HP ENVY 17.3" Full-HD i7 Touch Laptop

Deal Chatter Daily Deal
21

Is there a slot on the motherboard and enough room to add a separate graphics card? Like a gtx 560m for instance?

22

Anyone know the HD speed? 5400 would be a deal breaker.

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[QUOTE=russwjohns, post:9, topic:425768]
Buzz Kill’r. You wouldn’t use a touchscreen display with Win 7!

Try the 17" Dell Inspiron at MicroCenter for an additional $50 new. It comes with a Core i5 cpu, non-touch screen that is lower rez and you could be happy? And now backlit keyboard.
[/quote]

I couldn’t find the one you’re talking about, but I have been craving a backlit keyboard much more than I care about a touchscreen laptop. Gimme!

24

[QUOTE=CSharpCoder, post:22, topic:425768]
Anyone know the HD speed? 5400 would be a deal breaker.
[/quote]

Bummer: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04091762.pdf says 5400rpm

25

I bought a very similar laptop last week (basically this, but with 16 gb of RAM).

I have three complaints so far:

  1. The glare on the screen is insane. I have never seen a screen with glare this bad.

  2. The keyboard really feels odd. It’s not like any laptop keyboard I have ever used before. I don’t know anything about keyboards but maybe the keys are set differently than other brands? (My old laptop was a Dell.)

  3. There is an absurd amount of garbageware preinstalled on there.

It’s a beast in terms of performance and it’s a great price point - so I’m not sorry I bought it.

26

[QUOTE=CSharpCoder, post:24, topic:425768]
Bummer: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04091762.pdf says 5400rpm
[/quote]

Yes, the spinny disk is a huge downer. (I have the non-touch version with 12gb of ram.) I solved this with a 500GB Samsung SSD, and am using the spinny disk for holding backups, streaming music, and other low speed stuff. It’s MUCH zippier with an SSD, and boots in just a few seconds now.

I will second the notion that the keyboard feels a little off, but I am learning to live with it. It is a very quiet machine. I use mine as a desktop replacement, so I can’t speak to the hinge issue.

I got mine from Amazon warehouse deals a few months back for about $200 more (but with a full warranty). Overall, I like it.

27

[QUOTE=CSharpCoder, post:22, topic:425768]
Anyone know the HD speed? 5400 would be a deal breaker.
[/quote]

Most laptops come with a 5400 RPM drive. Since this model has a place for another one, you could get an inexpensive SSD, use it as the boot drive, then use the second bay for the 1TB drive that cam with it. I got a 256GB drive from Fry’s for $100 last week and love it. If you go this way, you also get rid of all the bloat war exciting because you install Windows on the SSD.

28

Only 90 days warranty?? :confused:

29

Wanting to buy one of these refurb, but getting turned off by 90 day warranty, Amercian Express and Visa do not have additional warranty if you buy refurb, which kind of sucks,

30

I would jump on this but not being able to add a graphics card is a major bottleneck for me. Secondly the hinges are known to be unreliable, not a deal killer as I usually leave mine open all the time.

31

Does anyone notice the arm coming from the “I Want One” button?

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[QUOTE=CSharpCoder, post:22, topic:425768]
Anyone know the HD speed? 5400 would be a deal breaker.
[/quote]

From the specs: Standard 5400 rpm spindle speed.

33

[QUOTE=hatfira, post:27, topic:425768]
Most laptops come with a 5400 RPM drive. Since this model has a place for another one, you could get an inexpensive SSD, use it as the boot drive, then use the second bay for the 1TB drive that cam with it. I got a 256GB drive from Fry’s for $100 last week and love it. If you go this way, you also get rid of all the bloat war exciting because you install Windows on the SSD.
[/quote]

Standard 5400 rpm spindle speed.

34

What’s the Difference between this model and M7-j010dx? Couldn’t find any difference in specs.
Thanks.

35

[QUOTE=russwjohns, post:13, topic:425768]
Specs out like a great deal!

But help me out people. I must resist the temptation. Must Resist!

