HP Rivaling MacBook Air for Thinnest Laptop

It’s always smallest, lightest, fastest, or thinnest. And with the advent of the anorexic Macbook Air, some of the more corpulent computers have become jealous, HP in particular. The razor thin MacBook Air, which is a shocking 0.16-0.76 inches thick, now has a cousin with a different last-name. It’s the HP Envy Series, of which two computers were announced just today.

Like the MacBook, HPs boast a brushed aluminum body, and come in an ultra-thin 0.9 inches. True to its powerful name, HP has packed these computers with the guts of a power-monger. In fact, it’s called “the company’s fastest consumer notebook PC ever.” The processor is an Intel Core i7, which can easily host 16 gigs of RAM, and the beefiest graphics card on the market. With storage capacity at 320 gigs, and the dual SSD hard drive option, this notebook is designed for speed and power.

HP didn’t neglect the eye candy aspect of the computer. Since it is competing with the MacBook Pro in a sense, it displays a simplistic design. Even the mouse touchpad, which on PC machines typically comes with a variety of buttons, is a single click pad. Built into the smooth face of the touchpad are the left and right buttons that most Windows users are familiar with.

Admittedly, you have to pay for what you get. These computers are not for the cash-strapped starving college student. These computers start at $1,669, and that’s without the tricked-out version, which easily soars beyond the $2,000 mark. The mobile professional will likely be the chief clientele for this classy new competitor to the MacBook air.

HP also unveiled more of their Pavilion series, this time the Pavilion DM3. It, too, shed some of the extra micro-inches, getting down to one inch thick, and displaying a price tag that is more appealing to the everday user. It will cost $549.

The new business machine, called the ProBook 5310M falls below the one inch mark, and contains both the power and battery life for the mobile professional—its targeted market base. The new ProBooks have the ability to go for a full seven hours on one battery charge.

From a software perspective, HPs new fall lineup will all come equipped with Windows 7. For that reason, the new laptops will become available to consumers on October 22, which is the same day that Windows 7 is released.

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