Envy Laptop Quality of Build

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woody75

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 29, 2010
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I've been looking at laptops for about a week and everyone seems to like the Envy model from HP although Squaretrade shows HP as being worst with respect to build quality. (http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf)

I'm looking for a laptop that will handle some gaming but most of what is important to me is having a full HD screen (1920x1080 because I'm working on a master's thesis now and I like putting 2 docs up side by side). The rest is all just gravy really. That reliability study shows Asus, Toshiba, and Sony as the top 3 but so many people have been giving the Asus bad reviews for its plastic-like feel. The Toshiba Qosimo is nice but I'd be stuck with a 10 pound, 18.4" laptop. Finally, Sony just seems a bit higher than I'd like to pay ($800-1200). The Envy sits at a nice bang/buck point so I wanted to see what real people have to say about it.

Thanks for any inputs you may have.
 
Well, the Envy 17 with the 1920x1080 screen is going to run you $1399 before shipping and taxes and with nothing else but the screen upgrade. The Envy 14s don't have a 1920x1080 option. The highest the 14s go is 1366x768. The only reason i'm saying this is because you said the Sony is already a bit higher than what you'd want to pay; $1200, so the HP isn't much better price-wise so idk what you'd want to do. Maybe the Sony would be the better option. I heard the people hate the trackpads on the Envys.
 
zamardii said:
I heard the people hate the trackpads on the Envys.
Click to expand...

I have a 15" Envy and the trackpad takes some getting used to, but now I actually prefer it to a more traditional trackpad. I really the fact that the driver lets you customize the zones on the trackpad to act however you like.

The Envy uses a Synaptics ClickPad which is very similar to the trackpads that Apple uses on their MacBook Pros (although Apple's trackpads are not nearly as customizable). You can find out more about the ClickPad at http://www.synaptics.com/solutions/products/clickpad
 
New drivers fixed most of the problems now with the trackpad. I dont use gestures so my trackpad on my 14 is awesome.

Build is excellent. I dont have the bendy keyboard or heat or whine that anyone else reports of having.
 
I've been very impressed with the build quality of my Envy. It's sturdy, looks and feels nice, and games pretty good. The trackpad was frustrating at first, but I find it very good now after getting used to it.
 
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