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considering the envy 14 vs the new macbook air 13.
i need a new machine, and obviously the air has the portability and battery life without sacrificing too much performance. anyone with an envy wanna tell me how much they love it?
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It's difficult to compare the two I think. Because the Macbook Air models are more like luxury netbooks than full laptops. It might be better to compare the Macbook Pro against the Envy 14 but oh well. Let's look at the difference between the Air and Envy 14.
Macbook Air 13
+Incredible design(super thin, unibody)
+Flash memory(128/256)
+iLife
+Battery life is better than most 13in notebooks
+Super fast instant-on OS
+Mac trackpads are really good
...........................................
-No optical drive
-Only two USB ports
-Core 2 Duo
-Expensive starting price
________________________
HP Envy 14
+Pretty nice design(aluminum/magnesium/1.1in thick)
+Slot loading optical drive
+Nice gaming performance from ATI Mobility 5650
+Core i3/i5/i7 options
+Starting price at $999 with Core i3/4gb RAM/500gb 7200HDD/ATI5650
...........................................
-Sub par battery life
-No Blu-ray option
-HP no longer sells the 1900x1600 Radiance screen as a configurable option, you're stuck with the 16:9 1366x768 resolution
_________________________
So it comes down to what you want to do. If you're a media person and like to edit movies and such things, Apple is where its at. Personally I just feel like Apple's iMovie is so easy to use it beats out Movie Maker any day. And even though the HP has more muscle than the Air, that doesn't necessarily mean the Macbook Air is slower. These two notebooks run two different OS that requires different hardware specs. From what I understand Mac OS is a little less heavy in hardware requirements than Windows 7 so that Core 2 Duo and 2GB ram in the Air should be just as good at running applications smoothly as the 4GB and a Core i3 from the Envy. Think the "Megahertz Myth." Google it lol. But with that in mind I still find it a little odd that Apple is still using a Core 2 Duo when the Core i3 SHOULD be faster and more efficient in power consumption. But whatever. Also another note. Since the Macbook Air uses flash memory, loading apps, booting up should be noticeably faster than the Envy 14.
So all in all. If you want a super slick, thin notebook and money isn't a problem. If you don't care for future upgrades and things you might like the Macbook Air. It's probably the smallest, slimmest real computer I've ever seen with those specs. The specs are really good for the size though there isn't a DVD drive anywhere and there's only two USB ports which is kind of meh. On the flipside the HP Envy 14 provides a damn good value for a high end notebook that has style and a nice design as well as power under the hood. Personally If I had to choose one, I would pick the Envy 14 because it has the things I need in a notebook, DVD drive, decent graphics performance, stylish design.
Macbook Air 13
+Incredible design(super thin, unibody)
+Flash memory(128/256)
+iLife
+Battery life is better than most 13in notebooks
+Super fast instant-on OS
+Mac trackpads are really good
...........................................
-No optical drive
-Only two USB ports
-Core 2 Duo
-Expensive starting price
________________________
HP Envy 14
+Pretty nice design(aluminum/magnesium/1.1in thick)
+Slot loading optical drive
+Nice gaming performance from ATI Mobility 5650
+Core i3/i5/i7 options
+Starting price at $999 with Core i3/4gb RAM/500gb 7200HDD/ATI5650
...........................................
-Sub par battery life
-No Blu-ray option
-HP no longer sells the 1900x1600 Radiance screen as a configurable option, you're stuck with the 16:9 1366x768 resolution
_________________________
So it comes down to what you want to do. If you're a media person and like to edit movies and such things, Apple is where its at. Personally I just feel like Apple's iMovie is so easy to use it beats out Movie Maker any day. And even though the HP has more muscle than the Air, that doesn't necessarily mean the Macbook Air is slower. These two notebooks run two different OS that requires different hardware specs. From what I understand Mac OS is a little less heavy in hardware requirements than Windows 7 so that Core 2 Duo and 2GB ram in the Air should be just as good at running applications smoothly as the 4GB and a Core i3 from the Envy. Think the "Megahertz Myth." Google it lol. But with that in mind I still find it a little odd that Apple is still using a Core 2 Duo when the Core i3 SHOULD be faster and more efficient in power consumption. But whatever. Also another note. Since the Macbook Air uses flash memory, loading apps, booting up should be noticeably faster than the Envy 14.
So all in all. If you want a super slick, thin notebook and money isn't a problem. If you don't care for future upgrades and things you might like the Macbook Air. It's probably the smallest, slimmest real computer I've ever seen with those specs. The specs are really good for the size though there isn't a DVD drive anywhere and there's only two USB ports which is kind of meh. On the flipside the HP Envy 14 provides a damn good value for a high end notebook that has style and a nice design as well as power under the hood. Personally If I had to choose one, I would pick the Envy 14 because it has the things I need in a notebook, DVD drive, decent graphics performance, stylish design.
