The HP Envy 17 is truly a masterpiece of a laptop. It has the latest Intel Ivy Bridge i7 quad-core CPU and AMD's new GCN-based HD 7850M GPU all fitted in a sleek, good looking package.
Great specs for gaming, and it has the proper dual-fan rear exhaust cooling system that keeps up with the heaviest demanding loads on the system (Battlefield 3 64 player MP was tested for 40+ minutes straight without any issues, WASD key area remained cool).
3DMark11 Performance score (out of the box): P2540
3DMark11 Performance score (after tweaks): P2941
The Full HD 1080p screen may not be an IPS panel, but it still has great looking vibrant colors and viewing angles.
Don't be fooled by the "6-cell battery" spec: it has more actual volume than most 8-cell batteries out there. In fact, I did some personal testing with the battery by looping (non-stop) 720p MP4 video constantly over Wireless N at 60% screen brightness and it ended up lasting 4 hours and 17 minutes before asking to be shut off and plugged in. This is really impressive since this is a heavy load test using Wi-Fi, far more stressful than ordinary casual use (the only heavier usage perhaps could be... intensive gaming on battery, but no one does that... I hope).
Pros:
+Sleek look and design, pretty portable for a 17" High Performance Desktop Replacement Notebook
+All-aluminum body
+Much better airflow design than most notebook PCs on the market (but not including heavy giants like Alienware/Sager/ASUS G series/etc)
+Powerful 3rd gen Ivy Bridge Intel Core i7 quad-core CPU
+AMD Radeon HD 7850M w/ GDDR5 VRAM outperforms NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M w/ GDDR5
+8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM by Samsung
+Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) LED-backlit screen
+Well-suited for gaming
+Decent battery life
+Easy to upgrade RAM (both slots), Hard Drives (dual bays, with a spare SATA cable included and no second caddy), WLAN card, etc
+Stock hard drive is pretty fast (benchmarks at ~120 MB/s)
+Nice backlit keyboard, each key has an individual LED, with proximity sensor (it fades in and out with style)
+Slot-loading Blu-ray combo drive
+Greatly improved trackpad compared to previous notebooks (including competitors)
+Beats Audio with 6.1 speakers sound great for laptop speakers
+120W power adapter
Cons:
-Intel HM76 chipset, no RAID / SSD cache support (not a con if you use an SSD as OS drive though, which I do)
-TN panel
-IDT audio driver (which Beats Audio needs to work) is still a little buggy: can cause volume to change by itself during music playback sometimes (HP is aware of the issue)
-Retail version only comes with 1 year factory warranty
Other thoughts:
If you really want to make this machine fly, install an SSD like I did. This investment is worth every penny as it truly unleashes the beast. You should get either the Samsung 830 SSD or Intel 520 as both of these are the best SSDs on the market in terms of performance and reliability, at the time of this review. While the stock 750 GB 7200 RPM hard drive is no slouch, it is by far outpaced by an SSD.
If you do get an SSD, you won't need to worry about lack of space: just put the 750 GB hard drive in the second bay. Now you have the best of both worlds: large storage and fast speed.
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First want to start off with a little background. Having owned over 50 laptops from just about every make out there-some no longer even in business and over 1000+ personal computer builds, I would say I am a bit familiar with computers. Remember the Commodore SX-64? Yes, that was my first 'portable.' :) Also, I am not a fanboy of one make or another.
As I recently purchased a Nikon D800E 36.3 MP CMOS FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)I knew I needed something a bit faster with more storage options vs. my present VAIO (itself not a stellar laptop). Having first purchased the a HP ENVY 15-3040NR 15.6 Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) which I returned due to the continual quality issues that plague that model, I decided to give this Envy 17 a try.
Purchased from Amazon instead of HP, you lose out with 1 year of additional warranty coverage if that is important and given the track record and numerous complaints against the Envy line of computers, that may (should) be of importance to you unless your comfortable as I am with tearing apart a laptop to replace a fan, MB, etc down the line. Purchase from HP direct for 2 years.
Aesthetically speaking this is a nice laptop, set apart from the usual blend of PC laptops on the market, which, in my opinion is at it's worst in terms of styling in years. The back is a fingerprint magnet which takes a bit of work with a microfiber cloth to remove-even a damp one does not remove them with ease. Overall a good looking laptop but we all know appearance is subjective.
