Lattitude or Envy?

[mnm1]

Hey guys,
I'm looking to buy a new laptop that will last me at least 5 years. I will be mainly using it for programming, CAD, entertainment, etc. (about to start college as an engineering major). This laptop will not be used for gaming. After researching different laptops for the past month or so, I've narrowed my search down to the Dell Latitude E6xxx line, but im beginning to wonder if i really need it. I've found some great laptops on the outlets for around $1000, but realized I could get a brand new HP Envy for much cheaper. Is there a significant decrease in hardware quality and build in the Envy?
Thoughts?

The specs im looking for:

• 
  3rd gen quad core i7 (something like a i7-3740QM)
  1600x900 or better screen res
  9-cell battery
  anything better than intel 4000
  4 GB RAM (ill upgrade as necessary)
  any HD will do, I'll upgrade to an SSD asap
  the beats audio on the hp is quite attractive..

thanks in advance

and I've completed the questionnaire if anyone's interested:
1. What is your budget?
$1000
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.6"
3. What screen resolution do you want?
1600X900+
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
huh?
5. How much battery life do you need?
at least 4 hrs. the longer the better
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)?
no
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
adobe photoshop
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
256 GB should be plenty
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Dell Outlets or HP.
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
5+ years
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD ROM/Writer is enough
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.
Dell is the favorite right now. I'm interested in HP for the low price. I dont want thinkpads because ive found the same specs in latitudes.
13. What country do you live in?
USA

I hope this can help people find their ideal notebook.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I wouldn't expect that they are much different in quality....in all likelihood, they were made in the same (Quanta or Foxcon) factory

The vast majority of laptops on the market (94% in 2011) are manufactured by a small handful of Taiwan-based Original Design Manufacturers (ODM), although their production bases are located mostly in mainland China. Major relationships include:

Quanta sells to (among others) HP, Lenovo, Apple, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Sony, Fujitsu and NEC
Compal sells to (among others) Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and HP/Compaq
Wistron (former manufacturing & design division of Acer) sells to Dell, Acer, Lenovo and HP
Inventec sells to Toshiba, HP and Lenovo
Pegatron sells to Asus, Toshiba, Apple, Dell and Acer
Foxconn sells to Asus, Dell, HP and Apple
Flextronics (former Arima Computer Corporation notebook division) sells to HP

As an engineering practitioner who uses CAD on a daily basis, I use strictly Clevo laptops in the office.

http/forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/91510-clevo-guide-v2-0-faq-reseller-info.html

CLEVO is a large Taiwanese computer company specializing in laptops. While the Clevo brand name is perhaps not widely known, their products are re-branded and sold by known boutique brand OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)… notably Sager, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, Eurocom, etc. They are also considered (by whoever knows about notebooks) to design and manufacturer the best of the best notebooks in terms of superior build quality and innovative designs

I buy em here:

http/www.lpc-digital.com/notebooks.html

 

[Tabris DarkPeace]

I would say ENVY hands down.
It's not even a competition between the two.

If anyone has a reason to recommend the Dell I'd love to learn from it to be honest.

Of course it may depend upon the specs between which specific Latitude and which specific ENVY you're comparing.

Then again there is a heck of a lot better build quality in the ENVY line than the Latitudes.
(On general the ENVY's cost more, but NFY is a good time to get them).