HP Envy 17 3D (Envy 17-2290NR) Review

The HP Envy 17 3D 2290NR is a stylish, 17.3” screen desktop replacement model that features an aluminum case design and Beats Audio.  Inside the box you will find a sleek professional looking laptop without all the stickers you typically find on a Windows machine fresh out of the box.  Call it taking a page out of the Apple playbook or just being customer friendly, either way it’s nice not to have to worry about removing stickers and glue remnants from a laptop you spent $1,500 on.  The Envy 17 2290NR comes standard with an Intel Quad Core i7 processor and switchable graphics.  The hybrid graphics makes it possible for this laptop to double as a gaming machine by using its high mid-range AMD graphics and also function as a battery friendly work machine by running on Intel integrated graphics when you need it to. The Envy 17-2290NR machine can be found on HP.com for $1,499.99.  In my case I ordered a custom built model with the following configuration on my Employee Purchase Program for $1,466.21 before taxes, and free shipping:

HP Envy 17-2290 Specs

• Processor: Intel Core i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz
• OS: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Screen: 17.3" diagonal Full HD HP 3D Ultra BrightView Infinity LED Display (1920×1080)
• Graphics: 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6850M Graphics
• Memory: 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Storage: 1.5TB 7200 rpm Dual Hard Drive (750GB x 2) (Raid 0)
• Battery: One 6-Cell (around 3 hours battery life) and One 9-Cell (around 5 hours battery life) Lithium Ion
• Optical Drive: Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• Ports: 4 USB (3 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0, one of the USB 2.0′s is a shared eSATA port), HDMI, VGA monitor out, mini Display Port, 1Gbps Ethernet LAN, 1 Headphone, 1 Headphone/Mic
• Dimensions: 16.38" (W) x 10.83" (D) x 1.25" (min Height)/2.15" (max Height)
• Weight: 7.82 lbs
• Webcam: HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• Wireless: Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth with Wireless Display Support
• Keyboard: Backlit Keyboard with numeric keypad
• 3D Glasses: HP 3D Active Shutter Glasses

Envy 17 3D Reason for Buying

When I embarked on finding a replacement laptop for my broken 17" HP DV7 3160us, I looked at the 17” Apple MacBook Pro, Dell XPS 17 and Sony Vaio FE.   Although nice, I couldn’t bring myself to spend the money on the MacBook Pro 17, it starts at $2,499 and was simply above what I wanted to spend.   Another downside for buying the MacBook Pro or Sony VAIO FE was the fact I multi-boot several OS’s and having dual drives is a very appealing feature to make that easier, the MacBook Pro and VAIO FE do not offer dual drives while the XPS 17 and Envy 17 do.   With the Apple MBP and VAIO FE out of the picture that left the HP and Dell. Priced slightly lower, I ultimately chose the HP Envy 17 3D because I preferred the look over the XPS 17.  The Envy looks like what I expect in a high end laptop, while the XPS 17 is somewhat frumpy and inelegant. I love the sleek design of the Envy 17 and also appreciate the lack of clutter caused by stickers.

Build & Design

The Envy 17 build seems very sturdy and the hinges feel good, they’re stiff enough to prevent any screen wobble yet opening and closing the screen with one hand doesn’t require herculean strength.  I love the polished and professional feel the Envy 17 design exudes.   The laptop case is made of aluminum with a laser etched pattern on the lid and palm rest areas.   The all aluminum body does result in a heavy machine, weighing in at just under 8 pounds you’ll need to use both hands when carrying the Envy 17 around.  Frankly, it could be viewed more like a portable desktop computer than a common laptop, there’s no way this thing will fit on an airplane tray and might look out of place carrying it to a lecture hall for note taking.   I put in the extended 9-cell battery which sticks out of the back and use it somewhat as a handle, probably not the best thing to do, but a handy feature nonetheless.  Although many will consider this to be oversized for lap use, I am able to use the Envy 17 in my lap and am happy to report that unlike my previous Pavilion dv7-3160us laptop I do not find myself covering the vents and therefore temperatures stay down.

Screen

The Envy 17 3D screen is 17.3” diagonally and has a 1920 x 1080 resolution.  The built-in Blu-Ray player can be put to good use since the screen supports Full HD, as you would expect in a premium laptop like this.  The screen is certainly bright enough,  to get an idea for the brightness, the screen backlight is big enough and strong enough that I can use it to illuminate and read a book in the dark if I want to, although that’s kind of a waste of power and a book light is much more efficient!   Upon receiving the laptop I checked the screen for dead pixels and did not find any so I avoided one of the pet peeves of screen aficionados and new laptop owners.   The Envy 17-2290NR does not suffer from any light bleeding around the edges, this is an improvement over my previous HP dv7 where the screen did suffer from light bleed.

