HP ENVY 15-1050NR 15.6-Inch Laptop (Magnesium Alloy)

I have had the Envy 15 for over three months and have enjoyed almost every minute of it. I have been very pleased with its performance and ease of use. The processor is simply amazing, the video card is more than enough for my needs, and the screen is the best I've seen in a laptop. I consider myself a pretty heavy user, often running more than 150 processes at a time, and rarely feel any lag. For the power you get, the size and weight are pretty impressive. The laptop does get warm when under heavy use, as is to be expected with a quad-core machine, but its quiet, effective cooling system does a great job of keeping the system within acceptable/tolerable temperature limits.

The drawbacks, as I expected, relate to its battery power. The processor is restricted to a "Low Frequency Mode" when running on battery power, which for the i7-720QM limits the processor speed to 931 MHz per core. This results in a noticeable difference when doing anything more than simple tasks such as reading e-mail or browsing the web while running on battery power. Despite this restriction, the battery life still isn't very impressive. Under normal use, it runs for just under two hours; under heavy use (3D gaming or streaming HD video), it only runs for about an hour on a charge.

In short, if you find yourself near a plug most of the time, this machine is awesome. If you need more portability, this probably isn't the best choice you might want to consider something with a dual-core i5 processor.

Pros:

(1) Incredibly fast when working with memory/graphics intensive applications; editing large files in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.

(2) Looks fantastic slim, gorgeous FullHD glossy screen

(3) Reasonable battery life when using optional slice battery

Cons:

(1) Freezes up or crashes to black screen approximately 10-15 times per day. Many other buyers experienced the same exact issue.

(2) 4k read speed for the SSD is 10x slower than it should be (slower than the 4k write speed!)

(3) extremely expensive

(4) Annoying placement of special function keys to the left of the keyboard.

I purchased an Envy 15 about 1 month ago with the following specs:

i7-820QM processor

320GB Dual SSD (Raid0)

16GB RAM

ATI Mobility Radeon HD5830

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

The complete price including tax for this customized model was well over $4,000. On the very first bootup on the day I received the model in the mail from HP shopping, I went through the process of setting up windows and then the system froze up. The screen became filled with a colorful static effect with moving black horizontal lines.

On restart, the windows error reporting was as follows:

"You received this message because hardware or software on your computer caused Windows to shut down unexpectedly and restart. This is a serious problem, commonly referred to as a stop error or blue screen. If you have received this error more than once, we recommend that you do the following: Back up your files to avoid data loss in case of a complete hardware failure. Contact the original manufacturer of your computer to determine the specific component which is failing. Although we know the problem is caused by a hardware component, the error report does not contain enough information to tell us the specific component. It is likely that the problem is being caused by one of the following computer components: Random access memory (RAM) System board Central Processing Unit (CPU) Power supply"

I called HP Envy tech support and they put me in touch with the customer support rep who sent me a shipping label to return the laptop and get a refund. She offered me a $170 discount in the event I decided to keep it, so I thought I would continue using the model and see if it was perhaps a one-time problem on setting up windows for the first time.

Over the course of 2 weeks, I experienced black screen crash or freezing (with repeating loop of 1 frame of corresponding audio) approximately 10-15 times per day. The only way to get out of that screen was by hard reset.

I also noticed when running the crystalmark benchmark my 4k read speed was 10x lower than it should have been in fact, the 4k read speed for the SSD Raid0 was slower than the 4k write speed!

CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008

--------------------------------

Sequential Read : 469.045 MB/s

Sequential Write : 155.626 MB/s

Random Read 512KB : 253.068 MB/s

Random Write 512KB : 133.743 MB/s

Random Read 4KB : 10.294 MB/s

Random Write 4KB : 55.438 MB/s

Test Size : 100 MB Date : 2010/03/10 1:54:01

I eventually returned my unit for complete refund; however, as it was the most lightning fast experience I have ever had (during the times when it did not freeze or crash on me) working on very large photoshop and illustrator files, I definitely want to order the exact same model once they correct the graphics card and 4k read speed issues.

