SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), the world's largest personal-computer maker, on Tuesday unveiled a number of new models across its notebook lines with the aim to feed consumers' strong appetite for portable computers during the economic downturn and to maintain its leadership on the global market.

    HIGH-END BRAND

    The upgrades of HP notebook lines include the introduction of anew ENVY sub-brand, representing the company's expansion into the high-end notebook category.

    HP said it plans to launch two models, ENVY 13 and ENVY 15, in the United States on Oct. 18 with the starting price of 1,699 U.S. dollars.

    Each of the models is about 1-inch (2.54-centimeter) thin with the ENVY 13 weighing 3.74 pounds (1.7 kilograms), and looks very similar to Apple Inc.'s unibody MacBook Pro notebook.

    The ENVY 15, to use the future Intel Core i7 processor, is billed as HP's fastest consumer notebook.

    "HP ENVY includes the latest in materials and technology inside and out and pushes the technological and performance boundaries of what can be done in sleek, powerful and lightweight notebook PCs," Ted Clark, a senior vice president of HP, said in a statement.

    THIN AND AFFORDABLE

    In addition to the two luxury models, HP rolled out two new notebooks which the company said strike an "optimal balance of mobility, performance and affordability."

    Among them is the 0.9-inch-thin ProBook 5310m, described by HP as "the world's thinnest full-performance notebook."

    ProBook 5310m, as well as the newly-introduced 1-inch-thin Pavilion dm3, both fall into the thin-and-light notebook category, a personal computer market segment seen to have significant growth potentials in the next several years.

    Over the next five years, the thin-and-light category is predicted to grow three times faster than the overall notebook market in the United States, a trend that is expected to spread worldwide, HP said, citing forecast of market research firm IDC.

    The two new notebooks "raise the bar for the entire thin-and-light category," said Clark, HP's senior vice president.

    Both models will be available worldwide from Oct. 22 when Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to launch its next-generation Windows 7 operating system.

    The ProBook 5310m will start at 699 dollars while Pavilion dm3 starts at 549 dollars if equipped with an AMD processor.

    REUNITE WITH FASHION

    While introducing the new notebook models, HP tried to put emphasis on design as a selling point.

    "Design is not just about what the computer looks like or even what it does for us. It's also about the experience of using the PC and ultimately what the computer says about us," Stacy Wolff, director of notebook design at HP's personal computer group, said in a statement.

    The company noted that one of its two newly-introduced netbooks, or low-cost mini notebooks, is a special edition of HP Mini 110 model created by Dutch designer Tord Boontje, featuring the industry's first three-dimensional PC surface technology.

    HP also announced last week that it will reunite with renowned fashion designer Vivienne Tam to introduce new "digital clutch" netbook.

    New version of "digital clutch" debuted on Sept. 12 on the catwalk of Tam's fashion show during New York's Fashion Week, reflecting Tam's spring 2010 collection which is inspired by the classic Chinese love story "Butterfly Lovers."