With tablets gaining an overwhelming positive response from modern consumers, the laptop world is trying to catch up. The production of Apple’s MacBook Air and Lenovo’s Ultrathin were clear statements that the laptop world is willing to go as thin and as light as tablets, and now another computer giant is going in the same direction.

On Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard announced the Sleekbook as the newest addition to their “thin and light” Notebook line. HP Sleekbooks come in two sizes: the 14.6-inch screen model came out on Wednesday while the 15.6-inch model will be released in June. The larger model is run by an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit that has a battery life of nine hours, while the smaller unit has an Intel Core processor and an eight hour battery life. The Sleekbooks have optional discrete graphics from Intel and discrete-class graphics from the AMD platform.

Both Sleekbook models feature Windows 7 Premium 64-bit and 4GB of RAM. They both weigh four pounds and are 20mm thick. The two include services commonly offered in HP laptops such as Protect Smart Technology,  TrueVision Webcam, Imagepad, and Beats Audio. The Sleekbooks have 802.11 connectivity, Gigabit Ethernet, USB and HDMI ports, and an SD slot.

A report from Tech News World revealed a whole new kind of competition among manufacturers and a budding challenge for them as well:

“Ultrabook "is a class defined by Intel, and HP is the most price-aggressive in this class," Enderle remarked."Ultrabooks are the Corvettes and Sleekbooks the Camaros in this market. Most may lust for the Ultrabook but may only be able to afford the Sleekbook, and HP is very aggressive with pricing for each."

Sleekbooks "sound like a competitive response to Lenovo's Ultrabook, which was ultrathin and ultralight," Maribel Lopez, principal analyst at Lopez Research said. "HP's trying to create an emotional connection with sleekness." Mobile device makers are focusing on sleek and thin products.

"I'm not sure anyone knows how to differentiate product today," Lopez Research's Lopez said. "I had a large IT customer tell me recently that all of these devices were just fancy pieces of glass. Differentiation is hard to come by and lasts about six months in this hyper-competitive market."–Tech News World