HP’s AI printing features sound genuinely helpful

HP has announced a pair of new AI laptops and a new AI-supported printer series, all designed to “transform the future of work”.

HP is holding its second Imagine event this week, and it has used the event to announce its latest bunch of AI tech, including laptops and…printers.

Yes, printers – don’t stop reading yet though, as some of these new additions sound genuinely helpful.

AI could make printers easier to use

The Envy 6100/6500 all-in-one range of printers is described as “an affordable, all-in-one device that can handle all your printing needs”, with the headline feature being the ability to offer native true-to-screen printing using the Display P3 colour space.

No more drab, washed out results that fall far short of the vibrant photos displayed on your display of choice.

Other features include automatic two-sided photo printing. It’s also possible to print on both sides of matte photo paper or cards.

The new printer series packs a 2.4-inch colour touchscreen, while navigation can also be handled via the HP Smart app.

While the hardware sounds good, the more interesting addition here is the use of AI. HP announced its new HP Print AI initiative, which launches today (September 24) for select customers enrolled in its exclusive beta program.

Perfect Output is up first, using AI to minimise needless white space on web prints, as well as optimising image size and cutting out unwanted ads and web text. We saw a demo of this, and it certainly seems like a smart addition that should make printing stuff like recipes a lot easier.

The HP Envy 6100/6500 series is available to buy now, with prices starting from $139.99 for the HP Envy 6155e.

AI features are coming to more laptops, too

On the PC side, HP has unveiled the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip, its first 2-in-1 next-gen AI PC. It features a punchy 14-inch 3K OLED display, a haptic touchpad, and a 9MP AI camera with Poly Audio for enhanced video calls.

It runs on Intel’s latest Core Ultra processor (Series 2) processor (aka Lunar Lake) and can deliver up to 20 hours of video playback on a single charge.

Meanwhile, the HP EliteBook X offers “the world’s most powerful next-gen AI business notebook” aimed at tech experts and business consultants. The stand-out spec here is HP’s HP own memory architecture which supplies an impressive 8000 Mbps on 64 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, designed specifically for AI applications.

It runs on a next-generation AMD Ryzen Pro processor producing 55 TOPS of NPU performance, while it’s kept ticking along in a cool and collected fashion by 40W Thermal Design Power with dual turbo high density fans.

HP is heralding the HP EliteBook X’s AI-enhanced webcam sensor, which apparently provides more accurate presence detection and adaptive dimming than previous examples. Audio tuning from Poly Studio, alongside AI noise reduction and HP Dynamic Voice Levelling, is said to supply crystal clear conference calls.

Security is even more of a buzzword with this second laptop, with HP claiming that it’s “the first next-gen AI PC with quantum hack protection”.

The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 is available now on HP.com, with prices starting at $1,449.99. The HP EliteBook X 14-inch is expected to arrive in December, with pricing set to be revealed nearer the time.