HP 8740w Review! - Full Metal Jacket!

off topic:

where can I find this wallpaper in 1900x1200 ?
http://s988.photobucket.com/albums/af6/Aikimox/19.jpg

found it! Who's the painter ?

 

What's the silver piece pointed by the arrow?

I think it's very little aesthetic

 

It's a push-button. You press it to open the lid.

 

Here you go KarelR:

 

Wow, it's very thick for my taste. I think it's necessary the push button is thick for ruggedness, LOL

 

Thanks! some stunning colors there.

 

Talk about perfection.I want that notebook .Fortunately want and need are two different things.

 

holy crap, sweet

i want one

 

Best laptop screen I have ever seen. Puts my precision to shame (no slouch either...).

 

What are your needs? If you need something more lightweight, you can look at the 8540w. It's similar to its big brother, and it has the DreamColor 2 screen too, but in 15,6" (16:9 aspect ratio, Full HD).

 

Hi guyz ....i'm considering upgarding my HP 8710w witch is workin like a charm but my T7700 is screaming sometime on some sessions (pro audio)

But i'm kinda afraid to jump on the 8710W reading all the issues on the forum ....i mean what's wrong with those babies ?

I'm thinkin about it , a dell precision M4500 or 6500 or a mbp , no need for crazy GPU just very low dpc latency ( http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.exe)

My laptop is actually at 35us off dpc latency witch is great (under xp) ...so i'm struggling between the need of power and going to an unkown area (i don't have time ) or sticking with a rock solid baby but with limitation (really frustrating during creative process and mixing !!)

Any input welcomed !

 

^^Tell me one thing: can you really be affected by 100-500us (under W7)?

 

Oh yes !!!

Basically the more you have dpc latency , the less you can work at a low latnecy with heavy loads of plugins !!

My T7700 proc laptop is outperforming some T9900 mbp laptop !!! -(mbp , lenovo ...)

The latency in our work is a function of the audio buffer size , the less big is the buffer , the less latency is notioceable (when you play music or some ) but the less time your proc have to calculate the algorythm !!

So low latency is a waranty of having full control and use of that time for calculation and garnty a "round trip" lessbig as possible

round trip = time from let's say i play a note , it process it , and i hear it , then record it ...

 

I see. Very few laptops can boast low latency under Vista/7 w/o tweaking. In fact, I don't know of any such machine (with i-core processors).

 

Jeezo, I work an audio production/engineering school in addition to my consulting (architectural acoustics). I don't have any expertise or experience in recoding myself, but I do have access to all kinds of recording equipment and an 8740w and I have plenty of people that could help me get my laptop set up for a test recording. How do you test latency?

 

To test the dpc latency :

http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.exe

you run it with :

Wifi disabled on the control panel as well as bluetoof
Powerscheme : full performance , no battery in , only ac
No anitivirus activated
No screen saver
No gadgets

I know that windows seven and vista just include latency because the system , same system under XP is way lower .....

The otha concern is the stability , the 8710w is working like a champ , bujt reading the HP8740 thread , i read questions like "is there a 8740 owner without problem "or smoe like that!!

So i know that when a product is introduced on the market , i usually wait until all the issues got solved .....

 

besides my 9 key making strange noises, i have zero problems with my 8740w now.

 

The big problem of crashing systems was solved. All new units have been fine since DC2 began shipping.

I'm not sure I got AVG turned off. I ended the tray application, but I don't know if that shut it off. Is there an easy way of temporarily turning it off?

Anyway, here is what I got with everything else you requested.

 

WOW, that's the best screen I have ever seen on a laptop, but the price is insane.....

 

Sometimes, you really pay for what you get...

 

I doubt it was "off". Start-bar tray app is only a 'monitoring/config' tool.

Open a CMD application and type
'net start' (without the quotes) then hit enter.
It's likely you'll find your particular AV service still running, and oodle and oodles of other services that could potentially be stopped to increase interactive performance.

You can then type and enter
net stop "service name here"
to stop the service (quotes optional for one-word service names; if the service name contains spaces, you'll need the quotes).

Alternately you can right-click on My Computer and click on Manage, which will open the MMC. Then click on the Services objects and go down the list to stop services (leaving the statup option as is, if you want them to continue to startup on boot; or alternatively if you know what the serive does changing the startup option to 'manual' or 'disabled' if you think you'll never need the service.)

 

thks Knight !!

Just tried one : first impressions :

Dpc latency , ok ....
Was a little disppointed byt the build quality , i expected way more since the 8710w , but nothing except the aluminium case , the keyboard is great , screen as usual , the integration of the screen is kind , well , i prefer the 8710w (less space between the screen and the sides , i put my 8710w and the 8740 and the 8710 is less big , more optimized space around the screen)

the usb : i have 6 usb on the 8710 and they're concentrated like (one up one down , so no cable mess ,) not the case now with those usb a along the side

What i don't like at all : the two "scews like" on the top of the screen to close the laptop , i just can't believe that !! and the big grey button to open the screen feels cheap !!

i made a wprime 32 scored at 20s with a I 540 , two cores at 2.8gz ...cool

The system itself feels rock solid , still wondering if i go hp , mb p or dell precison M4500....

