HP Aims New Laptops At Small Businesses

Seeking to address the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its ProBook 400 Series notebooks that incorporate a new hybrid hard-drive option, HP’s value-priced 200 Series notebooks, and an assortment of new printers and scanners.

HP officials believe flexibility, versatility and user-friendliness are crucial for the SMB space.

SMBs targeted

“Our SMB customers often play multiple roles within their organisation – from managers to accounting to IT – and they require flexible, high-performance tools to complete their varied business tasks,” Chris Ogburn, director of Americas SMB and channel marketing for HP, said in a statement. “HP is focused on providing user-friendly technologies that improve performance and empower our customers, tearing down productivity barriers with ultra-mobile and powerful solutions.”

The ProBook 400 Series notebook PCs are offered in 17.3-, 15.6-, 14- and 13.3-inch flat-panel screen sizes, and feature a range of processors from Intel and AMD.

The 400 series’ hybrid hard-drive option offers the responsiveness of a solid-state drive (SSD) with the capacity of a traditional hard drive, according to HP. The notebooks are Skype-ready and feature DTS Sound for enhanced-quality audio and video conferencing.

The 15.6-inch model is available with a touch-screen. The new notebooks also feature connectivity options that include 4G wireless wide-area network (WWAN) and HP Client Security.

The 500GB capacity hybrid hard-disk drve (HDD) will be on the ProBook 440, 450 and 470, while only an SSD is available on the ProBook 430.

At the lower end are the 200 Series business notebooks, which are available in 15.6- and 14-inch screen sizes and offer a range of wireless capabilities and processors from Intel and AMD. Users can connect to larger HD displays through the High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port.

New printers and scanners

The notebooks feature an Altec Lansing speaker, which provides enhanced audio. Additionally, a durable casing and HP 3D DriveGuard help protect the notebooks.

The ProBook 400 series and 200 series business notebooks are expected to be available in the United States this month. Pricing for the HP ProBook 400 series starts at $499 (£320). Pricing for the HP 200 starts at $249.

HP also introduced a line of printers and scanners, including the LaserJet Pro multi-function printer (MFP) M521 series, which allows users to print while on the go to the MFPs from their smartphones or tablets through HP ePrint, AirPrint or DirectPrint technologies.

HP also announced the LaserJet Enterprise M725, an enterprise-class device that offers safeguarded, large-volume printing and imaging capabilities.

The Scanjet Pro 3000 s2 sheet-feed scanner offers a small footprint and scan-to-cloud support for applications like HP Flow CM Professional, while the Officejet Pro 251dw printer and HP Officejet Pro 276dw MFP can be integrated into existing IT infrastructures through enhanced manageability and workflow solutions.

Finally, the Officejet 7610 Wide Format e-All-in-One helps business customers bring print shop jobs in-house.

The Officejet Pro 251dw Printer and Officejet Pro 276dw MFP are available now in the United States, and the Officejet 7610 Wide Format e-All-in-One is expected to be available in July. The LaserJet Pro MFP M521 series, LaserJet Enterprise M725 and Scanjet Pro 3000 s2 sheet-feed scanner are available now worldwide.

Do you know all about HP, the IT firm from the garage? Take our quiz!

Originally published on eWeek.