Some would say it resembles an Apple Apple MacBook Pro MD103LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION) which I agree with, then add this laptop looks even better vs. a MacBook Pro which have always been strange to me with so much space around the keyboard (no number pad). I spent a bit of time on the new MBP w/ Retina display (gorgeous) as that was my first option for a replacement laptop. The MacBook Pro is akin to an AMG with a supercharged V8 whereas this Envy is more like a Ford with a V8. One is quality throughout and fast, this one is a cost cutter yet still fast, if that makes any sense. Hey, I'm a car guy, so deal with it. Also, before some fanboy spills out that fact that the Apple cost more, well, umm, add up an SSD drive & IPS screen to that mix and factor in the far superior customer service offered by Apple vs. HP (see below). Also, the Samsung Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5C-S01US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silver) which cost less (also smaller screen) is also a better made laptop-albeit with WI-fi issues.
Unfortunately Apple decided to lock down their latest laptop with limited memory options (send in to solder upgraded memory or even to replace the battery) and for additional reasons such as no numerical keypad( which I use) , lack of drive options, etc, I looked elsewhere.
It arrived long before the original Amazon estimate which is always a good thing. Quick note:This is not an all silver laptop but silver with a black LCD backing. Interesting as they advertise the Envy 15 as silver/black, yet this model 'silver' so something to be aware of if an all silver laptop is important to you. I also upgraded this with 16gb of Corsair Vengeance Laptop Memory Kit 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL10 PC3 12800 (CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10). No issues and Photoshop, Lightroom ,etc. all use up 11+gb of it when in heavy use and this laptop does well under this load.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
No CDs come with this unit and the recovery software/drivers much be downloaded onto DVDs (which many have complained on forums and I agree as well does not work) or a USB stick-which does work better. I opted instead to order the backup DVDs from HP. Using the built in HP app which pulls up the serial number, paid and ordered the unit (remember the good ol days when they were included?), and waited a week to receive the WRONG DVD's.
And this is where the boys are separated from the men. From a company that only believes in appeasing their stockholders (HP) vs. a company that cares about their customers (other than HP). 1 HOUR on their chat support to inform them I received the incorrect DVDs. ONE HOUR with someone from another country that took over 5 minutes to respond to 'each' question. ONE HOUR to deal with someone that was utterly incompetent and asked run-around questions even asking questions when I directly answered already. I was not even communicating over a defective computer, just the DVDs! Can you imagine the support I would have received if they tried to DX a real hardware issue? Yes, it was that bad. In fact, I still do not know if the proper DVDs I paid for are on the way, so I might just end up disputing with the card company. Do yourself a favor and peruse the various forums on HP customer service....
Okay, so let's move on from this customer service 'experience' and discuss the hardware.
Loaded up my various Adobe programs, so far all is well until I load up Office 2010. Though the install went fine, the disc would not eject. Nope, my Office DVD was stuck in the laptop. Keep in mind that there is no eject button so if this was a recovery DVD on a new drive, your pretty much screwed getting it out. Some HP laptops have a function to eject a disc if booting, does not work on this one that I could find.
So my options were to either deal with the HP customer chat which we all know how that went the first time (deliberate?), I decided to just go ahead and open it up. Two covers grace the bottom of the laptop. The first slides out to reveal a battery (which you cannot remove, more on that later), and both SATA drive slots. The other half must be removed with 6 screws and covers the rest of the bottom of the laptop. Under this is where you would install the mSATA drive card and have access to other components including the CD drive unit. I removed the CD drive and found a piece of felt lining was blocking the disc from ejecting. I carefully pushed this felt down and it has stayed down since. It appears the laptop bypassed their felt/glue quality control dept :) Very minor fix for me, yet for some, expect to send in to HP at YOUR cost and wait 2-3 weeks for repair. Add a bit of gravy, when the CD is spinning, it sounds like....well..some little Civic with a coffee can exhaust full of nuts and bolts. This was prior and post of my repair. Rattle rattle rattle. Will have to go in and perhaps place some thick padding between the drive and cover.
DRIVES
I decided to order up a speedy Corsair Force GT 240 GB SATA III/6G SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive CSSD-F240GBGT-BK. USPS ended up losing it, so I ordered one elsewhere while Amazon sorted that out. It now has two of these SATA drives and boy are they quick. Problem though (gee, surprise), only ONE of the SATA drive bays is actually SATA III. The other slot is only SATA II and YES, it does make a significant different in speed, especially when dealing with 47megapixel photos from the Nikon, and HD video. HP, really, was the extra $2.00 so much more that you elected against it? Also, only one HD cradle comes with the laptop, if installing a 2nd drive a new cradle cost around $30. If using a lightweight SSD, double side tape works fine as the cover holds it in anyhow and SSD drives weigh little.
