hp envy 15 or 14??

So, tomorrow my dad is going to buy me a laptop, it's either gonna be:


Envy 15:
i5-430m
4gb ram
mobility 5830
brightview full hd 1920x1080

total: 1249$+200$off coupon = 1049$


or Envy 14:
15-430m
4gb ram
mobility 5650
brightview screen (1366x768)

total: 1049$-50%off coupon = 999$


so... i have a few question for envy owners

for 14 owners:
*is the brightview a bad screen?, or is it just bad compared to the radiance?
*is there any way i can but an aftermarket lcd with a higher resolution and stick it on the laptop?

for 15 owners:
*Would you say the laptop is portable?
*are there still heat issues with the second gen??
*wich screen is better, the matte or the glossy one?
*how much life can you get out of the battery?
* is it true that the laptop underclocks when on battery? If so, is there any way to reverse that?


My dream machine would be envy 14 +radiance, but hell 300$ is way too much....
Plz help me quickly i dont know how much the coupons will last xD , i appreciate any help!!!

 

My opinion on the brightview vs. radiance.

The brightview screen belongs on a netbook. There, the viewing angles might be acceptable, not on a premium laptop like the envy 14. Aftermarket LCDs would be extremely hard as the edge to edge glass adds an enormous layer of complexity to the already difficult challenge of swapping out the screen.

If I were you, going by the current prices you posted, I'd get the 15 every time.

 

i probably will, your answer was perssuasive xD, just waiting for a 15 owner to tell me about the heat and underclocking

 

I was literally in the same boat a couple weeks ago and went with the envy 15. I can tell you that the right palm rest is too hot to be comfortable for me..even when just surfing the web. Also, I got the 1080 brightview and I see these tiny horizontal lines that are barely visible but enough to be annoying. If you google envy 15 horizontal lines you'll see a good number of results. I believe all the brightview displays are like that for the envy 15 and some people notice and some don't.

Anyways long story short I am returning my envy 15 because of the heat and the screen issue. I would go with the e14 based upon what i've read / seen about it.

Oh btw my envy 15 has identical specs to the one you listed....

 

ripper, when it gets hot on the right pal rest do you have dedicated graphics on?, or the integrated?

 

I will tell you if you plan to do any video/image editing or gaming steer clear from the laptop with 1366x768. My wife ordered an Envy 15 with 1920x1080 but received the 1366x768 model due to a mistake on HP's part and let me tell you it looked very blocky and "old school." Lines and images were very blocky and not smooth when reading documents and web pages, especially after we became accustomed to the 1080p display.

Screen Country is the only vendor where I have seen replacement screens for the Envy 14 and they don't offer the 1600x900 option.
screen country

To respond to your questions about the E15:

In terms of dimensions and weight, the Envy 15 is thinner (1.04" vs 1.11") and lighter (5.17 lbs vs 5.2 lbs), however, the battery life is very poor unless you use the slice (which effectively triples the battery life) or carry around an extra battery. Also there is no optical drive.

Among five different 2nd gen E15 units my wife and I have purchased, none of them had any overheating problems or crashing due to heat. The chassis is metal and it acts as a sort of heat sink, so it becomes hot to the touch at times. If you run demanding applications or games while on AC power, the exterior will become hot to the touch near the AC plug and around the left palm rest near the CPU location. Some envy 15 owners with HDDs have reported heat near the right palm rest; however, ours have had SSDs, and the right palm rest has always remained relatively cool. When on AC power I usually use a Zalman NC1000 laptop cooler which does an excellent job of cooling the underside to the extent that it becomes cold to the touch. If I will use the laptop on the sofa or in bed for an extended period, I usually unplug from AC power and use the slice battery for insulation.

I prefer the glossy, but it is a very subjective personal choice. I suggest you visit an Apple store to look at some glossy and matte screens side by side. If you will work outdoors or in very bright sunlight frequently, I would suggest the matte.

Very high usage about 90 minutes on battery. Relatively light usage 2-3 hrs. Extremely light usage 3-4 hrs. Using the slice battery results in triple the battery life (146 WHr vs 53WHr). To give you an idea, the usage report on my Kill-A-Watt meter ranges from 1-2 watts (sleep), to 20-30 watts (light usage) to 40+ watts (video playback) to 80-90 watts (gaming), although even when gaming the laptop seemed to last at least around 90 minutes.

I rarely perform demanding tasks while on battery, and I have not experienced any noticeable throttling, even when working in creative suite or video editing apps for brief periods on battery, although I plan to install a CPU benchmark to test this more accurately, as I have also heard that the Turbo is throttled if the laptop receives less than 120W.

 

The envy 15 only has dedicated gpu - ati 5830. But that is not what causes the heat on the palm rest (it's only the right side palm rest that gets hot - left is fine). It's the hdd oddly enough. People with a ssd don't complain about it but if you get the stock hdd its much too hot to use imo. I would say unless you plan on putting an ssd in the e15, stay away from it.

 

Also if you will be gaming, it would make a bigger difference between the E14 and the E15. With the E15 you can overclock the 5830 to around 550 MHz core / 1150 MHz memory and get at least around 45 -75 fps for any recent demanding game at 1920x1080 resolution, all detail settings maxed.

