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HP Envy 14 and Envy 17 finally revealed

Well, they’re finally official now and I can quit receiving these kazillion emails about the upcoming Envy 14/17 models… wait, at least until the Envy 11 and Envy 18 emails start flooding in a couple months’ time . Right now, the information being provided by HP is scarce. But after some “digging around”, I’ve managed to compile a much more comprehensive list of specifications for the Envy 14 and Envy 17, more than you’ll find on other sites out there. All the info I’ve listed below are accurate/confirmed except where noted otherwise.

For both the Envy 14 and Envy 17, the following things will come as standard/available features:

• Choice of Intel Core i5 dual core, Intel Core i7 dual core and Intel Core i7 Quad core processors (yes, the Envy 14 can be configured as a quad-core machine!)
• Fully backlit, chiclet style keyboard; NO annoying ‘quick media/quick launch’ buttons to hinder typing
• Metal/aluminum chassis with metal etching design (same patterns on the lid/palmrest as Envy 15)
• HP True Vision “HD” webcam (I think they can record/webconference in 720p; haven’t confirmed, I’m not really a big webcam user)
• Built-in slot-loading optical drives (contrary to earlier documents and HP info; somehow someone managed to squeeze in those optical drives)
• 7200 rpm hard disks will come standard; solid state drives (SSD) will also come as an option
• Dual built-in microphones
• Extra large button-less trackpads with brand new trackpad firmware/software for improved operation (really)
• Much improved cooling/airflow and heat dissipation
• LAN port for you network cable users
• Dedicated audio in and audio out ports for microphone and headphones respectively (unlike the single combo port on the Envy 15)

And looking at them individually now, first we have the HP Envy 14:

• 2 dedicated USB ports + 1 combo eSATA/USB port
• Standard full-size keyboard without numeric pad (doh!)
• 14 inch 16:9 aspect ratio “HD” (at least 1366 x 768; higher resolution panel options unconfirmed) LED backlit display; this one’s an “extra-bright” HP Radiance display (similar to how the Envy 13 had a 13 inch Radiance display)
• Two speaker Beats-branded (or logo stamped) speakers
• Single hard disk bay
• 2 or 4 DDR3 RAM slots
• 1 GB (confirmed) of ATI Mobility Radeon 56xx or 57xx graphics(unconfirmed; dm4 has ATI 5400 series graphics so the Envy 14 should have something higher)
• Optional (or probably standard in some countries) slim battery slice (styled ala Envy 13/Envy 15 battery slices) brings battery life to “up to 13.75 hours”
• Mini Display Port and HDMI port (No VGA out)
• Thin design, around an inch thick

The HP Envy 17

Next up is the much-discussed Envy 17:

• 3 dedicated USB ports + 1 combo eSATA/USB port
• Standard full-size keyboard WITH numeric pad
• 17 inch 16:9 aspect ratio full HD (1920 x 1080) display; appears to be a non-Radiance display
• Two speaker Beats-branded speakers plus “Triple Bass Reflex” (fancy name!) miniature subwoofer
• Dual hard disk bays (HP says you can have up to 2 TB of storage, not sure if they made a typo there because 2 TB in a notebook sounds… wrong)
• 2 or 4 DDR3 RAM slots
• 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon 5850 graphics with Eyefinity “enabled”
• Optional extended primary battery juts out the bottom of the notebook
• Whopping THREE display output ports: Mini Display Port, HDMI and VGA out
• ATI Eyefinity support allows you to hook up three displays to the said three display output ports without any adapter needed
• Thin design, around an inch thick

And finally, we have a bunch of question marks floating around which I’ll post answers to when I get more information:

• Do the HP Envy 14 and Envy 17 support USB 3.0? If yes, how many of the ports are USB 3.0 and how many are USB 2.0?
• Is dual monitor “Eyefinity” enabled/do-able using the Envy 14?
• Seeing the Envy 17 has a  “stick out style” optional primary battery, will there be any (if at all) sort of slim battery slice for it?

I’m sure one of these days, either the Envy 14 or Envy 17 or both is gonna show up at my door, so meanwhile let’s discuss. You can start shooting me your questions so I can find answers to them the minute I get the chance to test out the new HP Envy’s.

HP Elitebook 2810 whispers?

Well, something is brewing at HP and whatever it is, I expect it to be coming soon. Judging by the rumors and sightings compiled this week, it seems that HP may be planning a launch of products aimed at business/enterprise users. Well, we already heard about the rumored Elitebook 8440w, 8540w and 8740w notebooks last month when people were talking about the two new Envy models and other consumer notebooks/netbooks (lots of links about that out there, Google it yourself). Those notebooks are updates to the existing Elitebook 6930p, Elitebook 8530p/w and Elitebook 8730w respectively, and the 2nd digits in the model names of the yet-to-be-announced Elitebooks point to a 14 inch model, 15 incher and a huge 17 inch Mobile Workstation respectively. The last two digits (“40″ series) are indicative of minor updates, so don’t hold your breath for a major overhaul – my bets are DDR3 RAM and graphics, 7200 RPM hard disks as a standard, multi-touch trackpads with the ‘nipple’ mouse AKA trackpoint and a slim chance of a tool-less chassis for easy RAM swapping (ala the existing HP Mini 5101). Probably there will be a few more extra bells, whistles and fancy things added, if HP is feeling generous enough – afterall, the W-series are supposed to be HP’s top-range Mobile Workstation notebook series.

I’ve strayed far enough from the topic I was gonna talk about, so let’s get right back to the whispers about the HP 2810. There’s been talk and hearsay about a certain “2810 model”, some have even claimed to have seen an actual unit floating around – but getting the latest gossip is harsh in the Windows world: people tend to be a lot more interested in extremely hyped-up, potentially-staged Apple rumors and speculation (the latest hype being the rumored Apple Tablet computer). There’s a tendency for other rumors from other PC makers (HP, Dell, anyone else) to be suppressed by the sheer amount of Apple hype and speculation around – so the occasional, rare sighting/news about new HP things is always welcome.

So what is this 2810 model all about? Is it the replacement to the ultra-portable Elitebook 2530p? Perhaps a successor to the the Elitebook 2730p tablet? A completely new ultra-portable business machine from HP? Even I’m puzzled – I keep seeing and hearing the these four digits around, and reports of ‘sightings’ but no one seems to be able to cough up any description of its purpose.