HP ENVY 15-1055SE Beats Limited Edition 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Magnesium Alloy)

by HP

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15 x 9.6 x 1 inches ; 5.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 21.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00318CGE6
• Item model number: VM249UA#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,288 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 17, 2010

Product Description

People aren't hearing all the music. ENVY beats changes everything. The outcome of a meeting of like-minded souls at HP and Interscope Records, HP ENVY 15 beats limited edition seeks first, last and always to reveal the full sound of today’s digital music including the most sonically demanding rock, hip hop and R&B. Designed for professional and aspiring DJs who demand the best, ENVY beats delivers all the power, clarity and deep bass today's top artists and producers want you to hear. With everything you need to spin digital from underground design to audio accessories to mixing software, you’ll rock the club like never before.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a great value, HP cut a lot of corners, March 16, 2010

By 

Enigma (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP ENVY 15-1055SE Beats Limited Edition 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Magnesium Alloy) (Personal Computers)

I wanted to use the HP Envy 15 Beats LE for at least a month before writing the review in order to let the first few days of excitement pass and provide a decent amount of info for people considering purchasing one.

In summary, within 2-weeks of buying one, I was questioning the purchase since I watched other Envy 15 models receive hardware updates that the Beats didn't (and still hasn't). I am providing a 2-star rating because of the corners HP cut in general and compared to other Envy 15 models, other brand's comparable notebooks and overall value (price for what you get). I probably would have returned it, but I travel a lot and needed it so was out of town when HP's 21-day grace period elapsed and they refused to budge on taking it back.

There are a few reasons I decided on buying the HP Envy 15 Beats LE rather than other Envy 15s and one primary reason HP Envy over other less expensive brands with equivalent hardware. If I didn't use these factors as my primary drivers, I most likely would be with another Lenovo (formerly IBM Thinkpad), which I have used different models for many years and have always great experience.

Unfortunately, when researching, I couldn't find a 'real use' review anywhere - not even Amazon. I don't take reviews by the professional review sites because they typically don't use on a day-to-day basis, spend very limited time with the gadgets they are reviewing and I've learned over the years that they tend to have a lot of inaccuracies. I see there is a review on Amazon now, which is a good review, but I essentially bought it blind as HP sales couldn't answer questions beyond what is posted on their sites. Every rep I spoke with never tried the Beats LE and often confused it with the standard Envy 15.

My review is to answer questions I had to hopefully help others. Plus, I'm adding several things I wouldn't have expected - both good and bad.

Why the Envy line? Voodoo lineage, Core i7 processor availability, upgradeable to 16GB RAM, 1920x1080 high definition display, eSATA+USB combo port and the biggest for me: the form factor and looks. Magnesium alloy case rather than the cheap-looking plastic we've all become used to with Wintel Laptops. Even the latest Alienware models look cheap (to me). The closest comparison in the looks department is Apple's MBP. Like Apple or not, most have to admit they are sexy products and they get that right with most of their gear.

I am not going to make this review entirely a direct comparison to Apple's 15" MBP Unibody, but a few notes to help evaluate since many of us have either owned one, used one, or read about the MBP. Finding a physical Envy 15 Beats LE to see in person at is not easy so hopefully this helps. I did have a unibody 15" MacBook Pro (MBP) that was top of the line when I bought it with 4GB RAM, 2.8GHz Duo Core and anything that was upgradeable, upgraded (except the SDD). I really liked the look/feel, but OS X wasn't practical for my personal day-to-day work. Not here to rate OSes - it's just that my personal work requires Windows and Linux. The Envy has a slightly bigger screen and much higher resolulion than the current MBPs (15.6" 1920x1080 vs. 15.4" 1440x900. The Envy even beats the 1680x1050 resolution of the 17" MBP. The Envy is lighter, and you can feel the difference.

