HP this afternoon provided fuller details of its special-run Envy 15 Beats (link active soon) notebook. It expands on the reference version by bundling a pair of Beats over-ear headphones as well as bundling Traktor LE for live DJing. Cosmetically, the model comes in the same glossy black and red as most Beats earphones.
HP this morning revived its sleeping Envy label for two new systems targeted at the same slim but high-speed designs as the MacBook Pro. The Envy 13 and 15 are both housed in aluminum-and-black shells and drop the usual optical drive to shed weight and thickness: the 13-inch model is relatively light at just over 3.7 pounds and is 0.8 inches thick, while even the larger 15-inch system is slightly over 5.1 pounds and under an inch. Both also draw on Monster's Beats PC audio to produce better built-in audio than most notebooks, get color accurate displays, and have a MacBook-like trackpad nicknamed the "clickpad" that hides the main button underneath the surface.
A leak of a 45W power adapter on Wednesday has revealed key details of Dell's Adamo notebook ahead of its official debut. Since changed to anonymize the description, the entry has previously described the power brick as designed specifically for the "Adamo Thirteen," confirming that at least one Adamo model will carry a 13-inch display and that the future system won't use any processor more demanding than the low-voltage Core 2 Duo chips used in Apple's MacBook Air, Lenovo's ThinkPad X301 or similar systems.
HP on Tuesday announced it is shipping the Voodoo Envy 133 notebook, while Voodoo co-founder Rahul Sood alludes to a mystery product on the company's blog. CNET reveals that the MacBook Air and Lenovo X300 competitor saw an exclusive rollout event in Germany, easing concerns that HP would roll the Voodoo line into its consumer products. The Envy offers users a sleek computing experience, reminiscent of Dell's Alienware line of computers.
Users should expect multi-touch displays in notebooks well before the release of official operating system updates like Windows 7, Hewlett-Packard's consumer notebook general manager Kevin Frost says. The feature won't officially appear in Microsoft's software until 2010 but should be available "long before" then in shipping products, according to the executive. Technical marketing head Kevin Wentzel supports the notion and mentions that the advancement is more a question developing software than any limits in current hardware.
HP's performance label Voodoo PC today launched a complete overhaul of tis designs with systems that directly challenge the design aesthetics of the MacBook Air and the Mac Pro. The Envy 133 notebook joins both the Air and the ThinkPad X300 in the newer class of ultra-thin but still fast portables: the use of an LED-backlit screen and a carbon fiber chassis help the Envy measure 0.7 inches thick at every point while weighing under 3.4 pounds. A new generation of Intel's notebook platform helps reach these dimensions while still supplying speed, the company says. Voodoo's design is also the third after those from Apple and ASUS to sport a multi-touch trackpad with support for pinching and scrolling.
