HP and Dell chase Apple's 'fashionista' fans

Hewlett-Packard and Dell unveiled slim ‘ultrabook' laptops at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, stepping up competition with Apple's MacBook Air. Hewlett-Packard introduced a $1,400 (Dh5,141) laptop on Tuesday called the Envy 14 Spectre, which packs a 14-inch screen into a compact chassis encased in black. Dell, meanwhile, is showing its own take on the ultrabook — an industry term created by Intel for light, thin laptops. Personal-computer makers are counting on ultrabooks to challenge the MacBook Air, Apple's best-selling laptop, which is less than an inch thick. Still, the new Spectre is $100 more than a MacBook Air. Hewlett-Packard is emphasising the laptop's premium features and design, a bid to reach the ‘savvy fashionista' market, said Page Murray, a vice-president of marketing at the company. The Spectre features a glossy black-glass lid that sits atop a silver glass palm rest and finger-sensing pad besides an extra-bright screen, enhanced audio and a version of Adobe Systems' Photoshop software. It can run for nine hours on one charge, Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard said. The Spectre goes on sale on February 8. Dell's XPS 13, starts at $999. It's made of aluminium, carbon fibre and glass, and sports a 13.3-inch screen. Boasting eight hours of battery life, it will go on sale in late February. Vizio also is showing ultra-thin laptops at the event after shaking up the television industry with its rock- bottom prices. For Intel, ultrabooks are an attempt to keep laptops relevant in an era when many people use handheld devices to surf the web. While Intel is the world's largest chipmaker, it has struggled to get its products into tablets and smartphones, which use processors based on designs from ARM Holdings.