HP ENVY DV7-7212nr Windows 8 Notebook PC

Very fast laptop.

Boots up in seconds.

Stunning display.

Runs cool.

Looks nice.

ssd + hdd Impressive

No compatibility issues.

This laptop has amazing capabilities for the price. My only complaint is that I have not been able to install Windows 7x64 Ultimate, and HP's response is that it does not support Win 7x64.

I am a technical co-founder for a health tech startup. I needed a laptop for road warrior demos of clinical data warehouse analyses, and this fit the bill.

I bought it in the following configuration: 1080p screen resolution with internal 32GB SSD, 125W power supply, 2GB video card, oversized battery, 8GB RAM, 750GB 7200rpm disk. I then upgraded to 16GB RAM and added an additional 1TB 5200RPM Hitachi internal drive. The second internal drive required purchasing an OEM drive caddy and cable for $45.

The backlit keyboard is ever so cool... I have wanted something like this for years.

I replaced the existing 2 800MHz 4GB DIMMs with 2 666MHz 8GB DIMMs. The BIOS recognized the lower-speed DIMMs, and adjusted the interface appropriately.

I'm now running a 16GB RAM/1.75 TB disk laptop.

My workaround for Windows 7 compatibility is to run a Windows 7x64 virtual box client on the machine.

The machine runs MS SQL Server 2012 without a problem. SQL Server database performance is on a par with comparably-equipped desktop machines.

Network data transfers: with Jumbo Frame support set to 6KB, I get 118MB/sec network transfers over a gigabit switch; best I've seen in a notebook-class computer.

The USB 3.0 ports transfer data from an external Seagate 2TB 7200RPM drive to the internal 750GB 7200RPM drive at 100 to 125MB/sec.

The internal 32GB SSD consistently transfers data at 191MB/sec.

The internal 750GB 7300rpm drive transfers data at 70 to 125 MB/sec, averaging 97MB/sec.

The 1TB 5400rpm drive that I added to the second drive bay transfers data at 50 to 104 MB/sec, averaging 82MB/sec.

I haven't tested the BluRay movie playback capability.

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Does everything the description says. Runs very smoothly. Most of the Windows 8 kinks have been worked out already. I personally enjoy windows 8 more than any previous operating system. The learning curve is small for anyone tech savvy, though it may not be the best OS for business purposes. Love the fingerprint reader combined with the HP Simple Pass. Truly a desktop replacement. Should last me many years with the current hardware, though I'm sure Ill drop and break it before it is outdated, as is when I usually upgrade.

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Very, very fast. Great for gaming if on a budget and you don't want to drop $2000 for a real gaming laptop. The build quality is excellent and it doesn't feel cheap or flimsy. The sound is amazing for being a laptop too, having the volume all the way up is almost too loud, and the sound doesn't get distorted when you crank it up. The only gripe that I have with it is the border around the screen shows fingerprints really bad because of the gloss finish. It's the only area on the laptop that is glossy, the rest is the black brushed aluminium or matte (like the keyboard, mousepad, and underside of the laptop). It has the usual HP bloatware, but HP thankfully included a restore option called a 'Minimized Image Recovery' that removes all the crap you don't want, but leaves the useful stuff like HP Update that you'll probably want for driver, bios, and service alert updates. Windows 8 works fine for me as well, and I've been using Windows since 95. It takes a little bit getting used to, but there's several free programs out there that can add a start menu to the desktop mode if you really don't like the Metro tiles and menus. Most of the reviews are giving the laptop a bad rating because of Windows 8, and that's not fair to HP or this laptop. They didn't design Windows 8, they designed the laptop which is great.

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I did much product research on notebooks prior to this purchase, and finally settled on this one. The biggest reason I was shopping for a new laptop was to handle the loads of graphics work in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. I work occasionally on very large .psd files, and my former laptop would really bog down. This new HP ENVY is indeed as advertised and as expected. I have done a considerable amount of photo editing work, and it is superb. I do plan to upgrade the RAM to 16GB, but haven't encountered a situation where I really needed it yet. This notebook is a very competent system, and better than most for the price. The only feature I wish this laptop had is Lightscribe capabilities.

There is much hubbub about Windows 8, and here is my two cents: I have been well-experienced in every Windows platform since ME, so I feel I have a pretty good grasp of both consumer-level interaction and tech-level interaction. From a consumer point of view, I think Windows 8 is very good. While having a touchscreen would be a big advantage, I find that the multi-touch pointing device does a considerable job, and makes W8 very easy to use. Before purchasing or upgrading a PC to W8, make sure it has either touchscreen or multi-touch capabilities in my opinion, a must!

I am 99.9% pleased with this purchase, and recommend it highly to anyone looking for a desktop replacement processing power on a budget.

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