Would you still recommend an hp Envy 15?

Trying to decide whether to get an hp envy 15 or samsung series 7. As owners, would you still recommend buying one given the amount of quality control issues a lot of owners are complaining about?

I use my laptop for work most of the time and just a little gaming. I am really attracted to the envy because of the 1080 screen and the physical appearance of the laptop.

Can the HP envy 15 be a good laptop after applying all the fixes, updates and tweaks? Are you satisfied with your laptop?

The series 7 looks to be a cheaper alternative albeit with an inferior screen but better performance for the base model. It has issues as well and I guess no ones perfect.

 

Typing on it now, and I would fully endorse the problems. Granted, I haven't had any problems with the build quality, so this is if you get a good unit (and frankly, you most likely are, as those with bad units are more likely to speak up), or get it fixed to a correct unit.

My only complaints are the orangish-reds (not an issue for me, I can see it when I look for it or if I have a big red square on the screen, otherwise the screen is just gorgeous), and the two finger scrolling isn't perfect. It works about 90% of the time for me, but you can also turn on the type of scrolling where the extreme right of the pad will scroll for something fully effective. That said, I'm very happy with the touchpad, and the other multi-touch features work very well, especially the three finger flick for forward and back when browsing, which has become a terrific habit for me.

 

Yeah I do realize that the guys with defective units are most likely the ones posting reviews and rants on the web vs the ones who got good ones and are satisfied.

hmmmm still undecided on the s7 lol

 

I ordered 2 units and both had serious cosmetic flaws; almost inconceivable how a large company can allow such shoddily manufactured product to ship out the door. In addition to the cosmetic flaws, the second unit is really loud with the fan constantly running and annoying me so much that the thing went back yesterday. Made me wonder about the fans' life with the fans running hard and loud constantly and what would happen to the laptop once the thing was out of warranty.

I'd look elsewhere based on HP's complete lack of BASIC craftsmanship; I guess there is a reason HP's stock has lost half its value in the past year. It's a disfunctional company focused on selling volumes of mediocre products rather than smaller amounts/numbers of high quality products. I've got my eye on the new Asus U47 set to be released in Q2 this year.

 

Id fully recommend it as well. I looked into the S7 and the Envy as well, and am very happy I chose the Envy. The SS7 has flaws as well, but on top of that its not as nice a machine, not as powerful, and you get more bang for the buck with the Envy.

I use my machine every single day, and love it to death

 

I ordered a quickship model from Amazon and I'm pleased with it. There are a few very minor fit and finish problems.
1. The bottom piece of the chassis doesn't not fit properly. There's a very thin gap in the corners. Nothing major.
2. There's a bulge in the front near the left speaker. I cant visibly see it, but I can feel it. Not a deal breaker for me.
3. The battery cover is slightly loose on the left side. It slides in and out about 2 millimeters. I think one entire sheet for the bottom would have been a better build option.

Other than that and the orange/red lcd problem(I cant tell a difference unless directly compared to another non ips panel) I have had no problems at all. Its a very nice laptop and I would recommend it if you can live with typical pc build quality issues, but if you need perfect build quality, then buy an apple.

 

I love my envy 15. It is powerful even with the i5, the gpu is more than capable of playing new games at decent quality with good framerates.

The only real issue I have is the display is orange, but it doesn't bother me, and hp SAYS they are coming out with a fix, I'll beleive it when I see it.

Mine was good out of the box and I actually like the trackpad (far better than the one on the tm2)

Overall its a great machine, it seems alot of them come out of the box with issues, but if you get a good one its a great machine.

 

Thanks guys! you've been a big help! Getting an envy 15 soon, don't really mind the impending release of ivy bridge because I am no power user. Just want something good to use right now. Besides, it will probably be late q3 and q4 at least

I'm having it shipped all the way to the philippines and it will take approximately 2 months to get here so HOPEFULLY I don't end up with a defective unit.

When Windows 8 does launch, HP will release software update for the envy line right?

 

WoW! 2 months!

Just shipped something out to Brno, czech...5 days. must be pretty remote out there.

But I'm loving my HP. no real cosmetic issues on mine (frys purchase). Haven't noticed a huge issue with the colors yet, so either I'm lucky or haven't done anything important enough to notice (more then likely the latter)

all my games work great, love the feel and design, and it passed the gaming test this weekend with the kids (3 teenage boys crossing between multiple MMO's and Xboxes). I almost enjoy it more then my regular PC.

 

When windows 8 comes out they should update the drivers and software, or at the very least have an easy upgrade path like a secondary install disk or something.

 

lol not exactly, It's being shipped by my friend via sea so it'll be cheaper. (only 30 dollars!) So it'll take awhile to get here.

Just ordered mine and what do you guys think of the hybrid drive 7200 rpm option? It's supposed to result in faster transfer speed and boot time but is it worth the price?

Also the 1600mhz ram, do I really need this or just stick with the 1333mhz? It's supposed to work better with i7 right?

I use my laptop for preparing documents mostly and surfing the web. I do not edit videos or pictures, and I only play simple games once in a while (COD, dota2, etc.) Do you think I need the i7 2.4ghz or is that overkill? i5 or i7 2.2 ghz?

 

The biggest difference is between the i5 and the cheapest i7, after that its not a bug change in performance. I am able to do anything I have thrown at mine with the i5. I play new games like battlefield 3 without any issues.

The ram you probably wont notice. Someone in the owners thread said they ordered the hybrid drive, but I don't remember if they posted any results or opinions.

 

Been reading up on hybrid hard drives and there really is a big difference!

Boost your Mac's speed with a hybrid drive | Macworld
Apple MacBook Pro - Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD vs Standard 5400 RPM HDD - YouTube

Thanks for the input, I'll have to downgrade my order asap lol Sticking to the regular 8gb 1333mhz ram and base i7. It'll prolly save me a few hundred bucks

Did you tweak your envy with all the fixes once you got them? Like touchpad drivers, bios etc? How is it now? I've never tweaked a pc before but since there are a lot of guides here I assume it'll be easy.

 

As promised, here are the speed results for the Hybrid Drive.

The first test was 50MB random


Second test was 50MB all zeros (with the idea that all zeros might cause the drive to cache the transfer file on the SSD)

 

If possible have your friend do a thorough check before the 2 months shipping by sea. You would not want a defective set after waiting for so long.