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envy 14 vs mx11

T

tybert7

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 23, 2007
Messages
2,763
which would you all prefer to have and own?


screen quality (brightness, color reproduction) and resolution (1600x900) goes to the envy
as does gpu power and cpu options

battery life ought to be on par with no slice, greater on the envy with the slice, but then maybe not with all the low voltage chips.

size is in the mx11s favor, same with weight.

finish is more of a toss up, some people will prefer less going on, other will like the flash of the mx11.


Ok, so

+mx11 = smaller
+envy = more powerful cpu and gpu (dx11 for longevity), better screen res, brightness, color reproduction, optical drive
 
They are not in the same league, despite both being gaming laptops. Envy is a better machine all around spec wise, and fit and finish is arguably better (magnesium/aluminum vs plastic). The mx11 may have a smaller screen, but it is thicker and bulkier than the Envy.

I don't see any reason to consider the mx11 unless you specifically need a netbook sized machine. It's a cool, flashy little gadget for sure, but it's too underpowered for modern games.
 
Neither are out right now, if you go to order a MX11 it says July 2 or something like that, the Envy will be released later this month, so consider them the same release date... Before thinking I am a Alienware fanboy or Sony fanatic, I am not, I have never owned either and am still on the fence on which of the 3 I mention that I am going to buy.

I wouldn't say they aren't in the same league as I am also considering both, along with the Sony Z, the reason the Sony Z is in there is because once you price an Envy or Alienware with SSD, they are all around the same price!

Don't listen to people who tell you that the MX11 is bulky, 1.3" is not bulky, in fact its the same as the Sony Z and would you call that thing bulky? The envy specs aren't out yet either, I have seen 1.1" on it but who knows if that is the thickest point... Either way 1.3" is nothing to be worried about and there is no way to make it thinner with that setup, the reason larger laptops can be thinner is they can spread things out, thinner laptops of the same size don't have that battery or gpu in them. But I guarantee you that if you pick up a Envy 14 and a MX11, the MX11 will feel and look much smaller.

as far as power, if you get the new i7 ulv and overclock it to 2.66, its really not much slower than a i5, and the biggest thing holding any of these machines back in gaming won't be the cpu, it will be the gpu, the 5650 is maybe 10% more powerful than the 335M, but I doubt that, I think the last MX11 benchmarks were low because the cpu was horrible, the 335M has been rated at about 6500 on Mark06, the HD5650 at 6700, so I don't see how you can argue that the Envy is a more powerful machine, you won't be able to tell the difference in gaming, especially if you are playing at 1600X900 on the envy vs 1366X768 on the MX11.

I think the thing driving me away from the Envy is its size, I want an ultra portable and the Envy 14 is actually a 14.5" screen, and anything over 14" I don't consider ultra portable, also the 5.25 pound weight is a turn off, I was on edge with the MX11 at 4.4 lbs (compared to the Sony Z at 3.1 pounds). Also with that ATI card and a non ULV cpu, they better be putting a good battery in the Envy or it will not compete in battery life with the MX11 (which is pretty much identical to the standard battery in the Z).

Final thought, Alienware (Dell) how about a 13" version ;) using a non ulv cpu, same gpu, batter battery to offset the cpu and light weight materials...
 
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I am pretty sure the base screen res on the envy 14 will be 1366x768, with an upgrade option for the higher res/quality panel. As to the card, reports are that it is quite the overclocker so it may be more akin to a 5730, and the 14 has switchable graphics, so the gpu drain should be a non issue.
 
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@Aumakua - You made some great points about the comparable performance of the systems. Ultimately, for me personally, I wanted something netbook form factor with non-netbook innards. Even if the M11x is 10% slower (which I doubt), and does not have DirectX 11 support, it is still the more desirable system for me because it is considerably more 'portable' than a 14.5" laptop. Another point to which we agree.

@tybert7 - if HP offer the screen in the lower 1366x768 resolution and a higher 1600x900 resolution, which one do you think the majority of people who frequent these tech forums would choose? Of course, if you choose the higher resolution panel, that is not to say you could not run games in a lower resolution. So in that regards, it is a nice trade-off. My problem with HP is that they are usually more expensive for similar technology, so we will have to wait and see what the price of the Envy 14 is before making judgments on value.
 
