HP's New ENVY 15 and ENVY 17 First Look: Good Design and 3D Discussion

If the 17 can outperform my current 5870m, I think i'm sold.

 

The 1-2 gen Envy 15 had a much darker finish inside, a black touchpad, a larger recessed area around the keyboard, and curved edges. The new model matches the MBP's lighter aluminum finish, touchpad color, keyboard recess region, and flat edges.

The new model's also thicker and heavier (1.1", 5.79 lb) than both the earlier Envy 15 (1.04", 5.2 lb) and the MBP 15 (0.99", 5.6 lb).

See this (MBP15 vs Envy 15 3 gen vs. Envy 15 1-2 gen):

 

Polish HP shop clailms that new HP Envy 17 have got HD 7690M XT too.
Notebook HP ENVY 17-3030ew (A2Q46EA) HP - Sklep komputerowy Hewlett-Packard

 

If you ask me, they both look like the old 2005 Compaq Presario V4000. .



Maybe thats where apple got the design from!

haha

 

It's pretty but the 15.6 edition is hardly an upgrade from a 3 year old Dell XPS 16 (isn't 3 years supposed to be an eternity in this market?). Weight is very close, 5730m gpu is eerily close, RBG screen on the dell is superb and it has a blu-ray player (albeit with a 0.94-1.34 inch tapered chassis). Hmmm... $1600 for a nicer design, updated wireless, sound, ports and better battery life. I'd mention speed but CPUs are so overpowered it's a rare person to notice a difference.

I really want an upgrade but having a hard time convincing myself due to the disapointing GPU. I use the computer for work by day, gaming by night so screen, weight and gaming performance are my main conflicting objectives.

p.s. I have a samsung series 7 chronos (the real one) in front of me and despite a bunch of great specs simply cannot stand the lack of contrast and black levels (very very washed out in comparison). On it's way back tomorrow.

 

Someone please tell me if I'm wrong but isn't the screen one of the 15's best selling features being an ips? I was going to wait for ivy bridge but until now I hadn't seen an ips panel in a consumer laptop larger than 12" (x220). Even better that this is 1080p and not 720p.

 

Yes it is. Btw, all Macbook Pros have IPS panels.

 

i always thought they were a high quality tn. no wonder they look so good. thanks for letting me know.

 

That is not true. Which MBP version and which Part No? I haven't seen 1 MBP with an IPS. Please prove me wrong.

 

They look reallly good I just wish they made a 13 or 14 inch version of this!

 

To my big surprise, you are right. I read an article a couple of months ago, that Apple changed to IPS panels on their Macbooks a couple of years ago, and what big of a deal that was and so on, I never did more research on that, as it sounded right (MBP have some of the best screens on the market)

So -> no IPS screen on the Macbooks

 

They use IPS on the iPhone 4 and above (and all iPads too), so that may be why you mistakenly thought Macbooks use them too.

 

No, I know that about the iPhone and iPad... I just read that they use IPS on the MBP and TN on the MBA, but some research on the internet indicates otherwise.

 

Wait. So just to be clear, DO the MBPs have IPS or not? I've been repeatedly told in the past they don't!

 

They dont

 

Seems I'm the only one who doesn't like the volume dial

 

Looking at that memory bandwidth it's using DDR3... hugely disappointing

 

Yea I'd like to see a 13" version of this. The Envy 14 (.5) that I have now is a bit too big for my liking screen wise.

Looking good though HP....

 

Once again, the 13" version is the HP Folio 13...

 

^ The Folio and the Envy are not the same my friend.

Even the names are different... Go figure!

 

You think there's room in HP's lineup for two separate 13" aluminum-bodied thin-profile premium laptops that both look just like a MacBook Pro?

If you ask me, offering a Folio 13 AND an Envy 13 AND an Envy 15 is a recipe for cannibalizing its own sales. An Envy 13 would steal sales from the Envy 15 and Folio 13; it wouldn't entice buyers who otherwise wouldn't buy an HP if HP only offered the Folio 13 and Envy 15. And cannibalism is a poor business model.

