Building on the HP ENVY Spectre brand announced at CES 2012, the new HP ENVY Spectre XT is a smaller ENVY Ultrabook with a friendlier $999 price.

Like the rest of the HP ENVY notebooks, the ENVY Spectre XT, focuses on the look and feel of the notebook. HP focuses on the aesthetics, but doesn’t forget about power, including third generation Intel processors.

The Spectre XT has an all-metal chassis with a slim bezel that helps keep the size of the notebook in check. The Spectre XT is 14.5 mm thick and weighs in at 3.07 pounds.

HP ENVY Spectre XT Hands On Video

Check out our hands on with the ENVY Spectre XT for a closer look at the Spectre XT features.

HP ENVY Spectre XT Specs

The ENVY Spectre XT will ship with third generation Intel Core i processor options and the latest integrated Intel HD graphics options. The XT has a 13.3-inch display.

The HP ENVY Spectre XT includes a 128GB SSD drive for speedy access to apps and startup. The size seems small for users coming from a standard hard drive, but the speed is a good tradeoff for most users.

HP ENVY Spectre XT Features

The ENVY Spectre XT includes a number of consumer friendly features designed to enhance the user experience.

• Beats Audio – HP boasts that Beats Audio allows users to hear music the way the artist intended thanks to a collaboration with Dr. Dre.
• CoolSense – With CoolSense, the Spectre XT knows when to adjust performance and fan settings to keep the XT cool.
• HP ImagePad – The mousepad on the Spectre XT supports multifinger gesture navigation, which HP claims is precise.
• HP TrueVision Webcam – The XT delivers an HD video chat experience thanks to this HD webcam which should deliver sharp images in Google+ Hangouts and Skype.
• Backlit Keyboard – Oddly an option and not a standard, the backlit keyboard simplifies working in dimly lit situations.
• Software – Included with the XT are full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements.
• Anti-Theft – The Spectre XT includes a year of Absolute Data Protect.

ENVY Spectre XT Battery Life

HP rates the ENVY Spectre XT battery life at 8 hours. PC manufacturers are better at measuring real world battery life, but the Spectre XT will likely clock in shorter under real world conditions.

ENVY Spectre XT Price and Release Date

HP is releasing the ENVY Spectre XT on June 3rd with a $999.99 starting price.

HP Envy Spectre XT Specs

HP ENVY Spectre XT Gallery

HP ENVY Spectre XT Hands On Video is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

HP is going all in on Ultrabooks this spring with the introduction of the HP ENVY SleekBook and the ENVY Ultrabook.

Both of these ENVY notebooks include 14-inch and 15-inch configurations, and attractive starting prices.

The HP ENVY Sleekbook starts at $599,while the HP ENVY Ultrabook starts at $749.

HP ENVY Sleekbook & ENVY Ultrabook Specs

HP’s Envy Sleekbook 15.6-inch size will only come with AMD APU processors and discrete graphics with a 320GB hard drive, which is why the notebook starts at $599. The 14-inch model will be available with 2nd gen and 3rd Gen Intel Core i Processors and a 500GB hard drive.

The HP ENVY Ultrabook will ship with 2nd and 3rd gen Intel Core i processors and a 500GB hard drive with a 32GB mSATA Cache for faster boots and access to frequently used programs.

Both of these notebooks are slim, measuring 19.8mm thick and starting weights of 4 pounds.

HP ENVY Sleekbook & ENVY Ultrabook Features

Even though the new Sleekbook starts at $599, all the new ENVY Sleekbooks and Ultrabooks come with a collection of features expected in the ENVy line.

• Beats Audio – Listen to music the way artists want you to hear it with this premium audio solution from HP and Dr. Dre. This is the first time Beats Audio is available in large screen notebooks, and includes a subwoofer.
• HP CoolSense – CoolSense knows when the notebook is getting to hot and can sense when it is on a lap or on a table to adjust fans and processor usage to keep the notebook from overheating.
• ProtectSmart – ProtectSmart locks the hard drive when it senses a fall, in an attempt to save the hard drive and your data.
• HP TrueVision HD webcam – The HD webcam should deliver a better than average video chat experience in Skype and Google+ Hangouts.