From a bit of research, it appears many people with other brands of laptops have experienced exactly the same "black screen" issue with similar ATI Radeon graphics cards that we are having with the 4830 and the 5830 used in the Envy 15, leading me to wonder whether many of these ATI graphics cards are simply defective. I'm surprised that HP did not test them more rigorously before choosing to implement them in the Envy 15. I am eager to order another HP Envy 15, but do I need to wait until HP refreshes the line with an entirely different graphics card? Is anyone who has ordered the Envy 15 NOT experiencing this black screen issue? I wonder the percentage of users who are experiencing black screen issues with the Envy 15. Is it limited to those who have custom orders? Are people who bought the "quick-ship" models also experiencing this?

Here are several links to postings regarding the "black screen" issue with the ATI Radeon HD5830, HD4850 and HD4830 in various brands of computer:On an aesthetic level, this model is fantastic. Very slim, even when using the optional 9-cell slice battery. Others have complained about the heat issue but when I used a Zalman NC1000 notebook cooler, I had no problems whatsoever with overheating, in fact the underside of the laptop was cool to the touch.

The only gripe I had about the design was the plethora of special function keys on the left side of the keyboard. I kept accidentally opening the Print menu or web page, email, etc., when playing a video game or working in Photoshop. I had a great deal of difficulty to attempt to disable those keys and even with using the keyboard layout menus in control panel, I was not able to disable them. I was tempted to purchase special software for customizing keyboard layout for the sole purpose of disabling those annoying and poorly located special function keys.

The touchpad was slightly less sensitive and slightly more difficult to use compared to the MacBook Pro. Hopefully this will be resolved with driver or BIOS update.

When using the 9cell slice battery I had about 4 hours of battery life, which is not great, but much better than my previous laptop. For long international flights I would recommend taking along 2 fully charged slice batteries.

Again the graphics performance was amazing except for those 10-15 times per day that the graphics card crashed or froze up. Other than that it was lightning fast. As of today, the only solution I am aware of for the graphics problem is replacing the graphics card. I don't know if replacing the SSD with a third party dual SSD Raid0 will improve the 4k read speed.

Buy HP ENVY 15-1050NR 15.6-Inch Laptop (Magnesium Alloy) Now

I have owned an HP Envy 15 1050NR for about a year now. I have rather mixed feelings about it.

On paper, the combination is unbeatable:

The i7-720QM Quad Core processor really shines. With hyperthreading, it is as if you have 8 processors. This machine is fast. I use it for advanced statistical work in SPSS with massive databases and I will say that is absolutely eats alive all the desktop machines at my research university. What used to be 10 minute coffee-breaks between commands before purchasing this machine have been replaced by blazing, 10-second runs.

The hard drive is big for a laptop and is about as fast as you can go without SSDs or high-end Velociraptors.

The 4 memory slots!! Two are located inside, but two more are easily accessible behind the battery pack. It comes standard with 6GB DDR3, which is more than most laptops still give you today, but it can be expanded to 16 GB. That is neat.

The high end graphics card allows you to connect a second HD display at max resolution with no problem (the HDMI port helps). In terms of sheer crunching power, this machine can easily hold its ground very well as a gaming laptop even a year after I bought it, but see caveat below.

The screen is gorgeous. I have been so spoiled by its high Dots-per-inch ratio that I find it hard to use regular monitors now. It's also very bright and the colors are truly intense. Shaped in the 16:9 ratio, its top resolution is 1920x1080. It's a bit reflective, so glare can be a bit problematic at times, but I simply love it.

However, there are a great many practical problems that I have noticed in 1 year of using the machine:

The HEAT! Unsurprisingly, given its graphics card and its i7 processor, this beast emits a lot of heat. What is surprising is the sheer incompetence of design, which put either the graphics cards or the processor under the palm-rests. Given even moderate load, the armrest will get hot. The exhaust vents on the sides can probably fry small animals. In fact, my sweaty hands left a permanently darkened mark on the left of the touchpad.

The gargantuan POWER BRICK. It truly weighs about half the weight of the laptop, and was my first unpleasant shock when unpackaging the thing a year ago. Unfortunately, the i7 and graphics card are power-hungry, and while you can go out and purchase a lighter alternative, you will find few that output 130 Watts, which means your laptop will automatically "throttle" your processors, making them work at 60% or even less. Not noticeable if you only do web browsing, so it may work for you. Anyway, for me this is a big deal, because carrying this monster brick around gets very frustrating.

