HP Envy 15-3040NR 15.6 Inch Laptop

Enjoy ultra-sharp 1080p videos with the HP ENVY 15-3040NR notebook PC, which also has Beats Audio^™ with six speakers and a subwoofer. Watch DVDs on the Full HD display, plus enjoy HD gaming. You can also stay more comfortable on the go by keeping your PC cooler with HP CoolSense technology. Stream content wirelessly to an HD TV and use integrated Bluetooth^® to print wirelessly and sync this ENVY 15 laptop with smartphones and other digital devices.

Hear music the way the artist intended using the sleek HP ENVY 15-3040NR notebook with Beats Audio. Plus, HP Wireless Audio lets you stream audio to wireless-enabled devices using KleerNet Technology. Watch DVDs and slideshows on the ultra-sharp 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD LED-backlit display. This stylish HP laptop has an all-aluminum body in nero black and natural silver. With the HP TrueVision Webcam and HP Radiance Backlit Keyboard, working in low-light environments is easy, too. The HP ENVY 15-3040NR also has a large hard drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection to help prevent data loss. With an extended life battery that lasts up to 8 hours per charge, stay powered without plugging in your notebook. Integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth help you connect and sync your HP laptop to a printer, MP3 player or smartphone without using cables. You can also stream content to your HD TV with Intel Wireless Display. Plus, transfer photos directly from a memory card to your PC. And at 5.79 lbs, the ENVY 15 delivers awesome performance and amazing experiences in a size that’s easy to carry in your backpack or laptop bag. Warranty- 1 year.Ports : 2x USB 3.0 (A), 1x USB 2.0 (A). Display: 1x HDMI,1x DisplayPort. Audio: Integrated Stereo Speakers, Integrated Microphone, 2x 1/8" (3.5mm) Headphone Output, 1x 1/8" (3.5mm) Microphone Input, Flash Media Slot: 1x SD, 1x MMC.

Closed Comment

I bought this from Amazon but I ordered it through my wife's account (she has a prime student) and that's why Amazon is not showing as verified purchase. This laptop is gorgeous, very much a clone of a Macbook pro. I use a Early 2010 Macbook pro 17" for my work, and I can assure you it excels my Macbook pro in the following functional aspects:

1. It has a full keyboard. The Macbook's so called "Full" keyboard is really not that full. Macbook misses all the home, end, page up and page down button. And trust me, even after two years of regular usage, I find it irritating. True, you can use Command + Up/Down etc. combination. But it's really a productivity issue.
2. The Envy's 4 speakers and the woofer combination is really awesome. In fact, this is the first laptop that I saw that outperforms my 17" Macbook pro speaker (both sound quality and volume). Previously I compared Asus N53, hp DV5, Lenovo (forgot the model number) and hp DV6 and all of them had much inferior sound quality than my Macbook pro
3. The USB ports are distributed on two sides, which is really nice

From aesthetics and ergonomics part, it excels my Macbook pro in the following aspects:

1. The corners of the rectangular chassis is not sharp like my Macbook pro, which is really nice. The Macbook's sharp edges cut into my palm everytime I lift it. Even while typing, it feels like a knife against my arm.
2. I liked the back lighting of the hp keyboard better

Now some cons in comparison to my Macbook pro 17 (early 2010):

1. My hp envy 15 power button's painting is already peeling off!! My Macbook pro still looks like brand new (not just the power button). To be fair, the Envy 15 doesn't seem to have any other weak part to peel off, and I am planning to keep the laptop as that minor cosmetic blemish is not a big deal for me.
2. The screen on my Macbook pro still would outperform the radiance display (to be fair, this is the best display of all the non Macbook pro that I have seen (refer to the earlier mentioned laptop models that I played with)). That being said, the Macbook pro 15" display really SUCKS. Refer to my updated comparison with Macbook pro 15" at the end of this review.
3. My 2 years old Macbook pro's 640x480 resolution webcam (yes that's only 0.3 mega pixel) still outperforms this Envy HD webcam (True vision or whatever they call it). That being said, again, to be fair, this is one of the best webcam that I have seen in non-Macbook pro laptops. Particularly, my last attempt with Asus N53SV webcam was horrible! It was sooo laggy and soo horrible quality that it was a deal breaker for me. (UPDATE: I changed my opinion, and kindly refer to my updated part of this review for my current subjective opinion).
4. The touchpad on my macbook pro has NO competitor. It's really awesome, and the hp touchpad can only dream to be of that quality.

Now some common complaint and their solution:

1. The touchpad is horrible, doesn't do smooth scrolling, doesn't register click etc. The solution is to install the latest driver. The notebook review forum has a Envy driver page which is up to date with the latest drivers (including drivers that are still not officially available from HP) and I downloaded a Synaptic driver from that link. It's a direct download from HP server, so nothing to be worried about. HP is probably going to release that soon. The driver was built at the end of January and after installing that, this touchpad is REALLY awesome. Almost as good as my Macbook pro (but as I said, it's still has a long way to go)

2. The two finger tapping has no right click configuration: If you come from Mac world, you are probably accustomed to tapping with two fingers and that acts like a right click. You can install an open source program named TwoFingerScroll (hosted on google codes) to achieve that. After that, IMHO, the touchpad is feature complete (you can configure many options in original Synaptic control panel + TwoFingerScroll)

3. Battery issue, and smooth switching between built in and ATI graphics card: Right now I have fixed mode driver enabled and I am only using built in Intel Graphics, which is more than adequate for me as I don't play games. You just need to go to BIOS settings and set Fixed mode in video switching setting (instead of Dynamic (the default)), and then right click on the desktop and go to Configure Switchable Graphics and set the power saving GPU as the graphics card. That seems to give me around 5 hours of typical usage, where I can edit the documents or browse typical web. Please refer to the updated review at the end of this review for some battery comparison with Macbook pro 17" and 15".

4. People complain that the red looks orange. But that's a common problem of the recent IPS panels (I heard Sony has same problem). And to me it doesn't look bad at all. The notebook review forum has some color calibration suggestion to improve the red accuracy. But I don't think it would be fixed with such a simple solution. So, if you really need a very accurate color output, look elsewhere.

Some features that I really like:

1. The analog volume control: Oh my gosh, that is sooo handy and sooo cute. You really need to feel it to understand how great that feature is. I always got lost between various top row volume control button. Now I never miss volume up and volume down. And they also have a cute mute button next to the analog volume control.

2. Buttonless touchpad: While they copied it from Apple, I think that's really great. Particularly, now you have the whole area as a touchpad and for multi-touch gesture.

Some issues that I hate:

1. The fan sound. It's definitely louder than my Macbook pro (Which is almost silent), and it's even louder than my Asus N53!

2. The left side of the keyboard (a, s, d etc. keys) feels loose (probably people call it flexing??) It doesn't feel solid.

3. I hated the crappy painting that is peeling off from the power button

All being said, this is the best non-Apple laptop that I have ever seen in my life. I am really happy with the build quality and the look (which they definitely copied from Apple), and the laptop is really very snappy (as you would expect from such a high end laptop). Unless the IPS Red accuracy is an issue for you, and you can live with some hit and miss on the build quality, it should be fine. Give it a try, and of course Amazon's excellent customer service would help you get a refund if you are not happy.