ENVY 15 with IPS screen

[Mitlov]

The problem with those is their video cards don't really hold a candle to what the Envy's packing.

The 7690m is roughly equivalent to a 555m, which is indeed a step up from the 540m in the XPS 15 and the Vaio F. Not several steps up, but one solid step up. It's not like the Envy 15 is packing a 580m or even a 560m.

I've never compared them, but I can't see how their build quality would compare to the Envys as they are made from plastic and not aluminum.

My keyboard doesn't flex at all, but it sounds like the Envy 15's keyboard does, particularly around WASD. Plastic versus metal doesn't tell you everything you need to know about solidity, and it tells you essentially nothing about quality controls in assembly. Plastic is solid if thick enough and metal is bendy if thin enough. And a plastic-bodied machine can be put together well, and a metal-bodied machine can be put together poorly.

[tedrick]

Honestly, I know the reds lean to the orangish side but I didn't buy it to do work on. I've got a better external display (calibrated) for anything color critical. I do like just about everything else with it...there really aren't many options for 1080P IPS @ 15" (even if reds are orangish).

[aztec506]

What's wrong with a Lenovo W520 that keeps it from being one of your picks? I received my Envy this week and I'm contemplating returning it and getting the Lenovo. It's powerful, 95% gamut, about the same weight as the Envy. Certainly not as nice looking, but seems a decent alternative.
I so much wanted to like this 15 Envy, but I do graphics work and don't know if I can live with the orange/red issue. I'll decide after I calibrate. Also - I stuck my Samsung 830 SSD in the Envy and the restore discs failed to complete. Support responded with some bs. I'm trying once more this weekend.

[Rubenstein]

I went to apple.com and picked out a MBP with similar options. That's the price, unfortunately.

ok, depends on the configuration. What I meant was that a biased configuration on the MBP and some discount (like for students) does not get you that high. Upgrades on MBP are very expensive, but also mostly useless for most people. For around 2000$, you should get a competative product.

I'd really encourage the people here who are having issues to consider the XPS 15 and the Vaio F. You don't need to choose between a $1300 Envy 15 and a $2300 MBP 15...there are other options out there too, and those are the two best IMO (the Vaio F's main issue being a thick case design, the XPS 15's being erratic fan noise, but both are otherwise pretty well liked).

Sorry, but these are completely different products. The XPS is much thicker, has far worse battery life, is loud and has half the GPU power of the Envy. I don't know the specs of the Sony by heart, but it will have similar problems. The only alternatives to the Envy are the Samsung Series 7 (also screen problems, and other issues) and the MBP (by far the best, but more expensive)

What's wrong with a Lenovo W520 that keeps it from being one of your picks?

see above. Samsung Series 7, Envy 15, MBP 15 etc. are from the category "thin and light". If you find something competative in this category, you'll find a lot of interested people here. But I can tell you already, there is nothing else, everybody is looking for that here. If there was, you would see a lot of talking immediately.


And about those who say that the color reproduction is not that important in everyday use - true, you don't need all the shades, but you need kind of true colors. I want this laptop for multimedia and stuff, but movies look like comics, everything has an orange tint, there is no dark blue and everytime something is red or slightly orange, it pops out in bright orange like a warning. The main problem is not that the colors are off, but that they are shifted from true colors to kind of neon colors.

If that does not bother you, great, I do understand that. My Galaxy S2 phone also tends to over saturate the colors, and I am fine with it, but on this laptop it's a dealbreaker for me.

Btw, if you check the stats, it tells you that the panel uses 6 bit aka 262k colors. I am not so familiar with other panels right now, but it feels a bit little...

[Thors.Hammer]

The W520 isn't made by Lenovo. Like nearly everything it's outsourced and made in China.

If you get a good W520, there's very little on the market that will beat it.

However, Lenovo does have manufacturing and quality issues like everyone else. Test the crap out of it in the first two weeks and make sure everything works perfectly.

[Mitlov]

Sorry, but these are completely different products. The XPS is much thicker, has far worse battery life, is loud and has half the GPU power of the Envy...Samsung Series 7, Envy 15, MBP 15 etc. are from the category "thin and light". If you find something competative in this category, you'll find a lot of interested people here.

