HP’s revamped its Pavilion line, moving entirely away from glossy plastic finishes in favor of a more premium metallic lineup. HP also introduced a pair of new Envy notebooks. We caught up with Stacy Wolff, HP’s director of notebook design to chat about the new look. He explained why HP decided to switch things up with its most popular notebook line.

For the past several years, HP has featured a range of designs imprinted in plastic. The imprint designs were an HP exclusive under a licensing agreement, but competitors soon followed the trend with their own similar designs. The metallic design sets the new Pavilion notebooks apart from other popular notebooks in the moderate price range found at retail.

The TouchSmart tm2 and the HP Mini netbooks will be the only HP mobile devices without the new metallic look. Even the affordable Compaq retail notebooks will be getting a faux metal treatment.

To learn more about HP’s new Pavilion, Envy and business notebooks, check out the following articles:

• HP Envy 14: Style and Power Starting at $999 (video)
• HP Envy 17: Most Powerful HP Consumer Notebook Yet (video)
• HP Introduces the ProBook 4525s Notebook PC
• HP’s New ProBook 4425s Notebook PC Announced
• HP announces the new HP dm4 14″ Portable Notebook
• HP announces new HP Pavilion dv6 models with Touch and AMD processor options
• HP Pavilion dv5 Updated with Aluminum Finish and AMD Processor Choices
• HP Pavilion dv7 Refreshed with Brushed Aluminum Body, BEATS and More

HP’s Lead Notebook Designer Unveils All New Pavilion, Envy Lineup is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

This Saturday we’re hosting a shootout with the San Francisco Photography Meetup Group. Whoever takes the best shot on Saturday will win an HP Envy 15!

Meet us at Dolores Park in San Francisco at 4pm Saturday at Dolores Park.

We’re going to have some demos of how to shoot take great action photos at dusk. We’re going to have a local performance artist to shoot in addition to the beautiful San Francisco skyline.

(photo by Pip R. Lagenta)

After the shoot is over, we’re going to walk to Medjools for a photo-geek party. Everyone will get to import their best photo from the night onto one of the HP Envy notebooks we’ll have on display. The group will vote for their favorite photos and we’ll hand out tons of prizes. Heavy appetizers will be provided.

We have some great prizes to give away. If you want to win a prize you’ll have to show the group your best shot from the night. Prizes include:

• One HP Envy 15- 1050NR: The HP Envy 15 is a luxurious notebook designed for creative professionals. The Envy 15 we’re giving away comes with a high-def display (1920 x 1080), 6GB of RAM, an Intel Core i7 processor, ATI Radeon 4830 Graphics w/1GB of memory and two batteries. This model retails for $1,999 at Best Buy.

• $1,000 of Gift Cards: Win one of ten $100 Best Buy gift cards. Buy yourself a gadget or give it to a loved one for Christmas.

• SanDisk Extreme Compact Flash Cards: Win one of three professional-grade 8GB SanDisk Extreme Compact Flash cards. These cards can read/write up to 60MB/s (400x). These cards have an MSRP of $145.99.

• Gift Certificates for BorrowLenses.com: Win one of two $50 gift certificates for BorrowLenses.com This service lets photographers rent lenses, cameras and more by mail. If you live in the Bay Area you can pick up the gear in person in San Francisco or San Jose.

Thanks to all of the companies for donating the giveaway gear. Special thanks to HP and Intel for sponsoring this event and donating the HP Envy 15.

To register for the event visit the San Francisco Photography Meetup Group event page and join the group.

We hope to see you there!

San Francisco Photo Shootout: Win an HP Envy 15, Other Great Photo Prizes is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

If you’d like to celebrate the launch of Windows 7 by unwrapping a new HP envy 15 keep reading. On Monday we kicked off the giveaway by asking you to tell your friends about the giveaway on Twitter. Yesterday we asked you to tell your Twitter followers what you would do with an Envy 15. Today we’re asking you to answer a question in the comments section below.

By answering the below questions below you’ll earn one virtual raffle ticket.  Just scroll to the bottom of this page and fill out the form. Be sure to enter your email address (it won’t be publicly displayed) so we can send you an email if you win.

What kind of computer (make and model) are you currently using? What are the top three pros and cons of it? Is there anything in particular that you love/hate about it?

I’ve yet to find the perfect notebook computer and I’m sure you’ve run into your share of frustrations. But even obsolete computes have redeeming values. Tell us about them and you’ll be one step closer to winning HP’s most powerful consumer notebook.

Remember to read the giveaway guidelines here. This contest is only open to US residents.

3rd Way to Win an HP Envy 15 Giveaway is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Yesterday we kicked off our giveaway of an HP Envy 15 notebook and asked you to follow Notebooks.com on Twitter to enter the virtual raffle. If you’d like to earn a second entry, head over to Twitter and tell HP what you’d use the Envy 15 for if you won!

Would you use it for editing videos, playing high-end video games or working on your creative aspirations? What applications would you run on the Envy 15?