With both Windows 7 and prelease Windows 8 installed I ran the various benchmarks and yes can confirm the laptop is speedy. For a laptop, it is very fast with the proper drives. FYI, for Windows 8, almost all functionality is there except for some of the HP items such as BEATS, support, etc. Also, only the on-board cpu video will work, could not get the Radeon video card to work at all as switching simply did not occur. If you also plan on installing a Hackintosh setup, again, no Radeon drivers for MACs.
I have also installed a Mushkin Direct Atlas Deluxe 120GB mSATA SATA III Solid State Drive MKNSSDAT120GB-DX purchased elsewhere as Amazon was again out of stock. And this is where again the limitations of this laptop/HP Engineering Dept. rears itself. The BIOS in this laptop is a cheap, run of the mill, lower life-form BIOS that HP obviously received for free for taking someone to the ballgame. It is by far the worst BIOS of any computer-all of them-that I have come across. Absolutely no options in BIOS. So here we have a laptop which accommodates 3 hard drives, yet no boot options. In other words you cannot specify if you want to boot from the mSATA drive, SSD drive 1 or 2. Nope, once you install the mSATA drive the laptop will boot from that drive and only that drive! Yep, thanks HP for being either cheap or ignorant-perhaps both. Here you have your "performance' upscale laptop yet saved $2.00 on the chipset that you currently have in your DV series. Smart. And we will not even discuss RAID options, simply because THERE ARE NONE! Nope, 3 drives, and no RAID options in this computer. Well of course not, since all of the drives are different. We have one SATA III mSATA slot, one SATA III slot, and then the SATA II slot. Sniffing paint must be a prerequisite for working in the HP engineering department.
SCREEN
One of the reasons I initially had picked up the Envy 15 and considering the Macbook Pro was the IPS screens, similar to hi-end quality tablets. This computer does not come with one, though HP does offer great screens on their HP workstation laptops, which compares favorably to the Macbook Retina. This Envy 17 has a standard LED backlit screen, though it is bright, not washed out, and offers decent viewing angles. It is in no way an IPS display. But the Envy 15 IPS display has significant built in flaws that is well known and prevent accurate blues and reds from displaying-important for photography. But, for what it is, this is a good display and far better than my several prior laptops. One of the better LCDs. It is reflective so do not expect good visibility outdoors or in bright lighting situations.
KEYBOARD/TOUCHPAD
I had made a comment about the chipset being free to HP from a ballgame trip. The keyboard must have been tossed in for giggles. The Envy 15 is notorious for a horrible keyboard, this one is second, along with the touchpad. Go to a store and play with an Apple or even a Samsung laptop, then spend time with the Envy. Yep, that there folks is what is called CHEAP! Typing this review, several letters were missed, and the touchpad itself often times takes a few clicks. Gestures work-sometimes. There is a firmware update to correct the prior issues with this and it did help, but now this is more an issue with cheap hardware vs. software. A few of my keys squeak like a old Chevy Malibu. Flex on the left side, firm on the right side. It is almost as if you have two different keyboards on the same laptop. The demo units at the stores were no different. Now, if you are accustomed to the lower end of quality with your purchases, then perhaps the keyboard/touchpad will not bother you or even be noticeable. However if you have expectations a $1300 laptop should feel like one..........It does have a backlight for the keys, not as nice as Samsung , but OK, if not centered on the keys. Again, the word quality comes to mind-or lack of. But the keys are well lit, just not evenly. They also come on when they suppose to which is something prior laptops had difficulty with for whatever reason.
Moving on, gaming is great on the laptop, though you do have to 'play' with it to work properly. Again, this laptop is just full of excuses. It has switchable graphics, one on the cpu for low power consumption, and the other a genuine video card. Whereas on most laptops with switchable graphics have an option to manually switch them-even in BIOS, not this one. Nope you are at the whim of the HP software to switch for you and it does not doe a good job at it. Now you can set it to POPUP a window every time an application launches in order for it to be assigned to a video card, but what a pain, and, after some time I noticed even those just 'disappear'. Poof, gone! Again, the whole sniffing paint theory comes to mind.