 

Apple has a MacBook Air 13 (Folio 13), MacBook Pro 13 (ENVY13), MacBook Pro 15 (ENVY15)

I don't see any sales cannibalization.

 

Well the 6750m in the DV6z gets reported as GDDR3 sometimes but it's actually GDDR5 (people have taken the laptop apart and checked), so there's a chance it's just being reported wrongly by the program.

 

I don't know how Apple sales are going right now, but personally if given the choice, I'd get the MBA 13 instead of the MBP 13. If I need performance, I'll go straight to 15".

 

And yet you still see plenty of people buying MBP 13s, either out of the belief that they have to have the ODD, they need the extra processing power, or that the Pro is inherently more practical.

I don't think there will be much sales cannibalization between the Folio 13 and Envy 13. And, for any more serious gamers, the Envy 15 would be a much more solid choice than the Envy 15: that's the standard choice that PC makers have been offering consumers for years.

 

You mean the Envy 17, not the Envy 15 comparing itself...

 

I get your point Mitlov; I hear what you're saying but people are going to buy what they want based on their needs and preference. I'm sure once HP is making a sale they'll be happy.

If they don't launch a 13" version fine but here's hoping they do. I may just update to it.

 

There's actually a ton of sales cannibalization for Apple (just count the MBA 13 versus MBP 13 threads in the Apple section), but Apple is in a market position where it can survive some cannibalization in order to offer every high-paying, loyal customer the exact variety they'd like.

Let me analogize to BMW and Cadillac.

BMW isn't a sales leader overall--they don't sell inexpensive family cars, work trucks, etc--but they're either a sales leader or close to it in the luxury car business. And their brand-name recognition and brand loyalty are so high they can have huge profit margins and still move product. So what to they do? They've got every permutation of whatever you might like in their lineup. The 3-Series coupe and 1-Series coupe cater to nearly the same buyer. The 5-Series Touring, 5-Series Grand Touring, X5, and X6 cater to nearly the same buyer. But they have enough of a profit margin and steady enough sales that they can justify the R&D for a dozen different models, not just one or two, all in the name of offering each customer exactly what they want.

Now look at Cadillac. GM overall has great sales numbers, but a lot of those are in markets BMW doesn't compete, from inexpensive family vehicles (the equivalent of Pavilions) to work trucks (the equivalent of ProBooks), and the profit margins are small. Cadillac, their direct competitor to BMW, doesn't have nearly the sales numbers or brand recognition that BMW has. So what did Cadillac do? Did it try to compete with BMW model-by-model, offering something unique for every unique model has? No. They poured their limited R&D funds all into one model, a single car designed to cover as much of the BMW market as possible. The CTS, a car halfway between the 3-Series and 5-Series in price and size. And because they focused on one model, they were able to make it really, really good, despite not having nearly the financial stability or income that BMW has.

In my opinion, the Envy line shouldn't try to match the MacBook lines model-by-model. They don't have the loyal customers and the R&D funds to make that strategy successful. They need to pull a CTS. They need to say "we've got one shot, let's make it count," and make the minimal number of models that cover the maximum number of customers, and make them really, really well. I'm not even sure I'd have an Envy 17 and an Envy 15 if I were running things; I might put all my eggs into the Envy 15 basket, make it really really well, and promote the hell out of it. I certainly wouldn't have three or four separate Envy models right now.

 

Mitlov, that is possibly the best analogy I hae ever heard on this forum.

And, I agree, they should try, as hard as they can, to make the Envy 15 awesome. I mean, the 7690 is, I believe a 6770M, and I think they can do better in that department, hopefully.

 

Why's there so much fuss about the new graphics card? Even if it is a newer version of the radeon 6770m, can't we still expect slightly better results than listed here, which would still let us play Crysis 2 on high settings? Then again, BF3 performance isn't all that great... I don't know. Perhaps I'm just a bit confused because I'm coming from a geforxe 230m, which hardly runs anything at a steady fps nowadays. Anyways, do we have any idea what kind of performance improvements can we expect over the 6770m?

