HP in a festive mood to get your cash

CREDIT CRUNCH be damned, says Hewlett Packard as the company releases a bunch of new computers today, just in time for the festive season of overindulgent shopping.

Coming out with the HDX18 and HDX16, two new entertainment notebooks, and a new 25.5-inch display Touchsmart touchscreen computer, starting at only $2,100, the company was on a yuletide roll.

The HDX18, as the name indicates, has an 18-inch screen, shiny happy exterior, comes with HP's 'Brightview Infinity' screen which stretches the LCD to the edge of the display, and is apparently especially designed for playing back video content.

Weighing in at 8.7 pounds and measuring 11.4 inches by 17.2 by 1.2, the HDX18 is a card-carrying member of Chipzilla’s Centrino 2 platform, coming with a 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor. It also packs an Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT for graphics and its two 160-Gbyte drives spin at 7,200 RPM. Yours for only $1,549 says HP.

For the slightly harder up punter, HP is offering the HDX16, which unsurprisingly boasts a 16.4-inch screen and comes standard with a TV tuner for $1,299. Both the HDX18 and HDX16 include Blu-ray and subwoofers.

HP’s piece de résistence, however, is its new Touchsmart IQ816 PC, to start shipping late next month. The wall-mountable Core 2 Duo with a massive 25.5-inch, 1,920 x 1,200 pixel touchscreen, is what HP is really hoping you’ll buy this Christmas. Needless to say, it too comes with Blu-ray, integrated speakers and webcam, HP's Ambient Light technology and a media reader. And all for just $2,100.

So, Ho, Ho, Ho HP. Let’s just hope punters will be laughing all the way to a non bankrupt bank. µ