Meet the HP Envy 15, a laptop that Engadget says “unapologetically copies the MacBook Pro” but “stumbles in several critical areas” including being heavier than the MacBook Pro and having a worse display, touchpad (pictured), keyboard and battery life.
Completely shameless, no? It’s the tech equivalent of The Third Man’s Harry Lime selling counterfeit penicillin on the post-war Viennese black market. Accept no substitutions.
[via Reddit]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
46 responses to “HP’s Not Even Pretending Not To Be Shamelessly Copying Apple Anymore [Image]”
Looks alike, smells alike, OMFG WHY CAN’T A PC COMPANY MAKE A F’ING TRACKPAD THAT ACTUALLY F’ING WORKS?!?
I don’t understand why companies think they can release shameless rip off products with obvious subpar quality. If you are going to rip off Apple at least make it better than the original or as good, not worse.
Apple sues Samsung over a rectangular shaped tablet but not HP over this? WTF.
I was in bestbuy not too long ago and I was just amazed at the cloners masquerading as mac wannabes. I guess it was inevitable once the margins started slimming between the two (PC v. Mac). The thing that bothers me about most computers is how cheaply made they seem. A lot of plastic and shoddy construction doesn’t really sell me as much as crisp quality and assurance that comes with Apple and my macbook pro.
Funny, I don’t see any mention that the screen is worse on Engadget’s review. Instead, I see this: “Still, the 15 bests the MacBook Pro in a host of other areas: heat
management, price, overall value, audio, port layout and the ability to
replace components easily. It also has a brighter display with wider
viewing angles, albeit with some likely color calibration issues we
haven’t seen on the MBP.”
Also, it’s funny you used the close angled picture insted of, say, this
one: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.eng….
Yeah, they look a lot alike, much like a LG TV looks like a Samsung one.
Anyways, considering the site I’m writing this on, I’m not expecting you to be unbiased…. but IMHO, the Envy offers a better overall value. Like Engadget did say.
and don’t forget apple’s planned obsolescence! it’s in your face obvious and despite the “apparent” quality, the devices will fail much sooner than they should, which to me is just like bad quality!
I’ll bet it doesn’t come with apple stickers.
The ironic part is that Apple steals the majority of their ideas.
Well Steve Jobs did say that great artists steal.
Only problem here HP is not great – they suck in just about every respect.
Who but the stupid and dumb would waste their hard earned money on this product? If you want a MacBook get a freaking MacBook.
What is your evidence for this claim? Every study I have seen concludes that Apple’s “industrial strength” designs last longer than average; my 10-year old Mac Tower still is usable.
As a long-time Mac user, I would like to suggest copying successful Apple designs ought to be given a little slack. It would be bad for Mac users if HP and Dell disappear since Apple needs stiff competition. It has become the new Microsoft (its iPhone business is as large as all of Microsoft); usually that results in a sharp drop-off in innovation and quality, as Microsoft’s history illustrates. That’s the last development we need.
Riiight. Like Apple never innovated on the iPods year after year because of zero competition.
Apple doesn’t need competition to come up with the best they can.
There’s always adding your own from a previously purchased Apple device. But don’t expect it to glow.
Perhaps Apple sees Samsung as a real threat. Hence, the lawsuit. HP doesn’t innovate well and Apple doesn’t see them as a potential threat. I would buy Apple or Samsung but not HP.
Debatable.
Remember video? How often did Apple say, “Nobody wants to watch video on a tiny screen,” when their competitors were doing video. Oops! Suddenly, iPods starting doing video! I guess people didn’t mind watching video on a tiny screen after all!
Those copycat shamelessly copy evething Apple make… “Don’t thay have any proud left”? Pathetic…
Those copycat shamelessly copy evething Apple make… “Don’t thay have any proud left”? Pathetic…
Actually, when it comes to industrial design, I’d definitely say that Apple has plenty of original ideas. MagSafe and lighted keyboards to name just a couple.
As a mac and and a pc owner I’m glad that HP have done this. Macs are overpriced and Apple are elitist. If I wasn’t a designer forced to buy a mac by my employer, I would never have bought one, but have since also acquire 3 old mac powerbooks that there is no way of upgrading because they are Apple. – I have fixed many old generic pc laptops. Apple need to get the chip off their shoulder. Roll on mainstream linux computing.
he cool thing about these knock-offs, is every time I see one ,I realise what it is Im paying for in my Mac.
A keyboard that doesnt flex or creak, a bright display, silent operation, solid body that can take a little pounding over three years and still look factory fresh, and a great trackpad, with smooth glass surface that wipes clean easily. Oh, and HUGE battery life as STANDARD. By the time you add optional battery packs to the HP Envy, it is the same price or even more expensive than the MB Pro, and you still dont get thunderbolt or firewire. And you get world wide service with the Apple. No matter where you buy it. Got an HP you bought from Walmart in the US, but you now live in New Zealand? Good luck getting warrantee support. I’ve even had a mouse that failed replaced, free of charge at my local Apple retailer here in NZ even though it was bought in Australia. Admittedly, I was shocked that a $130 mouse broke 8)
He is right. Great artists do steal. This is not an example of stealing. This is the equivalent of a 1st grader replicating the Mona Lisa with crayons on a dried up baby wipe.
