HP Envy 17 3D-2001xx - Your Personal 3D Movie Machine

Your Personal 3D Movie Machine

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, 3D movies just don’t seem to be going away. Maybe it's having to sit in cramped cinema seats, maybe it's being forced to wear recycled glasses, or maybe you're just sick of suffering through annoying image ghosting and the accompanying headaches that come from sitting at the sides of the cinema (ever notice that the one perfectly positioned seat, right in the middle of the theatre is always reserved, no matter how early you try to book?). The solution? How about your own full HD, Blu-ray equipped, personal 3D movie watching machine. Perhaps something like this for example:

Recently upgraded with a new Core i7-2820QM (2.3GHz) quad-core processor, HP’s Envy 17 3D also features a 17.3-inch full HD, 1920 x 1080 pixels Ultra BrightView Infinity LED display, an AMD Radeon HD 6850M graphics module, 8GB DDR3 SDRAM, 2TB (1TB x 2) HDD capacity, and a Blu-ray optical drive. It also has a full sized, backlit chiclet keyboard, two front facing speakers, a built-in subwoofer, and audio by Beats.

We know it sounds exciting, so we're giving it the full review treatment to find out how good it really is.

Design

We’ve always admired the Envy lineup for its sleek minimalist looks and interesting use of patterns and textures, and the Envy 17 3D is no different. A brushed aluminum ‘carbon relic’ finish (a coppery metallic brown shade) with an etched square dot matrix pattern adorns the lid of the notebook. It's not immediately obvious under normal lighting conditions, but the dots actually form a swirly floral pattern, which adds a nice artistic touch while remaining understated.

One thing that slightly spoils the interior aesthetics is the use of a 'keyboard well' rather than the one piece aluminum found on the newer Envy 15 models. There’s a noticeable gap showing between the keyboard and the surrounding aluminum, and unfortunately the keyboard base is also plastic which makes it a slightly different color compared to the rest of the interior.

Keyboard and Track Pad

The backlit, chiclet keyboard is full-sized (except for the up/down arrow keys which, like all HP notebook keyboards, are half sized). Typing was generally comfortable, with a firm response and generous spacing between each key. We did however notice a bit of flex in the number pad area.

The Envy 17 3D features a buttonless trackpad with raised lines to indicate where to press for mouse clicks. We weren’t too keen on the trackpad as clicking the buttonless area felt mushy and we could feel the entire pad flexing. We also felt that, considering the amount of real estate on the wrist rest area, the trackpad could have been bigger.

The only other button found on the interior is the slim power button found above the keyboard. Instead of having their own dedicated buttons (there's more than enough space for them), multimedia controls are shared with the function buttons (F1, F2, etc.), which may be an annoyance to some, but does fit the minimalist aesthetic nature. Additionally, we're not sure if it's just our review model, but we also noticed a lack of manufacturer stickers, which again complements the minimalist appearance.

Ports Aplenty

You'll find all the necessary ports on the sides of the Envy 17 3D. Unlike the lid and interior, the sides are finished in a brushed silver aluminum finish, which provides a nice contrasting tone.

3D Movie Magic

The full HD display on the Envy 17 3D is definitely one of the highlights of the machine. The ultra bright panel and wide viewing angles make for glorious movie watching, and while you will notice some reflections on the glossy panel, with the lights off or the 3D glasses on, they all but disappear.

3D is provided via AMD Radeon’s preferred third party software DDD (Dynamic Digital Depth) TriDef 3D. We saw this technology previously in our Samsung 700G7A review and were impressed by the depth of the stereoscopic effect and the crisp image quality. The Envy 17 3D was no different, with our test movie, a 3D Blu-ray Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, providing an excellent visual experience with no ghosting issues or video lag.

HP supplies their own 3D Active Shutter glasses with the Envy 17 3D. A soft, suede, carrying pouch is also included. The glasses themselves felt a bit bulky, and reminded us of the protective lab goggles we wore in chemistry classes in our school days but, having said that, they do sit comfortably, and seemed especially well fitted for those wearing glasses. One thing you may or may not like is that the glasses are powered by a small watch battery, without any option for USB recharging. On the one hand, this means they last longer and you won’t need to recharge them after every movie; but on the other hand, be prepared to keep some spare batteries around when they inevitably run out of juice halfway through your movie.

Audio by Beats

To complement the visual experience, HP has loaded the Envy 17 3D with two front facing speakers and a Triple Bass Reflex subwoofer for some booming audio. Bass lovers will definitely appreciate the sound here; the low frequencies were well reproduced, and this is certainly one of the better notebook subwoofers we've heard.

If you're somewhere where you can't crank up the volume, plug in some good quality headphones and make the most of HP’s collaboration with Beats. According to HP, “the audio driver has been tuned to get better sound reproduction out of the audio jack and is shielded to reduce interference.” Now, we’re normally skeptical of 'waffly' marketing gimmicks like this, but honestly, using our Audio-Technica ES-7 headphones (which aren’t even audiophile quality), we did notice some improvements compared against other audio players. Again, low-end frequencies seemed particularly crisp.

Benchmarking and Performance

With its upper-tier mid-range AMD Radeon HD 6850M graphics engine, the Envy 17 3D isn’t quite good enough to be considered a full-fledged gaming notebook. We consider it more of a hybrid multimedia/gaming notebook. As such, we’ve compared it against both a full gaming notebook, Samsung’s Series 7 700G7A, and a 15.6-inch multimedia notebook, HP’s own Pavilion dv6. All three machines are running Sandy Bridge quad-core i7 processors, and AMD Radeon GPUs.

