HP has just made the new HP Envy 14 Spectre available for sale from its online store. In case you forgot, this laptop bags the CES 2012 Award for Best in the Computer and Hardware Category and now, HP is releasing it on February 17. If you’re interested with a thin ultrabook that’s almost as thin as the MacBook Air, then this notebook probably suits you well.  For those who have problems with weight, this notebook however comes a bit on the heavy side. Aside from its 20mm thin form factor, the HP Envy 14 Spectre also boasts of Intel Core i5 2467M processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD. HP is also offering SSD upgrade options of 256GB as well as processor upgrade to Core i7. Of course, you will have to pay a price for those upgrades. The base price for the HP Envy 14 Spectre as listed on HP’s site is $1,399 while for the upgraded options, you’ll have to spend $1,899.

Via [News.com]

Toshiba has just made its ultra-thin Android tablet, the AT200 available for sale in the UK via Carphone Warehouse. In case you’re not aware this tablet is known as the Toshiba Excite in the US. This baby measures only 0.3 inches thick and weighs under 1.2 pounds. Hence, Toshiba claims that it’s the world’s thinnest 10.1-inch tablet ever released. The Toshiba AT200 also features a 10.1-inch 1280×800 LED-backlit display, 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 processor, 1GB of RAM, 5MP rear-facing camera and 1.3MP front-facing one. Unfortunately, the tablet is still running on Android Honeycomb OS but Toshiba said that it will be upgraded to Android 4.0 ICS later on. The Toshiba AT200 is available now from Carphone Warehouse for approximately $630 for the 16GB model and $710 for the 32GB model. It should be available online starting today and in Carphone Warehouse stores by February 15.

Product [Toshiba AT200], Via [The Verge]

The Samsung Series 5 ultrabooks came available for pre-order earlier in the month with J&R and as of today — it looks like another option is available. The latest is still a pre-order, however it comes by way of Amazon. Of course, as the pricing is the same with both Amazon and J&R this will probably come down to which retailer you prefer. Anyway, just to clarify, Amazon has the 13.3 inch (NP530U3B-A01US) Series 5 for $899.99 and the 14 inch (NP530U4B-A01US) Series 5 for $949.99.

Both the 13.3 inch and 14 inch models bring a display resolution of 1366 x 768. The remaining specs include Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit edition), a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M processor, Intel HD graphics 3000, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and the usual suspects including Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, Ethernet, a 4-in-1 memory card reader and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. Additionally, the 14 inch model also includes an optical drive which arrives in the form of a Super Multi DL DVD±R/RW.

Via [Amazon (13.3 inch model)] and [Amazon (14 inch model)] and [Liliputing]

Lenovo has just made its so-called student-friendly ThinkPad X130e available. Said notebook, sporting an 11.6-inch, 1366×768 display is available in two configs, one with AMD E-300 APU and the other with Intel Core i3-2367M with base price of $429 and $549 respectively. In case you’re now aware, the Lenovo X130e features a rubber strip all-around its body, a pretty good hinge rated for around 30,000 cycles and recessed ports which can last rigorous treatment from its target users. Additionally, the ThinkPad X130e also has spill-resistant keyboard which is a must for notebooks/laptops intended for students. Other features of the ThinkPad X130e include 4GB DDR3, 250GB HDD, VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, USB 2.0 ports, 4-in-1 media card reader and Wi-Fi 802.11. The ThinkPad X130e is available now from the Lenovo site and is ready for shipping by February 9.

Product [Lenovo ThinkPad X130e], via [The Verge]

The X1 Hybrid looks and feels just like the first X1, the design really hasn’t changed much. The only thing that changed was the inclusion of the smartphone components. I tried out the version of Android that was put onto the ultrabook, and it seemed to work well enough. It was pretty buggy, but it still has time until it’s released, so that’s fine. It won’t do everything Windows will be able to, but you’ll be able to browser the web and access all of your documents. I can’t see spending too much time in the Android OS on the ultrabook, but it’s a nice feature to have.

I was afraid going into a meeting with Lenovo that the Yoga would be highly guarded and put under glass as with most Windows 8 products at CES this year. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. I was able to get some time to actually touch the machine, and I was impressed. The dual-hinge design worked very smoothly so I had no issue transforming the Yoga into its different positions.

Even given the fact that it was running an early version of Windows 8 it still ran smoothly, some apps didn’t seem to work right, but that’s no fault of the machine. The tablet experience was great. The Yoga is a bit larger (in terms of screen size, not height) and heavier than most other tablets available now, but that shouldn’t be a problem after a short time with it. It could even be an advantage, especially when it comes to watching movies or giving presentations. The IPS display also means that you won’t have any trouble with viewing angels on the screen, the only issue I saw with it was with glare from all the lights around it.

If I had to find one major fault with the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga from my brief time with it that would have to be that we have to wait until the Windows 8 release for it to come to market.

We mentioned earlier how Samsung unveiled the Series 5 Chromebook and given how much we like Chrome OS, we had to stop by the Samsung booth to check this one out. And of course, by stop by we mean taking a few pictures that we can share with you, the dear reader. Anyway, the Series 5 Chromebook is a 12.1 inch notebook that runs Chrome OS. Aside from the hardware specs though, the notebook actually looks rather nice. It is small and light. Of course given it is mostly made of plastic the light part is not all that surprising. Otherwise, the display and trackpad seem to look and work well enough for the price. Bottom line, this is not your high end notebook, but it should be more than enough to get the job done — especially if you are already sucked into the world of Google.

There isn’t too much to say about the concept that the photos don’t already say. Sony seems to think that in the future everything will be rounded rectangles with big black bezels. The keyboard is completely fat, because apparently in the future we’ll have no more use for raised keys. I’m not completely sold on the concept as something that could be used, but it are looks pretty.

With a 17-inch screen the Razer Blade manages to be both thinner and lighter than a MacBook Pro, but it still capable of playing high-end games. Many of the stations were playing Firefall, the upcoming free-to-play shooter MMO, and it played without any sort of problem on the client side. With a Core i7 CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M 2GB GPU it shouldn’t be a surprise if it can play most modern games fairly well.

The Other draw for the Blade is the SwitchBlade UI which has 8 programmable buttons and a glass LCD panel to the right of the keyboard. The panel can be a touchpad, but it can also be used for other functions. One of the programmable buttons switches the panel into a web browser which works smoothly, though it is fairly small. It could be great for checking information from a website while playing a game or doing something else on the main screen. My one problem with the LCD panel is that it didn’t feel all that great as a mousepad. The buttons below it for left- and right-click didn’t seem to really click, and when they did I found the laptop right-clicking when I want to left-click. Moving around the cursor wasn’t too enjoyable either, though it seems like something you’d get used to overtime. Or maybe I’m just spoiled with a MacBook Pro trackpad so others just feel sort of disappointing by comparison.

Coming out of CES, Samsung has unveiled some new Chrome OS devices. The new models will include the Series 3 Chromebox and a Series 5 Chromebook. In terms of the Chromebook, this one is going to arrive sporting a 12.1 inch display along with a Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and is expected to arrive sometime in the second quarter of 2012. As for the price, $399 for a Wi-Fi only model and $449 for a Verizon capable 3G model.

Moving over to the Chromebox and we have quite a bit less to go on. In other words, Samsung has yet to offer up much in terms of those specs. From what we can see from the model sitting on the CES show floor, the Chromebox will have a handful of ports to include USB, headphone, DVI and Display Port. Otherwise, the Chromebox will ship with a wireless keyboard and mouse and is expected to be priced right around the $400 mark. And lastly, similar to the Chromebook, the Chromebox will debut during Q2 2012.