Voodoo ups the packaging stakes

RAHUL SOOD IS going quite mad with power, the things he always wanted to do at Voodoo are now being done with HPs backing, and they are nice. Take the packaging for the new Envy 133 laptop for example.

The new laptop is really nice looking, and they seem to have gone overboard with the industrial design on the packaging. It has a Tiffany-esque package, lots of high quality (looking) fabric covers for things, and pretty pull straps. Sure beats the heck out of bubble wrap. No, it doesn't, you don't get the same satisfaction jumping up and down on velvet bags, but they are nice in a different way.

The laptop itself has some really slick features, the external DVD is eSATA and carries USB along the same cable, and most everything is swathed in carbon fibre. Cool touches abound, the keyboard will light when your hands get near it, not on it, and if you are typing with both hands, it disables the touchpad.

Far more interesting is the network port. When you plug in a cable to the ethernet port, it lights up a Voodoo logo when you have an IP address, not when it has power. This is hardware based and works under Linux as well as the Broken OS, quite cool. IPX users are out of luck, and EIGRP mavens should just go buy something thicker.

Basically there should be everything you need here, and a few extra cables as well. This is one place where it looks like the premium in 'premium laptop' actually goes to engineering and features instead of the usual executive pocketbooks. It will be really interesting to see what this laptop looks like in the real world, I can't wait. µ