ENVY Sleekbook & ENVY Ultrabook Battery Life

The HP ENVY Sleekbook models claim up to 9 hours of battery life. The 15.6-inch Ultrabook also claims 9 hours of battery life, but the 14-inch ENVY Ultrabook is limited to 8 hours.

These stats will likely shrink by 20% in the real world as users crank up the screen brightness and use resource intensive programs, but that should still deliver 6-7 hours of battery life.

ENVY Sleekbook & Ultrabook Price and Release Date

The HP ENVY Ultrabook models will be available on May 9th, as will the 14-inch Sleekbook. The 15.6-inch Sleekbook will not arrive until JUne 20th.

• HP ENVY SleekBook 14″ – $699
• HP ENVY SleekBook 15.6″ – $599
• HP ENVY Ultrabook 14″ – $749
• HP ENVY Ultrabook 15.6″ – $799

HP ENVY SleekBook & Ultrabook Gallery

HP ENVY Sleekbook & ENVY Ultrabook Announced is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The HP ENVY 14 Spectre made a glassy debut at CES 2012, taking home our Best Ultrabook of CES award and stealing the hearts of many attendees thanks to the sleek glass covered body.

The Spectre 14 won’t start shipping until later this month, but if you can’t wait for this 14 inch Ultrabook, you an preorder the ENVY 14 Spectre starting today from HP.

The Spectre 14 uses an edge to edge display to fit a 14 inch display int he frame of a 13 inch notebook, and covered the display and much of the frame with Gorilla Glass. There’s even a glass covered trackpad, which we hope will perform better than the average Windows trackpad.

The 14 inch display is also a treat, with a 1600×900 resolution that allows you to see mor eon your screen at once. It is an HP Radiance display, which normally means better colors than your average notebook display.

HP ENVY 14 Spectre Hands On Video

Check out our hands on video with the HP Envy Spectre 14 that gives you a closer look at the Ultrabook and a rundown of the notebook’s features.

Inside HP has an Intel Core i5 2nd Generation mobile processor, , 4GB RAM and up to a 256GB SSD. The notebook is equipped with HP Beats Audio and HP Coolsense for better sound and faster cooling respectively. HP has also included NFC technology and built in HP Wireless Audio support. The full size keyboard is backlit for a better typing experience in low light conditions.

The notebook weighs in under 4 pounds and is 20mm thick. Despite the thin size HP is claiming 9 hours of battery life and delivers all the ports you need including a full size Ethernet port that flips open when you need to connect.

The HP Envy 14 Spectre starts at $1,399 – Preorder From HP

Preorder Your HP ENVY 14 Spectre Ultrabook Today is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The update-a-tron rolls on for HP. Today they also announced updates to the popular Envy line. Now customers have more choices than ever when configuring the Envy 15 and Envy 17, ranging from super fast mSATA solid state drives for better performance, HP Radiance Full HD Infinity displays, 3D, and HP wireless audio.

Essentially, these are the multimedia notebooks you’re looking for.

Beats Audio is still on board, of course. And though that’s optimized for output via the headphone jack, the Envy’s six speakers and subwoofer are out to prove that notebook audio doesn’t necessarily need external help to sound great.

Envy notebooks will have HP’s new Wireless Audio technology built-in, which can stream audio (even high-quality uncompressed files) to compatible speakers. This isn’t Bluetooth, mind you, so you won’t experience the same lag as you would with that streaming. That makes it excellent for setting up a home theater environment or even a sweet gaming cave.

A word on design: the Envy line has always been beautiful, and though I prefer the very first design way back when these first debuted, this current look is pretty great, too. The metal chassis means it’s not the lightest around, but sturdiness is more important here.

The combination of black on the lid and bottom and silve on the inside deck actually works. Plus, there are sweet accents that show some real thought went into the design. Such as the red rim around the keyboard well, how the power button sits inside the speaker strip, or even the analog volume jogger on the right side. This is probably my favorite touch.

Sporting the Beats logo, this dial controls the volume plus allows for fine-tuning the equalizer settings. It has a nice tactile feel and provides a bit of nostalgia for those of us who remember when volume was all about the dials.

The backlit keyboard has some nice new features. To start, the notebook now has a proximity sensor that controls the LEDs, turning them up as you approach the keys and turning them off once you’re away. There are now individual lights under each key, which allows for better control and less bleed.

