I
t's been awhile since we've had a
large, powerful notebook - the kind that make our arms and backs ache
just looking at them. And no - our hearts don't often jump in glee at
the thought of a powerful (read gaming) configuration, for no gaming
notebook, irrespective of its price, can hold its own with even a
desktop priced 40,000 bucks lower, let alone one at the same price.
Its tough to shoehorn 200-watt graphic cards into the confined environs
that are notebook chassis, and honestly this is a physical limitation
rather than a manufacturer's mistake.
However, our little disclaimer notwithstanding, there are those who
are aware of the tradeoffs, and still need something portable, (well not
really, but at least it weighs under 5 kilos!), to carry around to a
LAN party. And such gaming events typically revolve around Counter Strike, UT, Quake 3, or even DoTA
(a popular Warcraft 3 mod) - not exactly demanding titles. For such
people, HP presents the Envy - a large beast of a notebook, with good
components under the boot, and despite our usual derision for "gaming
notebooks", we must admit the Envy was quite a package and it seems like
Alienware finally has some worthwhile competition. Sure, it's not a desktop with a Core i7 980 Extreme and dual GTX 580s, but heck - it's a notebook and at least someone's trying...
Looks
A huge box, completely black in colour, opens up to reveal a rather
large notebook, with neatly packaged accessories, including a pair of 3D
glasses, powered by a flat battery - the same ones that power BIOS'.
With a 17-inch display, the Envy is a large notebook, but it's also
handsome looking. A lot of metal has been used on the body, giving it a
somewhat more rigid feel, although an Apple unibody it is not! The lid
is completely aluminium. The body is quite thick, a result of cramming
more powerful components than what most notebooks have, into a
relatively smaller chassis than desktops.
You get a nice patterned lid with a rough texture on the outside, and
the inside follows a satin-finish - a welcome relief from the
piano-glossy finishes that HP uses a lot. A resolution of 1920 x 1080
pixels will please gamers, but the glossy display is a major bummer in
our opinion, especially for a gaming notebook; a pity matte displays are
becoming extinct.
The keypad is well laid out, and nicely spaced, although we feel the
keys could have been a bit larger. The smaller keys also mean there's a
bit more spacing between them then what most users will be used to,
which is good for a gaming notebook, but not so intuitive for fast
typing. The trackpad is also larger than most HP notebooks, a point of
interest to gamers. It's also quite accurate, although you will pretty
much need to use a mouse, as we're yet to see a notebook gamer who
doesn't use one. The power adapter is a brick, and a far cry from the
sleek units Apple provides. However, it is smaller than some of the
previous HP notebooks we've seen, yet will add close to a kilo with its
cable to your package.
Features
One of the most talked about features of the model we're looking at
is the presence of 3D support. The display on the Envy supports up to
120 Hertz and that was enough to give us a hint, in case the blatant
bundling of 3D stereovision glasses wasn't enough. Then there's the high
resolution display, which at 1920 x 1080 pixels is something gamers
will like. For the 17" notebook, we were a little surprised to find only
3 USB ports though. Generally gamers who connect such notebooks to
larger monitors will definitely use at least 2 ports - one each for an
additional mouse and keyboard. One of the USB ports doubles as an E-SATA
port. An HDMI port supporting the latest 1.4 version of HDMI and a
Mini-Display Port for connecting to HDTVs and the like. We received this
powerhouse with a 9-cell battery, although a lighter 6-cell one is also
available.
The model we received came with a 640 GB hard drive, although HP
allows the user to configure up to 2 hard drives, which gamers will
salivate at, for speedy RAID 0 becomes a possibility. Alternatively for
even more speed, you could consider an SSD and a hard drive for space.
Incidentally, the Blu-ray drive that ships with the Envy 17" 3D is also a
drive that supports 3D Blu-ray playback - kind of obvious, but
essentially making this notebook an expensive, but high quality 3D
Blu-ray playback device if you would like to use it thus. We tried a 3D
copy of Avatar and needless to say this works pretty well. In fact, the
colours are better than we've seen on some TVs, which doesn't mean the
display on the Envy is better, but merely that it is implementing 3D
better. While such a small display is not cinematic for viewing movies
in 3D, it's a good display for the purpose.
Sadly, we couldn't get this to work with most games that we tried.
AMD obviously has a few kinks in their 3D component to iron out given
that NVIDIA has been doing 3D for awhile now. We tried games like Arcania: A Gothic Tale, Dragon Age 2, Call Of Pripyat, Lost Planet 2 and even Crysis 2,
and none of these games worked in 3D! However, we don't blame HP for
this, rather AMD is the culprit. If only the Envy 3D 17 came with an
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570...
The configuration we received was also one of the lower end ones. The
Envy 3D 17 is available with a Core i7 quad core processor, 8 GB of RAM
and two 750 GB hard drives, but we received one with a dual core
processor, 4 GB of RAM and a single 640 GB hard drive.
Performance
Let's talk about the display first, since we fired up a couple of
games before doing anything else. It's good to see that while the
display is glossy it isn't as reflective as some of the others around.
In fact, it exhibits decent colour and contrast for a notebook monitor,
but is fairly mediocre when you consider its cost and its intended
audience. We'd have loved an IPS panel, but we haven't seen 3D versions
of those. To put this in perspective, while it's not even close to the
likes of the Dell U2410, games look pretty good - good colour, and
what's even better a very decent contrast ratio that allow a bit more
detail in darker scenes than most notebooks we've come across.
