HP 8740w Review! - Full Metal Jacket!

That would be awesome, Koshinn!

 

I know it OT for the thread; hope noone minds. But can you elaborate on what voids the warranty of what and why?

 

The screen is not considered to be a user replaceable part. Doing so will violate the terms of your warranty. Now if you're good and can put it back together the way it was, Lenovo may never know you've done it. Hopefully, you'll never need warranty service, but if Lenovo wants to make an issue of it, they can. There's some risk involved in doing it.

 

I guess what I'm missing is you're referring to retro-fitting it?

I'm assuming it can be purchased new on/a new machine?

 

You're still violating the terms of your warranty by taking apart the case, regardless of which screen it is. The X200 was never offered with this screen or any like it.

 

So which comes with it? The X201? (your posts have been assuming we all know what you know )

 

What does what come with? I did link to the AFFS Mod thread, so anyone could read up if need be.

 

Clicked it, sure. Just couldn't figure out what machine it came on stock/original, w/o requiring a mod; a tablet machine yes, but couldn't tell which, and then why not just recommend that machine instead of needing to go thru a mod and subsequent voiding of warranty? So never mind. No reason to go further OT. It really doesn't matter that much to me so forget about it.

 

I'm glad your E6500 was not one of the batches that has the demonstrated flex. Many people communicated to me that their backlit keyboards had significant flex however some even with keys that could pop off. I would only hope HP has more consistent, stringent quality control standards with their business lines.

Regarding the 8740w, I have noticed some criticism as well of a "flawed keyboard layout" so would be interested in more feedback on its keyboard.

m8o, are you a photographer because I was also curious about the color depth-gamut issue that you may have some insight on (although you also may be more sensitized to it). How significant a difference is there between 24 bit "true" color & 30 bit in practical terms?

For example when I count colors in graphics programs I never see more than 16.77 million colors in any photograph but do see more than 65k (16 bit) so perhaps that's why I personally can see the difference between 16 bit & 24 bit while others may not think it's such a difference particularly beyond 24 bit?

These include an IPS panel option that produces far superior viewing angles important to a photographer but was curious if straight on as most people use it, is the panel really a world of difference?

Thanks,

 

Aikimox, please let us know how the new battery performs if you get it, which one were you thinking of getting & how is transporting the standard AC adapter around, is an extra slim-travel AC adapter worth getting along with an extra battery?

 

The screen is a BOE Hydis HV121WX4 and it went into more than notebook I believe. There's three versions of the screen - 100, 110 and 120. The first two are glossy and the 120 is matte. The 120 can be hard to find and expensive. Occasionally, they show up on eBay. The 110, which is the most common and easiest to find, are I believe left over stock from a Gateway tablet that I don't think sold real well.

Why not just buy the tablet? I can give you the reasons I did it. One, tablets are heavier than their non-tablet counterparts, which makes them less portable. Two, tablets are much more expensive. I did my AFFS for probably less than half what a new x201t costs. Three, the touch surface, which is removed during the installation process, negatively effect image quality. Four, I've never had the desire to touch my screen. Fifth, curiosity and the chance to make a great notebook very few else have. Lastly, I have the ability to do so.

 

anyone know where to get the wallpaper for this?

http://s988.photobucket.com/albums/af6/Aikimox/19.jpg

I remember it was with windows OS but I can't find it. Thanks! (preferably in 1200p resolution)

 

It's not 1200, but you can re-size it.

 

Thank you Zaz!

 

For those interested in more pictures from the same artist -
Here you go
You can then google by name and look for a better res.
I just download them from here.

 

Just wondering how you're finding the overall performance to be. I'll be coming from an 8710w with a T7500, 4gb ram, 7200rpm HD 512mb Nvidia Quadro FX to the 8740w probably with the i7 720QM, 4Gb Ram, 7200rpm HD and the ATI 1gb card. Is the i7 a significant improvement?
I'm also thinking of buying Adobe CS5 (currently using CS2) because I hear it can run in native 64bit and also utilizes the power of the graphics card which Suites before CS4 apparently did not. Not sure if you use this software or not, but if you do I'd love to hear your impressions.
I also noticed that the wuxga screen on my 8710w, while not having super deep blacks or truly white whites (colour gamut in general is good for a laptop but not fantastic), does have really really good viewing angles. I'm pretty sure it's CCFL not LED. Whereas the CCFL screen on my 6930p has awful viewing angles. Any idea why? Cheers!

