Who wants an Envy 14 review?

[Theguynextdoor]

I posted in one of the Macbook reviews awhile back where they said they were disappointed that they haven't received an Envy for review, (where are they getting all these Macs though?).

I offered to loan Anand my Envy 14 for review, but the article was already a week old and it was buried in the Mac vs. PC flame war.

So I figured I would post here and see if I would get a response. I also have a macbook 13 and like it for other reasons. (Way better touchpad for one thing).

Just putting that out there if Anand is still looking for an Envy 14 to review.

It honestly isn't really anything special except the fantastical battery life with the slice.

(8 hours of Eve online whoo!)

Oh and I did get the Radiance (the original apparently) screen when it was only $100 option, ordered July 29th got it August 12th.

 

[pmark]

It honestly isn't really anything special except the fantastical battery life with the slice.

Thanks for the review!

 

[CurseTheSky]

See sig.

Another review is always helpful though. I'm actually working on re-writing mine since I've received my second unit (first was damaged at the repair center when it was sent in for a dead pixel). A few areas bother me more now that I've spent more time with it, and some other areas are still as astounding.

 

[blackrook]

I've been waiting since June for a review. It's strange because HP was supposed to send a review unit over, but it never happened.

The only other website that's really given it a thorough review was notebookcheck.net.

That being said, I've owned mine for several months now and am still really pleased with it -- save for the whine from the power brick.

 

[Theguynextdoor]

See sig.

Another review is always helpful though. I'm actually working on re-writing mine since I've received my second unit (first was damaged at the repair center when it was sent in for a dead pixel). A few areas bother me more now that I've spent more time with it, and some other areas are still as astounding.

Your review is awesome and I agree with you in all the key points. I was a little more disappointed with the gaming aspect myself. But I didn't specifically buy for gaming. My biggest gripe was while gaming on battery it seems to suffer a performance hit even on the "high-performance" setting.

I'll go into detail about it later, I emailed Vivek since he responded in the one of the macbook reviews to email him.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Your review is awesome and I agree with you in all the key points. I was a little more disappointed with the gaming aspect myself. But I didn't specifically buy for gaming. My biggest gripe was while gaming on battery it seems to suffer a performance hit even on the "high-performance" setting.

I'll go into detail about it later, I emailed Vivek since he responded in the one of the macbook reviews to email him.

Yeah. Honestly, if I do anything more than "casual" gaming, I plug it in. The beauty of the Envy 14 is that it's a jack of all trades. It excels at nothing, but it does a little of everything. You can carry it around as a portable workhorse that gets decent battery life (~4 hours with standard battery and i3/i5 processor), or you can plug it in and do some moderate gaming.

Far too many people are criticizing the crap out of the Envy 14 because it doesn't do XXXX perfectly. Well, if they took the time to read the specs, they'd realize it's not meant to be a gaming powerhouse or an ultralight with 8-10 hours of battery life. If they looked at the price tag compared to the internal specs, they'd realize that the fact the Macbook Pro offers better build quality and a better touchpad is mitigated by the fact that the Envy 14's internals blow the MBP 13 out of the water, and the E14 offers similar specs to the MBP 15 but at a lower price.

As I've said time and time again, when you look at what you're getting for what you're paying, it's easy to see what a good bargain the Envy 14 is. If you don't care about the metal chassis, dedicated support line (and trust me, it's far better than HP's standard support), better upgrade options, backlit keyboard, and fancy packaging, by all means grab a dm4 / TimelineX / etc. and save yourself some cash.

 

[blackrook]

I was lucky enough to get mine during the one-day 30% BCB on July 12, so total it came out to $950. At that point it was a no-brainer, and now they don't even offer the Radiance screen anymore. I wonder if they're going to replace it with another, or if it's just not going to stay with the lesser BrightView.

That more than anything is what I want to see tested - the screen.

 

[KevinH]

I was lucky enough to get mine during the one-day 30% BCB on July 12, so total it came out to $950. At that point it was a no-brainer, and now they don't even offer the Radiance screen anymore. I wonder if they're going to replace it with another, or if it's just not going to stay with the lesser BrightView.

That more than anything is what I want to see tested - the screen.

They're having problems with the supply. Something to do with the manufacturer of the radiance going out of business.

 

[Theguynextdoor]

I was lucky enough to get mine during the one-day 30% BCB on July 12, so total it came out to $950. At that point it was a no-brainer, and now they don't even offer the Radiance screen anymore. I wonder if they're going to replace it with another, or if it's just not going to stay with the lesser BrightView.

That more than anything is what I want to see tested - the screen.

Damn, i didn't know you could preorder it before the launch date. And I thought the 10% academic discount was nice. lol

 

[blackrook]

Damn, i didn't know you could preorder it before the launch date. And I thought the 10% academic discount was nice. lol

Huh? It launched late June. I was just watching the notebookreview forums like a hawk for good deals.

 

[erikistired]

i wish they offered a resolution higher than 1366x768.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I will write up a review sometime this week after I'm.done with my papers for class. I got one off of cursetheskys advice.

