HP Envy 17-1050ea user reviews

AsiaProEco 31 January 2013

Good: Most everything.

Bad: Reheating issues.

Comment: To borrow (approximately) the words from an Amazon USA user: "HP seems to follow the industrial trend that makes benefit out of perishable items whose limited life forces you to buy a newer one in a short time". I spent a bit of dough buying a trendy laptop: the very first "Artist Edition", designed by a young talented Portuguese who one an international HP contest. It certainly attracted the wi-fi crowd at Starbucks whenever I sat there! I only used it for a short time. Excellent screen but overly bright and, since the beginning, in spite of my sparingly using it, the machine overheated alarmingly, to the point that I always made sure that it was never left plugged in when I was not at home. I retrieved it a couple of months ago. I had good reasons: I simply don't like Windows 8, and still prefer package 3 versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista and, indeed, Windows 7. To me they were cheaper, better, and endowed with extra life my older PCs. Hunting for a Windows 7 OS allowed me to find this apparently gorgeous, brand-new, hallf-priced, HP Envy 17, UK version, in an outlet lost in the Southern Madrid maze. While I was about to buy it, my Artist Edition vanished in front of me. An overheating alarm started beeping, I couldn't turn the machine off and the battery simply blew off leaving the screen forever dark. It seems that HP knew about the problem and, for a short time, offered to replace or fix the issue without charges. Apparently a short period, yes, because I was working in a Mexican rural area and never ever heard of this offer. Back in Spain there is nothing I can do to fix that laptop at a reasonable price. I have found a Pakistani PC whiz on YouTube that proposes making a heat dissipator out of a pre-1980 US cupper penny (full of cupper alloy then) and a Colombian chap who does a thorough job telling you, with pictures and drawings, how to open the thing and install a cupper deflector that directs the fan´s flow towards the heating source. As I read more and more about the Pavilions (including the reheating and ultimatately breaking down of my Russian son's second Artist Edition) I am very wary of this problem and must disapprove of the polite but poor technical help provided by HP. I will never ever buy again an HP computer of which there is a "reheating warning". Beware, my friends! these machines are the devil in disguise. Buy one and maybe you'll see your precious files burning in hell. (By the way: didn't buy the cutie HP Envy 17-2080 from that outlet, went for a Dell one-in-one offer instead). If you wanna challenge the eternal fires of HP, see the offer in "Dominio Virtual", "Ofertas Km. 0". It's not publicity, because I am not buying there. Cheers from Madrid.

dameer 12 October 2011

Good: Design

Bad: Everything else but design

Comment: After only 6 months of usage my HD gone to heaven. A couple of days after, CD-ROM unit has died as well. 45 days of waiting until fixed up doesn't make much sense, especially if your work depends on a laptop and all the data lost forever.
After 8 months graphic card (ATI Mobility Radeon 5850) has gone to heaven even though I didn't use this laptop for gaming purpose - ever.
This laptop was always so hot, I thought it's gonna explode. I bought cooling pad and helped a little bit but it seems like entire hardware background literally sux.
Very, extremely disappointed with this laptop. It cost me a bunch of money and now I am about to put it into garbage can. Literally. I can't rely on it any more and lose money. If there's a negative rating point for this product (of -1000000) I'd be glad to select it.

Andy Ledger 30 March 2011

Good: Best laptop I've ever had. HP are the bees knees

Bad: does run hot, but thats not a problem to me, cos I always make sure it gets good ventilation when I'm using it. Battery life is a bit short, but thats because its a very powerfull machine and does so much more than the average laptop.

Comment: Overall, cant fault it, built like a tank, indestructable, runs like a dream. If you can afford it, get one, YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED!!

jeffhooper 5 December 2010

Comment: bobbigee asked if HP was a reliable make. Do a search on "DV9000 overheating" and you will find a whole history of overheating problems with the nvidia chip used on this model. My unit failed after 2 years. No joy from HP in getting it repaired. Recommended the model to customers of mine and their's have failed the same way. I'd be worried by comments from previous reviewer that this model also runs very hot.

Nig Davison 19 November 2010

Good: Stunning screen, well made, looks great, games look superb (Oblivion and Bioshock)

Bad: The battery is poor, runs very hot

Comment: First Impressions:

I just received the HP Envy 17 1190ea yesterday and so far I am very impressed., though I do have a couple of issues.

But first the good !

The Envy looks and feels great. It's really well made, I was a bit worried about the design at first, but up close it's barely noticeable much more subtle than the photo's would suggest, & when the light hits the casing it does look fantastic.

I have tested a couple of games (old ones like Oblivion and Bioshock so far) both games had the graphics maxed out and looked amazing and both played really well.

The addition of the Beats software makes a huge difference to the sound, best I have ever heard on a notebook.

There is also not a huge amount of HP bloatware, a surprising bonus.

The web cam is great and has some pretty funny features built in like turning yourself into a cartoon dog or a statue of a Sphinx both of which have motion detection and pick up your mouth and eye movements.

The not so good parts are :

The battery is crap (to be expected on an i7 notebook perhaps ) but I was expecting more than an hour and a half of normal use and about an hour for gaming !

Also, it runs HOT ! Don't expect to be able to use this notebook on your lap, your legs will melt. There seem to be lots of vents underneath but the fan is on a lot of the time (quietly most of the time) I noticed the heat most while playing Bioshock. The vent on the side of the computer was very hot to touch.

*** There was a BIOS update came through today which i have been told will fix this issue, if it remains the same I will update this post***

Apart from the last couple of things it is a great laptop, I hope that the update will fix the heat problem, if it doesn't my opinion may well change.

Will let you know the outcome

bobbigee 29 August 2010

Comment: HP Have always been a reliable make