15" Unibody MBP dimensions (apple.com): 14.35" W x 9.82" D x 0.95" H at 5.50 pounds (15.4" display)
HP Envy 15 Beats LE dimensions (hp.com): 14.96" W x 9.60" D x 1.04" H at 5.18 pounds (15.6" display)

Windows 7 x64 Ultimate "Windows Experience Index" (MBP was using Bootcamp):

Envy 15 Beats LE stock + 10GB RAM - while the i7 has a 1333 FSB, this particular Envy comes with slower 1066MHz)
Processor: 6.9
Memory: 7.3
Graphics: 6.7
3D Graphics: 6.7
Hard Disk: 5.9

15" Apple MBP: 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM at 1066MHz, 320GB 7,200 RPM HDD using 512MB Nvidia discrete GPU
Processor: 6.4
Memory: 6.4
Graphics: 6.4
3D Graphics: 6.4
Hard Disk: 5.9

I know this "index" rating isn't the end-all, be-all definitive rating, but it's been around since Vista and easiest to make comparisons AND they are the scores I've kept for such comparisons. The MBP I had was a late 2008, first unibody edition so it performed pretty good. Shows that Win7 on "bare metal" of HP's top of the line notebooks really only has mediocre performance for the cost.

The MBP does get VERY, VERY hot when operating. In fact, it was too hot for my lap at times. I've even read about burns on legs. Apple designs the aluminum case smartly to do one thing aluminum does great: dissipate heat. However, this works against it too and has no vents except for a small slit along the back. Great for looks, but for me, not quite worth that trade off. The Envy I have seen all sorts of comments on "it gets too hot" as well as "it's not a problem for me." For me, it is zero problem. Smartly placed vents were integrated and don't look bad at all, but help keep the temperature down.

Why did I choose the Envy Beats LE rather than a "standard" Envy? Primarily looks even with the cost and tradeoffs. I am not a DJ or even listen to that much music so those had no affect on my decision. While I do like the metal casing of the standard Envy, I am not a fan of the etching on the lid. Plus, I was specifically looking for black.

Choosing the Beats edition for looks means a number of tradeoffs. First, the standard Envy has already seen USB 3.0 arrive. The Beats LE has a plastic keyboard cover/palm rest that is both a positive (runs cooler) and negative (looks cheap) whereas a standard Envy is all magnesium alloy. The standard Envy has the ability to insert two hard drives internally, but for some reason the Beats LE does not (haven't opened it, just what I've read). The Beats is only available with the i7-720QM vs. the standard having the choice of the i7-820QM. I suspect you can upgrade the processor yourself, but for $2,400 - I don't think I'm going to spend another $600 for an 820. Also, for whatever reason, HP made the not-so-wise choice to use 1066MHz DDR3 rather than using 1333MHz that the standard comes with. You can certainly upgrade to the higher speed RAM yourself since the i7's FSB will handle it, but again, I'm not going to for the price I already paid and performance isn't that big of a difference (really unoticeable), but it is another example of them cutting a corner. I suspect they may have decided those buying the Beats LE are music people and don't care. Also, the Beats LE has an ATI 4830 graphics processing unit (GPU) rather than the better ATI 5830 in the standard Envy.

The Good:
- Beautiful, bright, clear, hi-def 1920x1080 display
- 1" thin and very light for its size
- Magnesium alloy case
- Looks great - better in person than in pictures
- Core i7 Quadcore Processor
- 6GB RAM expandable to 16GB
- 1GB dedicated video memory (ATI 4830)
- Accelerometer so great drive protection (seems to work better than IBM's/Lenovo's)
- Ambient light sensor that works good, though I've read it's irritating to some so you can just turn it off.
- Low light "night vision" camera with Infrared LEDs to help light you up in the dark - works great
- HP's support assistant software included seems to work good. Has provided a number of updates including a BIOS update (though not to the most recent BIOS).
- HP's MediaSmart software is great
- HP's Recovery partition that has everything you need to recover the OS and software to "new from factory" settings - I have used it once and it is great. Nearly 100% automatic, but does take over an hour. You can remove the partition if you want, but with 500GB, why bother? If you do, you can make ONE set of DVDs that do the same thing. They must be single-layer and can't be re-writeable (RW) - software won't progress (so I had to buy 10 DVDs just to get 3 discs out of it. You can also order a set from HP for $30.
- HP's Wireless Assistant tray software that allows easy access to quickly enable/disable WiFi and/or Bluetooth seperately, or a convenienty hardkey to quickly disable/enable both.
- Great keyboard: spacious, laid out great, tactile click (some may consider it a bit noisy) and dedicated shortcut keys for email, mediasmart, browser, printing and calculator (my favorite). Dedicated key to fully enable/disable all wireless (WiFi and Bluetooth).
- Windows 7: Ability to easily upgrade to a "higher" version (e.g. Ultimate) using the Control Panel - no software needs to be installed, just plug in a new key and it unlocks additional features (Windows 7 design) so don't worry about paying for an upgrade later if you are done using the computer you had Windows 7 on - unless it's OEM Win7 that doesn't allow it.
- 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 is a combination USB 2.0 + eSATA
- HDMI out port
- Dre's Beat Headsets are very nice
- I am one who likes the bezel around the display - holds in my privacy filter much better than a completely flat format like the MBP, which is almost pointless to use a privacy filter on unless you want to use duct tape.
- Built-in low light, infrared camera is very cool and works great - especially in low light. Colors aren't that vibrant, but most built-in cameras lack - even the iSight on the Macs.
- Beats speakers built in. I don't know what that means and have read they are very good. All I can say about them is they sound very crisp, clear and have decent bass for the size. However, they don't go very loud - at all. Sometimes I have to put on my headset to hear even though my volume is all the way up - hopefully I remember to turn it down because it is far too loud with headsets.
- Included 9-cell slice... Read more ›