-mertz

 

You'll notice a significant difference switching to a i7-quad CPU. Especially noticeable in VT, video processing, etc. Still, the software is lagging behind and it will take awhile till you can fully utilize 8 threads.
Currently, I only stress the system with games
And I see a huge boost in CPU dependent titles like Empire Total War when going from the Core2Duo P8700(OC'ed to 3.06ghz) to i7-840QM.

As for the viewing angles - you'll be astonished

 

Lightroom and I'll assume my PS CS5 too (I just haven't watched when in it) is fantastic at keeping all the CPU cores busy.

 

m8o, did you find a software improvement switching to CS4/CS5 from previous gens?

 

Sorry, can't help there. Last version of PS I'd used was from before it started carrying CS designations. ...and it was on significantly different hardware.

 

@ Aikimox: Thanks for the thoroughly awesome review.

I think I'm in love. That IPS panel absolutely slew me; I'm completely blown away by how it outperforms even a RGB-LED backlit screen. I shouldn't be surprised, but seeing the side-by-side photos is believing.

Can you use HWinfo32 or Everest to check what make and model the IPS panel is?

 

Oh btw sorry, I shipped my laptop in for repairs to the case defect on the left side (the overhanging piece of metal is extremely loose), so no DSLR shots for now. I'll get them when I get the laptop back.

 

Actually there's nothing except LGD0270

What was the problem again? What piece of metal?

 

Just remember the RGBLED is the backlight and you're comparing panels, so in the end it's still IPS vs. TN.

 

The overhanging top plate of the laptop, part of the palm rest. Actually I think it's plastic. The right side is completely stable, but the left side, if I apply a little pressure near the power button up to a few inches away, it flexes a LOT. If I apply upward pressure from the bottom of the lip (say, trying to lift the laptop slightly), the piece separates from the laptop chassis.

 

Yeah, I'm aware of that. At normal viewing angles, I still expected the RGBLED backlit screen to do alright because of its gamut coverage.

 

Updated the Keyboard and PROs&CONs sections

Switched to the regular keyboard instead of the backlit one.
Much better quality.

 

Here are some pics of the backs of the two keyboards. Sorry the quality is low. Note that I didn't notice a huge difference in the typing "feel" but I didn't come from a Thinkpad. I do however have the bowing on the backlit keyboard, but hadn't noticed it much until after I returned the other 8740w (with the non-BL keyboard). I now feel like the keyboard should be sturdier, but it is far from a deal breaker for me and I'll be keeping my BL keyboard and hoping there is eventually a fix for it.





In both cases the BL is on top and is easily identifiable from the white material which seems to have been put in place of metal on non-BL. I assume the white is to better reflect the light. You can see the area where the bowing issue occurs, it is the the half-circle area in the upper right corner.

Also, see my old post in the owners lounge with macro shots of the keys on each keyboard here.

Straying away from the keyboard issue, I also did some sound measurements and posted the results here.

 

Does anyone here have both the 8730w and 8740w with Dreamcolor panels so we could compare the two?

Has anyone noticed any background light color unevenness on the new panel like it is so frequent with the DC1?

I would LOVE to see side by side picture comparisons between the two DC versions!!!

 

@ Knight,

Thanks for the detailed comparison and pics!
Do you find the regular keyboard thicker as well?
I still wanna try to mod the backlit KB to make it sit flush, but this would probably void the warranty.

I don't have the DC1 but the only slight difference in shades can be spotted if looking at a pure white background. It's barely noticeable and even then is only visible at certain angles and lighting conditions.
I don't find it bothering, and am very picky.
Plus, I work with code most of the time.