Now when it does work, games such as Bioshock 2, Portal 2, etc are a gem to the eyes. Even at max settings 1920x and options maxed out, very smooth gameplay with honest frame rates. And yes, you can even overclock the video card to very healthy levels. MSI has a great utility and the Radeon driver needs to be patched. Check the forums.
Unit has 4 USB 3.0 ports with one being a 'charging' port which to me means nothing as they all put out 5volts-perhaps someone can enlighten me. They are fast. With a Kingston's USB 3.0 Media Reader Computer Memory FCR-HS3 and Lexar 1000x CF cards, media just flies off the cards onto the laptop's SSD drives in no time. SATA III drive, not the slower SATA II drive.
AUDIO
Audio is exceptional, for a laptop. Has BEATSs if that matters, more marketing gimmick IMO. Has a nice dial for volume which works well though could be a tad tighter, I did notice it doe not work while watching youtube. There is also a convenient Mute button under the dial. But, if the laptop goes into Hibernate or Sleep, mute is not longer muted when it comes back to life. At least on mine. My Bose headphones work great with no electrical hiss that I experienced with my VAIO and a couple of others.
Does have a proximity sensor which turns on the laptop if you walk up to it, at least the literature states it should. Does not seem to work on mine or perhaps you need to be larger than 6' 200lbs. The red little proximity lights do look cool nonetheless.
BATTERY
Though the battery is easy to access under the first cover, it screws in and those are covered with small black stickers. Removal 'VOIDS' the warranty. Go figure as this makes no sense whatsoever. I like to carry a spare battery with me, especially when traveling as we all know half the time on a plane trip is spent waiting and outlets are scarce. HP will allow you install a mSATA drive, RAM, but not swap a battery. LOL. Out comes the tablet. Life on balanced with screen brightness up is 3-3.5 hrs. I do not use a laptop with dim screens as to me it is unusable unless your in pitch darkness.
WI_FI/BLUETOOTH
Wi-Fi is very good with strong signals from my 5G router, even downstairs, outside, through walls, one of the better units I have had in regards to signal and speed. 802.11a/b/g/n with gigabit Ethernet. Bluetooth is also included though so far using my Lenova BT mouse I encounter an issue where it stops working for 30 seconds or so every 15-25 minutes. I can say this is a common issue with HP laptops (Google it), but at this time have not looked into whether it is the mouse or laptop. A mini USB mouse works just fine without interruption.
Well, there you have it. No fanboyism here, no need to justify my purchases. To sum up, a laptop that could have been great if not crippled with a couple of poor engineering decisions, and/or bean-counters with no retail experience. Good looking, thin, and very fast with the proper setup, and fairly small for a 17" laptop, though far from say a MacBookPro 17 which is no longer offered anyhow and has one drive bay.
PROS:
Aesthetically pleasing
Thin
Good graphics when it switches properly
Fast when properly setup
Good screen if a tad date and not comparable to an IPS
Excellent audio
Charges reasonably quick.
Good battery life for a 17" laptop with 3-3.5hrs on performance mode working on documents, photos, etc. NOT 7+hrs as they claim unless you turn it down ALL OF WAY (very dark screen).
Does not heat up, relatively cool running.
CONS
Stuck CD, no physical eject.
Battery not swappable
Horrible BIOS limits graphics switching and drive options
Three drives, yet NO RAID.
Only 2 of 3 drives are SATA III, remaining drive is SATA II.
Back is fingerprint magnet.
CHEAP, and I do mean CHEAP keyboard. Want to squeak at Starbucks?
Budget touchpad results in repeat attempts.
Legendary horrible overseas HP support.
No CDs enclosed and to order a proper set is next to impossible and DVD backup does not work. Use USB stick.
I gave this 2 stars because 2.5 stars are not available. This is due to the quality issues and of course HP customer service. Her chat name being Ashit. Yep, serious, that was it. IF my recovery DVDs arrive that I paid for in the next few days, then I will bump it up to 3, but it is not going higher than that unless HP sends out a real keyboard and does something with the childish firmware. One point lost for each of those issues. Yes, this could have been an 'honest' 5 point laptop.
If you are coming from one of those $200 laptops they give out at the door during the holidays, this laptop will excite you, though I have seen those with better keyboards. If on the other hand you expect real quality from your money and have owned decent laptops in the past, then you better be prepared to accept the limitations of this machine. Even with it's flaws, I do like it, but will not keep it for long, just until something 'better' comes along. I'm always looking.
