Any experiences with the HP Envy 17?

[Dat Guy]

I've mainly been working with an HP Elitebook (one of the four-digit ones) for the past few years. After my previous Dell Vostro, this is a really astonishing device, the reliability is so great that I decided never to buy a non-HP laptop ever again.

Now I thought it's time to upgrade, I could surely need more RAM (8 GiB are easy to fill), more CPU speed and an SSD (compiling stuff starts to become annoying). While I'm at it, I thought that I could also get a 17-inch machine next time, given that I use a different laptop for my mobile needs anyway. I, naturally, visited the HP website and I noticed that HP's Envy machines seem to have much better hardware for much less money. Now I'm confused.

 

Does anyone here have any experiences with the Envy, concerning the overall build quality? Will it last for four years of almost daily usage or is it much worse than the Elitebook's metal chassis?

 

Thanks.

[Pendragon]

What kind of budget are you working with. If you're use to business class laptops you'll be disappointed in everything else. The HP Envy 17 is fine for what it is, a consumer laptop, but for the same price (idk what your budget or prices are), you can get pretty good deals on Elitebooks, Thinkpads, or Latitudes. 

[Dat Guy]

My budget is around $1,500 or slightly more, given that I don't really care about "mobility" and other things. It'll probably just sit on my table. I have a strong feeling that the Elitebook is even too good for what I do with it.

 

New EliteBooks and ProBooks have a horrible lack of USB ports though; if they wouldn't, I wouldn't even have looked at the Envy.

[Pendragon]

10 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

Now I thought it's time to upgrade, I could surely need more RAM (8 GiB are easy to fill), more CPU speed and an SSD (compiling stuff starts to become annoying).

In that case I would recommend you get a quad core. There is no HP Envy 17 that has such a quad core, but Lenovo has an alternative in the Ideapad 700 17in. Both of these are consumer lines and if you don't take them anywhere, should be perfectly fine lastly 4 years. 

 

If you think having a duo-core HP Envy 17 is fine, then I would advise you take a look at the Dell Inspiron 17 7000 series as well because it's build quality is better with brushed aluminum and for consumer lines I just don't really trust HP. Mostly because they seem to be going in the right direction with their Omen 2015 series, and then in 2016 they went backwards. Their business line is still good though. 

 

10 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

HP's Envy machines seem to have much better hardware for much less money

Because their a consumer line and consumer stuff is priced much lower than business items. You get less build quality, less qc, less verification, less after sale support, worse call lines. All this comes at a cost that business users happily pay for. 

[Dat Guy]

My mother has an IdeaPad 17-inch. Feels cheap like a Toshiba to me.

 

Does Dell have a better build quality than in the Vostro 1510 days now? I remember a horrible piece of cheap plastic which fell into pieces over night. The Inspiron is near Envy quality though, right? (I lost track of the models. So many changes over the past few years.) The problem is the heavy price addition when stepping into the business lines, e.g. Precision. I basically trust HP because mine is so great, but the EliteBook brand seems to be burned by now, seeing the current models. (Less connectivity, worse displays. - Is there an Inspiron with four USB ports, a CD drive and 16 GiB of RAM? ) Oh well.

 

The Omen gaming laptops were never of any interest to me. My only regularly played game is OpenTTD.

 

16 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

You get less build quality, less qc, less verification, less after sale support, worse call lines. All this comes at a cost that business users happily pay for. 

The only interesting part of this (for me) is the build quality, and this is what my question was initially targeted at. Given that it's highly unlikely that I'll ever move the machine once I unboxed it, it should just be able to do the work (including some really high load for a couple of minutes while compiling and/or converting music which is rather seldom) for the next four years without suddenly falling apart or something.

 

A duo-core Skylake i7 is probably still faster than my quad-core Sandy Bridge. But, of course, more is always better. Here we are at the "business machines" again. Mobile Xeons, wheee. Sadly, quite double of my budget - as the starting price.

[Pendragon]

23 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

A duo-core Skylake i7 is probably still faster than my quad-core Sandy Bridge.

Oh dear no. duo-core skylakes will be wrecked by your quad-core sandy bridge LOL. I didn't realize that you already had a quad core, in that case you definitely still need a quad core

[Dat Guy]

OK, that makes things definitely harder. An affordable quad-core 16 GiB + SSD laptop with four USB ports and an acceptable build quality...?

