A few weeks ago, HP announced that they are dropping support for all WebOS devices, leading to a massive clearance of their recently released Touchpad after only a few months on store shelves. HP has also hinted that they could possibly be abandoning their PC division altogether. With all that has gone lately, we decided that now was the time to go over a few of the more well known products that HP has produced throughout the past year.

What to Buy

I'll be honest, over the past 5 years HP has burned me a few times. While I used to think of HP as the cool, reliable PCs, my more recent bad fortune had started to turn me far away from almost all HP products. However, the release of the HP Envy got me interested enough to read a few reviews (all positive) before I took a peek at one while browsing through a local Best Buy. A few moments were all it took for me to admit that the Envy was an awesome laptop. The sound alone was the best I had ever heard come from a laptop without external speakers attached to it. While I personally did not choose to purchase an Envy, I must point out that it did win several awards last year. Needless to say, the Envy lineup features some of the best laptops out there today. However, this biggest issue I now have with the Envy is that it is made by HP, who has made it very clear that they could pull out of the PC market at any moment. That level of uncertainty does not look or feel good to anyone willing to drop over $1000 on a PC.

What to Try

Now that we talked about HP's higher-end laptops, let's take a look at HP's new ProBook lineup. It seems obvious by now that HP is trying to "borrow" the look and feel of the MacBook Pro with the Envy and now even a little with the ProBook (no one can really blame them there). Considering how many MacBooks Apple has sold over the past few years, this is a good thing. Now saying that the ProBook looks and feels at all close to a MacBook Pro is quite frankly an insult to the solid, sleek Aluminum frame that many users love so much. That being said, one can see that HP is going for a cheaper-looking knockoff geared toward the business crowd. Featuring the latest Intel Core processors and a generous amount of other nice features, one would think these are great laptops right? So far the reviews are mixed. Therefore, if you are looking for a solid laptop well under $1000, we urge you to go to a local retailer and try one out for yourself before deciding for or against purchasing a HP ProBook. Once again, the uncertain future of HP PCs should be in the back of the minds of anyone looking into a ProBook.

What to Avoid

Especially with how much they have been in the news recently, you would be hard pressed to find a computer user that does not know the HP brand. Once tablets started to make their way into the consumer market, it was inevitable that HP would not be far behind in releasing their own device. What was not foreseen, at least not right away, was which operating system the HP tablet would use. The Touchpad recently answered this question by hitting the market with none other than WebOS. While great for multi-tasking, WebOS has simply been beaten so harshly by Android and iOS over the past few years that it has become almost unheard of to find someone with a device that uses it. Sadly, it is recommended by many critics to simply avoid the Touchpad due to its limited set of features and the fact that it is running a beaten, soon-to-be-unsupported OS. Unfortunately, it is impossible to recommend the HP Touchpad over the iPad or any of the top Android tablets out there. That is, unless you can still find one for $99.

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