HP Envy 17: HP's MacBook Pro Killer?
by Dustin Sklavos on December 16, 2010 12:30 AM ESTBattery, Noise, and Heat
Given the high-end components in the HP Envy 17, this notebook clearly wasn't designed to live off the mains for too long. Still, HP has equipped it with a fairly robust six-cell, 62Whr battery and the parts are all capable of being somewhat power efficient.
And the expected mediocre battery life is pretty much what we get here. It should come as no surprise, and it's still a nice step up from the glorified UPS systems in the high-end Clevo notebooks. HP offers a nine-cell battery as an upgrade for the Envy 17 and that should push the unit's idle running time at least over two hours.
Temperatures
If HP brought the clocks down on the AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5850 to keep heat at a reasonable level, it seems like they may have cut a little too deep. The Envy 17 posts generally excellent thermals and the only part of the notebook that gets hot to the touch is near the exhaust in the top left. Unfortunately this is near the W-A-S-D cluster, and your palm may get slightly sweaty while gaming on the Envy 17, but it's nowhere near as bad as we've seen on other notebooks (the Gateway ID49C, for example, was uncomfortably hot.)
Unfortunately, the character of the noise by the fan is less than ideal. The notebook remains fairly quiet in normal use, but when the fan kicks on it falls on the high-pitched side. While running thermal tests I was able to mask it with the sound of music playing and so by extension, a good pair of headphones or even the Beats audio speakers built into the notebook should take a lot of the stank off, but this is the price you pay for performance and good thermals with a slimmer design.
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truk007 - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
"...we've been sitting at "adequate" for entirely too long. Here's hoping that the mobile variants of AMD's 6800/6900 series can leverage features such as PowerTune to give mobile gaming a shot in the arm."I've been waiting a very long time to buy a new laptop with the hopes that I can play the games I love at settings better than native. I want my laptop to be able to do most of the things my desktop does, especially gaming.
vol7ron - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
I think we all are waiting for that day. The ability to truly replace my desktop with a laptop and docking station is approaching, especially with USB3.0 and eSATA performance increases.I'm curious if the GPU in this laptop was clocked down for heat, or if battery life also played a role - I'd believe either.
What would be nice is if there was an interface that enabled me to use my desktop GPU on the laptop. I've seen mods where a guy set his desktop GPU and PSU on his desk and used it for his laptop (actual high-detail gaming). - If only there was a port on the laptop and an apparatus that you could sit your GPU into (with a high-data cable that connected to that port) that would serve as a more conventional way to do the same thing. Less modding and more standard.
Tros - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
I used to think the same thing, seriously.A SFF desktop will blow any desktop-replacement laptop out of the water though, and let you get a laptop for what it's made for (mobility). I used to have an Inspiron 9300 (17 in, GeForce 6800 Ultra), and it was fantastic. But then a couple years passed by and it wasn't good for gaming anymore, heavy, and didn't last long on a charge.
Now I have a shuttle-equivalent though, and LAN parties are better.
tyke - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
"at settings better than native"I don't think your comment really means anything.
Great_Scott - Monday, December 20, 2010 - link
So I guess you're not familiar with docking stations?MobiusStrip - Sunday, December 26, 2010 - link
We've also been sitting staring at our own reflections for too long. The continued fraud of glossy screens is just pathetic at this point. Even in the commercials and glamour shots for these computers, the screen is obscured by a white sheen, ruining the "deep blacks" and "rich colors" promised by third-tier vendors at Best Buy. And who's taking their cues from these purveyors of fake-chromed plastic laptops? Apple. HP. What an embarrassment for the companies and slap in the face to users.dagamer34 - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
I think calling anything a XXX killer dooms it to failure, and comparing this laptop to a MacBook Pro is a bit disingenuous. The only thing similar to this laptop and a MacBook Pro is the screen size, the price range, performance, and intended use cases are completely different!Anyway, outside of the few people that would rather not use suitcases to carry their PC to a LAN party, I see these laptops as being rather niche, even in a gamer's world.
quiksilvr - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Agreed. You can get 16" laptops with similar (if not better performance) and a smaller weight and footprint.To me, you can hit all markets with simply three laptop sizes: 12", 14", 16"
gc_ - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Screen size is not the same either --MacBookPro 17 has a 1920x1200 screen 16:10, case is 39.3 x 26.7 x 2.5 cm
Envy 17 has a 1080p (1920x1080) screen 16:9, case is 41.6 x 27.5 x 3.87 cm
Similarities include thinnish aluminum case, no-button pad, glass-to-edge display.
OneArmedScissorB - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
"I think calling anything a XXX killer dooms it to failure"But it guarantees people will click on the article and even reply. We're all being professionally trolled! :p