The clickpad remains. I had some time to play with it and didn’t notice any wonkiness. Thankfully, HP has gotten better at this clickpad thing, so I have hope that this one will work as intended.

Aside from the Envy 15 and 17, there’s also the Envy 17 3D, which  ups the ante for movie buffs and gamers with full HD resolution (in both 2D and 3D) and wide viewing angles. The included active shutter glasses will make both games and Blu-ray movies pop. Literally.

Gamers will also appreciate that, with HDMI and DisplayPorts, you can connect three monitors at once to the Envy 15, 17, and 17 3D. UltraMultiTaskers will love this, too, but I imagine much more time will be spent exploring Arkham City than working on boring old spreadsheets.

Performance-wise, these notebooks should offer plenty of power to mainstream customers as well as power users. Consumers can choose from a range of the latest-generation Intel processors, including quad-core chips, plus AMD Mobility Radeon graphics cards.

The Envys support 128GB mSATA SSDs or hard drives up to 1TB. HP’s 3×3 wireless technology, which promises three times the speed and range of “typical” network connections is also available.

Even though these machines are hardly the kind you’d carry around everywhere, HP still gave them great battery life. The Envy 15 is rated to last up to 9 hours and the Envy 17 up to 9.5. Looking forward to seeing how they do in real-world testing.

All three new Envys will be available on December 7th. The Envy 15 starts at $1,099, the Envy 17 starts at $1,249, and the Envy 17 3D starts at $1,599.

HP Out To Create Ultimate Multimedia Machines With Envy 15, Envy 17, and Envy 17 3D is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

HP has announced a refresh to their high end HP Envy 14 notebooks for summer 2011. The new Envy 14 keeps the familiar look and BEATS audio, but adds new 2nd Generation Intel Core i7 processors, AMD graphics and a better trackpad.

Overall this is a much needed update and brings many of the options we would like to see on HP’s high end consumer notebook line, but we are still missing a high resolution display option.

HP Envy 14 Processor & Graphics

The HP Envy 14 will make use of Intel’s newest 2nd Generation Core i Family of processors which offer better overall performance and include Wireless Display as a standard option.

These new Sandy Bridge processors come with a built in graphics processor that delivers decent performance, but most users will be purchasing an Envy 14 for the AMD Radio graphics that provide additional power. HP has not announce the AMD graphics that will be included when the system launches in June, but expect to see 1GB to 1.5GB of Video RAM.

Additionally, the new Envy 14 Has a USB 3.0 port to help typical add storage easily with the high speed connection

Envy 14 Display

The Envy 14 has a 14.5″ HP Brightview display with a 1366×768 resolution, which remains unchanged from the currently available Envy 14. It’s disappointing that HP has refused to deliver a higher resolution display on the Envy 14 as standard. The company removed the HP Radiance 1600 x 900 display option last year and doesn’t appear to be bringing it back with this refresh.

HP Envy 14 Trackpad and Keyboard

The HP Envy 14 has a brand new trackpad that uses an image sensor to deliver a better mousing solution. This new trackpad also has built in buttons, to deliver a larger housing surface. It is expected that the new trackpad will provide better experience.

The Envy 14 has a backlog full size keyboard that looks to be unchanged from the current version.

HP Envy 14 Cooling

The HP Envy 14 makes use of the new HP Coolsense technology which can detect whether or not your notebook is on your lap or on a table and automatically adjust the fans and cooling to fit the scenario.

HP Envy 14 Audio

The Envy 14 continues the high end audio tradition with HP BEATS Audio. By focusing on the components and audio technology, BEATS is able to deliver music in a manner that is how the artists inteded you to hear it.

HP Envy 14 Price and Availability

The HP Envy 14 will be available on June 15 for a starting price of $999.

HP Envy 14 Gallery

HP Envy 14 Refreshed with Sandy Bridge and Better Trackpad is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The iPad 2 has arrived, and while I plan to pick one up, I’m still in love with notebooks, and frankly I think you should be too, or at least you will be after your tablet lust wears off.

Notebooks will still face increased pressure from tablets like the iPad 2 and the Motorola Xoom, but there’s plenty of reasons that users will continue to purchase notebooks. While the tablet may help a consumer avoid purchasing a new notebook for home or work, it’s hard to imagine the average consumer completely abandoning the notebook anytime soon.