This is copying. When he said “steal”, I interpreted it as you copy it and you bring it to a whole other level to the point that people don’t even think of the originator of the idea.
This does not fall under that. Everyone knows they copied this blatantly from a Macbook Pro, and it offers nothing new and doesn’t even improve.. It’s actually a downgrade if the information in this article is correct.
No, HP were copying Samsung, not Apple.
1) overall value
2) audio (Monster Beats endorsement anyone?)
3) port layout (they are really trying to pull reasons out of their asses now)
As far as replacing parts, of course you’re able to do that on both, but why it’s easier on HP laptops is because they don’t care about having multiple latches and notches at the bottom to make it easy to pop off. Apple puts more care into the over all design, even if you never look at the bottom.
Just stated something similar to your comments on build quality to another commenter. That comes from the fact that HP wants to make as much money as possible, which isn’t a bad thing, but it reflects in their products, because they are willing to use cheap materials in exchange for a few more cents profit per device sold.
I have a fully maxed out HP TouchSmart IQ 504, and it still doesn’t scroll worth a damn with the on screen gesture. I don’t think it’s a hardware issue like a trackpad. It has to be software/OS side.
Hopefully this will encourage Apple to change their Mac designs a little more regularly. It’s the same basic colour scheme year after year. I’m so bored with black and silver. I don’t see why we can’t have the MBA in a range of colours akin to the iPod Nano or an all black MBA/MBP. Anything as long as it’s not silver.
When Apple copies a technology or style that works, but they didn’t invent (gestures anyone?) it’s ok and forward thinking. When others see a trend in design and use it, it’s just awful. Is that the general gist of the situation here?
You know, it’s the companies that directly COPY others and rip off their products are the ones who will fail in life and never prosper.
Have you seen gestures pre-apple? How could you even begin to say that’s a blatant copy? I bet 99% there is a complete difference on the usability scale. Let’s talk about you trying to copy Greg Maddux’s pitching style. You think you could even get to 90% of his skill let alone surpass him? Sure Apple took license on the gesture concept, but to say they blatantly copied something that wasn’t even close to everyday usable is a lie. They significantly improved on it and made it marketable to the average consumer. It isn’t a simple “copy and paste” of code to get gestures. It takes thousands of man hours of analyzing mocap from a large sample of human subjects to find the common denominator in everyone’s hand movment and then more trial and error to refine it. Don’t be naive.
You said it right. When Apple copies technologies/concepts, they don’t just replicate it, they improve it to the point that people completely forget the origin of the original. They bring technology to a whole other level when they copy it; the steal it, hence the SJ artist quote.
HP sucks
Nice complement!
Great name! How ironic…HP Envy!!! It has a huge Envy that it’s not a Apple?
Is this aluminium or plastic ? Either way its still crap..
If you want new colors, send your computer to Colorware and they’ll give it a paint job to relieve your boredom (http://www.colorware.com/c-3-computer.... However, color aint innovation my friend. I look forward to Apple coming out with 15″ and 17″ laptops in similar designs to the MacBook Air, integrated Siri and other tech developments. Color is the very least of my concerns.
Sony was the first to create backlit keyboards by the way. Apple took that idea from them and popularized it.
Sony was the first to create backlit keyboards by the way. Apple took that idea from them and popularized it.
your interpretation of stealing is just that, your interpretation. If other pictures where posted you would see that the Envy is not a blatant copy. It comes in black so it can not be mistaken for a macbook. I will say that they definitely copied the keyboard though.
PCs were cheaply made when they were expensive.
That was released almost two years after the comment (denied early 04, released late 05). If they were so worried about the competition, they would’ve released one immediately. They released it when it made sense for them to release, irrespective of the competition. All the pieces have to fall into place and the end product has to meet their expectations; usability, battery life, etc.
That’s exactly why Apple hasn’t yet released an LTE version of the iPhone.
HP’s AppleEnvy
This is too funny. HP’s been on my ****list for a while now, but I’d have to bash them as well as commend them for trying.
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.
Oh yeah, they’re identical. HP has totally ripped off Apple.
It has a keyboard, just like the MacBook. (Apple invented keyboards, HP shamelessly ripped them off).
It has a pointing device, just like Apple’s.
It even plugs into the wall — JUST LIKE THE APPLE MACHINE!
I’m a Network administrator at my company where I work all day with Microsoft operating systems and applications. None of these programs were designed with touchpad scrolling in mind. They will always be behind the innovations Apple is introducing. Scrolling in OS X 10.7 Lion on my Mac at home is as smooth as silk and paired with the magic trackpad has actually cured my carpal tunnel. No joke. I had soreness in the wrists and twitching fingers which are both signs of carpal tunnel syndrome and since switching just my home computer’s mouse to a magic trackpad these symptoms have vanished, even though I still use a mouse at work.
even if hp might has coppied apple but i have compared both of them hp and apple looks same but hp is much ahead in performance in all cases i can bet on it