The unannounced HP Envy 13 and 15 popped up today on a couple of foreign sites just as Rahul Sood, Voodoo founder, Twittered about something new coming. Let’s just assume that the HP Envy 13 and 15 is what he’s talking about. They seem like solid performing notebooks, but what’s the Envy naming doing there?
HP’s high performance line, Voodoo, also uses the Envy product name for its mobile computers but this notebook isn’t branded a Voodoo product. So what the hell is going on here? Has HP changed its product focus and showing the Voodoo brand the door? Or is the HP Envy 13 the first product in a line that will take cues from Voodoo products? It could be both. Read More
Good news, Envy lovers. HP is finally shipping out the Rahul teased about something else Voodoo is working on, but he decided to play coy and string us along. I wonder what it is. Maybe a netbook?
Voodoo, which had been a stand-alone unit in HP’s portfolio, will no longer continue to sell its products independently. What was once known as high-end gaming PC’s will now be sold alongside consumer brands such as the Compaq Presario and HP Pavilion.
Raul Sood, original founder of VoodooPC and now HP’s CTO, looks upon the merge as a positive move.
Ultimately it means that Voodoo and Voodoo-influenced products will be easier to buy, faster to get, they will feature local service, and they will have the full power of HP’s marketing and sales channel behind them.
It will be interesting to see if the high-end machines, such as the recently released Envy 133 laptop and Omen desktop, work their way into mainstream success.
My excitement for the Voodoo Envy 133 has been supplanted by the outrageous prices they expect one to shell out for the MacBook Air competitor. There are nine different configurations you can choose from that start out at $2,099 and ends with an astronomical $3, 999 price tag. If you really want an SSD the pricing starts at $3,099. Frankly, I’m shocked and appalled by this, but then again, Voodoo has been pricing their PCs at a high premium since the beginning, so the price of this laptop shouldn’t shock me that much. But it does. The lackluster MacBook Air is starting to look a little more appealing. What do you think?
Today in Berlin HP announced the Voodoo Envy 133 notebook that was hinted at last week in the video teaser I posted. Voodoo is aiming to take on the MacBook Air and the Envy is ready for the bout. The Envy 133 has an LED backlit 13.3-inch screen, carbon fiber body (super lightweight), multi-touch trackpad (I just tried it out and it stinks. I’ll get a full demo later on, but there’s a short video after the jump. It pinches but doesn’t do the rotation.), built-in ethernet port into the power brick, removable battery, HDMI port, two USB ports, and an express card slot. The Envy’s starting price of $2,099 is less desirable, though. Another unique and cool feature for the Envy is Voodoo InstantOn, which allows the user to boot to a Linux screen with seconds of starting up while Vista boots in the background. Check out the video.
The Omen starts out at $7,000 and features a 7-inch auxiliary LCD on the front of the case and copper liquid cooling pipes. You can also add a touch of your own flair by picking from Voodoo’s Allure paint color choices, Ink designs and Iconograph patterns. Also worth noting is that the Omen will only be available to current Voodoo customers until production is in full swing.
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