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HP announces two affordable thin-and-lights, including one with a touchscreen

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HP announces two affordable thin-and-lights, including one with a touchscreen

Geez Louise, folks. HP's notebook lineup is starting to get confusing. So confusing, in fact, that we feel compelled to offer a little primer before we get to what it is the company announced today. Rewinding to sometime last year, the company came out with its first Ultrabooks. Then it unveiled so-called Sleekbooks, which basically hold the same promise as Ultrabooks, except that for whatever reason (AMD processors, a too-thick chassis) they don't meet Intel's official Ultrabook requirements. Still with us? Alrighty. Well, since then HP has released Sleekbooks under its mid-range Envy brand, and also its lower-cost Pavilion line. That's a lot of thin-and-light laptops that aren't technically Ultrabooks.

Anyway, flash back to the present and we've got two new Pavilion Sleekbooks, one of which has a touchscreen. They're officially called the Pavilion TouchSmart Sleekbook and the Pavilion Sleekbook and, well, you can guess which is which. Regardless of the model, some key features remain the same: both have 15.6-inch (1,366 x 768) displays, replaceable batteries and numpads, along with trackpads that support Windows 8 gestures (that's true of most new laptops, actually). Both make use of the company's CoolSense technology, which we can easily vouch for by now, having tested so many HP notebooks. As for design, these look more or less like the Pavilion Sleekbooks announced back in September, with three color choices and HP's Imprint finish, whose in-laid pattern does a good job hiding fingerprints.

It's in the spec department that these two laptops start to differ. Though both models will be offered with AMD Trinity processors only, the TouchSmart starts with an AMD A8 chip and 6GB of RAM, while the non-touch version starts with an A6 APU and four gigs of memory. The hard drive capacity varies, too: the non-touch one starts with 500GB of space, while the TouchSmart has 750GB. As you can imagine, the touchscreen version is thicker, but only slightly: it measures 23mm thick, versus 21mm. Look for the non-touch Sleekbook to go on sale this month, starting at $499. The TouchSmart will land in February, priced from $699. In the meantime, we've got hands-on shots of both waiting for you after the break.

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HP announces Envy m4 thin-and-light, along with two slimmed-down Sleekbooks

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HP announces Pavilion m4 thinandlight, along with two slimmeddown Sleekbooks

Remember the Pavilion m6? It was one of many, many lightweight laptops HP announced last spring. To recap, it didn't technically fit Intel's Ultrabook specifications, but it was still quite thin, and offered features not normally found on ultraportables -- things like discrete graphics and a subwoofer. In any case, HP is expanding that particular line: it just announced the Envy m4, a 14-inch companion to the 15-inch m6 that went on sale this summer.

Like the m6, it has an aluminum design, along with Beats Audio and a subwoofer. Spec-wise, it'll be offered with Core i3 and i5 processors, up to 8GB of RAM and either a solid-state drive or up to 1TB of HDD storage. The display resolution is fixed at 1,366 x 768 -- typical for mid-range laptops. (Note: only one configuration will be available in the US, though additional variants will be offered in other countries.) Intel Wireless Display is standard, and the battery promises up to eight hours of runtime. It also has a fingerprint reader, which you can use with HP's SimplePass technology to log into the PC and as well as websites.

Meanwhile, HP added two models to its growing line of Sleekbooks (read: thin-and-light laptops that for whatever reason don't meet Intel's Ultrabook requirements). These new models include the Pavilion Sleekbook 14 and 15, which look like the company's entry-level G series, but are significantly trimmer. The laptops, available in black and red, will be offered with Ivy Bridge chips, optional discrete graphics, 1080p displays, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 1TB of HDD storage. In both cases, the battery life is said to max out at six hours -- less than the m4 or most Ultrabooks, but still decent.

Last thing -- and this really is apropos of nothing -- HP also mentioned in its press release that the existing 11-inch Pavilion dm1 will be offered with an HSPA+ radio capable of running on T-Mobile's network. HP says it will offer up to 200MB of free data per month, for two years. That deal is effective next month, on October 26th.

The Envy m4 will start at $900 while the Pavilion Sleekbook 14 and 15 will go for $500 and $560, respectively. These, too, will arrive on the 26th, the day Windows 8 launches. For now help yourself to photos galore past the break.

Continue reading HP announces Envy m4 thin-and-light, along with two slimmed-down Sleekbooks

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HP announces Envy m4 thin-and-light, along with two slimmed-down Sleekbooks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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