A more appropriate name for this laptop would have been 'Compromise 17" vs. Envy 17. If your on the fence about this purchase, one thing to consider is Amazon has a darn good return policy (if Amazon is the seller, not a 3rd party) , on a laptop they generally send UPS to your door the next business day for pickup.
UPDATE: Well, 2 days after the time frame I was given by HP chat support Ashit on my replacement DVDs, I started another chat session-I'm stubborn that way. This time with Pooja P. All of the same information had to be provided-again! Information had to be repeated-again. 2-7 minutes between answers-again. After FORTY FIVE MINUTES-nothing, she told me they 'could not provide me with recovery DVDs that match my product ID, but match my computer." HUH? The product ID is on the sticker on the back of the computer. Go figure. Anyhow, disputed with my credit union on the charge. So much for giving HP another chance. And to reiterate, this is just for DVDs. Imagine if my screen went blank or similar.....
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*EDIT* Two different edits are at the bottom, concerning my change from 5 stars to 3.
I've only had this laptop for a few days, but so far my impressions are mostly positive.
Packaging 5/5
Nice looking and feeling packaging. My Envy was well secured and protected by the packaging. I like the little suede sleeve that was included, as well as the small zip-up bag for the power brick, both subtly branded.
Build 5/5
The laptop's build is very nice. The hinges are firm and secure, the aluminum body and the lid do not flex at all, and nothing rattles when you gently shake it. Overall build quality is good.
Design 4/5
Well, it's pretty obvious with just a glance what laptop computer line this laptop is Envious of. The striking resemblance between the HP Envy and the Macbook Pro line has been commented on plenty of times before, but it's worth saying that it's almost lawsuit worthy. It's really hard to begrudge it anything for copying the design, though, because it's the best design out there. There are a few unique touches, though, and they're actually quite nice. The HP-branded back of the screen is black and a bit less ostentatious than the Pro, and the Beats volume dial on the right side of the Envy is red and chrome and certainly more ostentatious than anything found on the Pro, but I still found it very nice to work with, along with the mute button placed below it. The design of this notebook is pleasing but derivative.
Display 4/5
The display is nicely built all glass, side to side, with slight branding (small HP in the bottom middle, "ENVY17" in top right, and "beatsaudio" in top left). I don't much appreciate all the "beats" branding, but it's rather worth it considering the sound system (more on that later). The display is standard full HD, 1920x1080, and is nice for games, movies and web-browsing but that's about it. It isn't an IPS screen but just about includes the full sRGB gamut, which makes it better for image editing than 95% of laptops. In the era of the Macbook Pro Retina, 1080p might seem a bit underwhelming to some, but for the price it is appropriate.
Connectivity 4.5/5
The Envy 17 is equipped with an outstanding four USB 3.0 ports, which puts it in the top of its class. Most high end laptops have just two or maybe three, and perhaps a USB 2.1 port as well, which is just silly in this day and age. It also has a Blu-ray drive, two Displayports, an HDMI port, a microphone port, two headphone jacks (yes, two!), a card reader, and an ethernet port. The Envy's connectivity is nearly perfect. Yes, they've knocked off the heavy, ugly VGA ports of laptops from a decade ago, but the Displayports and HDMI ports can do the job better. One small problem with the ports: the USB ports are too close together. It's a pet peeve of mine when laptops have close, adjacent USB ports, since flash drives and other device can then block the ports beside them. These USB ports are placed just closely enough that this could be a problem for some.
Keyboard 5/5
It's a slightly upgraded Macbook Pro keyboard. I prefer my mechanical Das Keyboard, but this laptop's keyboard is clickie and satisfying for a portable keyboard. No squeaky keys or other complaints here.
Trackpad 5/5
It's responsive, supports gestures, can left or right click anywhere, and can be turned off with an easy double-tap to the top left. Very nice.
Portability 3/5
This is not a light laptop, but it's less bulky than the admittedly more powerful gaming offerings from MSI or Alienware.
Internals 5/5
Here's where the Envy starts to really beat the object of its envy. The base model is equipped with an i7-3610, the base-level quad-core current generation intel chip. It may be the base level chip (at the top end level, anyway), but it is plenty fast. In addition, the Envy features 8gb of 1600mhz DDR3, a fast 750gb HDD, and most importantly an HD Radeon 7850m.