 

Aikimox, thanks for your input. I am just wondering if they finally resolved the RGB LED uneven background color purity noticeable especially at the lower left corner (pinkish) on the DC of the 8730w. I it is hardly noticeable when viewing a photograph, but it is visible at the lower 1/2" of the screen on an even white background. My old Toshiba CCFL laptop in contrast has a perfectly evenly lit background. BTW, I have noticed uneven backlighting on a Dell LED lit laptop. Maybe that's why HP chose CCFL backlighting for their flagship ZR30W desktop 10 bit per color IPS LCD.

 

Let's say, it's noticeable (in the lower half of the screen) but if I take a picture of the white background - you won't see it. To my eyes this looks like an effect, not a tint.
Still, it's there and should be taken into a consideration.

 

I see the 8740w has a bit red tint, and it seemed to be different between the gammas of the two. Just look in the last photo, you would see the right display offers more details than the left one, they look like the right is using 1.8 gamma, and the left 2.2.

In my opinion, the 8740w has perfect angle, beautiful look but not as accurate as the M17x.

 

You should not expect to be able to judge the color accuracy of a screen via a photograph of an image on a screen no matter how good the camera. [!!!] Why just the slightest of inaccuracy of the white balance would be responsible for a an accurate screen looking inaccurate, and inaccurate screen more accurate.

Aikimox knows a lot but he'd probably be the 1st to admit he doesn't know that if he uses the JPEGs out of the camera and needs color accuracy he can/should shoot a 18% gray card (primary use for setting proper exposure but also useful in providing proper white balance) and manually set white-balance off that (though that's still inaccurate as it leave WB accuracy to what the user thinks is correct), or more accurately to shoot raw, do the same test shot, then set white balance of the image in post based on the test shot. As nothing like that was done, you're expecting the camera's in-camera RAW->JPG processing and white-balance it calculated it should use to be 100% accurate. ...it won't be.

 

^^ Overwhelmingly educational

As I said earlier - after playing with temperatures and brightness only, the "tint effect" was gone. What you see on the pictures ( second post) is a poor calibration and shooting job by a horrible noob - me
But I'm learning. At some point will get that HP calibtation tool and try to do a better job. Stay tuned.

 

You're being too hard on yourself. I'd say "horrible" is the furthest from the truth! Heck, after only a month of owning my 1st D-SLR I then went to Tanzania and I took well over 4000 shots over the course of a 10-day Safari. It wasn't until the 2nd half of the trip that I actually knew when what I was doing was right or wrong; didn't mean I still only did things right.

 

m8o, not sure if you saw the following post as I was curious about your feedback:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...-review-full-metal-jacket-11.html#post6545525

If you did see it & didn't feel like addressing it, that's cool too. Also if you do, let us know if you are satisfied with its battery life or if you intend to get an extra battery? -Thanks

 

I did see it, but lost track of wanting to reply to the questions as time went by. About to be called for a conference call so can't reply now but will later today/tonight unless something comes-up, but glad you brought it back-up.

Edit/Update - I'll touch-upon both posts.

I don't really care about battery life in the manner I use mine, so I'm not the right guy to ask. In any event, sure, it sux < big grin >, but again, I don't care. I use the machine as a compact but powerful workstation with a premium desktop quality screen in a portable package that I can use when I sit on the couch in my media room, always plugged in.

In the post you linked to, you refer to "counting colors". What is it you are counting it in? Meaning, what file format? You should be aware there are very few file formats that support greater than 8-bits per RGB channel in the image that you begin with; and you need to source to begin with greater than 8 bits per color to really give you the realism (talking photographs here), else up-sampling is just an interpolation which isn't far off from use of dithering to simulate greater colors. So 16.7 million colors are the most an image can possibly have unless the image is one of the various camera RAW formats [DNG, RAW, and mfgr specific variants], Photoshop formats, TIFF, I'm sure others I dont' know about as I don't need to know about'm. And then, the number of image editing programs are limited that support over 8-bits per channel. It's likely by passing an 16-bit color depth image thru one that doesn't support it, you may reduce the color depth to 8-bits simply by opening it then saving and doing nothing else. ...but regardless, you wil never [ever ever ever] find an image published for "web viewing" that has over a 24-bit color depth as JPG/GIF/PNG doesn't support it.

