Are you Insane?

Dear HP,

Congratulations, the Envy 15 delivers a Windows notebook with Intel Core i7 and a Radeon 4830HD for about the same price as a Macbook Pro 15. It will probably another year until Apple can deliver something of equal specs. On paper, there is no question you are the better notebook.

Then I went to Best Buy to check out the Envy 15 in person.

It’s obvious your company took a lot of cues from the MacBook while designing the Envy. I’m okay with that, because Macbooks are quite attractive. Now I wished you would copy not just its looks, but it’s function.

My biggest pet peeve is the Envy’s trackpad. Sure, it looks like a MBP trackpad. But it sure doesn’t feel like one. From my brief experience with the Envy, I felt its biggest failing was to separate the trackpad into two distinct regions. Great if it were a mouse, but I don’t see why certain multitouch functions are limited to a certain region. Maybe I haven’t discovered everything yet, but it doesn’t feel good.

Speaking of feeling good, maybe it’s the aluminum body, but using the MBP trackpad is orgasmic. I am not kidding, my fingers tingle when I use the MBP trackpad. Try emulating that, HP.

I’m sure I will eventually buy an Envy, but I’ll be forced to buy a lot of peripheral along with it, like a Razer Orochi mouse or a Saitek SFIV edition fightpad. Because I will be forced to avoid the trackpad unless the software for it improves towards the same level of a MBP.

I’m rooting for you, HP, and any other notebook manufacturer building a, let’s face it, a reasonably priced MBP-killer. Even with the superior specs, I just don’t the Envy 15 to be that machine.

Sincerely,

A poor web developer and gamer.