Exam Tips, Certification Exam Guides, Microsoft Exam Tips, CISCO Exam Tips: 06/01/13

Saturday 1 June 2013

HP Launches Exciting All-New Consumer PC Lineup

Today, HP announced its new lineup of consumer notebooks, from an 11-inch touchscreen all the way up to its high-end ENVY 17 models. Some of the new systems will ship with some of Intel's next-generation Core CPUs (codename: Haswell) as well as optional discrete graphics powered by NVIDIA, while others will use powerful new AMD APUs.

HP Pavilion

Mainstream Notebooks

HP unveiled new additions to their bread-and-butter Pavilion lineup: the HP Pavilion 14, HP Pavilion 15, and HP Pavilion 17 notebook PCs. You'll be able to get both AMD and Intel variants, and up to a full terabyte of hard drive space. Given their budget nature, however, don't expect to see anything more than a 1366x768 panel in these guys - even on the 17-inch model (92dpi).

They do come in some pretty attractive colors, though, taking advantage of HP's unique 'imprint' coloring functionality. You'll be able to pick from one of five different colors - black, white, red, blue, and purple.

HP Pavilion

Performance Notebooks

New entries to the ENVY lineup cement the replacement of the old dv line of higher-end consumer notebooks. Like the Pavilions, you'll be able to get both AMD and Intel variants. The ENVY notebooks come with up to 1080p screens and unnamed NVIDIA CPUs. There will be touchscreen variants of the 14- and 15-inch models, sold under the TouchSmart lineup. The 14-inch also qualifies as an Ultrabook under Intel's rules.

While the Pavilion notebooks come with DTS sound, the ENVY models will ship with Beats Audio as part of HP's continuing partnership with the company. On the two larger models, that partnership comes with some extra features: more speakers. While the vast majority of notebooks on the market give you just stereo sound, the ENVY 15 and ENVY 17 will ship with a whopping four speakers and a subwoofer - the ENVY 17's subwoofer is also dual-drive.

11-inch Wonderbooks

Perhaps most excitingly, HP will be offering an all-new replacement for the fantastic dm1 notebook. The big change is that the new Pavilion 11 TouchSmart will ship across the board with a 10-point, multitouch capacitive touchscreen. In fact, a non-touch model isn't even on the books. You'll get partial metal construction, video out ports - basically everything you've come to expect from the dm1 lineup. Plus the touchscreen. That said, don't worry about the touchscreen forcing up the price points - HP is trying to keep things affordable.

High Resolution Options

HP is feeling the heat from competitors like the MacBook Pro with Retina Display and Chromebook Pixel. The ENVY TouchSmart 14 Ultrabook will offer a 3200x1800 resolution display option. That's a whopping 262 pixels per inch, and impressive by any stretch of an imagination.

Free Cloud Storage

All buyers of ENVY notebooks and desktops get a free 50GB cloud storage account from Box.com; Pavilion notebook and desktop buyers will still get 25GB.

Pricing

The Pavillion 11 TouchSmart, despite its specs, will start at just $399 when it ships on June 26th. The Pavilion 14 starts at $479, the Pavilion 15 starts at $429, and the Pavilion 17 starts at $449. All will ship later this year. The HP ENVY 17 starts at $529 and will hit stores on June 5th; the 15 and TouchSmart 15 start at $529 and drop on the same date. Finally, the HP ENVY TouchSmart 14 Ultrabook will start at $699 - though you won't get the 3200x1800 screen for that price; it starts at 1366x768 and will likewise offer a middle 1600x900 option.

Be sure to take a look at all the press images in our gallery of photos!