HP Envy 133 Takes On MacBook Air
Berlin (Germany) - So maybe Rahul Sood’s cutting of a birthday cake with a Macbook Air wasn’t really a stunt after all. In Berlin today, HP has announced a new line of ultra-thin notebooks that are actually thinner and more powerful than Apple’s Air. The Voodoo Envy 133 is .7 inches thick and weighs less than 3.4 pounds. Notably it comes with an "instant-on" Linux variant and a power brick that doubles as a Wi-Fi router.
Inside the Envy’s carbon-fiber case will be an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8/1.6 GHz processor and either an 80 GB 4200 RPM hard drive or a 64 GB solid-state disk. The 13.3-inch with 1280 by 800 pixels resolution is powered by an Intel integrated X3100 graphics chip. While there’s no DVI port (this thing is just too thin), there is an HDMI port and HP helpfully includes a remote presenter unit. The other ports on the chassis include two USB ports and one of the USB ports can be used as an eSATA port.
Like Apple’s Macbook Air, the Envy doesn’t have an optical drive. However, HP has one-upped Steve Jobs by including an optical drive with these new laptops.
There are three noteworthy ’flourishes’ that make this notebook errr noteworthy. The touchpad has a proximity sensor that turns itself if you are typing on the keyboard - I can already hear the cries of joy from some journalists over this feature, nothing is more annoying than typing 100+WPM in Microsoft Word and having the cursor magically teleport to another paragraph.
The 56 watt power brick doubles up as a Wi-Fi router. You simply plug the Ethernet cable from the jack or your WAN/LAN connection into the port in the brick. Oh we almost forgot, HP claims the Envy 133’s battery will last up to 3 Hours and 45 Minutes. Finally, a Linux variant cleverly called Voodoo IOS (VIOS?) can be fast-booted for quick access to common applications like a Firefox browser or Skype.
The Envy should be available later this summer starting at $2100. Not a bad price that all those features, I’m glad I held off buying the Macbook Air.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Humphrey Cheung was a senior editor at Tom's Hardware, covering a range of topics on computing and consumer electronics. You can find more of his work in many major publications, including CNN and FOX, to name a few.
-
wahdangun why they din't use the puma plathform, it can be a realy thin gaming notebook because u can attach external graphic card, even if u don't do that, u still have a great onboard graphic and cappable of decoding 1080p film.Reply -
nihility This thing was probably in development before puma was available. You can't just start from scratch everytime there is a new platform availabe. They'll probably move up in the next version if this one sells OK.Reply
Besides that, the 1.6 C2D can decode 1080p just fine. -
No puma because of battery life? Has anyone seen battery life on this mysterious puma? Lots of claims about graphics (which is pretty much the first thing people look for in laptops!) but all you hear about battery life is better than previous gen (turion) which is not really saying much.Reply
-
hellwig Puma is still in development right? Intel's Centrino on-board graphics solutions are barely powerful enough to run the monitor, forget any 3D-gaming. The HDMI port is ironic, though I suppose a Dual-Core Core2 may be able to decode high-definition video (thankfully they included an eSATA port). With the lacking video (thus no gaming), I'm not sure what kind of user Voodoo/HP is targeting here. At $2k this is no e-mail checker.Reply -
What's the big deal? You can get the Lenovo X61S for less, it has an 8 hour battery life, Edge or 3G modem built in, super rugged (mine got attacked by an 80 pound rolling robot and the screen didn't crack, thanks to a steal cage) and it is designed to run Linux equally well to windows. It even has an led light for the keyboard.Reply
Sure, it doesn't look like some fashion accessory, but I guarantee you, an iBlow or an Envys-an-iBlow will not get you laid either.
Rolling robots inquestion, www.orbswarm.com -
pogsnet Puma is already available and it will be released this June. Look at youtube you see Puma advantage. Puma was not designed to be ultra portable since it comes with bunch of features like hydbrid technology which uses two or more video cards (which surely wont fit to slim design).Reply