Be sure to include the following words and symbols in your Tweets so we can count your entries: @notebookscom @hpcheer #Envy15NB

Read the original giveaway post for more details about the prize and the full rules.

Earn Another Chance to Win an HP Envy 15 is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

One lucky Notebooks.com reader will get to unwrap an HP Envy 15 on October 22. That’s right, we’re giving one of these bad boys away and you have a chance to win it. Wouldn’t you rather spend the day playing with one of the most powerful notebooks on the market than waiting in line to buy Windows 7?

At 5.18 pounds, the Envy 15 is the thinnest and lightest notebook with quad-core processor. If you’re a gamer or creative type you’ll appreciate the Envy 15′s HD display (1920×1080 pixels), ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830 graphics and 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 processor.

As a photo and video nut, I’ve been drooling over this machine since I first saw it a couple of months ago.

With a starting price of $1,799, the Envy 15 has a lot of features you won’t find in more affordable notebooks. HP’s Kevin Wentzel ran gave me a close look at the Envy 15 at a recent conference. You can see the video below.

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who participated in this giveaway. It is now closed and the winner has been contacted.

Please stay tuned for our next giveaway.

By now you’re probably wondering what you need to do to get your hands on the prize. Between now and October 16 readers will have several opportunities to enter. We’ll announce at least one new way to enter every day between now and then. As usual, we’ll be assigning numbers to all qualified entries and pull a random number using Random.org. The more you participate, the more entries you’ll have in the virtual hat. This contest is open to US residents only. The winner will be contacted by email and/or a direct message on Twitter by Friday night. If the winner does not reply within 24 hours a new winner will be selected.

The first way to earn a virtual raffle ticket follow Notebooks.com on Twitter and send the following Tweet:

I entered to Win an HP Envy 15 from Notebooks.com! http://notebooks.com/go/9X9 #Envy15NB

Remember, in order to earn your entry you need to both follow our new Twitter account at Twitter.com/NotebooksCom and send the tweet.

We’ll post updates on more ways you can enter on Twitter and here on Notebooks.com so stay tuned!

How to Earn Additional Entries :

10/13: If you’d like a 2nd chance at winning, visit this page and follow the instructions to earn another virtual raffle ticket.

10/14: Tell us what you love and hate about your computer to earn a third virtual raffle ticket.Visit this page and leave a comment.

10/15: Tell us what you’d like to learn about notebooks and computing in general if f you’d like a forth chance at winning. Visit this page and leave a comment.

10/16: Sign up for our giveaway newsletter for a 5th chance to win the HP Envy 15!

The Envy 15 we’re giving away has the following specs:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

• Intel Core i7-720QM processor (1.6 GHZ w/ Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz)

• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830

• 15.6″ Full HD LED Ultra BrightView WS Display

• Intel WiFi Link 5100 Network & Bluetooth

• 500GB (7200RPM) HDD

• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM

• 8x DVD+-RW

• Nightvision VGA webcam

• 6-cell Li-Ion polymer battery

Thanks to HP for being generous enough to provide the prize!

Giveaway: HP Envy 15 Dream Machine is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

HP’s new ENVY 15 has the power of a workstation or gaming machine in a thin and light package. Its laser etched magnesium enclosure  feels extremely solid and measures an inch thick. Its the most powerful notebook I’ve seen in the five-pound range.

The Envy 15 is going to be HP’s flagship notebook. Its starting price of $1,799 may not be affordable enough for mainstream users, but graphics profssionals and pro-sumers will appreciate what’s being offered here. The 15.6″ display has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which means users have plenty of room to work on high-res images and videos.  The 300-nit display is much brighter than those found on HP’s Pavilion notebooks.

The Envy 15 can be configured with an Intel Core i7 processor,  up to 16GB of RAM and dual 160GB solid state drives installed. Buyers can also opt for dual hard drives for up to 1TB of storage.  An ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830 graphics card with 1 GB of dedicated video memory is included in the setup for optimal performance during visually-intensive tasks.

There’s also an option to increase battery life through the Slim Fit Extended-Life Notebook Battery, which fits seamlessly onto the bottom of the Envy 15. The two batteries provide up 7 hours of battery life.

A Nightvision VGA webcam is integrated into the notebook that allows users to record video or chat in complete darkness.

HP has teamed up with Beats by Dr. Dre to create a premium software for listening to music and watching video on the machine. The ENVY 15 is also equipped with HP QuickWeb which allows you to access the Internet without fully booting up your computer.

HP ENVY 15 (Specs, Video and Photos) is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Stacy Wolff is the director of design for HP’s notebook lines. In this video he shows us all of the notebooks HP’s introducing this week and talks a bit about the design concept behind each.

HP is stepping up its design efforts and offering a pretty diverse lineup. Aesthetics are becoming more and more important to computer users and HP is an example of a company that’s addressing several different design tastes. Business notebooks will remain relatively conservative, but HP’s consumer notebooks are getting everything from 3D graphics to engraved metallic finishes.

HP’s Stacy Wolff Talks About New Notebook Designs is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.