HP Pavilion HDX16 & HDX18 High-Definition Notebooks

HP have announced two new multimedia Pavilion notebooks, the HDX16 and HDX18.  Both have 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 processors, NVIDIA GeForce 512MB graphics and optional Blu-ray, together with HP's unique "imprint" casing finish.  Inprint uses a combination of different colors, vacuum metalized and printed, which are then injected with resin to make durable, wear-resistant panels.  The HDX16 has a 16-inch display and the HDX18 an 18.4-inch display; both are 16:9 aspect, the smaller a choice of 720- or 1,080 resolution while the larger is full 1080p HD.  Each has flush-fitting glass and 300nits dual-lamp illumination.

HP have again enlisted Altec Lansing to provide the audio systems, with both have stereo speakers and the larger HDX18 adding a subwoofer to the mixture.  Onboard Dolby home theater software means either can act as the source in a full media setup, aided by the built-in HD TV tuners.

The HDX18 has dual hard-drives, giving up to a combined 640GB of storage, while the HDX16 has up to 320GB; both laptops use HP's Protect Smart 3D accelerometer system to monitor for drops or bumps and automatically park the drive heads.  Dual headphone sockets are standard, there's also a "chat-tuned" webcam for which HP purposefully specified a VGA sensor (rather than, say, a 1.3-megapixel one) capable of improved low-light performance and 24fps.  Ports include a dual-purpose USB/eSATA, HDMI and Firewire, while the touchpad also has an on-off button for use with an external mouse.

Both the HDX16 and HDX18 will begin shipping this month, priced from $1,299 and $1,549 respectively.