The dismal BATTERY life. I'd say that on average I get about 80-90 minutes on the primary battery, barely enough to watch a movie on battery power. There is an external battery slab, but the little hooks that are supposed to make sure it stays in place are a bit of a joke, and the connection with the slab will often and easily be lost, rendering the thing useless.

The Screen Bezel does not allow you to open your display much beyond 90 degrees. If you're tall, or you're in a coffeeshop at a low table, good luck. This means you can also forget about using it on your lap, although the sheer heat burning down through your pants will probably dissuade you from such silly attempts in the first place.

Relative dearth of ports. Sure, most of us can do with just 2 USBs and an eSata that can double as an USB. But if, unlike me, you're that type that uses the external DVD drive a lot, that will become a bother. Also, you will discover, to your chagrin, that the $1500+ machine you bought cannot connect to most presentation platforms, for the simple reason that it only uses HDMI video output, spurning the (admittedly outdated) VGA ports that are still so common. Sure, an HDMI to VGA adaptor from HP will only set you back $40, but that's no help if you're due to start a powerpoint presentation in 10 minutes and your laptop cannot connect to the VGA port on the projector.

The heat will eventually cause the 4 rubber feet of your laptop to fall off. If you're vigilant and find them, you can probably reattach them with gorilla glue, but I was not so lucky. This will make the Envy remarkably slippery on many surfaces.

The Web-cam has this fancy low-light "feature" which is basically an infrared sensor that will render you visible if your skyping preferences involve low light. Unfortunately, the infrared feed is not removed in normal lighting situations, making the picture produced look blue-tinted. I played around with the settings and solved this eventually, but this is probably beyond the average user.

The keyboard. Let me say that the keys themselves have a nice, smooth feel. However, my version of this machine has this incredibly stupid design with a bunch of shortcut keys placed to the left of the regular keyboard. Since most of us assume by instinct that "Ctrl" is at the left lower end of your keyboard, you'll end up launching "Calculator" a hilarious amount of times. Equally fun is the "Launch Outlook" key located right under the "Escape" button. You can easily imagine what this will do to dedicated gamers. Fortunately, I was able to turn that off after some registry snooping, and a quick Google search will tell you how to do it, but again, this is something likely above the skill of the average user. Similarly frustrating, the function keys are set as secondary by default (you have to press "Fn" + "F2" to get F2, rather than dimming your screen) but this can be easily switched on or off from BIOS. Not so easily solvable is the fact that the edge of the machine is rather sharp, so when typing, you're basically slowly slitting your wrists.

Pre-installed garbage. I have no experience with this, since I instructed the Best Buy people to give me a clean install, but I hear this can be a hassle.

In summary, a year later, when at home, my laptop sits on a ridiculously quiet Zalman ZM-NC2000 notebook cooler (which has solved the heating problem), I use a wireless external backlit keyboard and mouse (with the cool "unifying" software that means I can connect them to only one USB), and use both its native display and another 22" Samsung (at the same 1920x1080 resolution). In this configuration, this machine is a dream, while still being portable when I need it to be. A true desktop replacement, if you will. The system characteristics and display are great, and in the end make up for the other shortcomings, at least as far as I am concerned. Nonetheless, for the price and given that the Envy series is supposed to be HP's flagship and Mac-destroyer, as it were, I expected better. Much better. I give it 3 and 1/2 stars.

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so 3 stars is a bit harsh, but i felt its a bit short of 4.. all and all it is a nice machine, and some say it resembles a macbook pro *grin* but not quite there.. there are some glaring oversights with its design.

the good

screen.. i have the higher resolution option (1920x1080) and it is beautiful. very sharp, glossy, bright, vivid.. it is the single best thing about this laptop.

fast.. i went with i7-720 quad 64bit 6M cache. this thing flies

physical design of it. it is nice. although i don't care for laser etching case, smooth silver would have looked nicer IMO.

the bad

this thing comes with a ton of crappy HP utilities pre-installed and running. took me hours to clean it up.

some genius thought it would be a good idea to add shortcut keys on the left of the keyboard for common things like calculator or email and without separating them from main keyboard in any way. this is the dumbest decision ever because if you touch type, you normally expect ctrl to be the bottom left key.. after trying to ctrl+c sometimes you end up with 3 calculators open and brain full of rage. if you hit the mail button accidentally you get the lovely outlook setup screen that takes like 5 clicks to get out of... and there is no easy way to disable this.. have to edit registry. in win7 there are many ways to launch common utilities quickly.. this is really not necessary!

