Waiting for Envy 17 3D SB thread

Ha, thank you! What do they say? Third times the charm?
Of course a nice review will be coming....


KJ

 

exactly. We gotta keep in mind that HP is delivering now just what they described last January 4. the product became orderable 3 months after CES, which I view as a great accomplishment, given the SATA disease issue.

i'm sure there will be another release/refresh of the Envy. HP does that all the time (Sandy Bridge was announced quite soon after the 3D itself released in late 2010). But I think it is falacious to suggest that this SB release is somehow not a real one, or that this one is so weak that HP is already coming out with another one.

 

Hey KillaJoe, I hate to rain on your parade but LogicBuy has a $300 off code for Envy 17's. You might want to call back in and see if you can get that extra $100 back.

HP Coupons, HP Coupon Codes
HP Home - Save $300 off HP Envy 17 premium laptop - NB7293

BTW, I had no problem getting the $300 coupon as a former HP customer. KillaJoe, since you did the same thing as I and returned your non-SB Envy, they should have tried to price match your original order in order to win you back as a customer.

P.S. Randy was my sales rep.

 

BTW dlleno, I also thought about the pricy SSD option but figured that it was worth it since I'd have to buy a HDD bracket for $100 anyway if I wanted to buy an aftermarket SSD. I figure I'll live with the 160GB for now and see how the prices come down for larger SSD's. I'll upgrade in the future if the Envy can handle the better 6G speeds of SATA3. Otherwise, larger SATA2's will eventually come down to deplete excess stock as we switch to the next gen SSD.

 

Strange thing is

On Envy 17
800GB 7200RPM Dual Hard Drive (SSD 160GB + 640GB 7200RPM)
is +310

compare with
Envy 17 3D

800GB 7200RPM Dual Hard Drive (SSD 160GB + 640GB 7200RPM)
is +630

more then double.

That feel just wrong. Seems like HP want o milk us for every dollar they can get.

 

yea we both know your're right cam121; I need two drives and I just can't get myself to configure two 5400s... all the bracketry discussions we've had still hold so, sigh, it is what it is

 

Hey Congrats man! Your patience hopefully paid off this time!

 

That coupon only works for ENVY 17 not the SB 3D ENVY 17
I guess they're trying to get rid of ENVY 17 to prepare for it's refresh.

 

Did I recently mention how I love NBR?

cam121 you my friend are the best, +1 rep! After I saw your post, I called HP and told them I ordered not more than an hour ago. Gave them my new code thanks to you NB7293. I was connected to another HP dept. to cancel my first order, then the rep. stayed on the line with me to take my new order.... best of all... drum roll... he said I was in luck because TODAY AND ONLY TODAY HP is having some I don't know what sale, but anyway, after the $300 coupon, he said once my order is shipped I will be credited another $100!!!! OMG!!!! I got $400 off total, I almosted died, sweet.

Guys today is the last day, so if you are thinking about ordering do it today, use coupon and mention the sale if they forget, see if you can get $400. You can always return if not happy in 21 days. I had nothing to lose.

P.S. I need to breath...wow.

KJ

 

The rep took that code for the $300 of the Envy 17 3D SB, plus another $100 for the HP sale today!

KJ

 

double congratulations KJ! and thanks cam121 this is awesome information

 

talk to me about the clickpad guys. those of you who have used it. I gotta consider pushing the launch button on this thing.

 

Indeed, plus I figure when this "mysterious reveal" of March 14th comes I'll pay attention, plus my lap won't be here until the first week of April, so I'll have probably until mid April to decide if this build is right for me. Also, I have no plans on returning it (assuming it is in close to perfect working condition), I am so tired of reordering, Costco , etc...

I need a laptop to keep me working, playing, and not having to delete the info every 3 months and buying a new one...ugh its exhausting. Hope this is the end of my lap buying journey for the next 3 to 4 years.

KJ

 

Question. Has HP officially placed an Applelike clickpad on the Envy 17 3D, or does it essentially use the one found in the Gen 1 Envy 17?

 

per HP Nate's post here recently, the current Sandy Bridge Envy 17 3D has the same Gen 1 clickpad as found on the legacy Envy

 

Honestly now I feel silly. As I posted to dlleno. I never found issues with the clickpad, but then again, I was always a USB mouse to laptop kinda guy. Once my mouse is in the USB port I checked the box to disable the clickpad and therefore the laptop acts just like a desktop.

So, if you guys were not opposed to using a USB mouse then you'd be fine I take it? I suppose I can understand only using a clickpad without a mouse if you really wanted portability without carrying a mouse around. The only reason I carry it is because its small enough to fit in my laptop carrying bag.

KJ

 

Killa Joe: That's awesome! Congrats man, I'm tempted to see if I can call to find out about that sale as well now Maybe a bit too greedy though...hm...any more info about it? Today only you said?