 

[Emulex]

if i sit down all snuggled up in my blanket - it's cold and block all the vents.

how does this perform after an hour or so doing video watching etc.


Can you benchmark it when its ballistic hot?

 

[AznAnarchy99]

if i sit down all snuggled up in my blanket - it's cold and block all the vents.

how does this perform after an hour or so doing video watching etc.


Can you benchmark it when its ballistic hot?

Never got anywhere near ballistic hot after playing WoW for a few hours in bed. Certainly hot but never unbearable and not as bad as my girlfriend's Asus U50F.

 

[CurseTheSky]

if i sit down all snuggled up in my blanket - it's cold and block all the vents.

how does this perform after an hour or so doing video watching etc.


Can you benchmark it when its ballistic hot?

There's really only two areas that get hot - the deck area to the right of the keyboard (small area above the vent, near the back of the right side), and the center of the rear deck (directly below the screen). The fans / vents exhaust heat in both of those areas, and under heavy gaming they get noticeably hot. For movie watching they're just warm. The right side of the palm rest got warm (but not hot) before I switched the HDD for a SSD. The bottom of the laptop gets warm, but no where near the temperature other "gaming capable" laptops I've used get to.

The good news is, the two hot spots are out of the way and not in areas you should ever normally touch.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

There's really only two areas that get hot - the deck area to the right of the keyboard (small area above the vent, near the back of the right side), and the center of the rear deck (directly below the screen). The fans / vents exhaust heat in both of those areas, and under heavy gaming they get noticeably hot. For movie watching they're just warm. The right side of the palm rest got warm (but not hot) before I switched the HDD for a SSD. The bottom of the laptop gets warm, but no where near the temperature other "gaming capable" laptops I've used get to.

The good news is, the two hot spots are out of the way and not in areas you should ever normally touch.

Hey quick question for ya. How much did you get your SSD for and how much of that space do you end up using. Im trying to figure out if I should get one and swap out my dvd drive for another hard drive or just keep 1 SSD.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Hey quick question for ya. How much did you get your SSD for and how much of that space do you end up using. Im trying to figure out if I should get one and swap out my dvd drive for another hard drive or just keep 1 SSD.

I paid about $425 for it when it was hard to find an X25-M for MSRP (for a while, even the 80GB drives were going for almost $350). I'm only using about 50% of the capacity between the OS, a few applications (Office 2007, Notepad++, GIMP, Paint.NET, Chrome, Firefox, etc.), and a few games (SC2, MW2, PvZ, Oblivion, etc.). I carry my music, pictures, and other game files around on an external hard drive.

I'd be a bit squeamish about putting a 60-80GB drive as the only hard drive in a modern laptop, but anything over 100GB should be fine as long as you have an alternate computer for your primary storage and / or an external hard drive to use. I rarely use the DVD drive in my Envy 14, so I'm considering swapping it out for another HDD myself. I just haven't gotten around to ordering the parts and cracking it open yet.

 

[blackrook]

Any response?

 

[Theguynextdoor]

Sweet guys. Been talking to Vivek the past few days via email. It'll be sent out tomorrow afternoon.

Tonight I'm just gonna backup my porn and other semi-important stuff, do a Factory recovery and put it all back in the box.
So look for an Anandtech review in the next two weeks here hopefully!

 

[blackrook]

Nice to see that. Thanks for this.

 

[Theguynextdoor]

Sorry it took so long guys, but I FINALLY got a chance to get it all together cleaned up and packed. Shipped from the Fedex last night, should be arriving at Vivek's Tuesday.

 

[Theguynextdoor]

Vivek recieved the laptop on Thursday! Whoo-hoo! Hopefully a review will be up in the next few weeks.

 

[shortylickens]

I really wanted to get my mom one to replace her old eMachine. Had to do some emergency dental work and car repairs so I didnt have the money for a nice gift this year.

She would have used it as a desktop replacement, with regular keyboard and monitor.

 

[CurseTheSky]

I really wanted to get my mom one to replace her old eMachine. Had to do some emergency dental work and car repairs so I didnt have the money for a nice gift this year.

She would have used it as a desktop replacement, with regular keyboard and monitor.

If she's never going to use it for portability (without the keyboard and monitor attached), an Acer Timeline X may be a viable cheaper alternative. The biggest selling point for the Envy 14 over a similarly-spec'd Timeline X, other than the metal chassis, is the screen and keyboard. If you're not using either one, it's easy to overlook the mushier keyboard or worse screen on the Acer.

Personally, I would still go with the Envy 14, but it's just a thought.

 

[shortylickens]

If she's never going to use it for portability (without the keyboard and monitor attached), an Acer Timeline X may be a viable cheaper alternative. The biggest selling point for the Envy 14 over a similarly-spec'd Timeline X, other than the metal chassis, is the screen and keyboard. If you're not using either one, it's easy to overlook the mushier keyboard or worse screen on the Acer.

Personally, I would still go with the Envy 14, but it's just a thought.

By the time I can afford to get her anything it will be a whole new scene.