Brands copying other brands designs is nothing new, as it has been going on for years, because we’ve seen it in the auto, phone and also notebook industry. Okay, so we know it gets harder as time goes on to make a rectangle device like notebooks look very different to other models, but we know it’s still achievable.

We just wish someone had told HP that, as their new HP Envy looks remarkably like the latest MacBook Air. Apple haters out there will either say it’s far better than the Air, while others will say it’s nothing like it – although that will be less likely. We know that it is a form of admiration if someone borrows a few of your design features and implements them into their design.

However, the 2013 HP Envy notebook does take this to the extreme, as we believe it pushes their latest design to the extreme. The Verge has published several details, as well as images of this controversial design, and one has to wonder how long it will be before Apple responds?

The new 2013 HP Envy notebook has the same MacBook Air wedge design, as well as the same style trackpad and keyboard. They’ve even copied the colors as well. Many TV shows seem to cover the logo of a device, as this would be a form of advertising, so if the 2013 HP Envy was to appear in a show with its logo covered, viewers would believe it to be a MacBook Air, and would confuse them when they see it running Windows 8, and that Windows key on the keyboard.

This isn’t the first time that HP has stretched the limits of admiring Apple’s design work, as the HP Touchsmart was eerily similar to the iMac, although it had a cheaper, less refined quality to it.

At the end of last month there were concerns that the HP Slate 7 UK release date was going to be in June, but these were unjust, as the 7-inch tablet has now appeared on the HP UK Store. You can order yours now, with them being made available from May 1, 2013.

The HP Slate 7 UK price is £129, which is reasonable for a 7-inch tablet with a 1,024 x 600 resolution display, dual-core A9 CPU, 1GB of RAM and Android Jelly Bean. The HP Slate 7 US price equivalent would be $200 with taxes, but no doubt this will be cheaper because we know how much extra people have to pay for their consumer electronics in the UK when compared to their US counterparts.

The May release of the Slate 7 in the UK is in line with what HP originally forecast, which is why those concerns of a delay were unjust. We still have no idea of the HP Slate 7 US availability, but the US Store still says April. Let’s not worry too much just yet, as there is still plenty of time for the device to become available in the days we have left in April.

HP has made things rather difficult for those of you looking for a new 7-inch tablet, as the Slate 7 is £30 less than the Nexus 7, but £30 more expensive than the Acer B1, so which of the three will you choose? It’s worth noting that some of the technology inside the Slate 7 is getting on a bit now, so maybe it will not be long before the tablet comes down in price, maybe below £100

It’s also worth remembering the Nexus 7 sequel could be announced next month during Google I/O.

While the announcement of the Galaxy S4 from Samsung was a huge deal at MWC, we can’t help feel more excited about the release of the HP 7 Slate, but only because the tablet was there to be touched. From what we can make from this, HP looks set to get into the business once again, as we all know they had to discontinue the TouchPad.

It’s nice to see that HP is back and ready to take on the likes of the Nexus 7, so it was inevitable that there would be a HP Slate 7 vs. Google Nexus 7 review video being taken at MWC, just to look over their similarities and no doubt more reviews will appear in the coming days. However, before we take a look at that video review (above) we thought that you might want to know some of those basic specs.

HP Slate 7 will run Android (not webOS or Windows) and will come rocking a 7-inch display, dual-core A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, just 16GB of storage (no 32GB option) and finally a 3-megapixel camera.

The soft touch rubber to the rear over a stainless steel chassis might not be to everyone’s taste, but it seems to be a direction that so many phone and tablet makers are going in now. One of the main reasons for this is because they are much easier to hold, so less likely that they will slip out of your hand.

Both the HP Slate 7 and Nexus 7 run stock Android Jelly Bean, but they do differ in many other aspects, such as the former has a rear facing camera, but this is not the case for the latter, as it has just the front-facing 1-megapixel camera. View the video above just to see how the two compare.