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor Build Quality, Poor Support, February 26, 2010

By 

Emptor (Martinez, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP ENVY 15-1055SE Beats Limited Edition 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Magnesium Alloy) (Personal Computers)

The HP Envy 15" Beats is a fast machine with a clear display. Even with the recent price reduction, it's overpriced, but the case is nice. Unlike some, I find the touchpad to be quite usable. The battery life without a "slice" battery is really too short (1 hr), so plan on getting the extra 2.5 lb. "slice" battery. (Supposedly HP has corrected the defects in the "slice" battery connections.) The biggest design problem is the absence of an expansion card slot. If you want to add a Firewire port (also absent) for use with a video camera, you're out of luck.

A word about build quality: it isn't there. Little things like the ethernet port that won't let go of the cable you can cope with, but the keypad that loses keys renders the machine unusable. This is a bigger problem than you might expect because HP really doesn't know how to repair these machines. Keep in mind that this is a high-end machine representing the very best that HP is capable of.

HP has a reputation for supporting its products (not counting Compaq), which is a reason I chose HP over Dell or Sony. However, HP's support for its laptops is so bad that I would avoid the HP Envy line and HP in general because of it.

A story about HP support.

We bought the HP Envy 15" Beats edition a couple of months ago. About a month ago one of the key caps fell off because of a defect. Disappointing in a high-end laptop, but not too big a deal. We called HP, and got through quickly, and they arranged to have the laptop shipped overnight for repair from a local FedEx/Kinko's office at their expense. So far, so good. When the machine came back, we found that two keys -- the keys themselves, not the keycaps -- were now misaligned, and the springs were now obviously less responsive than their neighbors. Also, the HP repair depot scratched up the case. It was like taking the car in for an air filter and getting it back with scratched fenders and broken fuel injectors.

We sent it back a second time, requesting a new keyboard and case to bring it back to original condition. After a week and a half, they marked the order billable to us because of "customer damage". Also they discovered a pinched "thermal cable", which could only have been damaged by HP itself. More delays. More phone calls. They eventually agreed to pay for the damage they themselves had caused. A week later the machine came back with new keyboard and case, but now the touchpad is loose. Still more phone calls. Will they eventually fix more than they damage? Who knows? Their attitude is: you get the minimum the warranty provides. Tough luck.

So, is HP worse than any other laptop vendor? Probably not, but they are no better either, and they don't deserve a premium price for anything they sell. If there's one thing to learn from this experience it is to treat the warranty as just as important as the CPU -- it could mean the difference between owning a computer and owning a doorstop. Oh yeah, and avoid HP.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars HP really needs to work on Battery life, November 23, 2010

By 

Sanjay Raut "Crown" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP ENVY 15-1055SE Beats Limited Edition 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Magnesium Alloy) (Personal Computers)

I was excited to get this computer. Processor is great but it needs lot of battery power. Battery life hardly for one hour if you are watching youtube or listening to music. If you just browsing internet, battery life is for 75 minutes only. I bought 9 cell battery to deal with this issue but it is too heavy. When I connected, 9 cell to my PC, PC was like heavy concrete brick. HP really needs to work on battery life to hold more power for i7 core. Bluetooth driver has some problem. I have been using this PC for 8 months, they still have not fixed bluetooth issue. If you are buying new version of Beats edition, please check battery life. It is really frustrating at airport or coffee shops to look for power outlet. Also power supply is too heavy and bulky. The price that you pay is justified when this PC has this issues.