Hewlett-Packard’s fall product lineup stresses highly styled, eco-friendly thin and light laptops bent toward enticing the high-end consumer.
The company also unveiled last week a home server and an entry-level all-in-one desktop PC aimed at the student market.
Leading HP’s consumer notebook introduction is the new two-unit Envy line. The 13.3-inch Envy 13 and the 15-inch Envy 15 are products of HP’s design factory, headed by Stacy Wolff, notebook design director.
The Envy 13 is 0.8 inches thick and weighs 3.74 pounds. The chassis features a magnesium-aluminum alloy and a new LED backlit display that, at 360 nits, is twice as bright as HP’s other notebooks.
The Envy 13 offers a QuickWeb mode that boots up the Web without turning on the rest of the computer for instant access. Starting price is $1,699.
The Envy 15 is 1 inch thick and weighs 5.18 pounds. It has the same functionality with a larger LCD, a laser-etched aluminum chassis and a $1,799 price tag.
Both Envy models lack an optical drive, but have the ability to dock with a special lithium-polymer battery that extends the unit’s battery life to 18 hours. The battery is flat and fully conforms to the bottom of the laptop, simply making it another half-inch thicker without otherwise changing its appearance.
The extended-life battery and an external optical drive are offered as options for an additional $200.
The Envy line is targeted directly at the premium consumer, who will have access to an exclusive level of customer support with shorter wait times and a staff dedicated to the line, the company said.
The Envy models meet Federal EPEAT Gold and Energy Star standards, Wolff said, adding that the magnesium-aluminum chassis uses much less energy to construct, while remaining fully recyclable.
On the other end of the notebook spectrum, HP has two new netbooks, the Mini 110 and the Mini 311. Each features Nvidia graphics for HD playback and an 11.6-inch display.
The former features a chassis imprinted with a white 3-D floral design created by the Tord Boontje studio and called HP Imprint 3D, Wolf said. The look is part of HP’s effort to make the Mini 110 appealing to women. The Mini 110 caries a $399 suggested retail.
The Mini 311 drops the 3-D design and has the same price tag.
On the desktop side HP now offers the MS200 all-in-one PC. It is centered on an 18.5W-inch LCD, and its minimalist footprint is intended to attract the student and customer looking to place a PC in an untraditional place. It is priced at $599.
Closing out the introductions are two new entries in the companies MediaSmart Server line, the Ex490 and Ex495. Both models have four storage bays with an upper capacity of 17TB of storage space.
The 490, $549, comes out of the box with 1TB of storage, while the 495, $699, has 1.5TB. Both now sport more Apple-friendly features, including network administration and data-recovery capabilities.
