car"...

why folks buy into luxury car? it is only one reason... rewarding oneself...

why do you see 70+ people in the AW forums ordering the m15x despite all the issues it's been having... this boggles me still... but they want it and they go for it...

if we were to list the "suckers" as you put it...

cars... well... we all know...
iPod buyers?
iPhone buyers?
Nike buyers?
Calvin Klein buyers?
heck... all brand junkies, no?

damn this society that brainwashed us to become brand junkies...

any boutique or luxury brand is not for everyone... but to my surprise... many folks who own voodoopc, are just average folks, no tycoon or mega rich folks who like to spend money foolishly...

just sharing my opinions...

 

Kinghong is right because

1. The USA is a consumerist Nation.

2. The USA wants to take over the world

And I think they're winning in the "cool stuff" department for now.

However if I could take the "suckers" and get them to think into the future any further than.. well now, you might begin to agree more with Trance. Because it really does seem as though the inside of the envy is last year's power in a fancy coating.

These are the first lines of the "slim" notebooks, and I'm sure they'll only find out more ways to cram more in there soon enough.

edit: Just my opinion as well. FoS is what makes this country worth it

 

I appologise for the wording. It must have been a bad day for me

I haven't seen the official pricing for ENVY so I was expecting a much higher price for the Envy. If that is actually the price of the system, then I would say it is reasonable.

But your price is not listed anywhere in the site. Considering the VoodooPC traditional pricing model I'm expecting it to cost around $3500 to $4000. So my remark regarding the Envy is within this expectation.

About OMEN I have heard that the base price is $7000. If that is the case, I don't take a word of my comment still.

In hardware, luxury comes with state of the art technology and innovation, including cars. I just don't recognize it in OMEN or ENVY compared with other PCs, the same way I can recognise on a high end car compared to a YARIS (standard car). The difference is not just the chassis design and the quality of the build or some on board computer.

Look I'm considering that the base price for a OMEN is more then $5000 as I've heard. I'm also looking at the fact that I can buy every main internal component posted in the spec of OMEN in newegg (the ones that really give technological power to the machine). So the half the price idea. Granted I can't buy the chassis, but Zalman is coming out with very cool liquid cooling chassis for $500 not to mention Thermaltake.

In the end of the day, IMHO it will all come down to how much one is willing to pay for the design of that chassis and the VoodooPC customer care.

Trance

 

The voodoo pc customer care is gone. They will not help you after about 6 months. They no longer care once they have their money. I have asked tech support and Research and development for a customized splash screen for the Bios, much like Alienware has had for years and I get as a response, oh that system is too old and the demand is not their. Well $3000+ more then to buy a clevo for that answer is just ridiculous. I have not received a mousepad with my system which they still claim they cannot ship, and I asked for a replacement shirt and nothing has been done. My questions have been simple and I get oh its not important as an answer.
Well just yesterday my U709 motherboard died, and now my system is dead. I emailed rahul and ryan about my problem and neither of them have gotten back to me, and meanwhile they are on their stupid boards, ignoring the fact that I have a problem. This is pretty typical now, and many voodoo owners can attest to the fact that things have changed.

I thought I would be getting great customer service as the company was so called known for, and now I know for a fact that it their company is just a line of crap.

Please do not buy from them and go elsewhere, dont waste your money on any of these new systems cause their tech support is useless now.

Get a dell or some big company cause they will come to your home to fix your computer, and you dont have top pay the ridiculous costs to ship it to canada, and then be told that a new motherboard is like $500 and shipping no matter what it is is $100+.

K-TRON

 

Ouch... that doesn't sound like a good experience at all.

 

@K-TRON

$3000+ dollars for a "standard" customer care + a cool chassis coloration? I think the VoodooPC logo is really telling something how the top sees its customers. Look carefull to the logo, it looks like an animal that adores bananas

Hope your post helps others. When the price of a good far exceeds its market value you will always get frustrated one way or another.

Trance

PS: The VoodooPC Envy you have is a Clevo painted by VoodooPC. So you paied $3000 for a paint job and supposedly good customer care.

 

FYI, the price was stated during the announcement in Berlin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE4dKqqSH94

 

You tore your system apart to get that custom paint job and your custom mods. I see you recommend Dell now, but do you think Dell would warranty your system if you ripped it apart and painted it, modified the case, and tried to put it back together yourself? Lets be reasonable here.

Yesterday was Saturday. I don't work on weekends and don't have access to email. In other words, I wasn't working. I am not always on the NextBench site all the time either. I am here to serve customers, but my personal time is my own. Rahul only heard about your problem through Dave (your painter) who mentioned you fried your motherboard when you tried to put it back together.

Keep in mind that using that word "Fact" was gotten you in trouble here and on our forums. Yes, many customer can attest to the fact things have changed, but somehow, not the way you think. You've shown a propensity to make things up before so I don't think people will see your 'facts' as holding much water.

In the last month you have gone on a rampage of making things up, all of which we have documented and we’re surprised (perhaps not as much anymore) that 90% of what you say is completely untrue. Stuff about Blackbird, which I hear yo actually haven't even seen in person..and now saying that the new Envy isn’t made of Carbon Fiber. We showed pictures of the weave, but that wasn't good enough and demanded to watch us make it. It gets too much.

But back to your laptop, you will get the customer service you require to fix your mobo, but because you willfully dismantled it to perform your mods, your warranty is void. You, in the process of reassembly (or maybe how the components were stored - we will never know.) did something to fry the board. (Or what ever the problem may be.) We can fix it, but it is and will be billable.