We can tell you that the HP Slate’s release date will be sometime in April with a price of $169, which is cheaper than the Nexus 7 and far cheaper than the iPad mini.

Google is all set to release their Chromebook Pixel next week and while this looks to be one of the better laptops from the Chrombook range, there are several obstacles standing in its way, not only from other laptops running the Chrome OS, but also from Apple as well because it does look a lot like the MacBook Pro.

When you look at the Chromebook Pixel it’s easy to see that it wipes the floor with its other Chrome OS siblings, so it stands out a mile that the intended target is Apple. However, things are never as straightforward as that because there are other factors involved. Firstly there’s the price and secondly it doesn’t have the biggest screen of the bunch either.

That’s not all, the battery is not the best performing either, so while it’s clear that the Pixel is the more powerful, there are several sacrifices that need to be made. Engadget has taken a look at the mains specs and price just to see how the Chromebook Pixel, HP Pavilion 14, Acer C7 and Samsung late 2012 compare.

Firstly we need to review the different CPUs, as these four machines have 1.8GHz Core i5, 1.1GHz Celeron 847, 1.1GHz Celeron 847 and the 1.7GHz Exynos 5 Dual respectively. All have 2GB or RAM, except the Pixel, which offers 4GB instead. Screen sizes are 12.9 inches, 14 inches, 11.6 inches and 11.6 inches in that order. Battery life is as follows, 5 hours, 4.3 hours, 3.5 hours, and 6.3 hours.

The price of each of these Chromebooks, $1,299 (WiFi), $1,449 (LTE) for the Pixel, and $330, $199 and $249 respectively. The final decision is yours because while we can say that the Pixel wins hands down, it’s hard to get over that huge hurdle, which is the price.

To help make your buying decision a little easier with thought we would include three video reviews for you below of the Chromebook Pixel, 14, Acer C7 and the Samsung late 2012 model.

HP has been very busy of late when it comes to releasing new laptops and they will start 2013 where they left off in 2012, and that’s by launching even more devices. HP has been accused in the past of a very confusing lineup, and the two new Pavilion Sleekbooks certainly adds to that confusion. Firstly there’s the Pavilion Sleekbook and secondly there is the Pavilion TouchSmart Sleekbook, with the latter model being of the touschscreen variety.

On first glance one has to wonder why HP has stuck with the plastic design when many of their rivals are now adopting aluminum, it certainly shows that they do not wish to innovate with the design of this range of laptops, maybe there is more innovation to come with the hardware?

The HP Pavilion Sleekbook and Pavilion TouchSmart Sleekbook specs do differ slightly; both use the AMD Trinity processor, but it’s the TouchSmart that will benefit from the AMD A8 chip along with a decent 6GB of RAM, although this seems to be the norm these days. The touchcsreen version also starts with a 750GB hard drive, whereas the non-touch model starts with an A6 chip and 500GB of storage.

Both models come with a 15.6-inch display, which as we mentioned above don’t look that impressive when mated to a plastic casing, and the three color choices do draw you to the cheap look and feel of these new laptops from HP.

The HP Pavilion Sleekbook price is to start at $499, while the slightly more impressive Pavilion TouchSmart Sleekbook price will start at $699. Head over to Engadget to see how ugly these new Sleekbooks look, and we can already see two things, they look like they attract a lot of dust, and there seems to be some glare on the screen as well. Also what is with the name of these devices, they sound more like a tongue twister rather than a name for a laptop.

Now that consumers have finally gotten their hands on the HP Envy x2 Windows 8 hybrid device, questions will now be asked how the tablet come netbook stands up against the Microsoft Surface, or more so the RT devices which uses the ARM processor rather than the Atom. There’s no denying that the HP device looks better visually, but there is a lot more to it and we know that affordability will be key rather than power as we enter yet another year where there is still far less disposable income than there once was a few years back.

