questions regarding the 14 & 15

Been researching and looking at these laptops for the past 3 weeks or so.

The only thing that is really making me hesitant is whether ill be satisfied with the envy 14 screen with its 1600 x 900 resolution or the envy 15 with the 1080p res.


just looking for insight how watching movies, playing games , and extended use is when looking at the screen.

Don't play too many games but i'm looking at this as a desktop replacement... wondering which will be better for my eyes.


thanks.

 

I personally haven't seen the Envy 15's screen firsthand, but I have to comment on this post to say that the Envy 14's 1600 x 900 Radiance is more than enough for me. The colors are absolutely stunning, better than any I have seen on a laptop. My previous 2008 15" MBP's colors and screen don't even compare to the Envy 14's. You can't go wrong with it.

 

Are you aware that they are not offering the 1600x900 screen anymore. Does anyone know if they are gonna offer it again? They will be killing off the laptop if they don't but still..
All I could get out of the HP rep on the phone was that I should keep on checking online.

 

I had a brief chance to check out a friend's E14, but I didn't get to look at any 1080p video. I would like to check it out and compare the two, but clearly the only way to watch 1080p at native resolution on any laptop with 1600x900 display is by using an external 1080p monitor.

When watching 1080p video, I can definitely tell the difference between my wife's MBP with 1600x900 screen. I work a lot with 1080p trailers, so I might be looking too closely, but there is certainly more detail on the FullHD screen, especially noticeable on footage that originated on film or pro-level camera, and where there is film grain, or shots with a lot of motion. For blu-ray playback, and my use in Avid Media Composer, Sonic Scenarist, After Effects and a few similar programs, the screen on the Envy 15 is quite amazing.

I have tried running games at 1600x900 vs 1920x1080 on the same laptop and the difference is very noticeable.

The E14 screen is a bit smaller, however, so if HP offered a 1080p option on the E14, perhaps it would be too small to really notice. There must be a point in going to smaller screen sizes where the difference in detail in 1080p would not be visible to the naked eye. I couldn't imagine noticing much difference on an 11" screen, for example, if there were one with 1080p vs 900p.

 

I am aware...

however, I know it will be back sometime or another... im not really pressed to buy the laptop anytime soon so I will wait until its back.

 

thank you for the feedback so far...


I guess my main question is... how is the full 1080p resolution on a 15.6 in screen? Is it real tiny? I have good eyes and i use a 1900 x 1200 24 in monitor.

is the high resolution on the 15.6 screen straining for those who have it? especially during extended use.

 

It's not a strain for my eyes at all and after becoming accustomed to the 1920x1080 display, I certainly would not choose to go back to a lower resolution.

when we had a 1366x768 laptop around for a while, the display looked very old school and lines were not as smooth.

With a 1080p display you can zoom in and out of webpages and documents very easily using pinch and zoom on the touchpad and the images, fonts and lines remain very smooth. I much prefer reading documents and eBooks or looking at webpages on a 1080p display. Especially if you ever need to view two documents side by side, or work with creative suite apps or video editing.

I installed the ChromeTouch extension for google chrome that allows you to maneuver web pages by pulling and dragging them around like the iPad interface.

 

I'll second what moviemarketing said. No eyestrain problems and I use my envy pretty much all day long. Between font scaling in windows and pinch-to-zoom, any readability issues are gone. Plus, the extra real estate of 1080p is a BIG plus if you have documents side-by-side, view wide documents (like excel tables), or use programs that have tons of toolbars/menus that take away space in your working area (such as photoshop/ArcGIS).

I'm not a gamer, but must admit I tried some to check out performance. The 15's 5830 overclocks nicely and games are sweet in 1080p.