Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"When I first opened the box containing the TouchSmart IQ506 it was obvious that HP put a lot of thought into the styling behind the IQ506. It manages to be very high-tech without looking it; there aren't a lot of buttons or cords to get in the way. In fact, HP went to significant effort to achieve just that effect. The IQ506 rests on two clear acrylic wedges which, when combined with the folding stand in the back, give the effect that the TouchSmart actually floats about an inch above your working surface. The most striking feature on the IQ506 is the really nice 22" touchscreen display. It's recessed into the surface and surrounded by a glossy black frame. A speakerbar is permanently attached on the bottom."
I've always been intrigued by the TouchSmart line, because I'm a big believer in the concept of eventually having a computer in every room. The kitchen/family room is a central gathering point for the family, so a computer like the TouchSmart fits right into that concept. The new TouchSmart series is a significant leap beyond the first-generation design - this one is much sleeker and more self-contained.

I was just about to crawl into bed, but HP's PR people sent me a press release with gobs of new products, and so I forsake sleep to deliver the news to you, the good readers of Digital Home Thoughts. :-) I just love it when these companies release products late at night...and my wife really appreciates it as well. Hah!

That sexy looking beast above is the HP HDX18: a brand new Centrino 2-based notebook that has some seriously sweet features. It boasts a 16:9 aspect ratio 18.4 inch screen at 1920 x 1080 resolution, driven by an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 512 MB of RAM. There's 4 GB of DDR2 system RAM, two 250 GB 5400 RPM hard drives (really? not 7200 RPM?) for a total of 500 GB of storage, a LightScribe super-multi DVD burner, Bluetooth 2.0, and Intel 802.11 a/g/n WiFi. It also has an HDMI port, a "triple bass sub-woofer", an eSATA port, gigabit Ethernet, a 5 in 1 media card reader, an ExpressCard 54 slot, a 4-pin Firewire connection, and at the heart of it all is an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU running at 2.26 Ghz with 3 MB of cache, and 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium SP1. It weighs in at a hefty 8.9 pounds, and has an 8-cell battery. The full specs are in this PDF file.

The smaller brother of the HDX18, above we have the HDX16. It's very similar in overall design to its big brother, but smaller: it has a 16" screen, also in 16:9 aspect ratio, and the resolution is 1366 x 768. The same NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT drives the screen, so if you're into gaming, you'll get better frame rates from this lower-resolution screen. The HDX16 has a single hard drive, 320 GB in size, but still boasts 4 GB of RAM, the same CPU, same wireless features, same DVD drive, etc. It has a smaller 6-cell battery instead of the 8-cell battery in the HDX18. The full specs are in this PDF file.

The full press release is after the break, along with more images I've interwoven into the release. It's a bit late for me to summerize all the new products, but the most noteworthy beyond these two laptops is probably the HP TouchSmart IQ816 (pictured above). It has a massive 25.5 inch screen running at 1920 x 1200 resolution, powered by an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS HD CPU with 512 MB RAM. The CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 running at 2.10 Ghz, and there's 4 GB of RAM and a 750 GB 7200 RPM hard drive to round out the offering. The usual gigabit Ethernet, 802.1 b/g/n WiFi, webcam, NTSC tuner (with OTA HD), and built-in microphone are included. The full specs are in this PDF file. Read more...