Yesterday night, We went to an HP event, in Paris, where the company announced new products: new Envy 14″ “Beats”, new Envy 3D, new Minis and new Touchsmarts.

The masterpiece  of that announcement was the Envy Beats, a beautiful black computer, with a mat material – very nice to use and touch – a lighten keyboard – like the last Envy line, but in red – and an enhanced sound system – 2 systems: normal and enhanced. This computer has been created “in collaboration” with Beats. It looks super nice, I loved the overall product, it feels solid, powerful and great to use. But – there is always a “but” -, the trackpad is still an envy trackpad, it means it is weird. I mean I think it’s better than what HP produced in the past, it is way better, but it’s still weird. You have to use it to understand. Moreover, it is fine on a 14″ computer – yeah this HP Envy Beats is featuring a 14″ screen – but on a 17″ it is really painful to use. Even worst, the price: 1400 € +. It starts at 1400€ , which is very high but not surprising, Envies are expensive and they have reasons to be. It is also featuring last gen processors (i7), 4 GB + of RAM, at least 500 GB of storage and ATIs graphic cards. Nothing really new here, the sound is all what matters.

New Minis are not that new either: it still looks like last year’s Mini 210 – I have one and it is very nice – with almost the same specs – I have some doubts: it has N455 or N450 processors, I think it has the new N455, but absolutely not a N550 – 1 GB of RAM and 250 GB of storage. So the only upgrade: the N455 – then again I’m not sure about that -, the rest is the same. It is surprising, I guess HP will launch upgraded Minis after Christmas. The design however has changed a bit: new curves and moreover new colors: pink, black, red, … and instead of black for its inside, it is now silver. It looks very nice, and I think that the trackpad – my biggest complain about the last year’s Mini 210 – was better, even if it looks the same.

A new Touchsmart has also be announced, it looks the same than last gen Touchsmarts, but it is featuring the new Touchsmart 4.0, which looks better. Nothing amazing there. It is basically a family friendly computer.

Finally, HP unveiled a 3D Envy: an Envy which has the ability to stream some 3D contents: You have to wear glasses to watch those contents properly. Nothing amazing about this product, it is nice, cause it is an Envy, but it gonna cost 1700€ +! I’m surprised HP is launching this product when other manufacturers are thinking about 3D screens which don’t require to wear glasses.

HP didn’t speak much about specs. Moreover, their presentation was sloppy. Even if those products are nice, nothing revolutionary has been announced: We knew They were working on a 3D Envy, but with glasses this technology is useless – especially cause extra glasses may cost 200€ each. HP already launched a lot of new products before this summer so… nothing surprising. I still would love to get an Envy Beats!!