If I understand correctly, some E14 users have complained that they are not able to overclock the 5650 as high as dv6 owners can overclock the 5650 in their machines.

 

I got an Envy 15 with those specs, and returned it because it was too hot and I couldnt make the battery last long enough. I also didn't need the extra GPU power, since I rarely game, so I got the 14 and am quite happy. I really would get the Radiance display, even with this I miss the extra real estate of a 1080p screen.

 

hmm interesting answers everyone, moviemarketing, can you confirm that the i5 model has switchable graphics?

 

no absolutely no switchable graphics unfortunately

Switchabe graphics are only available I believe on the Envy 14 and possibly the Envy 17

 

Do you game? How much does 4 hours vs 3 hours of battery life matter to you?

If your options are the envy 14 without hd or the envy 15 with hd, I *know* I'd choose the envy 15... But display matters a lot to me.

I don't own it but from my research: it's a very good 768 screen, but 768 screens in general suck, period.

The primary difference is battery life.

There are not "heat issues" (no powering down or reboots from internal overheating), but it can run warm (on the outside). Everyone tells me it's "warm, or even hot, but not bad, not painful"... Some will admit that when gaming it can get "a little bit uncomfortable"... But at that point you could just underclock your gpu and get the same thing as an envy 14 anyway

And, as already seen in this thread, there are one or two persons claiming the hard drive runs really hot.

Also the metal casing basically acts as a heat sink... which unfortunately means that the interior can be nice and cool, but the exterior is subjectively warm/hot.

Glossy... it's bright, and has better contrast ratio... I bought glossy because it's better... I tend to prefer matte screens in general though... Not sure if I'm ok with that or not (I have yet to interact with it (hasn't arrived), it really depends on how glossy and reflective it is.. I've seen some glossy screens that are practically mirrors, and others that would generally be acceptable). If you prefer glossy screens in general: definitely go glossy. If you prefer matte screens in general: I don't know. I can try to dig up the post with the direct quantifiable comparisons if you'd like.

Also, to make it more difficult: the likelihood that you buy a matte and wish you had a glossy is low (unless you do photo editing, especially with printing), while the likelihood that you buy a glossy and wish you had a matte is higher (every time you see a reflection or are an environment where you have to have at least one reflection).

EDIT: found it... This will also make it more difficult... At least if you, like me, prefer matte: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...15-2nd-gen-owners-lounge-316.html#post6041911

In short: envy 15 glossy > matte, while, in my opinion, in general, matte>glossy. I ordered glossy, dunno if this is a mistake on my part or not, shall soon find out. I've never had a glossy before though, so maybe I don't prefer matte over glossy (though I'm pretty sure I do).

They say "up to 3 hours". Though the $200 coupon (and the requirement that it's a minimum of $1250) means that you MUST get an extra battery (or pay $25 more for an upgraded processor) AND one of the 1080p displays (I guess technically you could get the upgraded processor and an extra battery with no 1080p display but that'd be an awful idea). Thus you will very likely have an extra battery anyway.

I think so. I think so. But you likely won't want to anyway.

 

@aterimperator: the screen matters alot for me, that's why i'm considering the envy 15... hmmm, please more input from other people about the heat would be appreciated, (in non gaming situations)

 

I can save them the time... Read these:
This thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/514976-envy-14-vs-2nd-gen-envy-15-a.html
This post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-dv6tse-side-side-shootout-4.html#post6545765
The rest of this thread starting at this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-dv6tse-side-side-shootout-7.html#post6669725

That's what the users on this forum will say about heat... Basically: I asked a lot of these questions, so hopefully I can save the people who were so kind to answer my questions the time of having to re-type them.

And mad props to moviemarketing, mobilekrispy, JJB (the display stuff), and ninja 2000 for their help and patience.

 

I can tell you without a doubt if you get the envy 15 with mechanical hdd you will regret it! (well almost without a doubt) Unless you like sweaty palms

 

Regarding the battery life it is not exactly 4 hrs vs. 3 hrs.

It is more like 3-7hrs (without slice)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/501066-envy-14-battery-life-log.html

vs. 90min - 3hrs (i7 without slice; should be better battery life with i5)

If you are buying these from HP direct, you will have 21 days to check either of them out and decide if you want to keep it.

If you get the E14 with the 1366x768 screen, I believe you will want to upgrade it in the future when the 1600x900 display replacement part becomes available aftermarket. And if you get the E15 with HDD, I imagine you will want to upgrade it with SSD at some point as well.

 

The heat problem from the HP 15 has to do with i7 processor; so I would suggest getting the i5 which improves battery life and removes heat problems. Also envy 15 is a power machine while the envy 14 is more rounded. Hopefully HP gives the envy 15 a backlit keyboard

 

I had an Envy 15 and currently have a 14 with basically the same specs, processor, HD, RAM, etc. and I got about 2:30 out of the 15 and I get about 4 out of the 14 on Intel graphics when browsing. I'm running the same programs, and both computers were basically set up the same way. So I suppose the 14 has about 60% more battery life based on that.

