HP polishes its Pavilions

HP's slew of announcements today included a few new laptops and a few refreshed ones. Leading the pack is the new dual-core version of the company's flagship thin-and-light, the . In addition to Intel's new Core Duo processor, the dv1000 now has a remote that fits into its PCI Express slot, as well as the newest version of Quick Play, HP's homegrown media-player application, which can play CDs and DVDs whether or not Windows is booted. Starting at $749, the new dv1000 will be available later this month.

HP's chief advantage over rival Dell is that it sells both Intel- and AMD-powered machines, giving customers a greater array of choice. With the new dv5000 and V5000, HP offers AMD-fueled alternatives to its great Pavilion dv4000 and almost-as-good Presario V4000 models. More importantly, HP pushes the starting prices of these systems down to $749 for the dv5000 and $699 for the V5000. We like it.

Also receiving a makeover is the Pavilion dv8000, which now can be configured with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and a PCI Express card TV tuner. Equally exciting, the new dv8000 has a dual-lamp display--a crucial update, as the original dv8000's dim screen was its Achilles' heel.

Finally, HP announced the nc6140 Notebook PC, its first laptop with WWAN capabilities. We tested the nc6140 back in December, and you can find our full review here.