HP Artist Edition 2: This isn’t your father’s notebook

Every product hitting the market tries for an angle to reach a target demographic. Someone to sell their stuff to. And HP really throws age distinction into the ring with their latest offering, the Artist Edition 2 Notebook PC.

The big angle on this one? Youth. It’s like they are selling us the Fountain of Youth although you probably shouldn’t attempt to put anything from this one in your mouth. They say it “was designed by the youth, for the youth.” I wonder though if the instruction book tells us what the age break-off is? Guessing I am too old to play?

The design

It was designed by Hisako Sakihama (27 years old young by the way), and is supposedly inspired by the sights of sea and sky in Okinawa, Japan. The design is an award-winner too, it snagged first place in the HP MTV “Engine Room” Notebook Design Contest last year. The judges must have liked really bright, bordering on obnoxious. (Then again..I guess I’m not the target demographic).

They want the notebook to “inspire creativity.” To this goal, it offers intuitive software applications for working with music, video and photos. The big push is them wanting to make it fun?

The apps

So, what do they serve up to get you there? For the music, you’ve got Magix Music Maker 14. Corel is the application favorite on the Artist Edition 2, with VideoStudioX2 (used to make videos obviously), Painter Sketch Pad (to create digital art, etc.), and the classic Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 (for working with your photos).

The guts

What does it have under it’s pretty little hood? Well, option-wise, it gives you AMD Turion Processors with graphics from ATI. You also have a Blu-ray optical drive. You can pick either a 15.6 or 16-inch diagonal BrightView widescreen. It has an integrated microphone and web cam so the youth can keep chatting it up with their buddies. You can also pick to purchase some extras like a comfort mouse, a custom-fit sleeve, a Universal Notebook stand and a 12-cell battery.

How much will all this bright, creative fun run you? $950 for the package with the options added in, or you can get the scaled down version which doesn’t include the software bundle and graphics for $649. It will be available starting tomorrow, June 10th at the HP website.