Is that HP Elitebook class better than ThinkPad T4xx series now?

Is that HP Elitebook class better than ThinkPad T4xx series now?

When compared to the following:

1. Durable
2. Price

 

EliteBook seems to be more expensive than the Thinkpads..


Durability looks like it's just as good; at least on my 8710W I'm willing to believe it'll stand up to everything my Thinkpad will.



That being said, I'll still take a Thinkpad over an EliteBook. Having worked with the 14" variant a week ago, it's nice, but its Trackpoint has nothing on a Thinkpad.

 

i find the previous generation of elitebook's thermal management systems lousier than that of the equivalent thinkpads. They are also harder to take apart and put back together as compared to thinkpad of equivalent class.

In terms of physical durability, it should be quite similar.

 

I would rate the current Dell Latitudes/Precisions and HP Elitebooks to be roughly in the same level as current Lenovo Thinkpads. Though it seems from my limited experience that Thinkpads are declining in quality (compared to previous generations) while the former two tend to be increasing in quality.

 

Yep, but there'll still be the old ThinkPads, i'd consider my T61p to be pretty much the peak of quality and performance in the same combination, that's why i bought it.

 

HP and Dell keyboards and mousing options (their version of trackpoints...) are not as good.

Also no rubber finish. They are built well but the ergonomics of use are not on par for what I want.

 

I guess I haven't used the E-series Dells, but the D series are lousy. They are no better than consumer laptops.

The HP Elitebooks are much better now. My company uses those. They are also nice, but they cost a lot more.

 

You're asking this in the Lenovo/IBM subforum?

In all seriousness, I would say the Elitebooks are definitely on par with the Thinkpads, with each's pluses and minuses. If I had not bought my Thinkpad T500, my next best choice outside of the Thinkpad family would likely have been the Elitebook 8530p. What ultimately drove me to the Thinkpads instead were its switchable graphics, better cooling system (quieter, runs cooler), and significantly lower price.

 

HP cooling system is one step below thinkpad. Even on their Pavilion and Business notebook line. Build quality wise both have their pros and cons, none is perfect. If you ask me to rate it Thinkpad gets a 9.25 and HP gets a 9.

 

I am asking T4xx series....

 

Ahhhh...You probably meant the 14inch T400/410 series which is not different from other T series models at all. ThinkPad's design and hardware is superior. Am I the only one here that finds the Elitebook's looks very average if not ugly? The Latitude and the ThikPad both look really professional though.

 

I was replying to sgogeta mentioning in his post that quality is decreasing.

 

the design of the HP elitebook is much like that of the D6xx Latitude, which is extremely ugly....

 

Though looks shouldn't really come into play for business notebooks. Come on, how many topics do we have about people saying other people find the Thinkpad ugly, yet we don't care or we even like it?

 

Well, look has nothing to do with build quality. For one thing, the coating used on the Elitebook is much betteri quality than that of the Thinkpad.

However at the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. For certain, HP prevents you from any sort of Overclocking in the BIOS. That's a downside.

 

The colors don't match well which doesn't give it this professional look that the TP has IMHO.

 

you mean the the triple anodized coating? Its pretty good, but after dropping thinkpads and Macbook Pro many times, i have found that having a magnesium and aluminium external casing is not that good for the overall robustness of laptop when it falls, especially when there is no rubber shock protection like you find in many of the fully rugged laptop.

 

Drop test is one of the toughest tests. Nobody expects a laptop to be in good shape after the drop. What people want, however, is the safety of their data, which is why most business laptops focus on protecting the hard drive.

 

Although most businesses are readily doing automatic syncing too. So I think serviceability is a key factor in business class notebooks.

I still like the thinkpad rubber coating just for my day to day handling of the machine.

 

They don't? Oh i'm sorry, i dropped my T43 onto asphalt from 4 feet from a truck, fell on a corner, no major damage. Also this video shows this.

 

Well, I said nobody expects, doesn't mean the laptop will have damage. It depends on where and what surface the laptop comes in contact with. I dropped my R50 Heaven knows how many times, no major damage either.

 

When you drop your laptop, a lot of it comes down to how lucky you are. If you drop your laptop on asphalt when it is open and it lands on a corner of the open screen, pretty much all laptops will end up with a cracked LCD, for example.

