In a bid to increase the quality of sound found on notebooks, HP launched its ENVY14 Beats Edition notebook recently in Sandton.

 

The notebook is the first in a range that will integrate Beats Audio, a high-performance audio technology developed by HP, in alliance with artist and producer Dr. Dre and chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records and Beats by Dr Dre co-founder Jimmy Iovine.

The notebooks are aimed at integrating with Beats By Dr. Dre, a range of headphones and loudspeakers created by hip-hop and rap musician Dr. Dre and Iovine.

 

Iovine asserted that while computer manufacturers tended to focus on delivering better graphics, faster processors, and brighter screens, not enough attention was paid to the quality of audio on offer in notebooks. However, the sound delivered by the ENVY14 may be the beginning of the end for this trend.

Listening to music on the notebook with a pair of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, was a surprisingly pleasant experience. The headphone and notebook combination delivered superlative sound, on par with that experienced on a similarly sized set of Bose headphones, and made us forget for a moment that we were listening to digital files off a notebook, and not uncompressed audio on a high end entertainment system.

 

Terina Pillai, the marketing manager for HP’s personal systems group, explained that the company had reduced noise interference in the Beats edition notebooks by placing the audio processor on a separate part of motherboard.

 

The ENVY14 Beats Edition notebook was further outfitted with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics card with one gigabyte of dedicated memory, a BrightView Infinity LED Display and  TrueVision HD Webcam. Battery life was estimated at being six and a half hours with the standard battery, and up to thirteen hours with the optional HP Slim Fit Extended-Life battery.

 

The HP ENVY14 has an RRP of R15 000. Keep your eye on TechSmart for our full review in the near future.