HP shows off new Envy and Pavilion x2 portable computing machines; shares upcoming plans
HP, Intel and Microsoft held a joint event today in celebration of SG50 called Dream Big Singapore. There, HP also showed off two new notebooks that are coming very soon. More details in this report as well as other related developments in the pipeline.
The FOST Gallery, located at the Gillman Barracks, played host to today's event.
Dream Big Singapore. That's the name of the event that HP, Microsoft and Intel jointly organized earlier today. Held at the FOST Gallery, the event brought together invited media for an array of activities, including portrait paintings and viewing of the different designs for the Wearable Pride shirts.
While we were there, we also had the chance to look at HP's newest machines, the new HP Envy and the HP Pavilion x2.
From left to right: the Envy, the Specter x360 and the Pavilion x2 (in Sunset Red and in Blizzard White).
We've talked about the HP Pavilion x2 in a prior news piece, but here's the specs sheet for the local version as well as a brief summary of the machine.
The main change seems to be the display. It's been changed to a 1280 x 800 pixels resolution screen as opposed to a Full HD version as originally reported on the US model.
The HP Pavilion x2 is a thin and light 2-in-1 hybrid machine that can function as a tablet or as a laptop. The 10-inch device has a HD IPS display with a 135-degree viewing angle, which HP claims is the best in its class. Unfortunately for the Singapore market, the HP has opted to equip it with a HD instead of a Full HD screen as seen on the US model.
Inside, the device is powered by the Intel Atom Z3736F (1.33GHz, 2MB cache) processor. It also has 2GB RAM, with 64GB of storage. On the exterior, there's a USB Type-C port, a USB 2.0 port and also a micro-HDMI port for connecting to external displays. With its 33Wh battery fully charged, the machine is expected to last around 10.45 hours while playing HD videos. It's also one of the first devices from HP that has audio enchanced by B&O Play, with dual front facing speakers. Alternatively, you can use the built-in audio jack to plug in your headphones.
You can get the Pavilion x2 in two different colors, Sunset Red (shown) or Blizzard White. Perfect for SG50.
The tablet portion is just 0.59 kilograms by itself, though the total weight of the machine goes up to 1.12 kilograms when paired with the keyboard. The 10-inch tablet is just 9.65 millimeters thin solo. With a keyboard, the total thickness rises a bit to 16.75 millimeters. Its full dimensions are 264 x 173 x 16.75 millimeters.
The HP Pavilion x2 will be available from this month onwards, starting at $549. Purchases of the HP Pavilion x2 also come with a year's subscription of MS Office 365 Personal.
The HP Pavilion x2 wasn't the only new machine HP had to show off. They also had the new Envy notebook, which comes in two sizes. There's a 14-inch version and the 15.6-inch version.
The new HP Envy features the same type of aluminium chassis as the Spectre x360.
While we don't have the full specs sheet for the new HP Envy, we can share some details regarding the hardware.
As mentioned, the new Envy will come in either 14-inch or 15.6-inch versions. Both variants will come with Broadwell Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, depending on the SKU. The machines will also come with up to 2TB storage, have hybrid HDDs or SSDs as options. As for RAM, both sizes can accomdate up to 16GB installed. Befitting a multimedia machine, the Envy will also come with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M discrete GPU.
The biggest difference between the 14 and 15.6-inch version is the display. While the 14-inch HP Envy can come with either a diagonal HD or Full HD display, the 15.6-inch version comes with either a HD, Full HD or Quad HD+ resoulution touchscreen display.
The new HP Envy comes with all new B&O audio.
Depending on the size, the HP Envy will either come with three (for 14-inch machines) or four (15.6-inch machines) USB 3.0 ports. No matter what though, one of those ports will support HP's Sleep and Charge functionality, which allows the charging of a device even when the computer is in sleep mode or turned off. On the 15.6-inch machines, the HP Envy can also be specced with an optional optical disc drive.
The HP Envy machines will also use prismatic batteries, which are thinner and lighter than typical batteries. The 14-inch Envy comes with a 55.5Wh battery, with an estimated uptime of 10.25 hours, and weighs only 1.9 kilograms total. The 15.6-inch Envy on the other hand, comes with a similarly sized 55.5Wh battery, though due to the larger display, is only estimated to last around 9.5 hours. The bigger version of the HP Envy weighs 2.28 kilograms.
Another significant difference between the two machines is that the bigger, 15.6-inch notebook has a full keyboard - including a numpad. The 14-inch one on the other hand, doesn't come with a numpad, but it does have a decent sized keyboard..
The new HP Envy is also the first of HP's new line of multimedia notebooks to feature audio from Bang & Olufsen, with quad speakers and subwoofers for accurate sound reproduction.
Like the HP Pavilion x2, the new HP Envy will be launching sometime this month. Prices start at $1,499 for the 14-inch version and $1,599 for the 15.6-inch version.
Possible upcoming plans
Before we end though, we did manage to uncover some juicy news regarding HP's plans for the future from the company's rep at the event. A word of warning though, nothing's set in stone at the moment so what we're about to disclose might not actually come to pass.
First off, HP's planning on bringing in a special edition of the HP Spectre x360. This edition will have an extremely limited run (500 units is the current expected number) and should be announced in the next few months. We're not sure if there'll be a change in hardware for the limited edition, though HP will be refreshing the Spectre x360 in the next few months to take advantage of the new Skylake processors.
The second piece of news we have should please mainstream gamers. While HP is pushing the Omen as its premium gaming notebook, the company is also looking into the possibility of introducing a newer, entry level line of gaming notebooks for casual gamers (perhaps based on AMD's Carrizo APU?). If all goes well, expect the new machines to be revealed towards the later part of the year when all the new computing platforms would be out in full scale. Speaking of the Omen, the HP rep we talked to also mentioned that the notebook might be getting a desktop version too, though there's no concrete release date yet.
Finally, a little tidbit about the Sprout. HP's revolutionary desktop's local release has been pushed back to sometime next year so if you're hoping to get it from Santa this year, you can strike it off the list right now.
Source: HP
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