While the retail Envy 17 3D ships with a 2TB (1TB x 2) HDD and 8GB DDR3 SDRAM, our review unit came equipped with only 6GB RAM and 1.28TB (2 x 640) so your own performance may actually be slightly better. 

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

The Envy 17 3D managed to beat both of its competitors in the overall PCMark Suite, and also scored well in Memories and Productivity thanks mainly to its faster processor. On the other hand, its gaming score was disappointing, performing far worse than the Series 7 700G7A due to its inferior graphics module.

Futuremark 3DMark06

Our 3DMark06 results showed just how much of a gap there is between the higher end 6970M found in the Samsung Series 7 700G7A and the HP Envy 17 3D's own 6850M, which was easily out-performed, scoring closer in performance to the HP dv6's 6770M. 

Far Cry 2

We ran the Far Cry 2 benchmark test to determine if the Envy 17 3D's faster processor could still produce competitive frame rates, despite its mid-range graphics chip. On Medium settings, at full HD resolution, the HP Envy 17 3D performed well, with very little visual difference between it and the Series 7 700G7A. However, with settings cranked up to Very High, the Envy 17 3D registered noticeably slower frame rates. Gameplay was still acceptable, with frames averaging around 50 for the most part; however scenes with complex foliage combined with lots of explosions saw frame rates drop as low as 34.

Take note that the results for the HP Pavilion dv6 were based off a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. This is our default test resolution when the notebook isn't able to support full HD resolution. Having said that, the HP Envy 17 3D is handling a real life gaming application very well for its specifications.

Far Cry 2 - 3D On

With stereoscopic 3D settings turned on, the Envy 17 3D took a hefty hit in performance. Even at Medium settings, we found performance to be noticeably jerky, which spoiled the 3D effect. At Very High settings with 3D on, the game was unplayable, with frame rates dipping as low as 3.

Turning the resolution down to 1024 x 768, we were able to achieve an average frame rate of 45.02 on Medium settings, which did improve performance quite a bit. However, at Very High settings, even at the lower resolution, frame rates again plummeted to an average of 17.88.

Overall, it was clear that the Envy 17 3D is only suitable for moderate gaming purposes. While it has a fast processor, its mid-range AMD Radeon HD 6850M GPU is a bottleneck on performance, causing big drops in frame rate every time we crank it up with higher graphical settings. 3D for gaming seems more like a gimmick than something one can really enjoy (such as 3D movies that it tackled well).

Battery Performance

While we wouldn't consider the Envy 17 3D portable by any means, what good would a personal movie machine be if you couldn't take it on the road with a copy of the latest summer blockbuster? HP has fitted the Envy 17 3D with a 6-cell 11.1W Lithium Ion battery with a 62 Wh capacity. A 9-cell version is also available from the Singapore HP Online Store for $460.10 (model MU09) or alternatively from the US HP online store for US$139 (S$178).

We were impressed by the Envy 17 3D's battery performance, which lasted 2 hours before powering off in our DVD battery looping test (with both screen brightness and audio set to 50%). By comparison, our other 17.3-inch model, the 700G7A, which is equipped with a 9-cell battery, managed only 1 hour and 38 minutes. Having said that, 2 hours is still cutting it a bit close for some movies, so we would recommend either picking up the 9-cell battery option, or keeping the Envy 17 3D strictly as a home entertainment machine. 

Power consumption on the Envy 17 3D was reasonable, and better than expected from a 17.3-inch desktop replacement. Part of the reason why the HP Envy fared much better than the Samsung notebook is because the latter has a far more powerful GPU that draws more power. Hence, this leaves the Envy 17 3D more closely comparable with its own multimedia sibling,  the Pavilion dv6.

Portability Index

Our Portability Index measures how portable a notebook is. Obviously, 17.3-inch notebooks are not really designed for portability, and at 3.41kg the Envy 17 3D is certainly no lightweight. Having said that, compared to the rest of the 17-inch machines, the Envy 17 3D actually scores quite well, far outperforming the Gaming class notebooks like Alienware's M17XR3 and Samsung's Series 7 700G7A, and even beating HP's own older 17.3-inch multimedia notebook, the Pavilion dv7.

Conclusion

The HP Envy 17 3D is a notebook with a lot going for it. We love the clean, minimalist design and full aluminum construction with its subtle floral dot matrix pattern that keeps the notebook interesting without being gaudy or attracting too many fingerprints. The 17.3-inch full HD screen is bright and full of color, with excellent viewing angles. 3D is sharp, with a clean stereoscopic effect and no ghosting issues. Speakers are loud and clear, with booming low-end thanks to the built in subwoofer. External speakers or headphones also sound better better than expected with the help of Beats audio technology. As a personal movie watching machine, whether it be 2D or 3D, it really doesn't get much better than this.

All that being said, it does have its drawbacks. We didn't like the track pad, which we felt could have been bigger; and there was some flex in both the track pad and keyboard. The biggest negative for us though was the graphics card. The Envy 17 3D is not a gaming-grade notebook. Even with its better than average quad-core processor, games on Very High settings severely taxed the machine, with the GPU acting as a bottleneck and not being able to cope with 3D gaming needs. It's a pity because, with its excellent display, the 3D visual experience on the Envy 17 3D is actually superior to that of many other gaming notebooks we've tried including the Alienware M17XR3, but unfortunately its GPU just can't handle 3D gaming at anything higher than Medium settings.

If you're looking for a great multimedia machine, the Envy 17 3D is hard to beat, but if you plan on indulging in serious gaming,  you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

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