I like the Elitebook's looks as well as the Thinkpad's, so I'd place them on par with each other. Elitebooks do tend to be more expensive than Thinkpads, and there's usually fewer sales for them though.

 

MidnightSun's 2nd point is a key factor. Even with the standard 3 year warranty for HPs, they generally are much more difficult to get with excellent pricing. The HP business outlet has old generation deals here and there though.

 

Price is another issue as HP rarely (extremely!) gives out coupons or discounts for their business range laptops. However at the current price, HP is about the same as Lenovo and Dell.

 

"Is that HP Elitebook class better than ThinkPad T4xx series now?

When compared to the following:

1. Durable
2. Price"

I could honestly care less. I don't care about price and I expect durability.

Renee

 

I like how TP's look in photos, but in real life they always look kind of grungy. I think the black shows off oils and smudges similar to a black car (but not nearly as bad a piano black finish). If I end up getting the W510, I'll need to keep in very clean to maintain the "black hole" look that comes across in marketing photos.

I also love the gunmetal grey of the new Elitebooks, not to mention the numpad on the 8540w. The downside will be of course be cost.

 

Business notebooks are for getting things done. The rubber finish on thinkpads is still very muted even when dirty. Nobody even notices my laptop.

 

I just like the formal "neat" well kept and pristine look to them, but they don't look clinical and sterile like all-aluminum Macs.

 

My company used to be fanatical Thinkpad users. They probably were one of IBM's largest business contracts in the US, and that's just for Thinkpads. They also had HUGE contracts for IBM servers and mainframes, and pretty much just was in love with Big Blue...
The moment IBM sold their consumer computing line, my company jumped ship to Dell. I think it had to do with the fact that Lenovo wasn't a US based company, and that whole Lenovo espionage scare with the US govt didn't help either. Plus Lenovo had no street cred when it came to supporting products because it was largely a no-name brand in the states. When we realized the Dell Latitudes were pretty crappy, we had a short lasted identity crisis, and jumped ship to HP Elitebooks (HP is our main source of Intel x86 based servers, ironically).

So for a large company that spends a lot of $$$ on IT, the street cred HP provides makes for a compelling factor in deciding Elitebooks over the now Lenovo Thinkpads.
We don't care if the Elitebooks look more pretty, or if they cost a few extra Benjamins, because in the long run, if HP can do a faster job to replace a bad laptop with a good one (and they seem to think that), that's all that matters. HP has a local service shop/office here for on-site service (IBM has one, too) which pretty much is just for our company. Lenovo couldn't provide that.... Heck what's more important is that they are durable and die to begin with (something the Latitudes loved doing).

 

HP has some of the highest 3 year failure rates.

 

Do you have any data for business class notebooks? Also most of the testing terminology for those sorts reports is pretty terrible too. Lenovo's failure rates aren't favorable either.

 

we use to joke in University that if you like someone to fail their assignments, then you give them a HP laptop to use.

 

HP consumer, yes. Most people are ignorant of the fact that HP also has a business notebook line up that is one of the best in the market because these aren't advertised nor sold in retail outlets.

 

Yes that is 90% true.....

 

So what's the 10% that's false?

 

the older Elitebook has problem with its thermal management and fan noise.... not sure about how the latest Elitebook is regarding this... and cleaning the fan can be hassle, since it involves stripping apart the laptop....

But Elitebook design on the placement of bluetooth module is spot on, since it is very user friendly and can be added relatively easily as compared to Thinkpads. While, the CMOS battery in Elitebook is also very user friendly, which unlike Thinkpads is not enclosed in a special plastic package and can't be bought in supermarkets or normal computer stores.

 

My 8730w is perfectly fine with its thermal management and fan noise. It's much quieter than the 8710w it replaced and I've owned both. Probably a little louder than the bigger Thinkpads, but it is not flawed. What are you on about?

 

Whether it is flawed depends on how you look at it and what your expectation is from that product. Some people like their laptop to be quite and not have the fan howling all the time. But my point is that the Elitebook of the past has loud fan (which yourself have admitted) and it does get hotter than the comparable Thinkpad of the same class. And some people don't like that and i am one of them.

Also one would probably note that the HP latest bios update for the Elitebook with the faulty nvidia GPU is to increase the airflow in order to cool down the GPU and prolong its lifetime.