I'm not sure they're as different as you think.

Envy 15 weight: 5.79 lbs
XPS 15 weight: 5.95 lbs
Vaio F weight: 6.85 lbs (but a bigger screen size)
ThinkPad W520: 6.2 lbs
Vaio SE weight: 4.4 lbs (disclaimer: has had a red-orange controversy of its own)

Yes, the Envy 15 has a better GPU (but not twice as powerful...I think it's something like a 30-40% improvement, which generally translates to playing games one graphics setting higher). Each of these laptops has a different set of compromises, but I think all of these are options for people who were initially excited about the Envy 15 but ultimately decided it wasn't for them.

[Lvivkse]

the 15 and MBP are not "thin and light"s

[sullymc]

I'm wondering if any of you "screen officianados" can help me with something regarding the Envy 15. I'm considering the Envy 15 along with the Samsung Series 7 as a desktop replacement which will provide the added benefit of portability. Most of the use will be web surfing and spreadsheet work (finance guy). There will be very little movie or tv viewing.



Given my type of usage, is there a benefit to getting the IPS screen (ignoring the red/orange issue)? I suspec that web pages and spreadsheets look virtually identical on either of the 2 screen choices. I had someone tell me that for screen resolution: Don’t go too high, otherwise you’ll go nuts. For 14 inch, 1366x768 is good, 15 can do that or maybe 1400 x 900. 1920x1080 is no good for laptops unless you are a teenager. I'm assuming that higher resolution makes the numbers in a spreadsheet look smaller (potentially an issue for a 45 year old with glasses).

[c0mplex]

I'm wondering if any of you "screen officianados" can help me with something regarding the Envy 15. I'm considering the Envy 15 along with the Samsung Series 7 as a desktop replacement which will provide the added benefit of portability. Most of the use will be web surfing and spreadsheet work (finance guy). There will be very little movie or tv viewing.



Given my type of usage, is there a benefit to getting the IPS screen (ignoring the red/orange issue)? I suspec that web pages and spreadsheets look virtually identical on either of the 2 screen choices. I had someone tell me that for screen resolution: Don’t go too high, otherwise you’ll go nuts. For 14 inch, 1366x768 is good, 15 can do that or maybe 1400 x 900. 1920x1080 is no good for laptops unless you are a teenager. I'm assuming that higher resolution makes the numbers in a spreadsheet look smaller (potentially an issue for a 45 year old with glasses).

There is never a reason to go for a screen for a lower resolution. If you find the text too small, you can increase the DPI so that you can have bigger text while still having a large amount of screen space to have multiple viewable windows open. You can also just lower the entire screen resolution, but the first method I mentioned is more preferred.

[Don Draper]

I'm wondering if any of you "screen officianados" can help me with something regarding the Envy 15. I'm considering the Envy 15 along with the Samsung Series 7 as a desktop replacement which will provide the added benefit of portability. Most of the use will be web surfing and spreadsheet work (finance guy). There will be very little movie or tv viewing.



Given my type of usage, is there a benefit to getting the IPS screen (ignoring the red/orange issue)? I suspec that web pages and spreadsheets look virtually identical on either of the 2 screen choices. I had someone tell me that for screen resolution: Don’t go too high, otherwise you’ll go nuts. For 14 inch, 1366x768 is good, 15 can do that or maybe 1400 x 900. 1920x1080 is no good for laptops unless you are a teenager. I'm assuming that higher resolution makes the numbers in a spreadsheet look smaller (potentially an issue for a 45 year old with glasses).

Don't worry about a resolution being too high. A high resolution is capable of displaying finer details and smaller text, but that doesn't mean it has to. By going into Windows settings and setting text size to 125% or 150%, you can make every part of the GUI larger - the taskbar, menus (this includes both the menus you see when you right click and menus in programs), icons, icon text, the start menu, tooltips, pop-up notifications in the system tray, etc. The same goes for your web browser and Microsoft office. Now, the cost of the panel is still a concern, but the fact of the matter is that higher resolution panels are still just as capable of displaying things large, in addition to being able to display finer detail.