HP makes deal with Dark Side for Star Wars: The Force Awakens laptop

You may have heard that the next Star Wars film is only a couple of months away. With the run up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens there is obviously going to be a franchised merch frenzy. BB-8 from Spehero is going to be the cutest but Hewlett-Packard has its own spin on what fans want.

HP has designed its latest laptop to look like a battle-damaged machine used by Imperial forces.

Special Star Wars treats include iconic sound themes – R2-D2 wails when you remove a USB drive before properly ejecting it, for example. You also get lightsaber noises and BB-8’s sounds.

The laptop’s Dark Side theme is designed with a distressed-look metal finish, Aurebesh writing, and Vader aesthetics on the back, a pair of Stormtroopers on one side of the trackpad, and the Death Star on the other . The trackpad is also designed to look like the X-Wing’s targeting system… surely they should have used the TIE Fighter’s crosshairs instead?

Delve in to the Star Wars Command Center app and access over 1,100 images — mostly behind the scenes stuff like storyboards, set photos, and artwork — as well as some videos and wallpapers. You can also change the laptop’s sound theme with that app.

HP has also replaced the Recycle Bin with a Death Star icon, and Aurebesh is offered as a font. All this content comes from a partnership with Disney.

The laptop itself is available with either a Core i5 or i7 processor, up to 2TB of HDD storage and 12GB of RAM, and the option between integrated graphics and an Nvidia GPU. There’s also a DVD drive. It has a 15.6-inch, 1080p display and a touchscreen seems to be optional.