What does this all mean? It means that the HP Envy 17 is a very fast machine that leaves Macbook Pros and other similar laptops in the dust. Playing the latest games at the highest settings isn't an issue I've tested Borderlands 2, Guild Wars 2, and the dreaded Metro 2033, and it has performed well in all three at native resolution.
Upgradability 4/5
On getting my Envy, the first thing I did was added an SSD and 16gb of corsair memory. Opening it up and adding a hard drive is simple and takes seconds, but to access the RAM you'll need to unscrew 6 different screws. The battery is non-removable, and the network card is the only other thing that can easily be removed.
I mirrored the original HDD to an OCZ Vertex III SSD OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-Inch Performance Solid State Drive (SSD) with Max 550MB/s Read and Max 4KB Write 85K IOPSVTX3-25SAT3-120G in the secondary slot, then I switched the SSD to the primary slot. The OCZ Vertex III isn't the fastest SSD on the market, but it works very well as a boot drive, and with it I get a cold boot up time of 9 seconds.
Temperature 5/5
Two hours of high settings Borderlands 2 and no part of this laptop was even warm. Ambient temperature of about 68 fahrenheit. Very impressive. Fans are also quiet.
I've monitored the laptop with the Core Temp application and noticed an idle temperature of about 40 degrees celsius. The i7-3610 is rated safe for temperatures of up to 105 degrees, for comparison. In heavy gaming I've seen temperatures peak up to the high 60s still not enough to make the chassis hot. This laptop apparently has an excellent cooling system, and overheating is no concern.
Sound 5/5
Let me preface this by saying I'm not a fan of beatsaudio in general. I think that the headphones are overpriced and the benefits from them are mostly placebo effect built by strong marketing. I was quite surprised, then, to find in the Envy 17 simply the best sound I've ever heard from a laptop. I'll go further: it sounds significantly better than my Bose Companion 2 speakers (a decent, $100 pair of computer speakers). The sound on this laptop is enough to fill a 15'x15' room, at 75% volume. As if that weren't enough, the Envy 17 includes two headphone jacks (and 4 USB 3.0 ports) for airplanes and other quiet places. But trust me, you'll be wanting to blast music without the headphones as often as possible.
Battery 5/5
The battery also shocked me. It lasted me over 5 hours at 70% brightness, on the internet, using MS office, and listening to music. This is thanks in a great deal to the Enduro switching technology which only utilizes the HD 7850 for gaming and leaves Intel HD 4000 graphics on the rest of the time. Top of the line battery life for a 17 inch laptop.
Overall 4.5/5
The HP Envy 17-3270nr has surpassed my expectations in a number of ways. Build quality, keyboard, trackpad, battery, and design are all as nice as the computer HP copied, and audio, ports, and gaming capabilities all greatly surpass it. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a high quality, fashionable desktop replacement laptop that is equally great at gaming and productivity.
*EDIT 10/5/2012* This laptop is still working fantastically for me. I've run several other games, all at top or near-top settings. The battery life continues to impress me: I can watch two full blu-ray films and still have battery left over, which is pretty cool for a 17 inch desktop replacement the HD 4000/Radeon HD 7850 graphic switching is the reason for this. I've added information about switching out the HDD for an SSD as well as information about the CPU temperatures.
*EDIT 11/15/2012* After about a month and a half of use I've removed a star and a half from my rating for the following reasons.
Wifi connection issues: The wifi on this laptop is very spotty. Often it connects for hours at a time then switches to "Unidentified Network: No Internet Access." This hasn't happened to me on any other laptops.
USB issues: Both USB ports on the left side often don't work when devices are plugged in prior to a boot devices need unplugged and then plugged back in to function.
Trackpad: I don't use it much, but on the occasions that I have I've been very annoyed. Scrolling and zooming with multitouch are all but impossible.
Intel Widi: Doesn't work, flat out. It's worked with every other HP laptop I've used and is supposed to work with this one.
Continuing Graphic problems: Being able to set which GPU to use for specific games is great in concept but doesn't always work, rendering some games unplayable at decent resolutions.
All in all, at this point I wish I would have bit the bullet and bought a 15" retina MBP instead to run in boot camp. I like having a 17" screen, but the tradeoffs aren't worth it.