Below you can see some pictures of various viewing angles of the Envy 17-2290 screen, while this is not an IPS screen the viewing angles are overall not bad:

 

 

Speakers

The Envy 17 Beats Audio branded speakers sound good.  Despite all the hype from HP regarding the audio capabilities this thing is not going to be replacing my home stereo, however, the audio is much better than any laptop I have used.  When initially using the laptop I thought I detected some tinny audio but after a few days usage that problem has not resurfaced.

Processor and Performance

The Envy 17 under review comes with an Intel Core i7-2670QM Quad Core processor, the Quad Core performance has proven to be leaps and bounds better than the AMD Turion II in the HP dv7 this is replacing.  While the processor is blazing fast the hard drive is still an Achilles heel  for performance, boot time takes 63 seconds (as measured from pushing the power button to getting to the login screen), an SSD would resolve this boot latency but that’s an expensive upgrade.

I have been using this laptop for a week now and during that time the only hiccup has been one instance where the OS just hung and became unresponsive, I had Eclipse (a code development program) and Skype open at the time, maybe one of those programs was the culprit.

In terms of gaming performance, the Envy 17 is certainly capable.  I play Skyrim on high graphics settings with antialiasing off and aniscoping filtering off at 23-25 fps, bumping up the graphics settings to ultra brings the FPS down to 15-17.  Turning on 3D brings the FPS all the way down to 9-11 FPS, I believe this is on high and that you can modify the TriDef profile to get a slightly better framerate. Even so, it’s very playable on 3D.

Envy 17-2290NR Benchmarks

Benchmarks are a handy way to give you an idea of how one laptop stacks up to another performance wise, obviously this laptop will outclass most productivity targeted business machines and average consumer laptops.  However, since SSD offers such an advantage with most benchmarking tools the Envy 17-2290 does not score off the charts for its class and indeed we have a previously reviewed Lenovo Y470 with fast SSD that outscored the Envy.

PCMark Vantage Score Comparison (link to results)

Laptop	PCMark Vantage Score
HP Envy 17 3D – Intel Core i7-2670QM, AMD 6850M 1GB, 8GB RAM, 7200RPM HD	9,340 PCMarks
SONY VAIO SA – Intel Core i5-2430M, AMD 6750M, 6GB RAM, 7200RPM HD	7,007 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 – Intel Core i7-2630qm, Nvidia 550M 1GB, 8GB RAM, Intel SSD	12,160 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420 – Intel Core i5-2410m 2.30GHz, 4GB RAM	6,056 PCMarks
Dell Vostro 3450 – Intel Core i5-2410m 2.30Ghz, 4GB RAM	5,901 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron N411z – Intel Core i3-2330m 2.30GHz, 4GB RAM	5,285 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T420 – Intel Core i3-2310m 2.1GHz, 2GB RAM	3,204 PCMarks

PCMark 7 Score Comparison (link to results)

Laptop	PCMark 7 Score
HP Envy 17 3D – Intel Core i7-2670QM, AMD 6850M 1GB, 8GB RAM, 7200RPM HD	2,592 PCMarks
SONY VAIO SA – Intel Core i5-2430M, AMD 6750M, 6GB RAM, 7200RPM HD	2,022 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad U400 – Intel Core i5-2430M, AMD Radeon 6470M, 6GB RAM, 5400RPM HD	2,287 PCMarks
Dell XPS 15z – Intel Core i7-2620M, Nvidia GT 525M, 8GB RAM, SSD	3,604 PCMarks

3DMark Vantage Score Comparison (link to results)

Laptop	3DMark Vantage
HP Envy 17 3D – Intel Core i7-2670QM, AMD 6850M 1GB, 8GB RAM, 7200RPM HD	3,931 3DMarks
Dell XPS 15z – Intel Core i7-2620M, Nvidia GT 525M, 8GB RAM, SSD	3,854 PCMarks
HP Envy 14 – Intel Core i5-2410m, AMD 6330M, 6GB RAM, 7200RPM HD	3,668 PCMarks

Windows Experience Index Score (WEI) – 5.9 Overall

• Processor – 7.5
• Memory – 7.6
• Graphics – 7.1
• Gaming Graphics – 7.1
• Hard Drive – 5.9

GeekBench

Laptop	GeekBench
HP Envy 17 3D – Intel Core i7-2670QM, AMD 6850M 1GB, 8GB RAM, 7200RPM HD	8,892
Lenovo ThinkPad X220 (Intel Core i3-2310m 2.10GHz)	4,253
Apple MacBook Air (Intel Core i5 1.70GHz)	5,502

PCWizard Results:

Heat and Noise

I have no heat issues with the Envy 17-2290 at all, even while pushing the system full throttle when gaming.  After a long time I can feel a temperature difference on the top left of the laptop, but it is not hot. The fan makes some noise, but it’s easily drowned out by ambient noise in the room.  For instance, if I turn on my ceiling fan I cannot hear the Envy 17 fans anymore. The slot load Blu-Ray does make some noise when you boot which can be kind of annoying.