There are other hybrids on the market, but to us the HP Envy x2 is the best of the bunch, but the price is certainly going to be an issue for some because the Envy x2 and other such hybrid netbooks have been priced a little too high when you could get yourself an ultrabook for almost the same price. An interesting article has been looking into the pricing aspect of these devices and feel that those who have come up with the price are “detached from reality.”

One has to wonder how much the likes of HP would charge if there was an even more powerful processor powering these hybrid netbooks? Don’t get us wrong the Atom CPU from Intel is more than up to the job, but if you are using more demanding software then the Atom will struggle. However, the ARM powered Windows RT devices are able to run desktop software as well, and for many do a pretty decent job as well.

How much should a hybrid notebook cost? There’s certainly a market for these hybrid notebooks that also double as a tablet, but we’re not certain that charging almost $1000 for one is key to their success.

There are a number of Windows 8 laptops to be found this year that would make a perfect Christmas gift, but also make sure your budget doesn’t run away with you like it might have done last year, so today we thought it would be good to highlight one of the 14-inch Windows 8 laptops that could feature at Staples this year. The laptop is a HP Pavilion Sleekbook and the model number 14-b031us, which would make an idea computer if you need a good balance of performance, slim design, and at a price for those on a budget.

The HP Pavilion Sleekbook 14-b031us features a satisfying 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM memory, this can be expanded to 8GB, and also an Intel Core i3-2377M 1.5 GHz processor that is pretty impressive considering the expected price over the holiday reason. The hard drive does leave a little to be desired at 320GB and 5400RPM, although you do benefit from HP ProtectSmart for added file protection and if you want to pay more then you can customise directly on the HP store, but of course you’d miss out on the potential sale expected next week. We also love HP TrueVision HD for face-to-face conversations, which many Apple users already know the benefits of face-to-face HD video calls. You can see the full specs in the image below, so feel free to take a look and let us know if you think this is gift worthy.

We have reason to believe that the HP Pavilion Sleekbook 14-b031us 14-inch laptop could be offered at a much lower price during Black Friday 2012, and our insider sources claim that the current $529.99 price at Staples could see a cut by as much as $230, which would certainly make this one of the best Windows 8 laptops for those that want to pick up something on the cheap. This would be a serious price cut although you can count on it being a doorbuster deal for the day after Thanksgiving sales, so make sure you get to the stores early next week.

If you want to read some detailed information about the software on the HP Pavilion Sleekbook 14-b031us and the finer specs, then you should see the official data sheet from HP, although we’d love to know if this laptop would be a gift you’d consider this Christmas for yourself or a family member?

HP laptops are likely to be a very popular item during the holiday sales and one such laptop that we have information on for you now is the HP 2000-BF69WM 15.6-inch laptop, which is an exclusive product to Walmart. It is a mid-level laptop with decent specifications, starting with a AMD-based Dual-Core E-450 accelerated processor at 1.65Ghz.

The RAM is impressive at 4GB, while there will also be plenty of storage available with a 320GB hard drive. The display features BrightView LED-backlit display technology, while semi-hardcore gaming will also be possible with a AMD Radeon HD 6320 discrete-class graphics card on board – anything is better than the dreaded Intel integrated graphics of course.

In terms of connectivity features, there are suitable options available to you, with 3 USB ports and a VGA cable. However, it is really disappointing to see that there is no HDMI port on this laptop, which is a big blow for those of you who like to hook the PC up to a television for viewing media content on a larger display.

With that in mind, we can only recommend this laptop to those who do not require a HDMI out port. Other than that, it is a perfectly good laptop for the budget price that you will pay and a perfect gift for children or family members that require a basic laptop.

At the moment, the device currently ships with Windows 7, but our insider sources have told us that Walmart’s Black Friday 2012 ads will deliver a special deal for this laptop for around $280, and they claim it will be running Windows 8 and not the older software for the HP 2000-bf69WM model picked up during this holiday season. We also hear that another model will join this one with a slightly different number, 2000-bf89WM, so we’ll be sure to hunt down more info on both these models in the coming days. If you have any tips about the specs then leave a comment below.