Again, the tech support is just fine. It's just unfortunate that you can't have your repair covered under warranty due to you voiding it. In fact, our tech support has never been better and more staffed than it is today.

Something tells me that if they, or even some other company, came to your house to fix your laptop only to see what you have done to yours, they probably wouldn't cover it either. Ya can't buy a new car, try and mod it, have things go wrong and expect the manufacturer to fix it.

I am sorry that you feel this way, but you pulled your laptop apart to modify it and in the process something broke. We cannot fix that pro bono.


//.iMaxx

 

This is Roz from VoodooPC. I joined these boards to clarify one thing. I am part of the graphic design team, and never a part of customer care. I do not answer phones or help customers in any way. I have been an active participant of the VD forums for years, and this is why KTRON knows my name. I have no idea why he keeps thinking I was a receptionist. I conversed with him through email a couple times and helped him once to get the spare Voodoo and Envy decals so they can be put on his laptop for when dave painted in. That was a favour out of my own time. Ravi, is Rahul's brother and plays a role in Marketing with Brand Experience, obviously not a part of Customer care either.... *sigh* just a few more examples of KTRON making up stuff.

 

Wow, well... I'll be damned if those last two responses from Voodoo employees didn't make me feel better about wanting to purchase one of these laptops. I went over to the official forums and saw that the same type of thing is going on with K-Tron over there.

Thanks for taking the time to post here and clear up the misleading statements! I wish more companies would do that!

 

K-Tron...
buddy... you know that i have only the highest respect for you and your knowledge in the tech world...

furthermore, when i first saw your project... you amaze me for your creativity, sense of adventure, and even your confidence...

but do remember, i did mention to you... that the voodoo folks are great, but it is still a business.. nobody will bend their way backwards for you...

iMaxx has been great to take care of my issues and i've been in contact with him via e-mail or in wow and chatted frequently... but despite our "friendship" i have never burdened him and expected him to bend over backwards to suit my needs...

don't take any offense... you void your warranty when you started your project... i have mentioned to you...

voodoo have undergone some changes... i'm sure... but still, we have to be fair K-Tron... voice your personal experience, fine... i am always here to hear you and assist if i can... you know how you can reach me...

but i do feel you tend to be a bit hostile lately... bro... this is not you...

as i've previously said in previous posts, we do build up a tremendous amount of expectation in buying into a "premium boutique" product... and when the product or the brand or in your case, the company does not meet to your expectations, then the downfall is even greater...

are you in NYC these days?

when i get back from Paris, take a break and come down to SoHo... let's have lunch... not talk about tech stuff... i can show you the wacky world of high fashion... LOL...

hope you feel better bro...

hope you find a satisfactory solution also...

Ape.

 

I really want one of these, but I'm gonna hold out until Intel's Larrabee gets out... the CPU/GPU on one chip. I think Rahul implied it in a video (he said the cooling was for the future, when something interesting will happen with integrated graphics). I can wait a year or two

 

Well, it seams like K-TRON was pushing the definition of warranty. That is not good mate.

Kudus for VoodooPC for taking the time to clarify. Anyway I still feel the same about their pricing and what they call innovation. I think they can still learn a few things from Apple as designs share a lot of slick similiarities. It does not matter how much you write about it.

Mac Pro


Air suspention and steel.

Mac Book Black



Thin and black with some cool key layout. If they made it glossy like VoodooPC does theirs and put the Voodoo logo on it, they could be called twin brothers.

They just look too similar. So innovation is not in the design, it must be something else. But what else really? Any of the Apple notebooks presented above cost less then any VoodooPC system. The same goes for the desktop system. The minimum price if a MacBook is $1000. Maybe VoodooEnvy is a wee bit thinner, but is not as thin as the MacBook Air as far as I can tell by the pics. The MacPro is mate and Envy is glossy (both have disavantages).

Trance

 

In fact the envy is thinner than the macbook air at the thickest points (.7' vs .76'), however, because of the sloped design it appears thinner.

 

Actually the voodoo and the macbook are both obese in comparison to the Sharp Transmeta MM20. It may be slower, but it is by far thinner than both of them, and it weighs only 1.99lbs
review:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=1881

It is only 0.62" thick, so ha it beats both, and thats at its thickest point and yeah it gets 9 hours of battery life, which just owns every other ultraportable laptop

DFtrance, you are right man, I wish I could have said it as well. They are both extremely similar in design, and I really wonder why. The macbooks are appealing too many, but I dont think that the shape is all that important in the buying decision. The apple is a bettery buy for the money, and dont expect them to drop their prices anymore cause you are buying their name, which to me was a complete waste.

K-TRON

 

9 hours of battery with the extra 5lbs battery K-tron !! read buddy read the print

 

I personally wouldn't consider 0.08" 'far thinnner'....

 

.5 pounds, bud.

 

Question about the Envy's ExpressCard slot. If I bought something like the Transcend 32GB ExpressCard/34 SSD, would there be any overhang when it's in the slot?

 

Well, the slot is standard, so it would depend on the device being put into it.

Having never tried a Transcend card, I can't say for sure.

 

Amazon lists the dimensions at 34 x 75 x 5mm (WxDxH). I just didn't know if Voodoo maybe changed the size of the slot to save some room. Thanks for the reply.

 

Nah. We didn't.

No probs.