HP Envy 17: HP's MacBook Pro Killer?
by Dustin Sklavos on December 16, 2010 12:30 AM ESTHigh and Ultra Gaming Settings
We'll start taxing the Envy 17 at our "High" preset. The AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5850 shouldn't have too much of a problem with our gaming suite at these settings, even at the notebook's 1080p native resolution.
In every case but StarCraft II, the Mobility Radeon HD 5850 is able to produce smooth performance at the Envy 17's native resolution, and even in that case it's still fairly playable. As we're often keen to point out, though, again you can see the major difference in performance going from mainstream-class to enthusiast-class graphics in a notebook: there's no middle ground here. Unfortunately it seems like our "High" preset is near the peak of what the 5850 can do.
Once we start pushing the GPU at our "Ultra" settings, the weaknesses of AMD's mobile line-up are finally revealed. Lest NVIDIA get cocky, it should be noted that the Quadro 5000M doesn't fare that much better. We're near the top of the line in mobile graphics here, but the gulf in performance going from mobile to desktop graphics is absolutely tremendous. Only the Clevo X7200 is able to pull playable framerates across the board, but it also costs three times what the Envy 17 does.
Now's as good a time as any to reiterate what we said back when we initially reviewed the AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5870: AMD needs to get their act together. The state of modern high-end mobile graphics is pitiful, and "good enough" just isn't going to cut it anymore. AMD seems willing to barely compete at most, leaving NVIDIA to produce equally lazy parts like the GeForce GTX 480M. "Consolitis" has kept modern game requirements fairly reasonable, to the point where a desktop Radeon HD 5770 can for the most part get the job done at 1080p, but we're still having issues with mobile parts.
Without good competition and envelope pushing from either side, mobile graphics stagnate horribly and leave us with a mediocre top-end. The 5850 in the Envy 17 is adequate and should play most games at native, but we've been sitting at "adequate" for entirely too long. Here's hoping that the mobile variants of AMD's 6800/6900 series can leverage features such as PowerTune to give mobile gaming a shot in the arm.
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gomakeit - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
agreed - same hereFinite Loop - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
When I reached page 42 of the article, I started getting this distinct feeling that I had read this article before.ciparis - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
The last page seems to be missing; it just redirects to the first page.I'd like to read the conclusion :)
mrmbmh - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Thanks for your nice review.when I click on the "conclusion page" it leads me to the first page... fix it please.
janwuyts - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
With that title for the article, why not include an actual macbook pro in the comparison?tarunactivity - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Yes. . Doesn't the ENVY have a right to face its accuser?Funny that the MBP does not feature in any of the charts!
retnuh - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Agreed, there should have been some attempt to compare where applicable, screen, weight, battery tests, jury rig win 7 bootcamp & newer drivers to test 3d even or starcraft2 (Win7) vs starcraft 2 (OSX), portal. But to use a headline like that and not include data from a MBP is lame. OR EVEN LINK to a review of the MBP inside the article so we can easily look up what was forgotten is even worse.Next time try,
title: "HP Envy 17 review"
somewhere in the first two paragraphs: "we've gotten a lot of requests to compare this to an apple mbp 17, here's a link to our previous review for comparison"
Then its a side note, for the curious, not a slap in the face.
retnuh - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
There doesn't seem to be a 17" MBP review, but here's the link to the 15" for those interested.http://www.anandtech.com/show/3669/apples-15inch-2...
damianrobertjones - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
"HP Envy 17: HP's MacBook Pro Killer?"Please, PLEASE, stop referencing damn apple products. You're instantly referencing another product and possibly removing sales by the headline alone, which, HP should be pretty annoyed at.
P.s. I own a HP Envy 13... fantastic machine (Once you slap an intel 1.8" SSD in there
takumsawsherman - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
This is perhaps unintentionally hilarious. The article sort of reads like an apology for HP. It's not supposed to be an HP advertisement, so therefore Anandtech shouldn't be worried that HP will be "annoyed". If HP didn't want to be annoyed, maybe they should have maybe created a product that was actually a credible threat to even the base MacBook, never mind the MacBook Pro. The battery life at *idle* is a complete laugh, and you cannot even watch a 90 minute movie!From the actual data of the review, and some salient points from the text, no one should ever buy this laptop. Of course, considering that HP just made me send in a customer's laptop in as opposed to sending me a replacement hard drive (in-warranty failure) unless I pre-paid for the hard drive (refund would be issued when they received the return part). This is on a laptop that is 10 months old and HP diagnosed the hard drive failure (after I already gave them info from another diagnostic tool - another 30 minutes on the phone so that they could verify).
Then there was the firmware update that was supposed to fix a problem with 4 laserjets on a network. These laserjets had this quirk since they were purchased a few years ago. Installed the updates, and one failed and borked the printer. HP's response? Not our problem, pay $40 for us to even chat with you. Problem - bad formatter board as a result of failed firmware upgrade, not our problem, though.
That is one of the many reasons why HP won't have a product that is a "killer" anything. They have no concern for the customer's view of them. There is no reason for anyone to be a "repeat" customer of HP.
(except ProCurve switches - never had a problem with that support or the products)