Keyboard and Touchpad

I love the keyboard, it has the now almost ubiquitous chiclet style design you see on most consumer laptops.   What I like most about the keyboard is the feel of the keys while typing. The keys are taller/more raised than I have seen on other laptops which provides just the right amount of tactile feedback.  There is no flex on the keyboard so it has both smooth key presses and a firm feeling foundation, there is no mushiness when you push a key all the way down.  While most aspects of the keyboard are positive, the backlighting is ok at best. If you are not looking straight down onto the keys there is quite a bit of light that bleeds through, it’s simply not on par with say the MacBook Pro backlighting quality.  Another issue I have with the keyboard is that HP added an eject button there for the optical drive, but the way they placed it shifted the rest of the keys above the numpad and did away with numlock.

Onto the touchpad.  To put it bluntly, the touchpad is horrible.   Now, it is usable after adjusting the settings a bit, and there is some third party software which may improve it further, but that shouldn’t be necessary in the first place.  If you’re at a desk I’d recommend using a mouse.

Input and Output Ports

The Envy 17 comes with the generous array of ports you would expect to see on a laptop of this size.  For most users there is everything here you could possibly want.  Let’s take a look around the sides to see what ports you get where.

On the left side of the Envy 17-2290 we have (from left to right), VGA monitor out port, Ethernet LAN (RJ45), miniDisplay Port, HDMI, eSATA/USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Headphone/Mic (for cellphone style headphones with an inline mic), Headphone port

On the right side we have (from right to left), USB 2.0, USB 2.0, Multi Card Reader, Blu Ray, Power, Kensington Lock slot.

Wireless

The Envy 17-2290NR comes with an Intel 6200 wireless card.  This card features 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 with Wireless Display Support.  The wireless features have worked great so far, the Intel 6200 has strong reviews on Amazon and this card has good driver support for the Linux environment.

Battery Life

I have both the 6-cell standard battery and 9-cell extended battery for the Envy 17.  I created a low power profile where nearly every setting is set to preserve power and managed to squeeze out 6 hours of usage.  The 6 hours was achieved while using the laptop to use Eclipse and write code and do some compiling from time to time, nothing power intensive like gaming or watching a movie.   The 9 cell is only rated for 3.75 hours so I was thrilled to achieve 6 hours!   HP quotes the 6-cell as providing 2.25 hours of battery life.   During my usage while gaming the 6 cell lasted about 1.5 hours and the 9 just over 2 hours, so obviously the amount of battery life you get varies greatly with what you’re doing.

OS and Software

The Envy 17 came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.   There were no recovery disks provided with the laptop, you have use a built-in utility to burn your own backup disks or alternatively use a flash thumb drive.   During configuration you do have the option to purchase recovery disks for $19 from HP if you’re lazy or you figure the 10 minutes of your time that it takes to burn recovery disks is worth more than $19.  HP has two disk partitions set aside for diagnostics and recovery, totaling 18.8 GB of used up space.  Remarkably the only thing I had to uninstall after initial bootup was the Bing Toolbar that’s installed by default in Explorer, other than that it’s a pretty clean OS install without too much other junk.

Warranty and Customer Support

Though I haven’t had the need to use customer support for any reason so far, there have been no problems, I opted for a 4-year warranty for $274.41 so if anything happens in the next 4-years I’ll get to test out HP support!

3D Experience

Some people get headaches and other problems from active 3D systems like the one this laptop is equipped with. I am not one of them. The 3D experience on this laptop is ok, all of the games I play are supported by 3D (Skyrim, World of WarCraft and Starcraft II).  Movies look good, and the up-converting to 3D works much better than I expected. I do notice ghosting and any lighting in the room can be a bit annoying when you see it blinking in the corner of your eyes.

Conclusion

Overall I love this laptop, with the 3rd generation Envy 17-3000 being just released you may be able to find some great prices on this 2nd generation  Envy 17 2290NR. I bought this laptop because I needed a machine that looks professional and that I can break out at meetings and conferences, but still be able to go home and enjoy a game or 3D movie.  In other words, the Envy 17 can double as both a capable gaming and entertainment machine or a serious performance workstation.   Admittedly this is not a very mobile system unless you have a strong arm and shoulder, but if you need power and like to take everything with you everywhere you go, this laptop will do it.

Pros:

• Performance is good
• Dual hard drive capabilities
• Keyboard ergonomics and feel
• Design is professional and clean

Cons:

• Touchpad is finicky and needs a lot of settings tweaks
• Keyboard backlighting suffers light bleed