HP cuts notebooks for EMEA

TOPPING OFF THE MOST significant announcements of its Connecting Your World event in Berlin, Hewlett-Packard unveiled six consumer notebooks, but only four of these are available for EMEA – making that a grand total of 16 for worldwide/North America and if you’re keeping count, 11 elsewhere.

These new HP Pavilions dv4, dv5 and dv7 are all Intel Core2 Duo based with a liquid-metallic casing. Also, the dv4 will be the first consumer notebook to include embedded WWAN (3G/UMTS/HSDPA) technology.

Running on from that is a Compaq Presario CQ50 in AMD Athlon and Sempron offerings, at a high value and low cost compared with others in the portfolio. Although curiously missing from the EMEA line-up are the CQ40 and CQ45 which only appear on the World Wide press release.

Compaq Presario CQ50

Not addressed anywhere in the keynote or in any of the press packs is the tx2500z, the company's Puma product. The only reference made to this was in passing, hidden away in a spec sheet on a remote directory of the USB key passed out at the event. Somewhat odd we believe, when everyone else is making a huge song and dance about it. Notable specifications for this model are the AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile, ATI Radeon HD 3200 and a 12.1-inch WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen Touch-screen Display – which rotates 180 degrees.

HP Pavilion tx2500z

HP Pavilion dv4 Entertainment Notebook PC comes with a choice of NVIDIA GeForce Go or Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 graphics and a few 14.1-inch display options. Also, further additions for the model are an integrated TV tuner, Blu-ray optical drive and mobile wireless broadband. Prices start at €799, $999 and £749.

The Pavilion dv5 Entertainment Notebook PC differs from above with a mid-size 15.4-inch display and the same graphic possibilities. Although the press blurb also mentions an ATI, we could not find that ability on the spec sheet provided. Costs start at 699€, $899 and £749.

Finally the last HP Pavilion, dv7 Entertainment Notebook arrives with a 17-inch display with NVIDIA GeForce GS & GT for onboard graphics. This will put you back, 799€, $1,229 and £849.

The Compaq Presario CQ50 Notebook is designed for those on the go, comes with a 15.4-inch display running from NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G graphics adaptor. Prices for this start at 399€, $499 and £349.

The details presented to the EMEA-based press were reported above, but the Worldwide press saw options offered of AMD processers for the Pavilions besides Intel. So it’s coming across they won’t be available outside of that region. Was it something we said? µ