HP Envy Experiences

Dekabal

Can anyone who has an HP Envy 14 tell me how it is? I'm looking at getting an HP Envy 14 Beats Edition refurbished for $823.

b1rdman

I have one. I bought the Envy Beats 14 back in november. Its the black special edition with the beats logo and red backlighting. just brief spec overview for reference first:

core i5 560M
4 GB RAM
500 GB HDD

it also has the ati switchable graphics option, the reason i got the i5 instead of the i7 which didnt have the switch option.
Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. It was like 1300, give or take, but i hade a coupon at the time and got it for 900 brand new. I havent had it very long, but it hasnt given me any problems, or slowed down in the least. I have steam installed, but havent really run anything that would really tax the system. TF2, and some other games, but not really any graphics heavy games. so i can't really vouch for what it can handle in regards to that. The keyboard is quite nice, chiclet style kind of like the mac book. The backlight is nice, but like some reviews say, consistency can be an issue, and it is absolutely necessary at night with the beats branded edition i have, as it is really hard to see the red lettering on the black keys, with black backing. Sorry for the Macbook reference, but it seems to be what the developers were going for as far as i can tell from the videos i watched before buying. And I believe they tried to mimic as well as outdo apple.

The screen could be an issue for you, as the 14 has a 1366x768, which some think isnt large enough. I havent realy had any issues with it, but i dont really have any large displays to compare it to.

Battery life is decent, mainly due to the switchable graphics, and get better if you turn the beats option off and turn down the brightness when able to.

speaking of the beats, the sound is questionable. I understand the newer beats laptops have great speakers, with subwoofer options. This one did not, and the audio is great, but the speakers are a ittle lacking. But connect it to some nice speakers, or headphones, and the difference is night and day. The audio really comes to life.

The trackpad from my experience is quite good. blends in nice with the surface, click is firm, and multi-touch feels good. I dont have much experience with multi, but im slowly getting use to it.

The only real complaint i can think of having since purchasing, would be with the shortcut keys. Im use to using keys like f5 for refresh, f6 to select the web address toolbar, and alt+f4 to close windows, to name a few. for some reason, HP decided to make the top row usually designated for function keys(f1, f2, etc.) special laptop function keys like screen brightness, keyboard backlight, volume control, etc. So in order to use the functions i am use to, i need to press fn+the key i want. So alt+f4 becomes much more complicated and doesnt always want to work. Not really that big of a deal, but something to consider if you like shortcuts.

Well thats all i got for now. Sorry to run on, or if it wasnt what you were looking for. Im more than happy to answer any specific questions you may have.

Dekabal

Thanks for the reply. I'm probably going to wait to see the refresh models that should be coming out in April or May (when ever intel fixes the sandy bridge processor) but if those models don't look good, I will still get the Envy 14 Beats. just one more question: How is it with the slice battery? Does the battery life increase significantly and how bad is the weight?

b1rdman

I didn't get the slice battery, but have heard great things about it. When I start needing on the go more, I'll probably pick one up.

As for the weight, it isn't too bad. I don't feel burdened by it at all. I'd say it's slightly heavier than a mac book pro, simply because it it is a little thicker. But not overly so.