HP Sleekbook, AMD Ultrabooks from HP

During a launch event in Shanghai, China, HP revealed a great number of products, including some Ultrabooks and their AMD-powered counterparts. 

We've known for a while that Advanced Micro Devices would eventually get one of its chips inside super-thin and light laptops. 

This is, after all, the purpose of that 17W accelerated processing unit (APU) revealed last month. 

Seeing it actually happen is another thing entirely, but we can safely say that the time is finally here: HP has revealed some AMD-based ultrabooks. 

Well, almost. The Ultrabook product type name is owned by Intel, so HP had to use a different moniker for the APU versions of the Envy 4 and 6 models. 

In the end, Sleekbook was chosen. It remains to be seen if the word sticks or not. 

Measuring 14 inches and 15 inches in diagonal, the Envy 4 and 6 have black, red or plain metal finish, HD screens (1,366 x 768 pixels), customizable storage and RAM, all expected connectivity and I/O (USB 3.0, HDMI, LAN, Wi-Fi, card reader) and a price of around 650 Euro / $700. 

And now, since we're on the subject, we can talk about the Spectre XT too, an Ivy Bridge successor to the Envy 14 Spectre, which measures 13.3 inches in screen diagonal. 

The thickness is of 14.5 mm (0.57 inches) and the weight is 1.4 kilograms (3.08 lbs). 

Inside, there is a third-generation Ivy Bridge processor, an SSD of 128 GB or 256 GB, four speakers, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, HDMI and an SD card slot. 

Norton Internet Security Antivirus software (2-year license) and Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 10 (photo editing) will be pre-installed on it. 

Finally, the one downgrade compared to the Envy 14 is the screen. It is less bright and uses a lower resolution (1,366 x 768 instead of 1,440 x 900 or 1,600 x 900). Sales will start by the end of June, for 999 Euro / $999.

Posted in: Hardware, Preview