Want to buy Envy, but all that familer with HP support

I am familiar with Dell since that what my company has and I know they way the company works for the most part. Now I am unsure about HP, however I had their ProBook for a bit and it seems pretty solid.

So one my questions is based on HP support. Is it like Dell support, or better/worse?

If I buy an HP from say newegg or amazon, can I add a extended or add a accidental warranty without any issues?

Anyway to get around adding another wireless card, or some other device without the laptop pausing on boot?

EDIT: Edited title

 

I just moved to HP after being a Dell customer. Not because I hated Dell, but because Dell didn't make a laptop that I wanted anymore (XPS 15z's style is lame to me).

Most of my dealings with Dell over a 10 year period were positive ones, and pretty good at that. ENVY products are almost guaranteed to have North American support. The Tech Support folks are decently knowledgeable, but some of the ones I've spoken too knew far less than I did about stuff. But they call you back and check on you, which is nice. The good thing is that they won't hesitate to make something happen either. They won't subject you to three hours of troubleshooting before saying you should send it in, or in the case with my first ENVY, authorizing a replacement. That was nice.

Order support and non-ENVY Tech Support has been the pits for me. They are just tough to deal with. Case Managers/Resolutions-types are fantastic though. No hesitation to not only replace my messed up ENVY, but hook me up on the specs.

Initial Tech Support goes to Dell; they seem more knowledgeable, but if talking to someone from North America is important to you, HP wins there. Resolutions/getting stuff done goes to HP. Order support/general Customer Support goes to Dell big time.

 

wetwillycf, thank you for the info.

The only thing holding back right now is the manufacture blacklisting and whitelisting of certain things. For example, I cant upgrade the wifi card unless its in the BIOS whitelist and etc.

 

Right on. Though I'm not an expert, I'd be surprised if there's a way around that. Good luck deciding though!

 

There is a way, but to be honest I don't feel like messing with the hardware on a new laptop.

Still thinking and deciding but I do like this line though. The Dell XPS line is nice, but IMHO doesn't seem that great.

 

The WiFi card in Envy notebooks actually is pretty decent. It's an Intel dual-band, one of the 62xx line IIRC. The only reason to change it, IMO, is if you wanted to put in a Bigfoot Killer. By virtue of the fact you have to alter the BIOS, I don't think it's worth the trouble.

HP's Pavilion notebooks are the ones that have second-rate WiFi.

 

Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300. It is pretty sweet... even supports 450 Mbps, which was the only reason I just bought a Linksys E4200.

Yeah, unless you're a big time geek about that, I'd recommend sticking with the 6300. But if you are a real big geek about that stuff, you might be looking elsewhere for a computer too...

 

You have the 6300 default in your ENVY 14? Sweet, but what chip is providing bluetooth then?

I have the 6230N

 

Broadcom 2070