Best Budget Bets for Laptops from HP: ENVY m4, Pavilion Sleekbooks Unveiled

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Over the past couple weeks we’ve unveiled sassy Hybrid PCs, laptops offering touchscreens…but sometimes you just want a laptop – Nothing expensive, but still a nice computer that can handle all the jobs you’re going to throw at it. Well, ladies and gents, that’s when you turn to a computer like the new HP ENVY m4, or a couple HP Pavilion Sleekbook options (The Pavilion Sleekbook 14 and 15). Here’s the lightning-quick rundown for you….

ENVY m4
The story with the ENVY m4 is that you’ve got a tight little 14-inch machine in your mitts offering up to eight hours of battery life, from what I’ve been told. What perked my ears up, though, are some of the options available when you want to configure this guy – a 3^rd-Generation Intel Core processor (Core i3 or i5, if you please), 2GB of discrete AMD graphics (Yes! I had to double check that with Kevin Wentzel, but I LOVE seeing that kind of juice under the hood), 1TB HDD and 8GB RAM from the get go. Oh, and last, but not least – some people still need an optical drive, right? The ENVY m4’s got one. It’s got a starting price of $899 and will be available come October 26^th. Expect to see a little more from me soon on this one.

Pavilion Sleekbook 14 and 15

Ultrathin style and a variety of configurable options are what the Sleekbooks are all about. It’s more than just being able to choose the flavor of processor (you can go for AMD E1-1200 with 4GB of Ram and a 500GB hard drive for $499.99), it’s about picking a setup that meets all your needs. For example, I like that if I wanted to, I could get an NVIDIA GeForce 630m GPU helping out deliver on gaming performance.  I dig these modest machines coming with two USB 3.0 ports for fast data transfers….my wife actually digs that the 15-inch model comes with a numeric pad fit into the side. Me? I like that these machines won’t dig too deep into my wallet. The Sleekbook 14 starts at $499 and the Sleekbook 15 kicks off at $559 when they start shipping on October 26^th.

Honestly, if any of these machines stack up the way I’m hoping, I might be buying one for the wife. And really, if you ask me, these machines seem perfect for either the kids or if you’ve got moderate horsepower needs.

I do plan to come back to this as soon as I’m able to lay hands on a couple of these laptops, but what are you thinking? What is most important for you in a middle-of-the-road machine….and what do you think is overkill? Or do you just need a ton or juice?