The add'l 2 pixels of color depth are absolutely beneficial when the range of colors across the screen is only subtly varied. That is most likely the place you will see its benefit, to be able to resent the subtlest of gradients. I also suggest its effect it tough to explain, but it can more possibly present 'realism' of or in a scene on the screen, and allows for the image to look less 'digitized'. I.e. the more pixels of resolution in your sampling, the closer you get to something looking 'analog'.

 

wow just, the best comparison I think iv ever seen. Everything is so interesting in this thread! +rep for a fine job

 

Some info from HP regarding the screen:
Contrast Ratio 800:1 typical
Brightness 210 nit typical
Backlight RGB LED
Viewing Angle ±89° Horizontal, ±89° Vertical (typical)
Technology Type 30-bit In-Plane Switching (IPS)
Color Depth 10-bits/color
Display Colors Over 1 billion colors (native mode)

Color Gamut Coverage CIE1931 (x,y) CIE 1976 (u',v')
NTSC 109% 129%
AdobeRGB 114% 127%
sRGB 154% 148%

 

What marks would this laptop get, comparing it to
Alienware - 100%
Sager NP8850 - 90%
HP 8740w - % ???

if anyone has a some idea
Thanks

 

Do you mean the overall marks? Or just the screen?
If overall, - that's too complex to say AW-100%.
Also, which AW system do you mean? M17X?
I'd rate the Sager, 8740w and M17X - 85-90%. I'd probably give the HP a couple more points for the screen and metal chassis.

The DC2 screen is probably - 98%. The RGB LED in M17X - 95%. But that's my subjective opinion after owning both.

 

Wow! That screen is awesome lol those viewing angles...

 

Another interesting thing to note,
It's possible to use the latest catalyst drivers for M7820,
turning the card into proper MR5870 (gamers rejoice).

All credits for the mod go to Sheltem!

 

Yes im looking for overall marks(need gaming laptop)
So would you give more marks to HP
then there are more choices in HP, like HP envy17 & more

so then what would you recommend to get ?
HP 8740w / Alienware m17x / Sager NP8850/ Envy17/ or ...............

Thank you

 

Is it just plug and play? I'd like AA in my SC2.

Having owned 3 of those 4 laptops you listed, here is my completely unscientific ratings from memory:

Build/Construction:
8740w - 4.5/5 - can be stepped on, in dust, sand, etc.
M17x - 4/5 - big and bulky, but sturdy
Envy17 - 2/5 - a lot of metal is used, but my unit had a lot of chassis problems

Ports:
8740w - 4/5 - arrangement isn't great, but has a lot of ports
M17x - 4/5 - no USB 3.0, arrangement is beter
Envy17 - 3.5/5 - USB 3.0, no expresscard, didn't like the arrangement of USB ports

Screen:
8740w - 4.5/5 - matte, 1920x1200, IPS, RGBLED, but input lag might be a big deal to some
M17x - 4.5/5 - 1920x1200, RGBLED but TN, no input lag, worse viewing angles
Envy17 - 2.5-4/5 - 1920x1080, TN with WLED, no input lag, 3D screen coming out soon which may be awesome

Gaming:
8740w - 4/5 - single card, same CPU as everyone, good cooling
M17x - 5/5 - dual card, same CPU, best cooling
Envy17 - 2.5/5 - above average card, but not as good (5850 vs 5870), same CPU, horrible cooling

 

Thanks guys
you have been very helpfull

god bless all

 

@Koshin,
You need to edit the .inf file of the Catalyst 10.8 package and add a few lines for the correct device ID's. Look in the owner's lounge. It's fairly easy to do.

@ibraveheart,
I agree with Koshin regarding the M17X vs 8740w marks.

 

Oh I should also add, the 8740w is a much more portable system and has the potential for more ram because of four ram slots, but the M17x has two 9.5mm hdd slots. The envy 17 has two 12mm hdd slots and is about as portable as the 8740w but also only has two ram slots. Also you should note that the envy's gpu is not replaceable.

Taking everything into account, the 8740w and M17x are, in my opinion, the two best desktop replacement performance laptops on the market. It just depends if you want more ruggedness and a lightweight system, but only one gpu, or if you want two gpus but are willing to pay the price in weight and size.

 

Here is the mod link, Koshinn.
Rep Sheltem