HP Launches New Hybrids And Chromebooks, One With NVIDIA Tegra K1 Inside
It looks like HP has decided to take a page from the retail guidebook, as it's teasing us with some holiday-targeted product well before the holiday season could even be considered "close'. This product comes to us in the form of five notebooks, with three targeting the low-end part of the spectrum, and the other two skirting the $1,000 price-point.
Let's start with the Chromebooks, both of which start at under $300. The 11-inch model starts at $279.99, and provides a screen resolution of 1366x768. Under the hood is an Intel Celeron N2830, a dual-core model clocked at 2.16GHz (2.41GHz w/ Turbo). It has 16GB worth of built-in flash storage, but can gain another 100GB via Google's Drive service. For wireless, users can upgrade to 802.11ac, or go the mobile LTE/HSPA route. The other main choice users will have to make will be whether or not to boost the default 2GB of RAM to 4GB.
The 14-inch Chromebook offers similar defaults, but has a couple of unique differences: NVIDIA's Tegra K1 SoC powers it, for starters, and the DRAM is faster even at default, clocked at 1600MHz (vs. 1333MHz). This particular model will also have additional color options, including the basic "Ocean Turquoise" and "Snow White", but also adding "Sorbet Orange" and "Neon Green". Another key option on this particular model is the ability to add another 32GB of internal storage, made possible through an M.2 slot.
The 11-inch Chromebook is set to launch on October 5th, while the 14-inch model will drop on October 22nd.
At the top-end of HP's latest announcements are the 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch ENVY x2 models, priced at $949 and $1,049, respectively. These detachable (laptop + tablet) notebooks feature Intel's latest Core M processors (which we talked about in-depth earlier this week), and a fabric-covered Bluetooth keyboard. For storage, users can go with a hybrid 500GB hard drive with the 15-inch model, or up to a 256GB SSD in the 13-inch. At this point, these are all the specs we're being given, as the release is still a ways off: The 13.3-inch model will hit the market on October 29th, with the 15.6-inch coming out a week later, on November 5th.
Also announced is the company's Pavilion x2, an affordable 10-inch tablet that can act as a notebook. Under the hood of this machine is an Intel Atom processor, although we're not told which one. Up to 11.75 hours of battery-life is being touted, though, which is quite good especially if you want to use the tablet in notebook mode. This particular model will launch on October 29th, and is set to sell for $329.