New HP PCs

HP announced a versatile lineup of PCs and PC-shaped things on Monday (Taipei time) at Computex, embracing the new normal in the world of PCs—which is, nothing’s normal.

A year ago, the PC diversification drive was just getting started, but now it’s in full swing. You want a laptop that can flip over with a 360-degree display hinge? HP’s got one. What about a laptop that can split in half? HP’s got one. Or maybe it looks like a laptop, but it runs Chrome or Android—HP’s got some of those as well. It’s also got plain ol’ Windows laptops and PCs, but that’s not where the excitement is anymore.

Let’s start with the hottest trend, which is notebooks that can flip all the way over to turn into a tablet, following the lead of Lenovo’s Yoga series. HP debuted the Pavilion x360 with a full-rotation hinge at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Now it’s got more fleshed-out specs, plus a fancier version that will carry HP’s Envy moniker.

The Pavilion x360 will have a 13.3-inch touch display and your choice of graphics-oriented AMD A6, A8, or A10 CPUs, or more battery-efficient Intel Core i3 or Core i5 CPUs. Speaking of battery life, HP specs it at up to 8.25 hours with the Intel chips, but up to only 6.25 hours with the AMD chips.

The Pavilion x360’s memory will run up to 8GB, and hard-drive storage will range from 500GB to 1TB. The Pavilion x360 will weigh about 4.3 pounds and come in red or silver case colors. The AMD versions will cost $630 and be available on July 9, while the Intel-based models will cost $600 and be available July 20.