HP redesigns Mini 210 with Beats, upgrades Envy 14 and dv4

HP kicked off the week with a slew of notebook upgrades, headed up unusually by its netbooks. The Mini 210 has been given its first real redesign with a more minimalist, colorful look. It's also HP's smallest system to get Beats audio processing and should have unusually good sound quality for the 10-inch size.

Its inside hasn't significantly changed and still runs on a single-core 1.66GHz Atom N455, although it can last for up to 9.5 hours on battery. The three-pound system still carries 1GB of RAM and uses a 250GB hard drive for storage. Prices will still start at $300 when the Mini 210 is ready on June 15.

HP's flagship notebook, the Envy 14, stil has its familiar upscale design but is mostly an internal upgrade. The new 14.5-inch notebook makes the expected upgrade to 2011 Core (Sandy Bridge) processors as well as AMD Radeon HD 6000M series graphics. CoolSense also makes its arrival to dynamically ramp cooling up or down depending on where the gaming-friendly notebook is being used.

Exact configurations weren't given out, but the Envy 14 will still start at $1,000 and ship on June 15.

The 14-inch Pavilion dv4 has been given its own performance upgrade, new patterned black or blue trims, and has the newer, simpler version of CoolSense. It should use the newest AMD and Intel processors as well as dedicated AMD Radeon HD 6000M video on at least some models. Altec Lansing audio is standard while Blu-ray is optional, HP said.

HP is shipping the dv4 first, on May 18, and will start off at $600.

Electronista