HP unveils 16:9 ratio HDX media notebooks

After a brief absence of large notebooks, HP on Tuesday revived the HDX line with two systems that turn the focus from gaming to movies. Both the 16-inch HDX16 and 18.4-inch HDX18 are HP's first systems to use a 16:9 aspect ratio display better-suited to movies and have a built-in subwoofer, a remote and HDMI video out. Their performance is also friendly to full HD with a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo and a GeForce 9600M GT to offload the decoding work.

The HDX16 is considered the more casual model with a 1366x768 (720p) display, a DVD burner and 320GB of hard drive space. Moving to the larger HDX18 gives a full 1920x1200 (1080p) screen as well as a Blu-ray combo drive and total of 500GB hard drive space through two hard drives. Every system carries 4GB of RAM and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

HP will supply each notebook a carrying sleeve bundled in the box when they arrive later in September. The HDX16 will start at $1,299 and is backed by the larger-screened HDX18 at $1,549.