Honest reviews on HP Envy 17-3270NR 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver)
I bought this because I wanted a desktop replacement laptop that has a big screen and will accept two hard drives (one SSD for programs and boot, one big hard drive for 25 years of data -yes, I still have files from 25 years ago on my computer!) and with USB3. My other laptop is a 15" Macbook Pro, and it's a nice mobile workstation, but Apple doesn't sell anything like this computer. Apple doesn't "do" desktop replacement laptops -wouldn't want to cut into their iMac franchise, I guess.
First, size and appearances: It's like HP took a Macbook Pro and inflated it. But appearances are deceiving. Like fat women who skillfully choose their wardrobe to hide the fact that they are, duh, *fat*, the Envy 17 uses a black ring around its base to hide the fact that it's well over half an inch taller than a Macbook Pro. The lid is black for the same reason, because black is slimming and hides the fact that the lid is almost a quarter inch thicker than a Macbook Pro's lid. The thin silver ring that shows between the two black mounds on top and bottom draw your eye and make the computer look slimmer than it really is, but it's a fat computer. Pretty much as fat as my last HP laptop, which I bought in 2003. So be forewarned -this is a desktop replacement laptop, *not* something you want to be trying to use on a train or airplane. Still, it's an attractive hunk of machine. Someone at work thought I had gotten a new Macbook Pro until he realized that a) it was way bigger than any Macbook Pro sold today, and b) it has an HP emblem below the screen, heh.
Secondly, performance: Top-notch performance for everything but graphics. HP deliberately used a less-than-top-of-the-line AMD graphics chip to reduce the power consumption. Still, even the graphics are faster than anything other than a dedicated gaming laptop that runs hot, has four howling fans, and has a battery life of maybe 20 minutes if you unplug it (i.e., just long enough to finish your round and save your game).
Battery life -ah yes. Battery life is actually pretty good. I'm a Linux software developer so I'm running Fedora 17 under VirtualBox and using the Windows side for email and web browsing, and VirtualBox is well known to chew up battery power -on my Macbook Pro I'm lucky to get four hours on battery while running the same basic set of software. Which is about what I get here with that same basic set of software. Not bad. Not bad at all. Decidedly better than my 2003 vintage HP, which was lucky to last 50 minutes on a battery charge.
That Synaptics Clickpad -it is an atrocity. I am having the *exact* same issues with it today that Engadget had when they reviewed the Envy 17 in 2010 -almost THREE YEARS AGO! The Envy 17 has been redesigned twice since then, and there's been at least five updates to the driver released since then, yet HP and Synaptics *still* can't get the Clickpad to work even half as well as the one on my Macbook Pro? PITIFUL! So, uhm, what are my complaints? a) If I leave it set to full sensitivity, the "capacitive" part of the pad appears to pick up motions of my hand that aren't even touching the pad, my cursor ends up jumping all over the screen. b) If I turn the sensitivity all the way down, the pad becomes usable... but 1) the on/off thingy (top left corner) becomes very difficult to trigger (have to peck it like a friggin' *pigeon*, over and over again, before it'll finally turn off the touchpad) and b) two-finger scrolling up and down comes and goes. You can also configure the touchpad to do one-finger scrolling like my 2003 vintage HP, but part of the joy of a multi-touch touchpad is being able to use the whole surface for pointer motions -which you can't do if you dedicate the entire right half-inch of the touchpad to scrolling like on my 2003 vintage HP. And finally, the one-finger click-and-hold *sort* of works, but I really can't move files far to drop them into folders before I hit the side of the touchpad -and the function that's supposed to keep moving when I hit the edge doesn't work. So instead, I have to treat it like my 2003 vintage touchpad -use a finger of my left hand to click the bottom left corner as if it were a traditional touchpad button, and using the index finger of my right hand, then drag the icon to the folder, picking the finger up and relocating it as needed to keep moving once the finger hits the edge.
So basically, the only way to really make this supposedly high-tech ClickPad actually usable is to disable all the advanced features and treat it like a 2003 vintage HP touchpad with funny button locations? Well, yeah. Pretty much. What a waste. Just goes to show that HP has nobody who sweats the details like Apple does. HP releases when it's good enough. Apple releases when it's right. Well, it's good enough, if you treat it like a 2003 vintage touchpad and disable all the advanced features. That's the best you can say about this clickpad. But it could have been *great*, if anybody had cared to sweat the details.