[Pendragon]

Unfortunately I don't believe they make 17inch quad core business notebooks cept the workstations. And those are extremely expensive with Xeon's and Quadros. However 15inch laptops I know there are quite a few that are built great with a quad core and are in your budget.

 

Dell XPS15 2 USB ports

Dell E5570 3 USB ports

Dell E5470 3 USB ports

Thinkpad T460P i forgot how many usb ports

 

I would highly advise a E5470 or a XPS15 on the DellOutlets or Ebay. Both should definitely be within budget. Do you need a numberpad?

[Dat Guy]

One of the reasons I need four USB ports is my mechanical keyboard. A numpad on the laptop itself has rather optical advantages for me.

[Pendragon]

Just now, Dat Guy said:

One of the reasons I need four USB ports is my mechanical keyboard. A numpad on the laptop itself has rather optical advantages for me.

You need 4 usb ports for your mech keyboard? May I suggest a USB hub. 4 USB ports are actually hard to come by these days. Mostly because laptops need to accomodate for so many other ports.

[Dat Guy]

The T460p is a 14-inch laptop...?

[Dat Guy]

Just now, Pendragon said:

You need 4 usb ports for your mech keyboard?

 

Keyboard, mouse, two hard disks. But yes, a hub would be a great addition. For thumbdrives or something.

[Pendragon]

Just now, Dat Guy said:

The T460p is a 14-inch laptop...?

Yea. It's close enough to 15 and it's the only non workstation Thinkpad that has a quad core. 

[Dat Guy]

My mobile laptop (the one I carry with me when I need to carry one) is a 14-inch ThinkPad (quite old though). Really, they're just too small for replacing my "main machine". May be my fault.

[Pendragon]

4 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

My mobile laptop (the one I carry with me when I need to carry one) is a 14-inch ThinkPad (quite old though). Really, they're just too small for replacing my "main machine". May be my fault.

In that case your only real option is refurb/ebay 17inch workstations. Something like this would fit the bill. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Zbook-17-G3-Workstation-17-3-FHD-IPS-i7-6820HQ-256GB-SSD-24GB-NVIDIA-M1000M-/322118256833?hash=item4affbe88c1:g:XbQAAOSwDV1XQltU

[Pendragon]

Current 17inch workstations from the 3 big manufacturers are the: 

HP Zbook 17 G3

Dell Precision 7710

Lenovo Thinkpad P70

 

Try to find the right specs you like on ebay or refurbs.

[Dat Guy]

Hmm, neat, thanks. The Zbook is the former "EliteBook W" series, right?

 

The Precision has awesome specs, but I'm still unsure about Dell's durability.

Hmm.

 

I'll probably just wait for this year's 13th paycheck and stock up my budget, then throw a dice between those three. (Or maybe just Lenovo and HP? I guess I'll just count the USB ports...)

I was hoping 2016 wouldn't have worse laptops for the same price than 2012 had. Stupid me.

[Pendragon]

16 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

Hmm, neat, thanks. The Zbook is the former "EliteBook W" series, right?

I believe so, I'm actually not sure though. 

 

16 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

The Precision has awesome specs, but I'm still unsure about Dell's durability.

All three of the workstations I listed even when bought second hand or refurb have pretty beast on-site repair warranties. In most areas it's a 24 hour on-site guarantee. If it's just going to sit there, I would go Thinkpad or HP. Dell would be fine if you aren't looking for newer ports like HDMI 2.0 or TB3. I would say HP Zbooks manage to be consistently more expensive everybody else. Be very mindful when purchasing these things from ebay/refurb as you would need to find the exact right specs. Some of the base configurations have the worst screens I've seen in my life, but the upgraded ones are tier 1. 

[Dat Guy]

Thank you for the hints. I'll take some time to reconsider then.

 

/me silently deletes the Envy from his shopping list...

[Bootskii]

I bought an Envy in 2012. Its motherboard blew out about a year an a half ago. I hated it anyway. The BluRay drive never worked, even after I sent it off for "repair." I know cost to performance is awesome, but it's not worth the virtually non-existent reliability.