Very good topic as I too am in the market for either of these laptops... I think I am leaning towards the Envy 14. Although the pricetag on the i5 mx11 is not that bad. I just do not care for nvidia gpu's.
 
Aumakua said:
Neither are out right now, if you go to order a MX11 it says July 2 or something like that, the Envy will be released later this month, so consider them the same release date... Before thinking I am a Alienware fanboy or Sony fanatic, I am not, I have never owned either and am still on the fence on which of the 3 I mention that I am going to buy.

I wouldn't say they aren't in the same league as I am also considering both, along with the Sony Z, the reason the Sony Z is in there is because once you price an Envy or Alienware with SSD, they are all around the same price!

Don't listen to people who tell you that the MX11 is bulky, 1.3" is not bulky, in fact its the same as the Sony Z and would you call that thing bulky? The envy specs aren't out yet either, I have seen 1.1" on it but who knows if that is the thickest point... Either way 1.3" is nothing to be worried about and there is no way to make it thinner with that setup, the reason larger laptops can be thinner is they can spread things out, thinner laptops of the same size don't have that battery or gpu in them. But I guarantee you that if you pick up a Envy 14 and a MX11, the MX11 will feel and look much smaller.

as far as power, if you get the new i7 ulv and overclock it to 2.66, its really not much slower than a i5, and the biggest thing holding any of these machines back in gaming won't be the cpu, it will be the gpu, the 5650 is maybe 10% more powerful than the 335M, but I doubt that, I think the last MX11 benchmarks were low because the cpu was horrible, the 335M has been rated at about 6500 on Mark06, the HD5650 at 6700, so I don't see how you can argue that the Envy is a more powerful machine, you won't be able to tell the difference in gaming, especially if you are playing at 1600X900 on the envy vs 1366X768 on the MX11.

I think the thing driving me away from the Envy is its size, I want an ultra portable and the Envy 14 is actually a 14.5" screen, and anything over 14" I don't consider ultra portable, also the 5.25 pound weight is a turn off, I was on edge with the MX11 at 4.4 lbs (compared to the Sony Z at 3.1 pounds). Also with that ATI card and a non ULV cpu, they better be putting a good battery in the Envy or it will not compete in battery life with the MX11 (which is pretty much identical to the standard battery in the Z).

Final thought, Alienware (Dell) how about a 13" version ;) using a non ulv cpu, same gpu, batter battery to offset the cpu and light weight materials...
Click to expand...

Ah, I wasn't aware the mx11 got a CPU refresh....well, that certainly makes it much more appealing. I thought they were still using the ULV C2D chips.
 
Itchyeyes said:
That's a joke right? Are there seriously people out there who like Alienware's styling?
Click to expand...

I actually think both look nice, and the customizable back light color is a nice touch on the mx11. That is not always the case, especially with flashing lights, but I think the mx11 is inside the line of looking nice without being glittery. As to the rest of the line, meh, not so much.


When they were their own company I always looked at those alienhead towers they made with disgust. Just tacky and ugly, now falcon had some nice looking towers with the custom paint. But anyway, I am usually not a fan of their styling, but the mx11 looks nice to me.


But then so does the envy 14, and it comes with a better screen so not just the casing will look good, but the content that I would stare at day in and day out for years.
 
Itchyeyes said:
That's a joke right? Are there seriously people out there who like Alienware's styling?
Click to expand...

sure, its not horrible, I like that you can change the backlight to whatever you want, sure my wife probably won't care for the alienhead (although she might like it), but I don't really care, if I am buying a laptop its for features, power, portability... as long as the keyboard and mouse pad aren't effected by the styling I don't care if it has a donkey on it! :)


The one thing I don't get about the MX11 is the "11" part. its body and bezel can support a 12-12.5" screen, so why not put one in there? A little too much bezel space for my liking,

I am leaning more towards the Sony Z because it gets the full power i5, same gpu benchmarks (in tests I have seen even though its a downscaled 330m) weighs over a pound less, only 1 inch wider, actually almost 1 inch less in depth too! battery life benchmarks look the same too, 6-6.5 hours web use, 3.5 hours DVD, 2.5 hours gaming. You can also buy it with the larger battery that should boost those numbers by 30% but it also sticks out of the machine. Biggest downside, configured the same with a 256GB SSD in the Sony you are looking at $2300 compared to the MX11 at $1740, so $560 more for the Sony, yikes I would like to stay under $2K for sure. I know the SSD increases the prices on these things by 25-30% but I can't see getting a laptop without one now that I have used them. People dish out $500 for high powered GPUs, why not for a harddrive that is blazing fast?
 
