Digital Home Thoughts: Engadget: Voodoo Envy 133 Unboxing and Impressions

"HP's Voodoo Envy 133, first announced in June, has struggled a bit off the blocks, with manufacturing problems keeping it out of buyers hands until last month. Of course, HP has a good excuse: carbon fiber. The notoriously difficult material wasn't used sparingly on the Envy 133, and if you've been looking for a laptop dripping with the synthetic material, HP's got your number. We mention this to remind ourselves that, like the MacBook Air before it, this laptop is about looks first, function second, and the Envy 133 succeeds in that regard wildly. There's always room for taste in these things, but HP makes quite a statement here no matter what your persuasion."

The Voodoo Envy 133 looks like one tasty laptop - I'm considering it for my next laptop purchase when I eventually replace my XPS M1330, but the high-gloss surface gives me pause. High-gloss, fingerprint-prone surfaces drive me nuts on phones, so on the much bigger surface area of a laptop, I might have a nervous breakdown. The specs on the laptop look great, although having an X3100 GPU is somewhat limiting as I learned with my Dell Studio Hybrid - I'm surprised HP didn't go with an ATI solution instead. Perhaps for the second generation model? Regardless of my quibbles, this is one unique laptop in the Windows space and it looks like there are great things ahead for HP and Voodoo.