Envy 17 pops up on HP.com begging to be officially launched
By Joanna Stern 
posted April 21st 2010 3:27PM
posted April 21st 2010 3:27PM
[Thanks, Ali]
posted April 21st 2010 3:27PM
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no optical drive in a 17 incher? this better weigh 3lbs
@artshark
I know its so dumb. It needs a dvd or blu ray drive because its a 17 inch.
http://www.patscowindshieldrepair.com/
Who the hell uses an optical drive?
@n0ne Its a 17" laptop, and some people do like to watch BluRay movies and install software without an external drive you know.
Now, I don't have a optical drive on my laptop either, but its also extremely thin and only 13", so sacrificing a few features for the small footprint makes sense.
Dumb move HP.
no one in 2010 uses an optical drive, much less carry one integrated in a laptop.
greets hp on making correct decisions.
now where is my 14inch envy with 1600x900 i5 and 330m?
Anyonr else thinking macbook pro copy?
@Ducman69
Who the hell watches Blue-rays on there laptop?
@artshark
its more than you can have the blu-ray output to a 1080p screen somewhere else via the HDMI.
holy crap Im so glad this came to light . . . I had been making claims it would be out on tuesday and felt really stupid.
@n0ne
Who the hell spells Blu-Ray like that?
@n0ne
*their is how you spell it,
And to answer your question, those of us who travel a a lot would have use for a Blu-ray drive. Also, the same people who don't have a dedicated desktop, but use a laptop instead.
@n0ne I don't need one in the laptop all the time, but if Apple could do it, why can't HP? Moreover, if Apple can do it with no heat problems, why do all the Envys have overheating problems even though they're less crammed (no optical drives).
@Ollllie
no...
@TareG
they set up the envy 15 with a lot of older technology it seems. I think there are two big reasons it has heat issues.
1. the core i7-720qm is a 45nm chip that makes a lot of heat while having four cores. apple uses the core i7-620m which is made on the 32nm scale and only has two cores . . . its supposed to provide some advantages with less space to lose heat and with only two cores its not going to take as much power. the i7 in the HP uses 45w and the Apple i7 chip would use maybe 32 watts or something like that.
2. hp has the graphics chip in the envy running all the time. no switching capable. apple has their technology that shuts that chip down to save more power and heat.
I really hope that HP gets a few things straightened out with the Envy line because they have so much potential but the ridiculous blunders thy have made with the available processors, old graphics solutions and slightly crummy hardware is just . . . a big letdown.
@n0ne I barely use mine. I wish my laptop didn't have one so I could just use the extra space for battery, ram, processors, grtaphics, hard drive, or something else far more useful.
@artshark Optical isn't a big deal. I bought a Sony FW because BD was a big feature for me. I have used it once! Optional drive seems fine. I use one with my vaio x.
@artshark You guys are SUCH freaking hypocrites! When Apple decided to not include a Blu-ray drive in it's latest laptops you couldn't stop talking crap about it! When the 1 or 2 Apple supporters on this site mentioned that people weren't really using ANY kind of optical drive, everyone immediately jumped on them for being blind Apple fan boys.
The fact is very few people use them anymore. The few and far apart instances they do can be addressed with a simple external drive, and they clearly don't outweigh the potential advantages from a larger battery or much smaller/lighter design in their place.
I applaud HP for seeing the trends and starting the inevitable axing of built in optical drives in ALL computers. The last time I needed one was to install Windows 7, but after seeing the HUGE decrease in time from transferring the installation to a flash drive, I'll never go back. The only other task I ever used them for in the past was burning CD's to listen to in my car but it's literally been years since I've done that. Having my entire library on an iPod is advantageous in every single way.
@Ollllie
Yep.
that's why you were downranked.
will probably happen to me too.
@evoGage
When they're watching "blue" films i.e. pron.
@n0ne And honestly this day in age, i download all my blu ray movies. Dvd's and Cd's just take up space now.
So... they fixed the trackpad yet?
@MarkAnderson
HP fixing anything? NO
HP making things worse with their SW "updates"? You bet!
@MarkAnderson
The touchpad on my 15 is great, gestures and all. It might need a little getting used to, but now I prefer it to even the MBP.
@MarkAnderson
They added more swirlies and reflective textures.
Lack of optical drive = huge dealbreaker. IMO if you want the best HP has to offer, forget the Envy and check out their EliteBook line.
