Music Industry Visionaries Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine Collaborate on HP Beats Limited Edition

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 9, 2009 — HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Beats Electronics, LLC, today announced an alliance to achieve higher-quality sound from digital music through technology innovation.

The HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition notebook PC with integrated Beats Audio emerged from close collaboration between legendary artist and producer Dr. Dre, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, and HP engineers.

“When Dre and I got together on Beats, it was about an idea which was to improve the transmission of sound between the record makers and the consumers,” said Iovine. “We realized that with the digital revolution, what went terribly wrong was the degradation of sound, which is the heartbeat of music. We found that most PCs downgrade sound to unacceptable levels and when you reduce it further to a limited platform, like an mp3, the music doesn’t stand a chance. If music is an emotion, if it sounds better, then the emotion is better. With HP, we found a partner willing to take the steps to improve the overall sound in the PC and to bring it up to the level that musicians hear in the studio.”

The HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition notebook PC – the latest edition to HP’s flagship ENVY line -- features a sleek, piano black, high-gloss finish and signature Beats design as found in the Beats by Dr. Dre™ line of headphones. It includes the high-performance Beats Audio solution and software popular among professional and aspiring DJs. Influential music producers and artists who lent their expertise to the project include Will.i.am, Timbaland, Polow Da Don and Pharrell.

“Beats is about sound. That’s all it’s ever been about, starting with the headphones and now moving to the Beats Envy computer we’re doing with HP,” said Dr. Dre. “The laptop is the new stereo for a lot of people and that’s why we’re putting out this computer with incredible sound.”

“Working with today’s leading artists on a market-defining product from HP benefits music lovers of all genres and generations,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “The addition of a rich audio experience to HP’s entertainment technologies, which include high-def video and TV tuners, takes the enjoyment of digital entertainment to new levels.”

This announcement builds on HP’s history of successful relationships with music visionaries. HP recently celebrated Fergie and her many accomplishments in an HP “Computer is Personal Again” commercial. HP products are incorporated into music videos, including the industry’s most popular music video of all time, “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas, and the Pussycat Dolls video “Hush, Hush.”

Truest sound

The high-performance Beats™ Audio solution offers the optimal sound experience when playing music or audio through headphones or external speakers. The HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition comes with Beats by Dr. Dre Studio High-Definition Headphones. These precision-engineered headphones, when paired with the sound-optimized HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition, offer a clear and crisp audio experience.

Mixing tools

The perfect tool for mixing music, HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition comes with Native Instruments’ Traktor LE software and Audio 2 DJ. Traktor LE software with Audio 2 DJ multichannel splitter enables seamless mixing through a PC.

Traktor LE provides all the essentials of modern DJ software. Built on Native Instruments’ long-time collaborations with performance test DJs, Traktor provides impressive sound quality, a ground-breaking user interface optimized for live performance and creative freedom.

Audio 2 DJ is one of the world’s smallest interfaces for DJs and boasts two stereo outputs plus the ultraloud output level and professional sound quality needed to rock the world’s biggest clubs.

Premium performance

The HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition combines superb audio with full throttle graphics and quad-core processing performance in an ultrathin design starting at 5.19 pounds and 1-inch thick,⁽¹⁾ and features the Intel® Core™ i7 mobile processor.

For exceptional brightness and vivid colors, the notebook features a choice of two 15.6-inch HP BrightView high-resolution LED backlit displays, including the full high-definition LED HP Ultra BrightView Widescreen Display.

A Nightvision VGA webcam⁽²⁾ is optimized for low-light conditions and is standard.

The HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition has an optional Slim Fit Extended-Life Notebook Battery, giving users up to seven hours of battery life, and an external optical drive.

Service and support

The ENVY experience extends to premium service and support via the award-winning HP Total Care program. This includes expert agents dedicated to addressing ENVY customers’ questions via phone, online chat and email as well as next-day shipping for hardware customer service.