 

Yeah, plus he was a bit cryptic...saying not many are gonna get this deal...so not sure if he made a mistake in my favor or what....but I took the deal and ran with it! I've been here long enough to know when I find a good laptop deal.

Anyway, at least the $300 coupon is still good until tomorrow, or it may end today depending on how many people use it, so get in your order at least, and try for the xtra $100 mention the sale today. That is the best I can suggest, but at least the $300 is nothing to scoff at.

KJ

 

Grats on your steal

I took your advice and called HP today to try and apply the coupon. I didn't get as much off as you did overall but I did manage to get about 350 in savings overall. It took about 5 calls to get an agent willing to help. While they said they couldn't apply the coupon because it was for the Envy 17 only, they did give me an extra $100 off the price (on top of the 250 I got when I ordered) so I took that.

 

Well I just got off the phone with HP, spoke with an awesome guy named James and he worked to get the $100 credit applied. He said they would mail out the rebate to me in 3-5 business days. Thanks for the information, Killa Joe!

 

SpartanJet and JDeNise, glad you guys got in on the deal. Really its cam121 who we have to thank (otherwise I would still be waiting and would not have had such a discount)....and also being on here a few times a day to catch the deals. I never forgave myself for missing the original $400 off a few months ago, this well made up for it!

KJ

 

A number of reasons. One, the repetitive motion of switching between typing and mouse-clicking puts strain on my shoulder. Old injuries from college. Portability is another reason. Also, I don't really find the mouse any better than the touchpad for basic web-browsing and doc-flipping.

 

" TODAY AND ONLY TODAY " sale on a brand new laptop? Hmmm... sounds suspiciously like a selling tactic a company uses when they're attempting to deep-six an old product. In effect, what HP is saying is "buy now before the price increases". So either they soon plan on discontinuing their rebate and discount promotions, or they want potential customers off the fence before news of a refresh is leaked. Sure, there's an option to return but what can you do after day 21? For the sake of those who've already taken the plunge, I hope I'm wrong, but my gut feeling tells me to hold off a while longer. I just hope my aging Western Digital can, lol.

By the way, for those desperate for answers to their questions and concerns, instead of relying on the opinions of subordinates of HP, why not go straight to those in charge of the corporation? They might not address your queries personally but at least you shouldn't get the run around.

Hewlett-Packard Company
Board of Directors contact:
HP Investor Relations - Contact the board

CEO Leo Apotheker contact:
HP Executive Team: CEO email

While you're at it, check out where a good chunk of HP profits went:
Here's The $7 Million Home For HP's New CEO Leo Apotheker

 

Does that mean you will all be sending me a portion of those discounts my way?

I tried calling into HP but I couldn't get them to give me the extra $100 discount. In fact, they had no idea it even existed! Oh well, that discount may not have been combinable with my EPP savings anyway.

 

surfcity, Well I didn't order for the sale, I had no clue about it, this was "icing on the cake" after I told him about the $300 coupon, so how can I even complain?

As to the refresh, if there is one, I have till after April 15ish or so to decide if I want to keep this or not. Should give me time to hear of any new developments so I'm at peace. Worst case scenario an amazing addon to the Envy 17 3D SB edition comes in May and I can't return the lap, so.... I will be very happy with my specs and deal. I can live with it.

cam121, lol, maybe if your ever down in S. Florida I'll take ya for some steak? Thanks again.


KJ

 

Think I'm going Alienware tbh. The only thing the Envy has over it is the looks, and that's not enough when it falls short on every of it's other promises.

 

I wouldn't wait really if I were you. Keep in mind that the $300 coupons being used are not for the new 3D SB Envy but rather the older model, and people are just getting the coupon applied to it. In addition this "One day sale" isn't really being advertised and isn't online or on the site anywhere...if they were trying to clear out old stock you think they'd make it more well known.

There's really no reason to think this latest version of the Envy will be redesigned any time soon. I mean eventually it will be upgraded...as will everything else, but this looks to be the best you can get right now. Might want to act while you can use the $100 rebate and $300 coupon, as it will probably be awhile before the SB Envy 17 3D goes on a real sale.

 

Wow, those are some amazing deals. Let me ask you uys a question. Is the upgrade to the 28 over the 26 really worth $350??? I was contemplating the Asus G73sw but prefer the HP just from the looks. Now with the deals that might be up for grabs, the HP is the front runner. Woudl the upgrade to the 28 sort of compensate the only average GPU (compared to the GPU on the Asus).
People have been telling me to get a Sager, which has great specs, but I really like the looks of the envy (would get a MacBook if I could afford it ;-) ).

