For those trying to decide the ‘perfect screen size’ for your next notebook, look no further – here’s a nice illustration/comparison between screen sizes of four screen sizes commonly found on notebooks/netbooks.
Starting from the bottom is HP’s Elitebook 8730w Mobile Workstation, featuring a massive 17 inch DreamColor display (1920 x 1200 pixels here!). Brilliant notebook and beautiful screen but perhaps size is the reason it sits on Mark’s desk 99% of the time.
Next is my trusty silver+black HP Pavilion dv4 notebook PC. It’s not the latest edition, as some HP fans should be able to tell “all-black” is the color scheme for the latest Pavilion dv4. It has a 14 inch screen (1280 x 800 pixels) which is a good compromise between size and portability.
The HP Pavilion dv2 has a 12 inch screen (Also with 1280 x 800 pixels)… and the reason why its screen seems to sit higher than that of the dv4 is the same reason why Trisha hates the design of this ultra portable – big bezel around the screen. But other than the design annoyance, the dv2 is a pretty good portable notebook: slim, light and it plays modern games like Call of Duty, Left4Dead and Need for Speed, and possibly Batman: Arkham Asylum for PC that I wanna get soon. In real life, other 12 inch notebooks with smaller screen bezel areas would be lower-profile, making them even more compact.
And lastly, sitting on top of all the other notebooks (good thing the Elitebook down there can support all that weight), is the HP Mini 2133. Yes, I still use it, although the 2133 has been feeling a little cranky this week – refusing to come out of sleep mode if I leave it for more than an hour. The Mini 2133 has a 8.9 inch screen, slightly smaller than the 10 inch displays that have become the staple of 90% of netbooks this year. The screen is a little small but it’s high in resolution (1280 x 768 pixels). People do ask me if I can actually see the tiny, ant-sized letters on the screen when I’m typing out a Word document at 80% magnification (so I can see two pages at one go).
That’s it for now. I’ll be talking about the HP Envy 13 and Envy 15 more later this week, so stay tuned for that!
Well, they’re official now – HP just announced their Envy 13 and Envy 15 ultra-thin, stylish notebooks. The Envy 13 looks extremely appealing and looks like a good replacement for my Pavilion dv4 notebook… in a year’s time, and if I can afford it by then.
HP Envy 13:
- Intel Core 2 Duo processor
- 13.1 inch LED-backlit widescreen display (16:9 aspect ratio; 1366 x 768 pixels)
- 2 DDR3 RAM slots
- Chiclet style keyboard
- 512 MB ATI graphics card
- Intelligent switching between dedicated ATI HD 4330 and Intel integrated graphics for battery life/performance priority
- 2 USB ports, 1 combined audio in/out jack, HDMI port
- Optional battery slice extends battery life up to 18 hours (think of the super-thin extended battery of the Elitebook 2730p)
- Less than 1 inch thick
- $1699 introduction price
HP Envy 15:
- Intel Core i7 processor
- 15.6 inch LED-backlit full HD widescreen display (16:9 aspect ratio; 1920 x 1080 pixels)
- Chiclet style keyboard
- 1 GB ATI HD 4830 graphics card
- Night vision/Infra red equipped VGA webcam
- 4 DDR3 RAM slots
- Dual drive bays
- Optional battery slice extends battery life up to 7 hours
- About 1 inch thick
- $1799 introduction price
Both HP Envy models also have ‘HP Clickpad’, which is a fancy name for a button-less trackpad ala Apple’s MacBook computers. There’s also an optional optical drive attachment which doubles as a ‘dock’ of sorts with two external USB ports.
Two main things that I really, really, really, absolutely need to find out include:
- Do these two HP Envy notebooks have backlit keyboards?
UPDATE: Nope, sadly
- Any matte screen option for the display?
UPDATE: No, again =(
Remember two weeks ago when there were whispers about the Envy series going global/outside of North America? Well, turns out there’s a HIGH possibility that might be true. The new HP Envy 13 just came out ahead of its Tuesday announcement. The new notebook features an ultra-thin profile, 13 inch screen, chiclet-style keyboard, huge trackpad (possibly multi-touch) and will most likely make it to computer stores around the world (unlike its Voodoo PC counterpart, the Envy 133). As for port selection, pictures show 2 USB ports, HDMI port and a combined audio in/out jack. Stay glued in your seats people, I predict a slew of new HP things coming real soon.
Right, like a lot of other HP iPAQ hw6915 users at the time, I wasn’t too happy when HP announced that they would NOT offer a Windows Mobile 6.0 upgrade for hw6915 Pocket PCs a few years ago. But now, those days have passed – I’d say HP should now leave their current Pocket PCs as they are, and start out fresh with some new devices this fall (Just remember HP has had a history of announcing new Windows Mobile devices around September/October). Phones like the iPAQ 600 and Data Messenger were already outdated at their release compared to competitors.
With the flurry of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices/upgrade announcements just starting to pour in, HP should take the opportunity and announce some solid-sounding devices (of course, prompt delivery on proposed availability dates is crucial as well). HP has been lagging behind the competition in the mobile device arena for the past two to three years and they really need to take action – how about some iPAQs with Snapdragon and Tegra processors? Larger screens, multi-touch/gestures and perhaps a “Touchsmart Mobile” UI? Oh, I mind as well mention that my iPAQ Data Messenger’s keyboard is already starting to wear out and is very unresponsive to presses nowadays; so how about better button designs (ala Nokia N97)?
One of HP’s to-be-announced Windows Mobile phones is the iPAQ K3, which looks to be the successor of the iPAQ 900. They just need to get their phone positioning and prices right this time – no more ‘mid-range’ phones for $500 please!
I’ve just heard news that HP may be taking Voodoo PC’s Envy ultra-slim notebook on a ‘trip’ to some places around the world – there seem to be whispers around the web that HP might make the Voodoo Envy notebook ‘officially available’ in several countries by the end of this year. Currently, Voodoo PC’s products are exclusively available in North America only.
If this actually happens, then it’s fantastic news for those living in Europe, Asia and elsewhere around the globe. Think about it, you probably could scrap your plans to order the Envy 133 via your Uncle Bob living in Texas and buy it from a local HP store instead. I said IF it happens because the news hasn’t been confirmed yet.