Powered by an Intel Core i5 480M, and a AMD Radeon HD 5850M, the Envy
is no slouch. It also has 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, and is thus at par with, or
better than many current generation desktops in terms of processing
power. As impressive as this configuration is, we must say that we've
seen better components from Alienware, but then HP isn't exactly known
for gaming notebooks, and this is more a first attempt, and a good one
at that.
With 27.16 fps in Crysis Warhead, and 53.1 fps in S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call Of Pripyat
the Envy 17 3D is no slouch in the gaming department, and will
certainly play most titles you can throw at it, although relatively
newer ones like Crysis 2 and Metro 2033 will require some tinkering with
eye candy levels. In the US, the Envy 3D is available with a Radeon HD
6850 that is not faster than the HD 5850, but will certainly run cooler.
price fight
A price of Rs. 93,550 plus taxes, The Envy 3D 17 is not cheap, or
even affordable by any stretch of your imagination (or ours), but it
offers a powerful set of components, and 3D support, which while
gimmicky, is certainly something that seems to be the future. The fact
is this notebook has very few competitors, and with Alienware machines
with marginally more powerful graphics costing over a lakh, we feel the
Envy 3D 17 is one of the only sub-lakh gaming options. If we could
change one thing, it'd be a Radeon HD 6950 in lieu of the much hotter HD
5850, but this is a pretty potent offering for those who want a
powerful gaming notebook. Street prices are reportedly a lot lower,
around Rs. 84,000 or so, and at this price, the Envy 3D 17 makes a good
buy, but only if you are sure you don't want a desktop to game on!
| Brand |
HP
|
| Model |
Envy 3D 17
|
| Price (Rs) |
93550 + tax
|
| Features |
|
| Component Specifications |
|
| Processor Model No |
Core i5 480
|
| Processor Speed (MHz) |
2.66 GHz
|
| RAM |
4 GB
|
| RAM Type |
DDR3
|
| Memory Speed (MHz) |
1333 MHz
|
| Chipset |
Intel HM55
|
| Graphics Solution |
AMD Radeon HD 5850
|
| Dedicated Video Memory (Y / N) |
Y
|
| Dedicated Video Memory Size (in MB) |
1024 MB
|
| Audio Chipset |
Intel HD
|
| Storage size (in GB) |
640 GB
|
| Drive type (HDD/SSD/other) |
HDD, 7200 rpm
|
| Optical Drive Type / Speed |
Blu-Ray ROM
|
| Bundled OS |
Win 7 Prof 64 bit
|
| Characteristics |
|
| Screen Size (Inches) |
17
|
| Type of LCD |
TN
|
| Screen Resolution (Native) |
1920 x 1080
|
| Weight (Kg) |
3.41 kgs
|
| No. of Ports (USB / FireWire) |
3 / 0
|
| USB 3.0 (Y/N) |
Y / 1
|
| Connectivity (LAN / Bluetooth / Wi-Fi) |
Y / Y / Y
|
| E-Sata (Y/N) |
Y / 1
|
| Display output (VGA/DVI/HDMI/Display Port) |
Y / N / Y / Y
|
| Memory Card Reader (Y/N) |
Y
|
| Type of Memory Cards Supported |
SD, MMC, MS Pro
|
| Inbuilt Webcam (Y/N) |
Y
|
| Webcamera resolution (in megapixels) |
1280 x 800
|
| Build (So 10) |
|
| Body |
8
|
| Keypad |
7
|
| Lid, movables |
7.5
|
| Ergonomics and Usability |
|
| Keypad Tactile Feedback (So 10) |
7.5
|
| Key Layout, bevelling, spacing & Usability (So 10) |
6.75
|
| Shortcut Keys/Switches (So 10) |
7
|
| Trackpad ergonomics, size, position (So 10) |
7.5
|
| Trackpad accuracy (So 10) |
7
|
| Biometrics (fingerprint/face) login (Y/N) |
N
|
| Wi-Fi On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N) |
N
|
| Dedicated Bluetooth On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N) |
N
|
| Dedicated TouchPad On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N) |
N
|
| Performance |
|
| Synthetic Scores |
|
| PC Mark Vantage |
|
| PC Mark Score |
6900
|
| Memories Score |
4489
|
| TV and Movies Score |
4183
|
| Gaming Score |
5511
|
| Music Score |
7110
|
| Communications Score |
5260
|
| Productivity Score |
5712
|
| HDD Score |
4072
|
| 3D Mark Vantage |
|
| CPU Score |
6502
|
| Graphics score |
5712
|
| Overall Score |
5892
|
| Maxxon CineBench R11.5 (CPU score) |
2.39
|
| Display Mate Colour Accuracy Test (So 10) |
7.25
|
| Battery Life Test (in minutes) |
85
|
| Wi-Fi Signal Strength Test (Zone 2) |
43%
|
| Real World Tests |
|
| Speaker Quality (at 50% volume) (So 10) |
7.5
|
| HD Movie Viewing (using VLC) (So 10) |
8
|
| DivX Encode 7.0 (.VOB to .Divx, default mode) |
147.6
|
| WinRAR 3.9 (Compression / Decompression benchmark) |
1650
|
| File transfer Test (4 GB test file-sequential) (Sec) |
76.1
|
| File transfer Test (4 GB test file-assorted) (Sec) |
156.5
|
| Gaming Tests |
|
| Crysis Warhead (1280 x 1024, medium details, no AA) |
27.16
|
| STALKER Call Of Pripyat (1280 x 1024, medium details, no AA) |
57.3
|
| Doom 3 (fps) (800x600, medium detail) |
134.6
|
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