 

its a sales game. a company the size of HP has to play games too, and i'm sure they have sales contests and blah blah blah. they want to sell. the product is late to the party, so they do what they can. I don't think its any more complicated than that.

no question there will be one or even more Envy releases yet this year, but thats just std in the industry and has nothing to do with the present release. In my view the present SB Envy 17 is precisely what HP told us about last January -- it would have been in the brick and mortar stores towards the middle to end of February, but thanks to Intel it was delayed. I'm leaning towards waiting myself, but thats because I'm anal about the clickpad lol, not because I think this release is a fake one and the real one is next month.

well one reason is that the contacts you list don't know the answers. If the board or the CEO knows this detail then they are not doing the job they were hired to do. the people that will know the answers are in the lab that produced the product, and they are clearly in the process of handing over information to the sales, marketing and support teams, so they can start on the next cycle.

woh. I don't think so. HP wouldn't be in business if $7M represented a good chunk of their profits. this is $100+ billion dollar company.

 

SB Envy 17 Technical clarifications for March 8. HP Nate has been able to confirm a few items from his sources that are within HP. We are still working on switchable graphics, 1600MHz RAM, Coolsense, and off-chip Widi.

• Widi support: The 2630QM processor itself does not support WiDi, so does HP have an off-chip solution, or does WiDi only appear for 2820 configurations?
• 1600MHz support: the product demo suggests only certain i7 processors, implying that this applies only to the 2820. Does a 1600MHz front side bus come automaticaly with the choice of this processor?
• VM support: the 2820 extended instruction set has a clear advantage over the 2630
• CoolSense: we don’t know if this includes physical changes or just software (HP Thermal assistant)
• 3D switchable graphics: We haven't confirmed HP's implimentation, clearly promised in the CES announcement. We presume that an on-chip solution would at least be advantaged by the 2820QM, which supports Intel’s “inTRU” 3D technology, but it appears that on-board HD 3000 graphics (present in all mobile i7 processors) also supports 3D. We don't know the role, if any, of DDD’s TriDef 3D Experience Ignition software.
• 120 Hz IGP: Evidence may be mounting in favor of this (see above re: 3D) but we don't know yet if the i7 IGP itself will support 120Hz refresh rates for 2D movies, for example.
• DX11 switchable graphics: evidence points to ‘no’, as the on-chip GP supports only DX10
• Clickpad: Per HP Nate, the SB Envy has implimented the legacy, first-gen clickpad first introduced with the Envy last year.
• HDMI 1.4: Per HP Nate, HDMI 1.4 is confirmed
• USB 3.0: Per HP Nate, the SB Envy has not changed in this regard, i.e. there is still one USB 3.0 port
• Gigabit Ethernet: Per HP Nate, the SB Envy has not changed in this regard, i.e. this has been supported all along.

 

Where is everyone getting $100 for HDD bracket? It is 70 something from HP or 40 bucks from newmode

Hard Drive Caddy & Cable for HP Envy 17 (also works with SSD) [HP-ENVY-17] - $38.55 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Buy it with the 640GB HDD, put in whatever SSD you want in the primary, buy the newmode kit, and then either put the 640 GB in the secondary slot, or throw it in a dumpster use whatever magnetic drive you want to buy there.

 

its doable, but after you do that you will be close to the upgrade cost anywy, and without formal support from HP. The support and any repair experience will be greatly advantaged if you have an HP device as the primary drive and OS loaded. just ask anyone who has gone through a repair experience

 

I haven't had a whole bunch, but the handful of HP installed SSD drives that I have seen left a bit to be desired, especially considering the cost. I'm not out to pimp OCZ but I'd use a Vertex II over anything HP is going to sell me.

As to warranty, still not a big deal. Drives are cheap, storage is cheap. First thing I do when I get a new laptop is take a drive image, poke around on it for about an hour and then do a complete wipe and reinstall the OS/drivers myself.

I would assume if you are going to mail back your laptop to HP for warranty hardware repair you would first take a backup of all your data. And if you were smart you would also maybe remove your personal data or go so far as to wipe the drive? I would just stick the original drive that came with the machine back into bay one, re-image it back to the day it came in the mail, and send it to them.

I've had laptops fixed from all of the major vendors and the only time the OS/HDD has come up was about 7 years ago when I had a Dell with a bad optical drive. The support person on the phone kept busting my because we had replaced the HDD and installed our own OS. After about 20 minutes of arguing, I hung up on him, backed up everything on the drive, and did a re-install using their recover disks. I called them back, told them I had just done a fresh install using their ty disks and hadn't installed a single other piece of software or applied any windows updates and they finally agreed that the optical drive was indeed broken and sent a new one in the mail.

 

I may have to stay away from this thread for a while so I don't suffer jealousy issues myself....hope everyone enjoys their laptops tho.

