New From HP: Stylish Ultrabooks and a Wafer-Thin ‘Sleekbook’

HP announced a slew of refreshed and new HP laptops on Tuesday that should be shipping to retailers this summer. Among the newcomers are several HP Envy models and a business-oriented Ultrabook.

Premium Ultrabook: HP Envy Spectre XT

HP offers the new Envy Spectre XT as an “ultra-stylish” extension of the HP Spectre line, which already looks pretty sleek thanks to its glass top. The XT will have an all-metal chassis (like similar premium Ultrabooks) and a slim bezel (like the Envy 14 Spectre) to pack a larger display in its small 13.3-inch footprint.

The XT is thinner and lighter than the Envy 14 Spectre: It measures 0.57 inch thick and weighs 3.07 pounds, whereas the Envy 14 Spectre comes in at 0.9 inch thick and 4 pounds. A backlit keyboard, a 128GB solid-state drive, and a battery-life rating of 7 hours round out this premium Ultrabook’s features.

The Envy Spectre XT’s starting price is $1000, and you can configure one complete with Intel Ivy Bridge processors starting on June 3.

HP Envy Ultrabooks: 14-Inch and 15.6-Inch Screens

HP will also expand its Ultrabook range with new large-screen Ultrabooks, starting at $750 for the 14-inch Ultrabook and $800 for the 15.6-inch model. These two Ultrabooks are likely the HP Envy 4 and Envy 6, about which certain details leaked in mid-April.

The Envy Ultrabooks promise long battery life (8 to 9 hours), impressive sound with Beats Audio, and fast mSATA solid-state drives. If you don’t want your Ultrabook to look like the multitude of silver models now available, you’ll be able to opt for a red-trimmed black version. The Ultrabooks are available starting on May 9.

New Ultrathin: HP Envy Sleekbook

Not enough Envy laptops to choose from? You’ll also find a new thin laptop that HP has dubbed the Sleekbook. With a thickness of 0.8 inch and a weight of less than 4 pounds, this laptop could easily qualify as another Envy Ultrabook. But the Sleekbook does have a unique configuration of options and features, including optional discrete AMD graphics and a choice of black or red for the slip-resistant base. According to HP, the Sleekbook starts at $600 for the 15.6-inch model (available on June 20) and $700 for the 14-incher (available on May 9). The counterintuitive difference in prices reflects the fact that the laptop with the larger screen is configured with an AMD processor, while the one with the smaller screen has an Intel CPU.

Business Ultrabook: HP EliteBook Folio 9470m

The HP EliteBook Folio 9470m is an enterprise-class Ultrabook. Larger than HP’s other business Ultrabook, the Folio 13, the EliteBook Folio has a 14-inch display but still manages to keep its weight and thickness down to 3.5 pounds and 0.75 inch. Among its business-friendly features are a full array of ports (including ethernet and VGA), an optional secondary six-cell slice battery, and a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security chip for data protection. You’ll have to wait until October for this new business Ultrabook, however, and pricing is not yet available for it.

In addition to launching those laptops, HP will update several other models to give them Ivy Bridge support and more configuration options.

For instance, HP’s Pavilion dv4, dv6, dv7, g6, and g7 laptops will be available in more colors starting in late June or July. Two new business laptops, the EliteBook 2170p and the EliteBook 2570p, will update the EliteBook line, starting on June 4.

We knew that a torrent of new Ultrabooks and Ivy Bridge-refreshed laptops would be coming this year. The flood is definitely starting!

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