HP and Verizon plan to offer HP Pavilion and Compaq notebooks with hard-to-remember names but easy access to 4G LTE speeds.
Hewlett-Packard
and Verizon Wireless introduced two notebooks at the 2011 Consumer Electronics
Show Jan. 6 that are designed for use on the carrier's new 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution)
network. Unwieldy in name but slim in size, they're the HP Pavilion dm1-3010nr
and the Compaq CQ10-688nr.
Slated
to arrive during the first half of the year, the notebooks are said to offer
download speeds of 5M to 12M bps and upload speeds of 2M to 5M bps in 4G
coverage areas-which currently is 38 cities and 60 airports strong.
"As
the first notebook PCs to use the Verizon 4G LTE network, they demonstrate our
commitment to bringing our customers a wide breadth of devices to suit their
mobile needs," Marni Walden, chief marketing officer for Verizon, said in
a statement.
The
11.6-inch Pavilion is less than an inch thick and runs an Advanced Micro
Devices accelerated processing unit that's integrated with a Microsoft DirectX
11-capable graphics unit. The battery is said to run 9.5 hours, and there's
320GB of storage, a full-size keyboard and HP CoolSense Technology, which
combines hardware and cooling software for a notebook that, according to HP, "feels
noticeably cooler."
Also
included is GPS for mapping and navigation,
an HDMI port, and a multiformat digital media card reader.
The
tinier Compaq CQ10-688nr features a 10.1-inch LED display and is likewise less
than an inch thick. It runs an Intel Atom N455 processor, has a six-cell
battery for 8.5 hours of juice, a multiformat digital media card reader, a
Webcam and WLAN connectivity in addition to 4G. Like the new Pavilion, the
Compaq can also act as a mobile hot spot, enabling other devices to hop on WiFi
via an integrated Internet Connection Sharing app.
Neither
HP nor Verizon offered pricing details for the notebooks.
Verizon
had a busy time at CES, additionally introducing four 4G-enabled smartphones-the
HTC Thunderbolt, the Motorola Droid Bionic 4G, the LG Revolution
and the not-yet-named "Samsung 4G LTE Smartphone." Joining them will
be the Motorola Xoom tablet, a 4G-enabled version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab
(which Samsung
will discuss in more detail at the Mobile World Event in Barcelona this
February) and two mobile hot spots, the Novatel MiFi 4510L and the Samsung 4G
LTE Mobile Hotspot.
It
took Verizon three years to get its LTE network in place, and the result, said
Verizon CEO Dan Mead in a Jan. 6 statement,
is "true magic-the sum of a powerful network, applications, software
systems and devices that bring 4G LTE to life."
Verizon's
4G network currently covers one-third of Americans. Over the next 18 months, it
plans to bump that to two-thirds, before expanding its 4G service across the
full reach of its 3G footprint by 2013. Among the next markets to be added are Detroit;
Raleigh-Durham, N.C.;
Memphis, Tenn.;
Milwaukee; Honolulu;
Boise, Idaho;
Mobile, Ala.;
Little Rock, Ark.;
Sioux Falls, S.D.;
and Salt Lake City.
Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.
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