Will HP’s Envy really make you envious?

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of the Hp laptop battery   First post by: www.batterystores.ca

From time to time, world-class computer makers come up with a product that is fit only for a prince or princess.

We have the Ferrari Series from Acer as well as the Lamborghini VX1 from ASUS. It is now HP’s turn to show off a stately notebook.

They call their new family “HP Envy”, apparently in the hope that onlookers will envy those few who can afford it. Two models are available, the 13-inch and the 15-inch.

Certainly, both of these Envys are not meant to be mass market products like the HP Mini netbooks. Sales will be limited, and that seems to be exactly how they are intended to be.

To let you know why, here is the scoop on the prices: HP Envy 13 can be yours for US$2,666 while the price of the 15-inch model will set you back a mere $3,333.

Courtesy of HP Indonesia, I had the chance not only to touch but to use an HP Envy 13. It came in a special box, which reminded me of all the MacBook Pros I have played with.

My demo unit came complete with the slice secondary battery such as Hp OmniBook 6000 battery, Hp F1739A battery, Hp Omnibook XE battery, Hp F2024B battery, Hp F2024A battery, HP XH260 battery, HP Pavilion N5200 battery, Hp Omnibook XE3 battery, Hp 346970-001 battery, Hp HSTNN-DB02 battery, Hp HSTNN-UB02 battery and an external Optical Disk Drive (ODD, which is essentially a DVD-RAM drive).

The external design style is indeed very pretty and elegant. The casing is made of metal — aluminum and magnesium.

Unlike most notebooks today, the edges are slanted. The bottom part has a brushed, brighter silver color. The build feels extremely solid.

There are no feet underneath the body, as you are expected to place it on top of the secondary battery pack. This battery platform has the feet.

Unfortunately, there is no way we can raise the rear, so an equally expensive cooling fan may be the right companion for your Envy.

There is no question this notebook carries several innovative features. The USB connection of the ODD sends the audio signal into the system, so no extra audio cable is required.

The power plug is also made of metal, and I had to push a bit harder to insert it in place.

Under the lid, we will be immediately greeted by a rather uniquely designed multi-gesture touchpad.

Alas, I cannot say the touchpad functioned as beautifully as it looked, though.

For example, many of the latest notebook models today allow us to temporarily turn off the touchpad so that the cursor will not be jumping around as we type.

To disable Envy 13’s touchpad, you need to press the upper left corner of the panel.

I succeeded to turn it off only once. I guess I needed more time to read the manual and explore its capabilities.

When I turned this exquisite portable machine on, I was entertained by one of the best notebook screens. The colors were simply brilliant — even the old Elvis movie Loving You looked vibrant on the screen.

Again — unfortunately — the screen is covered from edge to edge with a clear but a bit glaring sheet, making it reflect the light and shadows in front of it.

It is now time to peep under the hood. The Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600 processor running at 1.86 GHz certainly makes the Envy 13 a great Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit machine.

I have no grip at all when it comes to responsiveness.

The speakers are on the left and side of the touchpad. Envy’s own audio capability was not as strong as I would love to have, though. Again, it may be because I did not know how to set it properly.

I do wish HP had not preinstalled so many utilities, as they tend to slow things down. For example, I had to try a few times to connect it wirelessly to my home network because I did not know which utility I was supposed to use.

Once the connection was established, however, the notebook was connected to my WLAN blazingly fast each time I turned it on.

There are some other features I found missing from this notebook. For example, it only has two USB ports. If we want to connect it to a network using a UTP cable, we first have to plug in a USB to RJ-45 converter.

I do not like extras like this, because they are usually lost or left at home just when we need them.

The ODD is of the slot type and I could not find a way to force a disc out in case it gets stuck inside due to peeled label. Therefore I always prefer the tray type.

More seriously, I think, are the shortcomings of the keyboard. First, HP seems to try to adopt Mac’s keyboard. The biggest problem is that key travel feels rather limited.

Next, the row of the function keys is smaller than the rest of the keyboard.

Then, instead of using the combination of Fn and one of the function keys, HP wants us press Ctrl-function keys to make the display brighter or dimmer, to pump up the audio or to mute it,

to start playback, to reverse or forward and to pause whatever we are playing.

The arrow keys are a bit too small, and I also failed to find the indispensable Home and End keys. I guess I really should have spent reading the user manual properly. Too bad, HP needed the unit back before I was able to do that.

What about weight and dimensions? The Envy 13 is a pretty lightweight work companion like the Timeline. It weighs 1.69 kilograms and it is surely more compact than the Timeline, which has an equally 13.1-inch screen.

As it is a premium product, if something happens to your Envy, you will get a premium service from HP. That is how confident they are of the quality of these notebooks.

Now, do you think others will envy you when you show them this exquisite and extravagantly costly notebook? I leave it to you to decide.