My laptop is nearly perfect. It’s fast (works in Photoshop and Lightroom processing images with amazing speed) and its pretty. But it has a major flaw: something goofy is wrong with the hardware.

From the second day after it arrived, I noticed that the “p” key only sometimes worked. Occasionally it would miss when I was typing and at other times, like now, “qe” or “qerw” comes out instead. Frequently it wouldn’t work at all. Several other keys began to miss soon after and now I have to rely on copying the characters that don’t work into Notepad and using the On Screen Keyboard. 

I called the Envy Technical Support line on Friday night. I was feeling extremely frustrated and disappointed that after all of my recent computer troubles, and after waiting for my laptop much longer than was originally promised because of shipping delays, I had received faulty hardware. The person I spoke with was quite nice, but quickly came to the conclusion that I must need a new computer all together because I had faulty hardware (she had me enter a recovery area of the unit which is evidently outside of Windows and since I could not type with the keys in question there she determined that I had faulty hardware, not software). No other suggestion was offered to me at that time (i.e. it was never brought up that I was fully under warranty and had purchased additional 3 year protection that I could use). She then proceeded to transfer me to the HP Home Shopping Store and everything went downhill quickly from there.

I had an incredibly difficult time understanding the sales representative. Long story, filled with terrible customer service from several levels, short, I will be shipping my Envy back for warranty service tomorrow. My warranty contract states that I should receive my computer back within 5 business days and that is much faster than the estimated one plus months I was repeatedly quoted (at least I think that is what they said).

I am feeling frustrated with the entire situation right now. I got a shiny new toy after a terrible computer disaster that I hoped would make everything smooth sailing again, only to have a shiny busted new toy that I have to go through the hassle to ship back and more time to wait. I’m out a significant amount of money which makes the whole thing worse.

When I first saw the condition the shipping box was in, I was very nervous. After waiting all this time for my new laptop to arrive, the last thing I wanted was to open it up and find out that it was scratched or even worse, busted.

This sticker, right next to the gash in the box made me laugh. So…evidently FedEx wasn’t too concerned with transporting my box despite the fact that it could supposed blow up if damaged. Way to be make safety a priority FedEx!

Fortunately, it was packed quite well. The styrofoam sides kept it safely away from the sides of the box so there weren’t any issues at all with it despite the messed up box.

I was rather impressed with the branding that HP has put together for their Envy line. I think it’s simple and modern.

Everything was packed quite neatly inside: the computer, an external CD drive, and the extended battery. Ends up that the memory card actually contained the manual – now that is creative!

Isn’t it pretty? I’m no where near finished discovering all of the different things I can do with it but first impressions are quite good. Windows 7 is gorgeous and everything is running so fast! It would appear that my days of running a batch process and going off to do something while it finishes are over.

Jasper and Jasmine loved the box. I didn’t have the heart to tell Jasper he was simply too fat to fit.

It still has a long way to go to reach Delaware! It’s due to arrive February 2.

HP Envy 15