14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that Dell and Acer aren't the only companies with new laptops leaving their labs, although HP does seem to not have aimed for the same heights when it built its new Pavilion series unit.
2011 is definitely shaping up to be very interesting for the mobile products market and for the PC industry as a whole.
As one could probably guess, this is because tablets might come out in too high a number than what their makers will be able to sell.
Either way, slates are eating laptops' market share, although this doesn't seem to have slowed down the rate at which they get released.
In fact, after Dell's ultrathin and gaming units, Acer followed suite and, now, HP is also offering a new Pavilion system.
Being entertainment notebooks, Pavilion systems don't really match the ones above in terms of raw prowess, but they still have enough ability to handle pretty much anything, even games.
The central processor, for instance, can be an Intel Core i5 or Core i7, while an AMD Radeon HD 6470M 1 GB discrete graphics card handles the video rendering.
Speaking of video, the display is a BrightView, LED-backlit panel of 14 inches and with a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels.
That said, a HDD of up to 750 GB provides the necessary storage space, while an 8x DVD writer and a multi-card reader complement and supplement it, respectively.
All the hardware is packed inside a frame with brushed metal finish, while the Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional Operating System controls all the parts.
Needless to say, a webcam is present (TrueVision HD), along with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, a 6-cell battery and optional Bluetooth.
The base configuration starts at $730, while the recommended, more powerful Pavilion dm4x has a price of $1,103.98.