HP announces new Envy Sleekbook and Ultrabook series

Shortly after the launch of the Envy Spectre Ultrabook, HP has announced four additional Envy notebooks and a new series called Sleekbooks. The Ultrabooks will be based on Intel hardware, but the Sleekbooks will feature a mix of AMD and Intel and will be cheaper as well. The 15.6-inch Sleekbook will start at a price of U.S $600, while the 14-inch Sleekbook sits at $700. Coming to the Ultrabooks, the 14-incher starts at a price of $750, while the 15.6-inch version is priced at $800. All the models feature a two tone black/red colour and a brushed metal finish. The Ultrabooks will initially launch with Sandy Bridge processors and not Ivy Bridge as everyone hoped but perhaps, somewhere down the line, HP will refresh the line-up with the newer CPUs.

HP's new Sleekbook

The 15.6-inch Sleekbook will be arriving later in June, as it will be powered by AMD’s Trinity APU. Some of the common features among the notebooks, include a screen resolution of 1366 x 768, a choice between various ULV 2nd Generation Core processors from Intel, 4GB of DDR3 memory, standard hard drives in the Sleekbooks, while the Ultrabooks get a mix of hard drives and a small SSD for caching. All models will pack USB 3.0, HDMI and an SD card reader as well. The new line-up will also feature Beats Audio enhancements and speakers, along with an HD webcam.

Some of the SKUs will also have the option for a discrete AD Radeon HD 7670M graphics card with 2GB of dedicated memory. The smaller, 14-inch models will weigh just 1.81kg and are about 19.8mm at their thinnest point. HP also claims that the 14-inch models will have a battery life of 8 hours, while the bigger 15.6-inch models will somehow have a longer battery life of 9 hours. The new models look pretty cool and as usual carry the signature HP design and build. The launch of AMD’s APUs could finally mark the beginning of cheap Ultrabooks, so we just have to wait another month before that happens.