Okay, last details -the power supply is pretty big, but it's a big computer, so (shrug). I must say that I *am* impressed by the temperature control. This laptop doesn't get hot. HP used that extra space to put a layer of air between the innards and the outer shell, and it's *moving* air, so the end result is that the computer is much cooler than my Macbook Pro, which uses the case as a heat sink. The Macbook Pro will burn my left leg if I put it on my lap, I have to use a piece of foam between the computer and my lap. The HP is cool to the touch even on the bottom. Very impressive.
And finally: Windows 7. Blech. HP can't be blamed for some of the lack of functionality, it's all Microsoft. For example, Windows Backup simply won't create a backup on an external USB drive for me. Checking Microsoft's forum shows people having the exact same problem with Windows 7, with exact same error message, since 2008 -almost five years ago! Yet Microsoft simply hand-waved on every bug report about how it had to be something third party blah blah blah oh no it couldn't be their perfect software... and has been saying this for five years of continuous bug reports! So if the OS seems buggy, that's because Microsoft sweats the details about as much as HP's trackpad engineer did... i.e., not so much.
Final thought about HP "service": I bought an extended warranty at the same time that I bought the computer via HP's web site. It was pretty cheap and got me two years of on-site service, including accidental damage protection. So I went to register the warranty, again on HP's web site, and the web site asked me to enter the model number and serial number off the bottom of the computer. I did so. The web site promptly told me that no such model number existed. I thought I mistyped it so tried a couple more times -and got the same message. Baffled, I went back to the email where I ordered it -and found a totally different model number there. It appears that HP's Shanghai factory apparently invented a new model number for my computer that exists nowhere in any HP IT system anywhere, and is utterly unknown outside of Shanghai. I registered the computer under the model number on the invoice, so (shrug). So it goes. Will pass that hurdle when I get to it. But that's the sort of nonsense I expect from startups with poor IT processes, not from established giants in the IT industry. Just goes to show how badly HP is executing nowadays -something to keep in mind if you really rely on your computer for business purposes and have no backup computer to use if this computer goes whack.
So there you have it. It's a big fast desktop replacement laptop from a big but failing megacorp with a reputation for releasing "good enough" products, that is running Windows 7. If you're expecting Apple quality, you aren't going to get it. If you're expecting high performance and good battery life in a "good enough" product... well, there you go. It's all about expectations and managing them. I wasn't expecting Apple quality from a company like HP for this price... and didn't get Apple quality, except for performance and battery life. So it goes.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Envy 17-3270NR 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver)
The good:
-Good build quality, feels very solid. Screen is designed not to rest on keyboard, keeping it cleaner and safe from damage. Screen hinge is also nicer than most laptops. Had a small (almost invisible to the naked eye) defect in the frame when first shipped, but HP customer support took care of it for free and very quickly.
-Best touchpad I've ever used, including macbook pros. Allows you to two-finger scroll, pinch-zoom, also you can right and left click (which I love).
-Very powerful, lots of guts for the price.
-Doesn't come with bloatware! Actually has software you can use, including PowerDVD 12 (the only consistently useful blu-ray playing program for PCs), Photoshop elements, and Adobe Premiere Elements
-Fan is silent and keeps it cool, much better than previous HP laptops
-Screen is beautiful
-Function keys (F1-F12) are actually useful for adjusting screen brightness, etc.
-Powers up and down faster than any other windows machine I've used.
-Awesome keyboard, backlight is nice and fades on/off when in or out of use.
-Beats audio actually sounds really nice! Also, the dedicated volume knob is very useful, as is the dedicated mute button.
-Comes with a nice suede sleeve for the laptop
-HP customer support was super fast and responsive (via email, repaired minor frame defect and they paid overnight shipping both ways!)
-The red stripe around the recessed keyboard is cool.
-Blu-ray drive doesn't pop out, you just slide it into a slot in the side
-Lots of USB ports, dual headphone jacks
The bad:
-still comes with two stickers on the frame (I HATE STICKERS ON MY COMPUTERS)
-back of screen is very fingerprint prone
-power adapter is kinda huge
-not a light laptop (but hey, it's 17 inches, what did you expect?)
-not inexpensive
Summary:
This laptop synthesizes many of the design and structural elements of a macbook pro with the power you'd expect for the price in a PC. Between the combo integrated/dedicated graphics cards, 8 GB ram, i7 processor, and 7200RPM hard drive, this is a heck of a computer. It feels more like a premium, well thought-out product than any other PC laptop I've ever seen or used.
Update: as of December, after using it for several months and commuting with it daily, this laptop has held up great. Also, it can play Hitman: Absolution at high or even ultra settings.