I am in the exact same decision model right now, MX11 or Envy 14. I am leaning to the latter because of a few items.

  1. Screen resolution
  2. Screen brightness
  3. Not all plastic
  4. More sophisticated styling
  5. Slot load DVD

The MX11 is intriguing with regard to specs, but the look seems a little dated. If they had that spec in the old Dell gaming laptop looks, I would consider it.

As for the SSD option, I am picking up a Seagate Momentus XT drive (hybrid 4 GB SSD, 7200 RPM 500 GB capacity). You should be able to get those for about a $130 street price.
 
I like the idea of a hybrid ssd, but 4gb isn't even enough for the OS...

Edit: Oops, after looking up the drive apparently its much cooler than a simple dual drive. My mistake. Hmm this might make my Envy 14 purchase much more affordable.
 
Veilrap said:
I like the idea of a hybrid ssd, but 4gb isn't even enough for the OS...

Edit: Oops, after looking up the drive apparently its much cooler than a simple dual drive. My mistake. Hmm this might make my Envy 14 purchase much more affordable.
Click to expand...

Yeah man no dought! Anandtech did a good review on it not too long ago. Gave the 600GB WD Velociraptor a real hurtin' :cool:
 
Where I work, we have been evaluating hard drives for our laptops. The regular 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM spindle drives, 256 GB SSD, and now, the hybrid. The encryption we used killed every evaluation SSD we used, the 7200 were almost as fast as the SSD drives for an end user experience level and the hybrid was just that much faster than the 7200 RPM based spindle drives. End user feedback was very positive. They noticed the performance increase right away and could not really tell if it was SSD or the hybrid. The certainly knew when they had a spindle only drive. Looks like we have a new favorite portable drive that is large, fast and cheap.
 
HeavyH20 said:
Where I work, we have been evaluating hard drives for our laptops. The regular 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM spindle drives, 256 GB SSD, and now, the hybrid. The encryption we used killed every evaluation SSD we used, the 7200 were almost as fast as the SSD drives for an end user experience level and the hybrid was just that much faster than the 7200 RPM based spindle drives. End user feedback was very positive. They noticed the performance increase right away and could not really tell if it was SSD or the hybrid. The certainly knew when they had a spindle only drive. Looks like we have a new favorite portable drive that is large, fast and cheap.
Click to expand...


What exactly about the encryption used on your notebooks destroyed the ssd drives? I thought those were more robust, not less.
 
We are not sure why the SSD drives died. They all lasted about 30 to 60 days before they were unreadable in the BIOS. We use PGP whole disk encryption. All 6 SSD's, from three manufacturer's saw the same fate. We talked with the tech support on the issue and they indicated that the whole disk encryption likely affected the drive's ability to move the data around to balance the read/write cycles from memory sectors. But, that's just a theory.
 
I just picked up an M11X with the I7-620UM. I'll have it by the 9th or 10th of August, pretty excited! :D
 
-envy 14 = made by HP

I haven't heard what the Envy 14s are like, but my Envy 17 had a lot of problems. The heat was the biggest issue, and what lead me to eventually return it, but there were all sorts of little flaws in the build quality too. I think that's the last time I buy an HP machine.
 
I have had my M11X R2 for about 1 month. With a 60GB Agility 2 SSD and a fresh install, this thing is one mean little machine. ;)
 
I have my hands on the Envy 14 and the build quality is top notch. The screen is awesome compared with the MX11 and there are no heat or noise issues. No regrets getting the Envy.
 
Lowest temps I've seen out of my Envy 15 thus far. This is about a week after I reapplied a fresh layer of AS5. Nearly perfect application this time around...

envyidletemp.jpg
 
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