HP Envy 14 Spectre Unleashed - Should MacBook Air be Afraid?

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken the wraps of its latest weapon, the Envy 14 Spectre, a 14-inch ultrabook, which is set to become a big threat to Apple's popular MacBook Air. The new ultrabook was unveiled at CES 2012 in Las Vegas.

Envy 14 Spectre is an extension of the Envy family, which means it is a luxury premium product. It has Gorilla Glass all over, in the lid, on the display and on the palm-rest. The touchpad supports multi-touch gestures.

The ultrabook boasts of 2 SSDs (128GB), individual LEDs behind every single key in the keyboard, Beats audio (with analogue controller) and full ports on the side, including an expandable ethernet port (so that you don't need to carry any dongle).

Envy 14 Spectre is powered by Intel Core i5 (or i7) second generation processor (which allows you to breeze through everything - work, play and all things in between), boasts of full version off Adobe Photoshop (not Photoshop Elements), Adobe Premier Elements, 2-years of free Norton antivirus subscription, and a separate dedicated number for tech support.

The 14-inch display (in 13.3-inch chasis) boasts of 900x1600 pixels resolution (300 nits), uses an Intel graphics processor, offers 9 hours of battery life and 4GB RAM (expandable up to 8GB).

Other features include built-in wireless links to speakers and the ability to transfer links of Web sites from a nearby smartphone to its browser using the emerging NFC (Near Field Communication) technology.

The ultrabook is priced at $1399 and will be available from Feb. 8 onwards.

The launch of the new ultrabook is certain to boost confidence in HP investors, as it suggested that the world's no.1 PC maker will not be dropping out of the business after all.

Envy 14 Spectre is the latest entry in the slim, ultra-powerful and ultra-portable category of personal computers and it is the first to use Gorilla glass on the lid, the display and the palm-rest.

At $1399, Envy 14 Spectre is $400 more than the 13-inch MacBook Air but, it's not surprising as HP has positioned it as a luxury, premium product.

However, MacBook Air is no pushover. It has some useful features too, such as the high-speed Thunderbolt I/O, which makes up for the lack of NFC, and among other things, a multi-touch touchpad, facetime camera (but so do Envy 14 Spectre) and long-lasting battery life.

Will Envy 14 Spectre eat into sales of Macbook Air? It's too early to tell. But one thing's certain - the ultrabook market will never be the same again.