 

People always want a machine to weigh three pounds, have a 1080p screen, a top-of-the-line gaming GPU, a sixteen-core CPU, last twelve hours on battery, and cost $799. Oh yeah, and it should be able to levitate and shoot laser beams.

I think a 6770m is perfectly good--nay, great--for something that's being marketed as a multimedia machine instead of a dedicated gaming rig. If you want a Sager/MSI/Alienware that's two inches thick, has fans that could airlift a brick, and lasts 90 minutes on battery, get a Sager/MSI/Alienware. But the Envy isn't a dedicated gaming rig and never has been. I think a 6770m (or its replacement) is a perfectly respectable GPU for a jack-of-all-trades multimedia machine.

 

More speculation here but in calling the HP representative to "reserve yours now" as the website states was told (after a long delay) to check Monday... may be hogwash but I know I will be checking.

 

I myself would be fine with a rehashed 6770m, like I said, but I've been reading on some other threads here that it's actually a rehashed 6750m, which to me would be a bit disappointing as I can get something better than that in a dv6. Here's some threads where this is mentioned: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/625730-new-envy-15-a.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-7-updated-envy-15-envy-17-envy-17-3d-18.html

Got any idea as to the validity of this claim? Regardless of what it's a rehash of, all threads seem to be in agreement that it's a 7690m gpu.

 

I saw that too. I'll definitely be calling as well....

Although I'm currently debating whether I should pick up a cheap dv6t and wait until spring for the Ivy Bridge Envy 17 3D....

 

How much does this weigh and how thick is it? And remember how the Envy 14's 5-hour battery life wasn't QUITE 5 hours for most people? Something around 3-4 hours? I think this computer is a little too good to be true at that price. Anybody? I mean, who would buy a MacBook Pro if this is available? Unless you NEED OS X, I don't see any advantage the MBP has over this except the unibody and trackpad - that is, as long as it has better graphics than the old 14 did. The 6630M was pathetic. If the new Envy 15 has, say, a 6850M there would be very little reason for buying a MacBook Pro. I'm thinking Apple may sue HP over this. Honestly, you know Google Image Search? IT THOUGHT IT WAS A MACBOOK PRO!!! LOL, it had never been wrong before.

 

Well... what is that? No benchmarks are out yet - what current nVidia or ATI card would it be closest to?

 

Well that's exactly what I was asking. Perhaps no one is sure yet: I've heard that it could either be a rehash of the 6770m or the 6750m. These are both mid-range graphics cards available in the hp dv6 right now, with the 6770m coming out slightly ahead in terms of gaming performance. I'd be fine with a graphics card that's slightly better than the 6770m, as that would probably allow me to play BF3 on medium settings with a solid fps at the laptops native resolution (1920x1080), but I'm not so sure about a rehash of the 6750m. Again, no one is really sure about the performance of this gpu, as it hasn't been released yet. Frankly I'm just hoping HP won't screw gamers with a crappy gpu in the Envy 15, but you never know what's going to happen.

Here's links to the two possible cards:
Radeon HD 6750M
Radeon HD 6770M

 

Here's hoping it's a 6770M! But then again, I play prehistoric games like NFS Carbon. Why do I care?

 

lol, indeed. In regards to your earlier comment, the main reason for the price of this laptop being so low is because it reflects the actual price of the laptop and it's components. Apple has been able to charge upwards of $2000 for their Macbook Pro because, thus far, no other company has been able to make a laptop of its quality & aesthetic appeal. Just look at the dv6: compare that plastic hunk of crap to the aluminum unibody of the Macbook pro, and you can easily see the wow factor. You could say that there are other companies that have produced full aluminum body laptops, and you'd be right, but they usually aren't very appealing and don't have great quality to them (XPS Z series for example--thin aluminum that feels just as bad as plastic, INCREDIBLY ugly keyboard, and generally not very appealing aesthetically.) You'd be suprised how much people are willing to sacrifice in terms of specs and cost in order to get something of high quality.
In regards to battery life, I'd assume that number refers to having power settings on low (makes even word go at a snails pace) and brightness on minimum, with wifi turned off. For example, my HP dv7 from a couple years back loses about %1 of battery every minute with brightness on lowest and power settings on highest, so battery life on that is pretty terrible. But IDK about that. Perhaps battery life has improved a lot since 2009. Anyways...