That is another good reason why this laptop may be a steal during the holiday season – low price, Windows 8 and decent performance with a dual-core processor and satisfactory graphics card for gaming. Let us know if you are considering this laptop, or indeed if you have already purchased one. Would you recommend it to other buyers or not?

The HP Pavilion 23 and ENVY 23 are two all-in-one computers that are sure to be on the wish lists of new buyers, although both cater for a different kind of computer user. The Pavilion 23 is designed for consuming the web rather than designing for it, and has processing power that is ideal for most everyday tasks. The ENVY 23 all-in-one steps it up slightly across the board with enhanced performance and a cool looking design.

You can see a quick visual look at both the HP ENVY 23 and Pavilion 23 in the video below this article, which explains exactly why you might want to consider either one of these desktop computers. HP’s worldwide marketing manager, Xavier Lauwaert, gives a taste of the specs for both these all-in-ones and explains ideal user for each.

The HP Envy 23 includes a TV tuner, Blu-ray drive, HDMI-in port, the ability to choose up to 2TB of storage, Beats Audio for amazing sounds, a 23-inch 1080p display, and the option of AMD trinity or Ivy Bridge (Core i5 Ivy Bridge) processors. The Pavilion 23 might miss out on some of the higher specs, but you’ll find up to 2TB of storage, a 1080p screen, and the same processor options. Watch the video below this article for further information.

Are you more of a casual computer user or do you like something a lot more demanding? You can also see a visual review of both these machines thanks to official photos, which can be seen below. These press pictures give you a close-up of the Pavilion 23 and ENVY 23 from all angles, so take a look and let us know what you think of both these computers from a visual point of view.

Both computers will be available to buy at retailers from August 5, although the release date is 3 days sooner if you buy direct at HP.

The Z1 is not yet readily available, however it is expect to ship in April and the price tag depends heavily on specifications. We do know that prices will start at $1899 and this makes it more expensive than the cheapest 27-inch iMac ($1,699), but in terms of technical specifications you can’t really compare the Z1 to the iMac.

Before we dwell into the specs we will give you a glimpse at the way that users gain access to components, below we have embedded an image which shows just how intricate the design is, if you want a closer look scroll down a little and watch the video we’ve embedded.

As the Z1 falls into the professional workstation category there are some beefy components under the hood, if you have a tight budget you can opt for a dual-core Intel Core i3 chip paired with Intel HD graphics 20000, or if your budget stretches a little further could select the quad-core Intel Xeon E3-124 which combines with Intel HD Graphics P3000 – finally if money’s not a worry there’s the Intel Xeon E3-1280 processor, this boasts four 3.5 GHz cores and an 8MB cache, needless to say this will pack a punch. No-matter what you choose there will be a motherboard with the Intel C206 chipset.

As the Z1 is easily upgradeable you’ll probably contemplate adding some RAM at some point, well there’s four slots which accept 8GB each, meaning it supports up to 32GB of DDR3. People who will be interested in this workstation probably have photo editing, video editing or computer-aided-design in mind, therefore the choice of graphics card is very important, obviously the ease-of-access means you can swap-out add a different graphics card if you please, but here’s the options which HP currently offer: If you don’t want mediocre Intel HD graphics you can opt for the NVIDIA Q500M GPU, this is the cheapest option, alternatively there are two mid-end options (NVIDIA Q1000M and NVIDIA Q3000M), the top-end offering is for high-end 3D tasks, this the the NVIDIA Q4000M GPU.

You can see a full spec sheet here which goes into details in regards to dimensions, operating systems, storage, ports, optical drives, connectivity and much more by checking out this PDF file – one thing worth knowing is that the display outputs at a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1440. For more details in regards to features and design head over to HP.com.