5 Reasons I’m Still Excited About Notebooks:

The Keyboard: Yes, it’s an easy one to point out, but the keyboard is a defining feature that consumers clearly want to have at hand for long typing sessions. Why do you think manufacturers are trying to fit sliding and removable keyboards on tablets? Sure, you can add a keyboard to the iPad with an iPad keyboard case, but simply adding a keyboard to a tablet does not a notebook make.

The iPad and other tablets, even with a keyboard, lack the ability to use keyboard shortcuts which can greatly enhance productivity for users who spend their day, or even their evenings, in front of a computer.

It’s where the Work Happens: Go ask the next iPad user you see where they do most of their work. Odds are they will tell you they use a notebook or a desktop to get things done. Personally I can’t get by without being able to compare two documents side to side, which is an issue on most tablets not just in the software, but also in the size of the screen.

Flickr – rewinder

What I love about notebooks is the ability to find the software I need to get work done without compromising on an app that requires extra steps. While there are many great apps, if you want to work with others you need to be prepared to use Office or other programs which, if present in the app store, aren’t always able to deliver the same rich experience. As James Kendrick points out, this need to use common programs isn’t just for adults, students will need to have access to Office and other tools to do their homework as well.

The Full Web, Including Flash that Works: When you use a notebook, you can visit any website, and even if it uses Flash, it will work. While we can go on and on about how Flash kills battery life, it’s still a large enough presence on the web that I enjoy surfing on a notebook and not needing to worry about whether the video player loading in the background will be able to play. Android tablets may support Flash, but so far it’s not the same experience. Notebooks deliver the full web, and I love it.

Notebooks are Bringing  Sexy Back: It’s taken a while, but We are finally starting to see sexy notebooks from companies other than Apple.

The Samsung 9 Series looks great, as do the HP Envy notebooks. We’re even seeing manufacturers pay more attention to the looks of business workhorses as well as mid range and budget notebooks. They may not be as thin as a tablet, but don’t count out notebooks just because they are plus sized.

Accessories and Extendability: Perhaps one of the biggest reasons I like notebooks is that I can extend their usefulness with tons of affordable accessories. If I want a new keyboard, mouse or an additional monitor all I need to do is go looking and I’ll find a wide array of well made accessories that can connect using standard adapters.

If I Switch from an HP notebook to a MacBook I can still use my same keyboard, mouse and monitor. While some tablet accessories using Bluetooth will go between devices the interoperability with tablet accessories more closely mirrors mp3 player accessories than it does notebooks.

In Short…

In short, I may have lust in my heart for the iPad 2, but my true love is for notebooks. I could live without a tablet, but I could never give up my notebooks to live life with just a tablet.

5 Reasons I’m Still Excited about Notebooks — And You Should be Too is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

HP is celebrating President’s Day with a huge collection of notebook deals and sales that offer hundreds off with the instant savings and stackable HP coupon codes to offer up savings galore. These notebook deals are only available for a limited time as coupon codes are restricted to a small number of uses so if you see a deal you want you should act fast.

We’ve already shared detailed President’s day laptop deals from HP on the HP ENVY, Pavilion dv6 and Pavilion dv7 shown below, and we are now adding more deals to the mix.

• HP ENVY 14 - $300 off customizable HP ENVY 14 Notebooks priced $1,299 or Higher.
• HP Pavilion dv6t - $100 Instant Discount, $30 Stackable Coupon Code and $145 in free upgrades and savings
• HP Pavilion dv7t – Save up to $375 after $100 discount, free RAM and hard drive upgrades + $30 off coupon

HP has also doubled down with more President’s Day deals on notebooks and tablets in the Pavilion and TouchSmart lines.

• HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition – Save $400 with the HP Coupon Code NB6347 on dv6t SE notebooks priced above $1,249
• HP Pavilion dv7t Select Edition – Save $400 with the HP Coupon Code NB6347 on dv7t SE notebooks priced above $1,249
• HP TouchSmart tm2t – Save $300 with $150 Instant Discount and stackable HP Coupon Code NB3749 on tm2t convertible tablets configured above $999.

Act fast to take advantage of these HP President’s Day Notebook Deals as quantities are extremely limited.