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Well I would more consider an appropriate comparison be between the MacBook Pro 13 and the Envy 14.
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Unless you absolutely need the brushed-aluminium look, I'd say the Lenovo Thinkpad X201 is a very good hybrid between these two. Same weight as the MBA 13", good battery life (I get 6+ hours surfing/whatnot with my 9-cell battery in the standard power plan - up to 10 in power saver), low noise and heat, great build quality, a fantastic keyboard, as much power as you want - up to full-power dual core i7 processors - and upgradeability like no other in its size.
As an aside, I've used a Dell Latitude XT tablet with the same processor as the MBA (1.86GHz) and I'm afraid that really isn't as fast a processor as you might think. The difference in performance would be very, very noticeable.
As an aside, I've used a Dell Latitude XT tablet with the same processor as the MBA (1.86GHz) and I'm afraid that really isn't as fast a processor as you might think. The difference in performance would be very, very noticeable.
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There are 2 big differences between these two computers: The gaming performance and the value! I have been mulling this exact comparison over for months and you can't beat the performance and value of the Envy. Also, I can't fail to mention that the build quality is a notch above what you see from most PC manufactures.
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Pros of the 2011 Macbook Air
Features Intel core i5 and i7 sandy bridge CPU so amazing performace for such a thin
computer
Decent Battery life
Sleek design and very lighweight
Uses SSD and has a choice of Solid State Drive stroage on Apple's website
Ships with Mac's Lion OS
Simple to upgrade the RAM
Can use bootcamp so you can windows and mac OS which is useful for different tasks
Cons of the 2011 Macbook Air
Mediocre GPU
Overpriced
If you want to use a optical drive you will need to use Apple's External Superdrive and you will need to pay extra and has a high price tag
Pros of the 2011 HP ENVY 14
The system has a dedicated graphics card from AMD/ATi and the GPU can play games on a mid and high resoloution
Intel core i5 and i7 sandy bride dual core and quad core options on HP's website
Strong Build quality just like a Macbook Pro and does not copy Apple's design
Not too heavy and Thin
Nice design
Can use a slice battery to extend the battery life
Easy to gain access to the motherboard just remove five screws at the bottom of the unit
Good battery life
Not too much bloatware software
Can turn on or off the Beats Audio by pressing fn and then the B button
Cons of the 2011 HP ENVY 14
The ENVY 14 and the ENVY 14 beats edition has a high price tag
Shorter battery life then the macbook air
Multi touch trackpad not as good as the macbook but not too bad
Playing games drain the battery life quickly so is udeful to purchase the slice battery
Slice Battey for the ENVY 14 is expensive and costs $199 from HP USA
Cannot customise to different graphic cards on the HP website.
Both the Macbook Air and the HP ENVY 14 have received adwards from tech review websites
Features Intel core i5 and i7 sandy bridge CPU so amazing performace for such a thin
computer
Decent Battery life
Sleek design and very lighweight
Uses SSD and has a choice of Solid State Drive stroage on Apple's website
Ships with Mac's Lion OS
Simple to upgrade the RAM
Can use bootcamp so you can windows and mac OS which is useful for different tasks
Cons of the 2011 Macbook Air
Mediocre GPU
Overpriced
If you want to use a optical drive you will need to use Apple's External Superdrive and you will need to pay extra and has a high price tag
Pros of the 2011 HP ENVY 14
The system has a dedicated graphics card from AMD/ATi and the GPU can play games on a mid and high resoloution
Intel core i5 and i7 sandy bride dual core and quad core options on HP's website
Strong Build quality just like a Macbook Pro and does not copy Apple's design
Not too heavy and Thin
Nice design
Can use a slice battery to extend the battery life
Easy to gain access to the motherboard just remove five screws at the bottom of the unit
Good battery life
Not too much bloatware software
Can turn on or off the Beats Audio by pressing fn and then the B button
Cons of the 2011 HP ENVY 14
The ENVY 14 and the ENVY 14 beats edition has a high price tag
Shorter battery life then the macbook air
Multi touch trackpad not as good as the macbook but not too bad
Playing games drain the battery life quickly so is udeful to purchase the slice battery
Slice Battey for the ENVY 14 is expensive and costs $199 from HP USA
Cannot customise to different graphic cards on the HP website.
Both the Macbook Air and the HP ENVY 14 have received adwards from tech review websites
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