HoTWiReZ's DoMaiN

[News BoT]

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We recently went out to San Francisco to take a look at HP's winter product refresh and meet with their representatives, and there were a couple of interesting new pieces of technology along with some healthy refreshes on display. We'll start at the bottom and work our way up to their new ultrabook, dubbed Folio.</p>
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As far as 3D displays go, HP is throwing their hat into the ring with the new 2311gt 3D monitor, a 23-inch LED-backlit display that uses passive 3D technology rather than active and employs TriDef's Ignition to handle 3D for gaming. MSRP is $299 and it's available now. They're also updating their TouchSmart 610 (recently reviewed here) with the new 620 3D Edition; TriDef is again employed for 3D gaming, but unfortunately HP's TouchSmart software still remains very much 2D.</p>
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For consumers, the ENVY 15, ENVY 17, and ENVY 17 3D are all seeing updates. The ENVY 15 is now available with a Radiance IPS display, but ENVY 17 fans unfortunately get the short end of the stick there as the Raidance display used there is still a TN panel. When I asked HP's representatives, they pointed to a difficulty in sourcing good notebook displays, a problem I'm sure we can all relate to. The review units were all using the next generation of AMD Radeon HD mobile graphics but unfortunately I don't have any more details than that. Finally, HP is again employing Beats Audio in their ENVY lineup, even adding a small red trim around the interior of the keyboard and an analog volume dial in the top right corner; pressing in the top of the dial opens up the Beats Audio Manager. The ENVY 15 is starting at $1,099, ENVY 17 at $1,249, and the active 3D enabled ENVY 17 3D at $1,599. All ENVY notebooks are expected to be available on December 7th.</p>
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HP's Pavilion dm4 line is also being updated, but the update there is a milder one. Beats Audio and subwoofers are being included in both the regular dm4 and the dm4 Beats Edition, which comes in a sleek new black chassis with red accents and a slick-looking red-backlit keyboard. The dm4 series will also be upgraded to optional AMD Radeon HD 7470M graphics. The regular dm4 will have a starting price of $699; the Beats Edition at $899. Both are expected to be available on December 18th.</p>
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Finally, the papa bear of the notebooks on display is HP's first ultrabook, the new Folio 13. At 18mm thin and 3.3 pounds, it's actually a little heftier than Toshiba's Portege Z830, but HP elected to include as much connectivity and battery capacity as possible. As a result you have a 13.3" ultrabook with full-size ethernet, USB 3.0, and a 128GB SSD standard, and HP claims the battery life can be up to nine hours. It also comes equipped with Intel Core i3 or i5 processors; in our experience the i5 is going to be worth the upgrade. The Folio 13 is expected to be available on December 7th starting at $899.</p>
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Source: AnandTech
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