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Voodoo Envy Impressions Roll In
Posted by John Mahoney at 10:30 AM on July 18, 2008
Laptop and Maximum PC have gotten their hands on Voodoo/HP's Envy 133 thinnest-of-the-thin power notebooks and had some light hands on time. Nothing too shocking has been uncovered--it looks as good in person as it does in pictures, is almost as light as the Macbook Air, and all the rest, but Laptop was able to test one of the Envy's more interesting features, the Splashtop instant-on Linux kernel.
Voodoo calls their version the IOS, which they claim can get you onto the web from a cold start in less than five seconds. Laptop found that power-on to surfing with the modified Firefox browser took around 15 seconds--still not too bad, compared to a 50-second boot time for Vista. Other open source apps like Pidgin, Skype, and basic photo and media players are also on board. One interesting thing is that the main filesystem is unavailable in IOS mode on the model they tested--files must be saved to a USB stick.
Maximum PC had more of a gropefest than hands-on, but they did note the glossy case tends to pick up a lot of fingerprints (hence the included microfiber shammy, of course). They also didn't detect much of a difference weight wise with a Macbook Air, even though the spec sheet gives the Envy and extra half pound.
[Laptop, Maximum PC]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
itchytooth
Posted 11:10 AM 18/7/08
The screen being perfectly flush with the bezel looks really nice.
itchytooth
MillardFillmore
Posted 11:09 AM 18/7/08
It does look a lot nicer than the Macbook Air. And if you check out their website, they've got a whole variety of different colors you can get if the glossy black doesn't float your boat.
It's an extremely expensive laptop though.
MillardFillmore
Emiat
Posted 11:02 AM 18/7/08
@sfokevin: I agree, I like how this looks much more then the MBA.
The glossy black on this laptop will always be better then the silver on the MBA in my eyes.
Emiat
MastaFalse
Posted 10:53 AM 18/7/08
Nice. Still gonna have to go with my macBook Pro.
MastaFalse
coketown
Posted 10:53 AM 18/7/08
I'll go ahead and note the elephant in the room. It looks better than the MBA.
coketown
sisedi
Posted 10:46 AM 18/7/08
Looks so hot...
sisedi
mistamc
Posted 10:45 AM 18/7/08
sorry... I missed the boat on the fact that there was a new OS for the voodoo. Anyone want to explain? does it run in addition to vista? What is an IOS? Looks good though. I was wondering when one of the major laptop makers was going to make something sleek and beautiful as opposed to the clunky or fugly laptops that are commonplace with dell and HP.
mistamc
klaybc
Posted 10:44 AM 18/7/08
It looks like Mark Messier sitting on the floor, checking his email.
klaybc
sfokevin
Posted 10:44 AM 18/7/08
If the MacBook Air had looked like this they would have sold a million of them!!!
sfokevin
Yeebles
Posted 10:39 AM 18/7/08
this picture mucks up my peripheral vision.
Yeebles
mistamc
Posted 11:36 AM 18/7/08
Thanks acktbbft. Does it have a windows interface... are there videos of its interface or anything? I'm curious.
mistamc
dna
Posted 11:36 AM 18/7/08
How much did you have to pay that dwarf to plug in the power cable for you?
dna
ackthbbft
Posted 11:29 AM 18/7/08
@ackthbbft: I forgot to mention, the IOS is supposedly run entirely from ROM, so it also extends battery life by not having to run the HD.
ackthbbft
ackthbbft
Posted 11:26 AM 18/7/08
@mistamc: The "IOS" is basically an instant-on mini-OS which you can boot into for things like browsing the web, playing music files, Skype, and chat, without having to boot fully into Windows (which takes much longer to load). If you need to run an app which requires Windows, there is a hotkey for booting into Windows in the IOS app bar.
ackthbbft
Pope John Peeps II
Posted 12:18 PM 18/7/08
@klaybc: HA! You're right. MAybe he's thinking. "Bet you can't read just one."
Pope John Peeps II
SuperCollider
Posted 12:04 PM 18/7/08
i'd tap that
SuperCollider
tnkgrl
Posted 12:26 PM 18/7/08
Oh, how I sooo want this :)
tnkgrl
Charging_Mooses
Posted 12:26 PM 18/7/08
i wonder if i could get an ios for my vista pc?
hmmm
Charging_Mooses
irfan
Posted 12:57 PM 18/7/08
i always thought it was chamois.
irfan
Captain Bringdown
Posted 1:45 PM 18/7/08
That laptop is fuckin' sexy as hell.
Captain Bringdown
redkamel
Posted 2:48 PM 18/7/08
yeah. Looks good. I like more than MBA. Trackpad looks good.
redkamel
philibuster
Posted 3:32 PM 18/7/08
@irfan: Only if you're a dirty frenchman.
philibuster
shanzi
Posted 4:03 PM 18/7/08
O_O
Thats what you call simple geometry.
shanzi
Bitstuff
Posted 7:35 PM 18/7/08
It is indeed an extremely expensive laptop, and that makes me a very sad panda.
Bitstuff
Nighthawkz
Posted 11:29 PM 18/7/08
Sony z series seems more interesting and useful.
Nighthawkz
nutbastard
Posted 4:05 AM 19/7/08
@Charging_Mooses:
it would require tweaking the BIOS and adding additional hardware, such as the ROM that holds the IOS.
not impossible, but probably not worth the time/money/effort.
nutbastard
pellier
Posted 4:23 AM 19/7/08
NORM
pellier
shawn_dude
Posted 5:25 AM 19/7/08
It's not just glossy, it's carbon fiber. There's a basket weave pattern in it. Carbon Fiber is the new "chrome" when it comes to auto/motorcycle customization.
IOS is Linux, for those that didn't already know. YMMV.
I can see two reasons why not being able to access the file system would be desirable from IOS. #1, and already mentioned, it saves battery. #2, it eliminates a vector for hacking into a stolen business laptop. (These are intended for road warriors, not gamers.) This way, boot sector encryption cannot be easily circumvented.
I wish this thing had a place to stuff an SD card. It would be nice to have a little more permanent memory available to IOS.
BTW... this is the very first PC ever designed that I find attractive. Every single machine ever mass-produced that runs Windows has ranged from ugly to extremely ugly. I used to think they couldn't do worse than the beige box. Oh how wrong I was.
Congrats to Voodoo for a creating a compelling machine. I want one and I have no need for a laptop.
shawn_dude
DaSmith
Posted 8:53 AM 20/7/08
LOL At first on the main page it looked like the laptop is actually huge and the guy on the left is performing some kind of maintenance. Perhaps changing the gears? LOL! :D
DaSmith