HP Envy 17: HP's MacBook Pro Killer?
by Dustin Sklavos on December 16, 2010 12:30 AM ESTConclusion: Not a Killer, But a Great Alternative
As we mentioned before, HP's Envy line of notebooks are often touted in the comments on our reviews as being alternatives to Apple's MacBook Pro series. In reviewing the Envy 17 at least, we find that's not entirely a fair comparison. Apple's notebooks seem designed more for students and visual arts professionals than for the average user, and the fact that HP equips the Envy with a modestly powerful Mobility Radeon HD 5850 should be evidence enough that they're gunning for another market entirely. That market, however, will probably be very happy with the Envy 17.
While our favorite gaming notebook remains the ASUS G73Jh/G73Jw, the ASUS notebook doesn't quite share the Envy 17's style. Dealing in strictly hardware, the ASUS is going to overpower the Envy 17, and that's due largely to the comparatively anemic Mobility Radeon HD 5850. The Mobility 5800s weren't a great line to begin with, incremental at best over the previous generation (although lest I be accused of an NVIDIA bias, I'm keen to point out that NVIDIA's GTX 480M was almost a bigger disappointment than the 5870), but the lower clocks on the Envy 17's 5850 start to impact playability on the unit's native 1080p resolution.
That 1080p resolution is, by the way, an upgrade you will want to shell out for, no question. The screen really is excellent, and if you need any further excuse to drop the $100 on the upgrade, note that HP advertises the default 1600x900 screen as having a 42% color gamut. That's downright awful and ranks easily among the worst of the screens we have to test. At the same time, the sweet screen is backed by the healthy Beats audio speaker system. Jarred swore by the speakers in the Dell XPS 15, and I'm keen to get our XPS 17 sample in here to really compare the two. While I didn't hear the subwoofer doing a whole lot of work, this is still a healthy jump over the normally dire notebook speakers we're used to and if audio quality is important to you, this would be one place where the Envy 17 absolutely trumps the bass-heavy and mushy sounding ASUS.
At the end of the day, the price is right on the Envy 17 and you get what you pay for. I'm not a big fan of the keyboard layout and touchpad, but neither of these are deal-breakers, and in exchange you do get a fairly fast multimedia machine. Battery life sucks, but that pretty much comes with the territory when you're dealing with notebooks like these. I'm not as completely blown away by the Envy 17 as some of our readers appear to be, but it's definitely a fine notebook and if the stealth fighter-inspired ASUS G73 doesn't do anything for you, it's worth taking a look at. Of course, the smaller Envy 14 is arguably the more interesting option, and Vivek will be looking at that in the near future, so stay tuned....
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gomakeit - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
agreed - same hereFinite Loop - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
When I reached page 42 of the article, I started getting this distinct feeling that I had read this article before.ciparis - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
The last page seems to be missing; it just redirects to the first page.I'd like to read the conclusion :)
mrmbmh - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Thanks for your nice review.when I click on the "conclusion page" it leads me to the first page... fix it please.
janwuyts - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
With that title for the article, why not include an actual macbook pro in the comparison?tarunactivity - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Yes. . Doesn't the ENVY have a right to face its accuser?Funny that the MBP does not feature in any of the charts!
retnuh - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Agreed, there should have been some attempt to compare where applicable, screen, weight, battery tests, jury rig win 7 bootcamp & newer drivers to test 3d even or starcraft2 (Win7) vs starcraft 2 (OSX), portal. But to use a headline like that and not include data from a MBP is lame. OR EVEN LINK to a review of the MBP inside the article so we can easily look up what was forgotten is even worse.Next time try,
title: "HP Envy 17 review"
somewhere in the first two paragraphs: "we've gotten a lot of requests to compare this to an apple mbp 17, here's a link to our previous review for comparison"
Then its a side note, for the curious, not a slap in the face.
retnuh - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
There doesn't seem to be a 17" MBP review, but here's the link to the 15" for those interested.http://www.anandtech.com/show/3669/apples-15inch-2...
damianrobertjones - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
"HP Envy 17: HP's MacBook Pro Killer?"Please, PLEASE, stop referencing damn apple products. You're instantly referencing another product and possibly removing sales by the headline alone, which, HP should be pretty annoyed at.
P.s. I own a HP Envy 13... fantastic machine (Once you slap an intel 1.8" SSD in there
takumsawsherman - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
This is perhaps unintentionally hilarious. The article sort of reads like an apology for HP. It's not supposed to be an HP advertisement, so therefore Anandtech shouldn't be worried that HP will be "annoyed". If HP didn't want to be annoyed, maybe they should have maybe created a product that was actually a credible threat to even the base MacBook, never mind the MacBook Pro. The battery life at *idle* is a complete laugh, and you cannot even watch a 90 minute movie!From the actual data of the review, and some salient points from the text, no one should ever buy this laptop. Of course, considering that HP just made me send in a customer's laptop in as opposed to sending me a replacement hard drive (in-warranty failure) unless I pre-paid for the hard drive (refund would be issued when they received the return part). This is on a laptop that is 10 months old and HP diagnosed the hard drive failure (after I already gave them info from another diagnostic tool - another 30 minutes on the phone so that they could verify).
Then there was the firmware update that was supposed to fix a problem with 4 laserjets on a network. These laserjets had this quirk since they were purchased a few years ago. Installed the updates, and one failed and borked the printer. HP's response? Not our problem, pay $40 for us to even chat with you. Problem - bad formatter board as a result of failed firmware upgrade, not our problem, though.
That is one of the many reasons why HP won't have a product that is a "killer" anything. They have no concern for the customer's view of them. There is no reason for anyone to be a "repeat" customer of HP.
(except ProCurve switches - never had a problem with that support or the products)