HP Unveils Latest Spring 2010 Laptops
by Balraj Sandhu and Jarred Walton on May 5, 2010 5:28 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- IT Computing
- AMD
- Intel
- HP
HP Pavilion Notebooks
Whilst the new ENVY notebooks are certainly very tempting, the HP Pavilion series also has four new models. As this is HP’s mainstream notebook brand, they must be both very good and affordable to tempt customers away from the numerous alternatives. The following models will be available starting May 19 at HP Direct, in a wide variety of colors and configurations.
The HP Pavilion dm4 is a premium class product with a 14” LED backlit display in a slim full-metal chassis coming in at under 1” and 4.4lbs starting at $730—a bit too much in my opinion, despite the metal chassis. More affordable entries into the HP Pavilion series are the dv5 and dv6, which offer both AMD and Intel-powered models with up to 1TB of storage and superior audio components such as Dolby Virtual Surround Sound and Altec Lansing speakers. They are both available with a choice of colored chassis imprints including Black Cherry, Champagne, and Sonoma Red. The HP Pavilion dv5 features a 14.5” display starting at $650 while the HP Pavilion dv6 features a bigger 15.6” display with optional touch support and starts at $530 for the AMD machines and $650 for the Intel powered units.
A larger HP Pavilion dv7 will also be available with up to 2TB of storage from $800. And for those that like netbooks, there's the HP Mini 210, with updated exterior designs.
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erple2 - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
Curiously, the price that HP is offering for the high end SSD options on the Envy 15 is incredibly inexpensive. Going from the default drive (320 gig) to the 160gig SSD plus 250 gig harddrive is a stunningly inexpensive 320 dollars. That's less than you can get the X18 g2 Intel SSD's alone for anywhere (which is what's in the Envy 15). Newegg (at the time of this writing) sells them for 450 dollars (when they're in stock). So I'm not that disappointed in that option. Plus, the Envy is all about "top of the line consumer" brand for HP.Doing a little bit more math, adding a small, "value" SSD for the OS partition will cost an additional 100 dollars (approximately). So for an extra 220 dollars, you'd get a substantially larger (and faster!) top of the line SSD. I'll spend the 220 for more convenience and faster performance.
The problem I see with the "tiny OS SSD" is that the OS is only one small part of the whole pie. Sure I can boot into the OS in no time at all, but if all of my very disk intensive apps are on a slower spindle drive, then what do I care? I want an SSD to be large enough to handle all of my applications, and a separate drive to handle the data. Which, with the current Envy 15, it does extremely well for a (IMO) very reasonable price.
Personally, I think they've made a great move with that upgrade option. Particularly given how much other manufacturers charge for inferior SSD's.
jasperjones - Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - link
Really looking forward to this one. Also, I hope they will work well with Linux (lots of people were having trouble with the Envy 15)NJoy - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
Hummm, AMD is staying suspiciously quiet about these new CPUs. I don't t remember them being officially released, they just started popping up everywhereAraemo - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
AMD's website is.. completely lacking in specifics. And in the article you talk about how it's nice to see a lot of models using it... but what is it? If it's just a fancy way of branding "ATI video cards", then it's really boring, if nice to see laptops with real video cards. If it's something more specific like nVidia's optimus or hybrid crossfire, that would be nice to know too.caseyschwab - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
AMD Vision is just a way of AMD letting the customer get an idea of how the laptop will perform. IE: vision premium will perform better than vision, while vision ultimate will perform better than premium. It is just referring to the performance level of the cpu/gpu.spe1491 - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
Is HP doing away with their expansion port for docking stations? I don't see it on any of these models, but if you look on their website it's still there on their current offerings.sebmel - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
Those saying these are MBP copies are mistaken. I took a look at the photos expecting that and they aren't not even close to the Apple design ethos:The excessive markings:
printing on the lid and hand rests
HP logo on lid and screen, and Envy logo, and that red thing on the front
Irregular form:
irregular angles sides to top causing ports to bulge with sharp edges (flat top to large radius curve to small radius to small radius on body to large radius to small radius to gap to flat)
bottom plate inset with big fit gaps
Irregular use of materials:
plastic bottom
aluminium body sides and magnesium top
magnesium lid in what appear to be two pieces
Irregular colour of body:
magnesium top
aluminium sides
magnesium hand rests
aluminium hinges
plastic bottom
I could go on but I think I've made the point. There is no way that would leave Ive's studio knowing his passion for simplicity:
A MacBook is:
one metal
one colour
one circular radius
flat plates
It is an exercise in the repetition of the minimum number of constituents. The radius of the corners is the same as the radius for the corners of the trackpad is the same as the radius at the corners of the keyboard.
Just the T printed on the HP trackpad would have Ive up at night fretting. HPs own logo would cause him angst. The LED in the trackpad? Where a finger could cover it? No, too busy.
Now, I'm not putting the HP down... make your own choice... I'm giving the HP designers more credit than others here. I think they know enough about design to understand that this is not built from MBP design cues.
Belard - Friday, May 7, 2010 - link
With what you said in regards to angles, and how the USB ports and other are in conflict with the rest of the angled body... I completely agree. Its a bit on the SLOPPY end, like they took the motherboard from another computer and stuck it in this body design (which is what most likely happened).having the bottom curve into a smaller base, is a visual trick to make the notebook look thinner. Many companies do this... not a bad thing, but it looks stupid with the 90 degree angled ports.
Usually when this is done on Thinkpads, the flat-sides for ports are inset. On the latest T410, there are a few ports that go past the angled bottom, but no sharp edges or as bad looking as HP. They did this so the notebook gets its 4 USB ports, Display Port, VGA, eSATA. If Lenovo threw out the analog modem port, they could stick a USB & firewire in its place and at least have one side "perfect".
Hey, lately Lenovo has been reducing the stickers on the bottom of the notebook and hiding the Windows Sticker inside the battery compartment (which also protects it) as well as others. Its always rather ugly to see a computer with 4-6 ugly stickers on the bottom or sides.
Keep in mind, its not impossible to copy the MacBookPro... that would be a legal problem. But I can see the elements where they copied the MBPro. The lowered keyboard, back-lit keys, etc.
BTW, top end Dell Precision notebooks look very much like ThinkPads, they even stick on a blue tracking-stick in the middle of the keyboard. The keyboard layout itself is old-style ThinkPad.
ExodusC - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link
Am I the only one that thinks the sharper angles of the Envy makes it look way better than a Macbook Pro?For example, I own a Nexus One smartphone, but I think the industrial design of the Motorola Droid looks way better.
Then again, this is a moot point. If you're going to argue over what "looks cool," maybe a MBP is for you.
I don't care what my notebook looks like, as long as it doesn't look like a complete piece of junk.
Foxi - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link
"They will inevitably fall a little short on performance and battery life (judging by other AMD-equipped laptops)..."Anad, you are ridiclous. Again.