 

fiver5 -- we're getting off topic. there are examples where the support and/or repair experience is disadvantaged and the DIY cost advantage is not that great, so lets leave it to personal choice and whatever floats one's boat.

now back to everyone's regularly scheduled jealousy issues. Can't wait to hear from you guys on your SB Envy experiences!

 

Did you get my PM btw?

 

Same here: I use touchpads because mice give me RSI, or at least make my hand hurt.
In fact, I won't use desktops without touchpads, for that reason... and nobody makes a good desktop touchpad.
Magic Trackpad doesn't count, because it doesn't truly right-click.

 

yea sorry for being slow lol I've been seriously multi-tasking today!

DanaGoyette and zeth006 : glad to see I'm not the only one who insists that a $2K laptop perform well under the conditions for which it was advertised! I may have to develop patience (for the next round) or find a -$500 coupon lol to make this one worth the pain of gen 1 clickpad LOL is that so crazy to expect that the clickpad works and works well?

 

Thanks for the info on the non-hp version. There were quite a number of posts in the forums (and on other websites) of people paying the HP store around $100 after shipping and taxes for the bracket.

When I had my Envy 17 3D non-sb, I was very surprised by the SSD performance. Also, unlike most laptops, it didn't ship with a lot of junk software on it so I just uninstalled the few "trialware" apps and used the stock install. It worked very well.

 

That's good to hear. My hope is that since the dv7 has the solo 160 GB SSD drive option that the least HP can so is offer a 256GB SSD for the Envy line...

 

My current laptop took a long wait, as well...
First, I was in the market for a new laptop around Spring. I happened to find a classmate who had the 8510p, and it gave me a chance to try the keyboard, lcd, and touchpad. Then, I remembered that HP typically refreshes things in the summer... so I waited.
Then, they announced the 6930p... and I figured they must be doing the same to the 8510w, soon.
Then, I saw leaks of the 8530w on Korean sites.
After that, I had to wait for a few more things: Announcement of 8530w... Availability of 8530w... CTO option (no prebuilt ATI+WUXGA)... And then finally, laptop build and shipping

So, it took me from spring until November to get exactly what I wanted, and I was glad I waited. Just wish I'd gotten on-site service.

I'm predicting the same will be true here: better to wait and buy nothing now, than to compromise and kick myself for it later.

Random topic change:
Speaking of warranties, what happened to the Intel Antitheft / Computrace options that I could've sworn were there on the old Envy3D?

 

Wow!

first HP rep I called, give them the code NB7293, said thats a code for $400 off an envy 17 3d SB. the guy put me on hold for 60 sec. come back and congrats me with a new laptop!

they really want our business^^anyone who want the new 17 SB should call them now. I was pretty sure I can get the $400 off, just never thought I would made it happen within the first call...
(should said it for $500 off then again, can't be too greedy)

 

You bought it today? Oh, and congradts!

KJ

 

you can add after purchase if you are within warranty. At least thats how it works on the consumer laptops; not sure on the business laptops

 

could be; for those of us that are real sticklers for the clickpad, I'm waiting. if I were in KJ's situation I would buy in a heartbeat. don't care about the clickpad? that's a no brainer -- even if HP does NOTHING to the cooling system beyond the fancy fan contoller, this thing will run cooler on account of Sandy Bridge, and when you stuff it with a 2820 I still think you'll get a 1600MHz front side bus, because the memory will be clocked at that speed. Thats just my opinion, but it's based on the product demo that says "select processors only" or somethign like that. well the 2820 is the only upgrade available, and we know it supports 1600 MHz ram... yay for you guys getting good deals on an awesome laptop. can't wait to hear what you have to say over in the (hopefully) new 2nd Generation (Sandy Bridge) Envy 17/Envy 17 3D owners lounge.

 

For the longest time, Care Pack Central > Care Pack Central was broken in various ways. Depending on browser and time of day, it'd vary between not loading, loading without the product-selection portion of the page, or loading properly but showing no results for my laptop (kw950av). They've recently completely redone that tool, and for a while, my SKU didn't exist at all!

At least now consumer offers AD and onsite, but what happened to the Computrace?

 

dlleno, I'm hoping HP will bring out a new and improved clickpad for you and the rest that are wanting this! I'll keep my ears open for ya.


KJ

 

try going to hp.com/support and let them do an auto-detect of your laptop. Also you can call the sales center and tell 'em you want to upgrade your warranty I'm sure they will find a way to accomodate!

 

thanks KJ! and I'm gonna hang with you guys as well. with some field verification and first-hand experiences I might bend

 

Thats the $64 question. we've got HP Nate trying to look for the answer, but truth be told we don't know yet. there's a technical summary a few posts back with a summary of what we know and what we don't know.