Come on naysayers and product disparagers.

Is the warranty from HP? Factory Refurbished by HP? Not a 7200 rpm HD. No BluRay. Differences in quality/durability between HP Product Lines. Is Envy line a better consumer line than the HP Pavillion line?

Heck this unit has a Haswell processor but non discreet graphics. Current generation cpu? 1080p display. USB3.0, 4.0 BT. But what is that Wifi Spec? And WiDi?

Wanna buy it now. HELP ME RESIST. I’ve listed critical areas. Hmmm… good ratings at the egg and elsewhere.

Resist, resist. Resistance is futile?
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I don’t know if you care about gaming, but in passmark tests that integrated Intel 4600 is a complete dog compared to what you’d need to run current games well.

36

[QUOTE=wootpapa, post:5, topic:425768]
90 day warranty? Their faith in their own products is inspiring.
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I have this laptop’s near twin, a Pavilion M7 bought from Woot. Chassis screws were missing on my refurb unit and the screen hinge nearly came apart before I could source a replacement + the USB-3 ports have never worked. I discovered this just out of the 90 day warranty and the Indian tech support people didn’t care, they just dumped me into a sales queue to pay $60 for their time. Yesterday I decided to restore it to its factory condition using the pre-installed HP application … and it booted to the “No OS Found” error. So I searched out the backup DVD’s I made when I first powered it on. The first one booted then stated: “The system recovery media does not support this computer”. Talk about being thwarted. A call to HP tech support again found me in the sales queue with an Indian asking me to fork over money - money to fix a problem that is in no way my fault. If you buy a HP you’re asking for trouble. I’ve now had two lackluster HP’s in a row and from now on I’m buying Lenovo or Razer.

37

i got an Envy 17.3 since January but with out the backlit typing nor the touchscreen, overall it is a really good laptop, especially at this price. when i first got my HP envy 17.3 i was skeptical as well so what i did was run some hardcore games on it (including but not limited to battlefield 3,4 crysis 1,2,3 dead space 1,2,3 starcraft 2, metro last light) and so far its still in one piece and run good as new. im not sure how that “hinge” thing break for some but mine is still in perfect like new condition. some positives and negatives i’ve experience so far.

Positive: easy to clean, comfort keyboard, able to run modern high graphic games at low to mid setting, fingerprint scan, battery life.
Negatives: bluetooth and widi is retardedly bad, pc gets really hot when doing core intensive works (game, graphic design), the function keys are useless in game for the most part (have to press THE function key with F1-F12 to active) and “beat” audio is just a brand.
overall i’ve would still recommend this laptop because of the spec to price ratio. last but not least I dont have that “glare” problem, perhaps its the touch models problem but i’ve never had the laptop outdoor or the sun behind me.

38

What graphics card does this have?

39

Is that the Crapsmasters hand in the photo??? ALL HAIL THE CRAPSMASTER!!!

40

For the Hinge-concerned (above comments):

We’ve owned multiple Toshiba (various lines) and HP (Envy line) laptops. I also do some consulting on the side.

HP has a habit of screwing a strong metal hinge into a plastic shell (typically the top, even when it has an aluminum skin). Had to replace the entire top half (screen + case) due to this failure on an HP. It is a crazy-stupid design. 'Not sure if this particular model suffers the same issue.

Recommendations: careful lid-handling with all laptops!

  1. Close the lid with two hands or a single hand placed in the middle of the top edge of the screen. Never close the lid with a single hand on one corner.

  2. Never carry a laptop around by the screen. I saw this done all the time when visiting our kids at school. (Guess whose hinge failed?)

Additional life-extending tips:

  1. Always plug your power supply into a brand name surge protector. Including at the library or coffee shop. Cheap insurance and there are compact mobile models available.

  2. Don’t sleep your laptop when stowing it in your bag. Shut it down. Had a laptop wake up in the bag and fry (overheat) the discrete video card (thankfully replaceable). Sleep mode is for when you leave your laptop on the desk or table.