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HP adds a handful of new Windows 8 laptops to the lineup

The 14-inch Envy m4 and Pavilion Sleekbook 14 and 15 are all expected October 26.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Dan Ackerman
CNET/Dan Ackerman

We previously saw HP's big flagship Windows 8 products, the Envy Spectre XT Touchsmart ultrabookand the Envy X2, and now HP is ready to reveal a handful of its more traditional laptops. Like virtually every other Windows 8 laptop we've seen, these are due alongside Microsoft's new operating system in on October 26.

The HP Envy m4. CNET/Dan Ackerman

HP Envy m4
This mobile-minded addition to the growing Envy family has a brushed-aluminum design, current-gen Intel Core i-series processors, and a 14-inch display. Options include a backlit keyboard and Intel's Wireless Display.

Like all of the Envy laptops, and a growing number of Pavilion models, there's a Beats Audio system, which in this case includes two stereo speakers and a separate subwoofer. Keeping with the premium feel of the Envy line, the m4 starts at $899.

The HP Pavilion Sleekbook. CNET/Dan Ackerman

HP Pavilion Sleekbook 14 and 15
HP's Pavilion laptops are getting slimmer and faster, with mainstream parts and designs that are at least in the same ballpark as the more expensive Envy models (as we saw with the recent Pavilion m6).

These new 14- and 15-inch models, in the brief look we had at them, offered few surprises for a budget/mainstream laptop line, but discrete Nvidia graphics are an option in the Intel-powered 15-inch version, while the 14-inch Sleekbook has an AMD CPU/GPU. The Sleekbook 14 will start at $499, and the Sleekbook 15 at $559.