Announcing a new tablet-laptop hybrid device, Envy X2 with operating system Windows 8, Hewlett-Packard has signaled the company's re-entry into the consumer tablet market, which it abandoned after the highly publicized failure of its TouchPad product. At first glance, the HP Envy X2 resembles a netbook, with a keyboard base and an 11.6-inch touch display. But the device turns into a tablet once the screen is detached from the base.

David Conrad, director of product management at HP said regarding the device, "When I want it to, it can also be a great tablet." Conrad said the device will become available during the latter part of the holiday season this year and will compete with hybrid devices that have been announced by PC makers like Asus, Acer, Lenovo and Samsung. Windows 8 will start shipping commercially on Oct. 26.

The benefit of a hybrid device is it offers the best of both worlds for Windows 8, which doubles as a tablet and PC operating system, Conrad said. The tablet is 8.5 millimeters thick and 680 grams, and the display shows images at a 1366-by-768-pixel resolution. The Envy X2 runs on Intel's low-power Atom processor code-named Clover Trail. The device will be sold with the keyboard base and 64GB of solid-state drive storage, and the configuration cannot be customized.