 

Actually, if you've seen any of my other threads you know I'm CRAZY for a good-looking computer and have been searching for three months for a worthy MBP competitor driven by my hatred for OS X. If only the MBP were Windows based it would have everything, EVERYTHING I could possibly want in a computer.
But, this new Envy is a little spark of hope. It really does look amazing. Not unibody, though. Oh, well. That's life.

What do you think? Is the new HP Envy as good as the MBP? I think that it actually looks BETTER than the Mac from some angles - particularly from the top down with that beautiful red tinting.

 

Frankly in terms of looks I think that it's absolutely fantastic. My only real worries are the possibility of the top being made of plastic, the touch pad being terrible, the GPU being under powered for my needs, and the battery life not being too great. In terms of comparison to the MBP, I would probably go for the MBP were it not for the cost, as we're still unsure about the aforementioned issues. But I'll probably be ordering the Envy on december 7th regardless, as it should hopefully not fall short in too many of those categories.

BTW, you know the MBP can run Windows 7, right?

 

Naah, unlikely. They weren't plastic on the first generation, right? And not on the second, either. I see no reason why it should be made of plastic.

Everybody hated the touchpad on the second gen Envies, but I bought one (returning it because it had a dent on it), and I liked it very much. It was great! People say it was hard to click but on the old Pavilion I'm working on now it's SO hard to click the Envy's trackpad seemed VERY good to me.

Yeah, depends on your needs.

Well, if they're advertising 9 hours, I say it should be at least 6 hours under normal operation, right?

DON'T. HP is notorious for not testing their products at all. I would wait at least two weeks. Remember the issues with the 6770M in the Pavilion - where the drivers didn't work and the computer only detected the integrated graphics? It took them around a month or two I believe to fix that and I'm pretty sure it involved flashing the BIOS. I would definitely wait some time to see if any issues turn up.

Of course, BUT - and this is a big one - Windows doesn't detect the integrated graphics and can only run on the powerful discrete graphics - thus wasting battery life, making the fans loud and the whole computer turning hot. What's the point of buying a computer in which only half of the features will work because of your operating system?

 

Perhaps you're correct on that, I'm just unsure because they haven't specified it and it's hard to tell from the pictures.

You're working on an old Pavilion too? Lol, I know exactly what you mean: to click on mine you have to practically hit the damn thing.

*Cough* Running relatively demanding games like BF3 on decent settings *Cough*

Well that's just it--they aren't advertising 9 hours, they're advertising 6.5 ( link)

I suppose I won't then. I probably would have not, at any rate, as I'd be going on vacation about 3 weeks after the release, so I likely wouldn't actually have received it until afterwards.

Of course that would happen. Why must apple have such great quality laptops with such terrible OS's!?!?!?!?!

 

Apple's OSX is not "terrible." I use and appreciate both Win 7 and OSX. OSX just has different strengths than Windows. Apple OSX is more refined, has some better bundled software (particularly iPhoto), and more stable in day-to-day tasks. Windows is better for gaming and better for managing a dozen windows open at once (taskbar > expose or launch control). Different strokes for different folks.

 

What?? Well then what about this: HP - New HP Products, News, Events
Click on HP Envy 15.

It's sad.

 

In what way, may I ask?

Okay, fine.

Exactly what "day-to-day tasks" are you talking about and how is it more stable?

In my opinion, the only thing that OS X has over Windows is the wallpaper.

 

I love how HP contradicts themselves on their own 2 promo pages... lol
In terms of OS X, the only thing I'll give it is that it has a great design, but functionality always trumps aesthetic appeal to me.

 

I know, right!? But I'm completely used to it and every other trackpad currently in production seems fantastic to me.

 

Does it say anything about the estimated battery life for the new Envy 17 or 17 3D?

I'm currently looking at the promo page but there's nothing I can spot so far....

 

About 8 hours on this page: HP Envy17 | HP Envy