power adapter is ginormous. i took a gamble on buying a travel size one from HP and it seems to be working on the road, although it does get super hot sometimes.. but at least it fits in my bag.

the ugly

the lid doesn't go back far enough. it opens slightly more than 90 degree angle. this totally sucks if you try to use it on your lap, or even at a coffee shop if the table is low. you basically have a crappy viewing angle unless you slide down in your chair to some uncomfortable position. took me a long time to get over this glaring oversight. was it really that difficult to allow this thing to open more?

battery life sucks. with all power options tweaked down to the max (40% of cpu, screen brightness way low) i can squeeze just over an hour of internet browsing on it.. that's really not acceptable. i tried getting the extended battery, but that thing is 1. expensive, 2. very heavy, 3 huge. pretty much makes the laptop twice the size / weight (at least it feels that way) and with that huge extended battery attached, you will get ~ 3 hrs (on both batteries together). also i keep having issues where laptop just switches off when big battery is attached.. had it replaced once, and the problem persists, so i stopped using it.

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I've had this laptop for over 2 months. I purchased this unit with the external DVD and battery slice. I don't regret purchasing this unit but as with all electronics it's not perfect. I was looking for a laptop that would be relevant technology for at least 4 years.

What I Like:

-Processor Intel i7 is a powerhouse. I have the CPU/resource widget running and other than system startup that cpu dial never goes above 25%. I haven't done any gaming yet to put it through its real paces but I've ran DVDs, with email running, photoshop, word docs, open, etc. all at the same time and it doesn't break a sweat.

-6 gig DDR3 Ram is great as well. The ram usage widget doesn't break 40% no matter what I throw at it. The ability to expand the ram to 18 gig allows me future expansion (just what I'm looking for).

-Built in camera works well in low light for Skype.

-Speakers are very nice for a laptop, even bass is decent.

-Screen is beautiful at 1080p. Sometimes objects can look small on such a hi-res screen but OS tools allow you to easily increase the viewing percentage to make text easy to read, etc.

-Etching from the laser is beautiful. The laser etching is a nice touch that looks good in a business setting or a home office. I just couldn't go with the "nation of gamers" look.

-Light and Thin without the power slice. This is not a netbook but its easily moved about at its stand alone weight.

-Power Slice Keeps it Going. The 6 cell battery (in the unit) gives about 1.5-2 hours of power. This is enough for some light computer but not squatting down in front of the tube. The power slice adds 9 cells and I've found about 6 hours of power with the combined batteriesplenty for my needs but it adds two pounds of weight. The power slice clips into the unit at the bottom and does an admirable job of "blending in" to the laptop. It does take away from the thin profile though.

-Keyboard is full size and natural to use. The "1" is slightly to the right of my desktop so there is a slight adjustment for numbers but keys are resistant and easy to click. I have nerve damage in my left hand and no problems in jumping on this keypad.

What I don't like:

-The touch/click pad is tough to get used to. Even after two months my fingers will brush on the pad and jump the cursor and the short cuts to scroll up/down and left/right just aren't very natural. I've toggle all the settings and I just can't get it quite right. For me it's not a huge deal but some people may want a mouse.

-Heat. The unit does get pretty warm. I don't find it an issue on my wrists as I type and rest my wrists as I type. Its the underside that heats up. On a desk this doesn't bother me but on my lap it can get uncomfortable. BUT, the battery slice acts as a heat shield. The irony of the extra bulk is it is a decent but not perfect insulator. I'll appreciate the heat in the winter but not now in the summer. Think of investing in a lap pad/insulator. Here is another notewhen the unit is plugged into power the CPU runs full cycle and it ups the heat output. When the unit is on battery it runs as lower cycles which reduces the heat.

Summary

I was looking for a professional laptop that I could play an occasional game and work from office and bring home without skipping a beat. This laptop fits the bill. It's good for work and for play. It's expandable. I've had other HP machines and found them to be reliable. I've had no issues with the OS, firmware, screen, etc. I have found it a bit of a challenge to move from XP to Win 7 but that's not a statement on this machine. I found this unit with DVD and battery slice for much less else where. If price is holding you back shop around. I found it brand new as a special for 40% less than list.

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