Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)If I were a professor grading papers and if notebooks were research papers, the very first Envy 15 which debuted over a year ago definitely deserved a C+ grade. Imagine that the Envy 15 1st generation is a 5-8 page paper. A typical prof would give HP that very grade for good effort and creativity, but poor organization, sentence structure, and grammar and thus a rather low level of coherence altogether. The Envy 15 2nd Gen which came out less than a year after that corrected most of the infamous problems such as heating issues, creaky palmrests, and a jumpy touchpad. This refresh (or rewrite?) raised HP's grade to a B+. But while some may celebrate over a "most improved award," just as people tend to be more critical of a BMW 7-series than of your average, run-of-the-mill Corolla, the bar is set rather high for the luxury notebook segment that notebooks like the Envy and Macbook Pro fall into.Now onto the Envy 14. This time around, the grade for this notebook is rather controversial and definitely open to debate. The Envy 14 was released on June 27th. It was advertised as sporting HP's edge-to-edge 1600x900 Radiance Display which would afford the user better color reproduction and brightness than most if not all notebooks out there, yes, even better than the Macbook Pro's, ATI infin Without the (continually updating) Google touchpad software that can be found in the Trackpad Discussion thread of Notebookreview, this notebook IMO stays on the accursed borderline 89.5% which for many teachers can be a B+ grade or an A-. But with a 3rd party touchpad software written by a few good souls on notebookreview forums that leads to greatly improved two-finger scrolling, the Envy 14 gets a 93%. Just shy of A- but still in straight A territory. Toss in the Radiance display and you indeed get a potential top of the class paper not to mention another reason(with others to follow) for the professor to hand HP a letter of recommendation.NOTE: If anyone wants the Google software in question, go to notebook review forums (notebookreview.com), go to the HP section, and visit the HP Envy 14 Owners' lounge. The first page will have a link that takes you to the touchpad software lounge. Make an account and ask people to redirect you to the software because my goodness, you WILL want the drivers designed by reil for smooth 2-finger scroll! Ask someone there for reil's Google touchpad software.There's also a way to configure bottom left, bottom right and upper right as deadzones. I've configured the top right as right-click, the bottom left as go back a browser page, and the bottom right zone as go forward a browser page. Ask people on the Envy 14 notebook owners' lounge how to configure it!To HP: Great job. You not only get the most-improved award in my grade book. You get a 93%, which rounds up to an A. Not a strong A, mind you, but an A nonetheless. Keep up the good work, and work on those lingering issues. I expect to see great things from you in the future.
What I liked:
(1) Edge-to-edge screen. I don't mind for now that it's not genuine glass. Still have to admit the edge-to-edge black border gives the screen a nice look.
(2) Radiance Display - Bravo. Need I say more? If this screen isn't good enough for photographers, I don't know WHAT is!
(3) Keyboard - It's simply fantastic. It's a joy to type on. The LED backlit keyboard may not be bright as the Macbook Pro's, but it's still bright enough to use at night time when there's low or no light.
(4) Aesthetics - I've already drawn many glances with this notebook. Also to those who're concerned with how "fruity" the design looks, the laser etchings really grow on ya. The thin/light form factor and the laser-etched drawings really ooze of quality and refinement when you hold it.
(5) Specs - With the i5 processor and the ATI 5650, you can game on StarCraft 2 easily at medium settings. My suggestion is still to get a cooling pad as thin and light notebooks CAN get hot.A few critiques on areas which upon consideration and improvement will put the Envy 14 closer to A+ territory:
(1) Keep working on the touchpad software and install a real clickpad. Work with Synaptics on improving it so that we don't have to rely on the good will and charity of software coders in the NBR community. Improve 2-finger scroll and toss in inertial scrolling, 3-finger swipes, and 4-finger swipes.
(2) Consider doing away with the optical drive when the time is right. I understand some people need their DVD drive. That's fine. But in the future, if it'll shave off a lot of weight and allow for the installation of a 3rd fan, I'm willing to pay the usual $40 for an external optical drive. (Yes, it's true. The HP Envy 15 comes with 3 fans because the absence of an optical drive creates enough real estate for the 3rd fan)
(3) Backlit keyboard - This isn't really a criticism. But making the brightness adjustable would certainly tempt me to toss in another % point to your grade.
(4) Build Construction - I had an argument with the other "professors" over this. A tiny bit of keyboard flex which I myself barely noticed is fine for now. A little flex with an optical drive to boot is understandable. I gave you a high score in this area, but try to get rid of the flex. Until then, repeat after me: Perception. Matters. Take this from someone who worked several months at Subway serving some really particular customers!.
(5) Find a way to get rid of that God-awful CPU whine. I know this isn't HP-specific, but if HP could find a way to reduce the sound or get rid of completely, that would be a Godsend!************UPDATE FOR SEPTEMBER 9, 2010************
It's been about a month and a half since I first bought and started using the Envy 14. I have to say that two issues really bothered me:
(1) Synaptics engineers decided to be a bunch of lazy jerks by omitting the option to turn off the touchpad while typing. I mean, seriously? If you're going to specialize in something, the least you can do is do the job right!
(2) The screen touches the keyboard when closed. The interesting part is it doesn't leave behind any permanent scratches. It just leaves smudges. The first problem was easily solved by installing a third party software called "Paradisoft Touchpad Locker. Google it and you will find it. It is free and easy to install.
I've found that my touchpad problems have been reduced by at least 90% as a result of the software.
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HP ENVY 14-1010NR 14.5" Laptop (2.40GHz Intel Core i5-450M Processor, 6 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit)A perfect balance of performance and mobility. Make a powerful statement with a slim, lightweight notebook PC: the HP ENVY 14-1010NR. Finished with laser-etched aluminum in carbon relic, this HP laptop is as stylish on the outside as it is on the inside. Watch DVDs on a 14.5-inch diagonal display that is 75% brighter than any other notebook display in this class and delivers up to 30% richer colors than most notebook displays. Pcan also video chat in low-light environments using the integrated webcam and transfer photos directly from a memory card to your notebook PC.
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