@LANjackal
I don't know why everything has to have one... I mean, I haven't EVER used the one on my laptop, and I've had it for three years. Everything is available for digital download or on a USB key... so really I think it will start to be phased out.
@APV
Yeah I can probably agree with you here even though i use a thinkpad and i love how you can switch the drives out. And I can agree with Jackal on the elitebook note. But with more room this computer better have an awesome graphics card, fantastic batterylife and low operating temperature.
@APV I agree... I occasionally use it... very rarely though anymore.
@APV Yeah, I'm starting to think it's gonna be left out completely, and offered like this: separate external optical. I don't carry CD's to randomly put in my computer because never a time has a situation like that come up. I just burn whatever info I get to a USB and go on my way.
Whatever important or complex things I need to do requires a CD, like installing an OS/Game/Printer Driver etc., they are done at home.
@APV Phased out? umm not quite im sure a considerable number of people use CD's DVD's and Blu Ray discs on there computers and HP not including one on the Envy is a big deal, as it is the minimum you expect from a very high end laptop computer.
@JustThatNerdyGuy
Optical drives are the new floppy drives.
Personally, the only time I use one is when I burn and install a new OS. Chances are I'm not in the majority, but I'm sure I'm not alone either. And it is probably safe to assume that we are moving away from optical media.
Most systems support booting off USB optical drives anyway.
@JustThatNerdyGuy Exactly. If I have a machine as powerful as that, I'd like to watch Blu-Rays or DVDs on it, rip and burn CDs, etc. And yes, I still burn CDs because my car deck doesn't have an auxiliary input
Is that custom touchpard an upgrade option. For people with short left arms, and long right arms
@joga bonito a lot of 15+ inch laptops come with that actually, it's because the main keyboard is on the left, on the right is the numpad
@joga bonito
That is the main reason I hate having the number pad on a laptop keyboard. I can't stand everything being off center. If I need a number pad, I will gladly for over a few bucks for an external one. Might just be me, but I can't stand not being centered on the screen/laptop when I am typing.
How expensive will this thing be? I may want either this or a MBP 17 pretty soon. (I don't care about Mac vs. PC, I just want a big screen.)
@webran61
well I have the Envy 15 and speccing up a new MBP 15 to similiar specifications (the envy's GPU is much better, and the screen is true 1080p) rings in at exactly 1000$ more, and this is before coupons or cashbacks...
@Jules0 Yeah, I heard the ENVY15 being as cheap as $950 some places!
@webran61
Might want to read up on some of the issues the Envy line has.
I have a 17" MBP and love it, you can't beat the thing for build quality, and the screen is absolutely gorgeous. Although the HP might have slightly better specs, in my experience, the Mac will perform better in the long run. The Mac will also retain a much higher resale value should you decide to upgrade in a few years. I sold a 3 year old MBP when I bought this one in Jan, and was able to recover almost half of what I paid for it.
The Mac is a much better investment.
Who uses optical drives anymore anyway. Everything is downloaded. I haven't even touched my optical drive for over a year.
@CJisohsocool Yeah everybody is like you! Manufacturers should stop integrating optical drives since obviously noone uses them anymore!
@comix
Exactly.
@CJisohsocool
What do you mean my new laptop doesn't come with a floppy drive anymore?
@vipz
What's a floppy drive?
(sarcasm btw)
Optimus would be good but I'd buy this baby if they have improved heat issues and put some ATI 5870M on it something close to that instead of rebranded GPUs
@hero785
+1 for the 5870, but it looks like it's gonna be 5850 like someone already mentioned below. If they somehow end up putting in the 5870, I'd take that over having an option for internal drive, even if it's blu-ray (wishful thinking*).
@horchata
I saw that and it's satsfying. I will wait til they launch it, see if the battery life is good enough then buy it!
Well with the extra room just make the battery bigger and the compromise for the optical drive might seem less.
Go to the overview page:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/au/en/ho/WF05a/321957-321957-3329744-3995710-3995710-4149943.html
Radeon 5850.
@anexanhume Damn the lack of edit button. That DVD drive verbage is very vague, I wouldn't take it to mean that there's no drive.
@anexanhume
THey don't have it here but I'd take that over the optimus any day! I'm so getting this baby. Yeah and battery improvement would be nice, make it bigger and better and I wouldn't mind getting an external dvdw, but a slot loading drive would be nice too!