HP Envy 15 'Lynnfield' Core i7 laptop

It might be more accurate to refer to HP’s latest laptop as the ‘Apple Envy’, as the design of the machine so closely mimics that of Apple’s MacBook Pro range. But, to be fair to HP, it hasn’t simply copied Apple. It has added some nice touches of its own, and its use of the Intel Core i7 processor ensures that the Envy 15 …

[Rob Moir]

Run for their money

"Nonetheless, the external design of the Envy 15 is extremely attractive and shows that 'boring old PC manufacturers' can give Apple’s design team a run for their money when they bother to make the effort."

I'm not sure that copying someone is giving them a run for their money.

Nice bit of kit though, Cheap, powerful MBPs all around if this baby hackintoshes well.

[DefUnct]

Umm...external drive?

Let me get this straight, its about the same as a MacBook Pro, but, somehow, they forgot to put in a CD drive when the HP design guys were drawing this with crayons, so they included an external and it made you feel all warm and fuzzy? Eh?

If im hanging on to a big notebook, i expect its insides to stay inside - at least the bits i know we use as standard - and especially if its big enough to be a desktop cross-over / substitute (ie those that dont have desktop, like me.) Disks are big enough now that i dont need 6 HDD bays to have a usable comp, so why not just shove the thing inside and be done with it?

Nice looking otherwise though :-)

[David Gosnell]

15.6in screen

Won't read much beyond the first page and conclusion then. 15.6 inches is the most stupid laptop screen size I have ever had the misfortune to try for a few hours - before it got swapped for a laptop with a usable screen ratio. Be prepared for applications not to fit properly (or have such a small usable vertical area as to be useless) and to upgrade your desk and/or lap, and carry cases etc because these things are typically so wide.

Paris, because even she knows that 15.6 inches aren't necessarily better than 15.4.

[sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD]

nice.. I'll watch out for it.

I'd have to test one out... notebooks / laptops more than any other type of computer, to me, are like shoes... you have to be happy with the build quality, keyboard, screen, angle etc.. it's not just about specs, of which this appears to have in quite adequate amounts for a desktop replacement.

And I like the external optical drive bit. I've oft heard of discs getting stuck in slot loading laptops (fortunately that ain't never happened to me yet, but maybe it's because I rarely use the optical drive anyways, so yeah, external don't bother me one bit).

[david bates]

use the lower left and right corners of the trackpad.....

... like conventional mouse buttons..?

Sorry - call me old fashioned, but for north of 1K I WANT proper buttons...

[Paul_Knight]

Screen resolution

It's a shame that HP have watered down the specification of this machine for the UK market. US models have a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 and the UK model has a measily 1366 x 768.

[bygjohn]

Thought you said it was well-designed?

What's all that tacky swirly stuff round the trackpad, then? Yecchh!

[Fuzz]

@Screen resolution: Agreeded

If I'm paying over £1000 for a laptop I want more resolution than that. 768 vertically is useless.

[Anonymous Coward]

Overpiced For The Spec.

So it's £1199, for that wonger, go for the HP Pavilion DV8-1080EA, far better machine, for the same price.

Product Description HP Pavilion dv8-1080ea Entertainment - Core i7 i7-720QM 1.6 GHz - 18.4" TFT

Recommended Use Home use, small business

Dimensions (WxDxH) 43.6 cm x 28.6 cm x 4.4 cm

Weight 4.1 kg

Localisation English / United Kingdom

System Type Notebook

Built-in Devices Stereo speakers, subwoofer, wireless LAN aerial, Bluetooth aerial

Embedded Security Fingerprint reader

Processor Intel Core i7 i7-720QM / 1.6 GHz ( Quad-Core )

Cache Memory 6 MB - L2 Cache

RAM 4 GB (installed) / 8 GB (max) - DDR3 SDRAM ( 1 x 4 GB )

Card Reader 5 in 1

Hard Drive 320 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 7200 rpm

Hard Drive (2nd) 320 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 7200 rpm

Optical Storage DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM / BD-ROM with LightScribe Technology

Display 18.4" TFT 1920 x 1080 - Ultra BrightView

Graphics Controller NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M - 1 GB

Audio Output Sound card

Networking Network adapter - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft)

Notebook Camera Integrated

Input Device Keyboard, touchpad

Battery Lithium Ion

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition

Environmental Standards EPA Energy Star

Manufacturer Warranty 1 year warranty

[hexx]

another ugly clone

man that's ugly, what's that surface around trackpad? and if i was to spend so much for a laptop i'd get macbook pro instead - well i did :)

[O]

Crap screen resolution isn't the only problem ...

As well as trying to pass off the low-res screen on the UK market (it's not even a lower cost option in the US), the SATA controller is crippled / doesn't work properly ....

I'd thought it funny that it didn't score higher in the hard disk benchmarks ... it's got a fast 7200rpm drive which ought to be way quicker than the other laptops listed. Also, reviews in the US of ones with an SSD have suspiciously low HDD benchmarks scores ....

I went fishing on the HP forums and found this - http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=Hardware&thread.id=19036

It seems that the SATA controller is crippled by (presumably) poorly written BIOS / drivers.

Quelle surprise ...

[rgb1]

ready to buy if it wasn't for the screen resolution

As a software developer I had been eagerly awaiting the release of this machine, timed to coincide with Windows 7.

Up to 16GB of ram making virtualisation a real possibility and the additional 9cell battery giving a reasonable time away from a power socket. But why the inadequate screen resolution? I've been checking the UK HP website every day since October 22nd in the vein hope that the 1920x1080 screened model (as per the US) might appear. Maybe I'll have to take look at Dell's Studio XPS 16 (even though I promised myself I wouldn't buy Dell again) as it is slowly dawning on me that we may not see the higher resolution screen in the UK, any time soon - unless anyone knows otherwise.

[Anonymous Coward]

Desktop replacement without an inbuilt optical drive?

WTF were they thinking?

[Bob Starling]

Yet another useless letter box screen

Was liking the sound of this machine until it got to the screen resolution. 768 deep is a waste of time, I'll never buy any laptop with less than a 1000 pixel deep screen.

[Steen Hive]

Ah No!

Not another bloody lozenge keyboard!

[Anonymous Coward]

Non-Starter

A "performance" laptop with no cd/dvd drive is a waste of time.