 

Actually the first gen envy 15 had a problem with both the i7 (which was 45nm I think (I think the newer i7s are more power efficient, so even i7 2nd gens don't have the same problem as 1st gens)) and the hd 4830 producing a lot of heat. Getting an i5, with a 5830 should change that up quite a bit.

 

Good point. So if you do get a unusually hot laptop it may be a sour but that does not happen very often.

 

I have bad circulation... what you're describing might actually be a feature and not a bug...

 

Really, after every person in your other thread disagreeing with you, you are then going to come in here and say this. If you have not notice you are in the minority of people who consider it “to hot”. To be honest I actually have not read of to many people who say it is “to hot” for them to like. The MAJORITY of owners, and a large portion of it at that, are absolutely fine with it.

@OP

On that note, I decided on the 15 when I was considering the bunch. I seriously thought to myself “is the difference between a 15 and 14 going to matter at all when I am moving it around”. For me the answer was not a bit. Measure it the two out in front of you and you will notice it is not a big difference at all. With that in mind it was an easy choice. The added power I get from the 15 makes it much more worth it for me.

Also, I don't have an SSD and I am fine with the heat on the palm rest. It has not been an issue what so ever. It does get warmer than the left side, but never to the point where I am unhappy.

 

I don't actually have my Envy 15, but I decided to order it over the Envy 14 for a similar reason as chadsxe. More power, less expensive (when getting the best screen option for either, since neither are worth it with the 1366x768 screen). The only thing is that it would be great if the Envy 15 had better battery life, but I'm ok with what it has.

 

I just ordered a 14 yesterday. I considered the 15 for the extra GPU performance, but in the long run I wanted the smaller size. The 14.5" was already on the upper end of size for me, so even though the step up to the 15 wasn't that much.. it was still too much for me. I would have much preferred the Envy 13 if it had same specs as the 14.

Plus I like having an optical drive handy.

 

My envy15 arrived about 2 weeks ago, and I'm 95% satisfied with it. There are three things I don't like. Although the screen is beautiful, it is not completely uniformly lit (the bottom left corner is darker than the rest of the screen), and there's no edge to edge glass/plastic for the screen (this means dust and hair gets trapped in the plastic border). The third design issue is the connectivity ports. Everything is on the right side, and there are only 5 ports. I feel they could have no added more and spread them out. Besides those two points, the envy15 runs amazing, looks sexy, and feels solid. Some people have complained about palm rest heat, and while it gets warm (especially when charging the battery), it's never unreasonable (though I have yet to run modern games on the machine). I have both the HDD and SDD, and honestly I can't tell on which side each is stored. I also have no regret having no optical drive. turn a 8gb usb stick into a cd if you really need to install from discs. I was having the same debate as you, and decided on the 15 because build quality is about the same and for the same price you can get a hd screen, more hd space, and more graphic power.

P.S. the built-in speakers are on the softer side in terms of volume (but great quality). there's a fix for this however (read JJB's recent posts in the 15 gen 2 owner's thread).

 

Really! Ok no need to be defensive...I'm just giving him an opinion I wish someone had posted before I bought mine. I've owned many (about 10 in the last 4 years) laptops, and I've never been dissatisfied about the heat from one. The heat may be fine for you, but keep in mind many people posting about the envy 15 have an ssd which runs cooler... and there were people that agreed with me and said it's too hot. Another forum member returned for same exact reason.

 

Just got my Envy 15 and I've been doing a lot of multi tasking and a lot of file transferring + HD videos at the same time, just to see how fast the computer is and how much pressure it can handle. I do NOT have a SDD.

I can say that it does not get anywhere near "uncomfortably hot". In fact, I've owned other notebooks that got a lot hotter. I really don't feel it that bad, it's just warm as any laptop would get when under pressure. It's nowhere as bad as you're putting it out to be... Maybe you're just really sensible to hot things? I guess.

 

I've noticed the increase in heat in the area of the left palm rest when
-GPU is overclocked
-on High Performance power mode
-on AC power

 

I should go for the envy 15, i'm an envy 15 (1st gen) owner.
5830M compared to the 5650M in the envy 14 is still rather high. Let's say 30% increase without oc, with oc it's more like 50%.

Battery isn't that good, but it's ok for me. But 2 hrs is normal.
If you want more performance go for the envy 15, if battery matters than envy 14 is the right deal.

But they come at almost the same price, and the envy 15 has much more advantages:
better screen (full HD)
5830Mobility (expect 30% improvement at least)
Overclock fun
(Bigger display)

 

This is an opinon.

This is not.

 

thanks everyone for the replies, well i lost the coupon.. so i haven't bought it yet. I'm waiting for another sale . the 15 would be a no brainer with switchable graphics, but even without it, i think it's the better choice.

 

I just wish they made a Beats Limited Edition (back/red KB lights) on the 15.6" model. The gray with flowers (?) is a pretty big turn off imo. That, or give the 14" a ati 5850/70 and I'd be extremely happy. Gotta love laptop shopping though - Just when you think you found the 'perfect' machine (for the 10th time), there's one thing it lacks