Is the Envy 14 worth it?

[lannmann]

I love the envy 14.
Its sleek and well designed and has excellent components, great battery life, and a great screen, but, is it worth it?
Is there anything out there that is better for the same price or cheaper? (in canada)
please help!

 

[buwish]

Fill out the FAQ thread at the top of the forum and we can take a look around to see if there is anything better.

 

[lannmann]

1_What is your budget?
about 1500 Canadian

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
no bigger than 15

3_What screen resolution do you want?
the best I can get!

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portability is the most important. I'll be using it primarily for school.

5_How much battery life do you need?
As much as I can get!

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
gaming would be great, but high settings aren't necessary. Being able to run new games would be nice.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
some light photo editing, movie watching, and listing to lots and lots of music

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
doesnt matter, i plan on getting a fast portable harddrive (can anyone suggest an e-sata drive?)

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I'm almost ready to buy the HP Envy 14, but i want to make sure theres nothing better for the money

http/www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-envy-14-5-intel-core-i5-430m-laptop-14-1050ca-silver-14-1050ca/10146623.aspx?path=bd2430cb82a31996f93107447c4e01aben02

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
as long as possible. 3 years would be great

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
dvd burner at least!

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
no preference, it just needs to be a good sturdy reliable machine

13_What country do you live in?
canada

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
In the specs on the future shop link I posted, the screen resolution is actually 1600 x 900, not the res thats listed.
also, id like a suggestion on a decent e-sata ahrddrive if anyone knows of one!


Thanks!

 

[Maziar]

Envy 14" is one of the best(if not the best) 14" laptop with a powerful VGA like
HD 5650M.
MSI GX660 is also a great choice with a much more powerful VGA(HD 5870M)
http/www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006741%204084%20600004344&IsNodeId=1&name=15%22%20-%2015.6%22

 

[lannmann]

that laptop is quite nice, but im not sure what MSI build quality is like.
any idea the batter life of that unit?
the fact that i can buy a slice battery for the envy is very appealing, because this is primarily a school laptop, untill i get home and play games / watch movies with it, so battery length is very important to me.

any idea if the slice battery make the envy run hotter?

 

[Maziar]

Its build quality is good.The battery life is about 2-3hrs(non-gaming)
Here is a review(user review actually)
http/forum.notebookreview.com/msi/515624-ryzekis-msi-gx660r-review.html

 

[lannmann]

thats a very nice machine indeed, its just the batter life is a little less that what i was looking for. the envy does 4+, especially with tweaking, and theres always the option for a slice battery.

is the msi available with an integrated/ dedicated GPU combo and i5? both options would vastly improve the battery life.

 

[Maziar]

I forgot to post its specs
http/www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152205
It comes with an i5 CPU with a 5870M VGA(no integrated cards)

 

[lannmann]

thats tough.
i like the added power of the MSI for sure, but, im worried about the battery life.
i dont think 2-3 hours is going to cut it for long days at school. i dont know if ill have access to plug ins all the time

 

[xBiocide]

It is practically impossible to get a good gaming laptop with more than 4 hours of battery life. There may be a few, but they will be significantly lower in specs.

What sort of games are we talking about?

 

[lannmann]

gaming isnt my main function of the laptop, but id like to be able to game in the future if i want to.
battery life is the most important thing for me because ill be in school around 5 hours every day.
then i can go home and plug it in and game as much as i want

 

[lannmann]

Best answer selected by lannmann.