President’s Day Notebook Deals from HP: Save on ENVY, dv6t, dv7t and tm2t is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

HP home is offering a very limited coupon code valid for $300 off the HP Envy 14 custom built notebook. The HP Envy 14 is a 14″ high end consumer notebook from HP that features HP Beats and a wide range of processor options.

For a limited time HP has made the coupon code NB4575 available which will take $300 off of a HP ENVY 14 configured above $1,299 which means you essentially have $300  worth of free upgrades which would be well spent on the processor, RAM or storage.

We suggest picking up the 1.6GHz Quad Core Intel Core i7 processor, 6GB RAM and 640GB hard drive upgrades which combine nicely with the standard 14″ 1366×768 resolution display, 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 GPU, backlit keyboard and 8X DVDRW drive. After the coupon code the HP ENVY 14 as configured will run $1,024.99 with Free standard shipping.

The HP ENVY 14 coupon code NB4575 which takes $300 off of the HP ENVY 14 configured above $1,299 is available for 450 uses and cannot be used on the HP ENVY 14 Beats model. Other restrictions apply.

HP ENVY 14 Specs:

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 DDR3 graphics [HDMI] – For Quad Core Processors
• 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• No Additional Office Software
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard) – Up to 6.0 hours of battery life +++
• 14.5″ diagonal High Definition HP BrightView Infinity LED Display (1366×768)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam and Dual Digital Integrated Microphones
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• Backlit Keyboard
• Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 8 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 8
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Deal: Save $300 on the HP Envy 14 Priced $1,299 or Higher is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Great news for high resolution display lovers, HP has brought back the HP Radiance display option to the HP ENVY 14 which increases the resolution from a paltry 1366 x 768 to a much nicer 1600 x 900. The Radiance display option was removed in Fall 2010 when the ENVY 13 and ENVY 15 notebooks were removed.

The Radiance display option will set you back $200 for the upgrade, but for users who want to do more on their laptop it is a welcome return. It is getting better, but still a difficult task to find a high resolution display in consumer laptops since many users are OK with a 1366 x 768 resolution even on larger screens.

The upgrade option is still not available on the HP ENVY 14 Beats edition, which is decked out in all black with a red blacklit keyboard and comes with a pair of Beats headphones.

The HP ENVY 14 is a higher end laptop with attention to the look and feel of the machine as well many power options such that give up to an Intel Core i7 processor, up to 8GB RAM, discrete ATI graphics options, Beats audio and a backlit keyboard. The ENVY 14 starts at $999.

Via Notebookreview.com

HP Revives Radiance High Resolution Display for HP ENVY 14 is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Getting a new laptop, especially a powerful Core i7 powered HP ENVY 14 is supposed to be a joyous experience, but as one user found out while trying to use his ENVY 14 for quiet surfing, a loud laptop fan can kill the usefulness of a laptop and in this case is cause for a return. In this case, the laptop is so loud you might think it is being recorded in an airplane next to the wing rather than inside a house.

Loud laptops are a real issue for consumers who often use their laptops in bed, in class or meetings or while watching TV and are looking for a laptop that doesn’t interfere with what they’re doing or bother those around them. The issue of a loud fan can be an even bigger problem on powerful laptops that put out more heat than their slower peers. In this example the quad core Core i7 processor likely created significant amounts of heat requiring the fan to blow full force. A less powerful Envy 14 may not experience the same issue.

Figuring out if the laptop you want is a loud laptop can be tough to do when you are in a noisy store so it’s best to look online for reviews that cover how loud a laptop is. Our standard review includes a section on heat and noise as both go hand in hand. Some laptops are silent and cool as a cucumber while others are loud and as toasty as a campfire.

We’ve seen many new advances in cooling like the design on the Toshiba R705 which is meant to keep the laptop cool without much need for a fan to the Hyperbaric cooling chamber on the new Dell Vostro V130 and even a fan control that lets you slow down the fan when you prefer silence to a cool lap on the Lenovo IdeaPad z360.

Before you pick up your next laptop, check out user reviews from others with similar configurations to see fi noise is a problem. As we mentioned, the noise can often come from a faster processor so it won’t always be noted in professional reviews which have a less powerful processor.

The good news in this story is that HP took the laptop back for a full refund.

Loud Laptops Annoy and Frustrate: HP ENVY 14 Sounds Like a Jet Engine is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.