Oh yeah one more question , as the 8740 w has a expresscard slot , if we add the advanced docking solution including the expresscard , will the system easliy share to expresscards ?

Thks again for sharing ....

 

Say, I'm curious about this IPS panel... can you check in hwinfo32 (or in the old Performance Tuning Framework) what model it says the display is? For example, my 8530w display is LP154WU1-TLC2.

Also, does the Windows Display control panel let you set color depth to anything higher than "32" (really 24-bit plus alpha)?

 

32-bit is the max.
Hwinfo32 reports unknown for model serial number, and nothing for name. A while ago we managed to figure out that the manufacturer is most likely LG. The rest remains unknown so far and neither of the owners is comfortable about disassembling the lid to find the model number.

 

RampageII has said that the DC2 screen is the LP171WU8-TLB1.

 

This is yet to be verified.

 

Nice screen. I'm using my IBM T42 with flexview on a daily basis, because I don't need the power of a new workstation at the moment. Hopefully more brands, including Lenovo, will start using IPS screens (again) for their notebooks in the future when I need one.
The factsheet for this HP says there are several wide-viewingangle WSXGA+ and WUXGA displays and optional dreamcolor panels. Do all wide-viewingangle displays use IPS-technology?

 

Woahhhhh!!!! Nice notebooks! It runs cool too.

 

No, only the DreamColor screens which are configurable in the 8740w and the 8540w.

 

Is the Dreamcolor screen on 8540w as good as the 8740w?

 

Incredible screen.

 

Generally, wide angle is used for IPS (sometimes *PA) panels as all TN panels have limited viewing angles. But then again, it could also be marketing.

 

Yes, according to forum member VisionLight, who has both. He's also very well-informed about color accuracy and calibration, so his opinion is quite reliable. You can search for all of his posts from his profile here.

You should find these two posts especially helpful, and the first has a side-by-side photo:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...book-8540w-owners-lounge-147.html#post6533654
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...book-8540w-owners-lounge-149.html#post6551100

 

hi aikimox, could you post the wallpaper of the oil painting of the couple in the park, i would like to make that as my wallpaper too

recently just bought an ips lcd, wanna enjoy it .

 

Thanks a lot.

 

You're wrong. The old DreamColor 1 panel was a 8-bit TN panel with Wide (horizontal) Viewing Angles. In fact, it's possible to achieve very good horizontal angles with TN technology. IPS technology goes further, with much better color reproduction and image quality, not only wider angles, as well as amazing vertical viewing angles not found in any TN panel.

You meant *VA panels, not *PA, right? *VA panel family includes MVA, A-MVA, PVA, S-PVA, c-PVA (new) and so on. Although these panels have almost the same viewing angles than IPS ones, they suffer from a bothering effect called 'gamma shift'. This effect is not present on IPS panels. However, *VA panels have better contrast and blacks than IPS ones, but most people think (me included) that IPS technology is the best overall. I have a NEC 2490WUXi H-IPS professional monitor and I'm very happy with it so far.

 

And what about the regular screen , is it that bad ? compared to the concurrence (macbook pro , dell , lenovo..) for a guy who don't do photo , videos apps ...?

 

I would like to know this too, I've considered the 8740w with the 1680x1050 screen.

 

Sorry I meant *VA panels. While the viewing angles for TN panels of the DC1 were better than most other TN panels, they were not really wide angle like IPS and *VA panels' 178/178 typically and hence why I stated that calling a TN panel "wide-angle" is more of a marketing term. While I agree that IPS is best overall, I'm not comparing anything else.

 

I don't want to argue with you, but do you think 80º degrees horizontal (at most, minimum is 75º) is not a really wide angle? If you don't believe me, here the quick specs are. Look at page 23, where the DC1 specs are detailed. The vertical viewing is a different matter, but I already pointed this in my previous post.

The 8730w with the DC1 panel was reviewed on this site one year ago. You can read the review here. From that review you can see the following:

 

I am a photoghropher and i am trying to choose between the Hpeliet 8740w anfd the lenovo w701?[/B]which one is better for color accuracy and color editing?
i bought the lenovo701 screen is not as good. to return it they want 15%stocking fee! I am thinking to get the Hp 8740w and see if that will be good. each is about 3K. specs fro photo shope heavey work. 840QM,memeory 8MB,videoATI or Nvidia FX2800 ??!!

please i need a proffestional advise .Thanks

 

Dell Precision is cheaper than both by a considerable margin and it has a the RGB LED anti-reflective screen. I'd probably go with that plus you can get more options on the CPU than you can with HP.

 

Great review, not so great price. The HP looks like a capable system and all, so maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong when I say the price looks a bit unjustified?

 

It's an expensive machine but if you call you should be able to get a discount; 18-27% is not uncommon. Expect ~$2,300 at the minimum for an 8740w with the DreamColor2 screen; $2,500+ with a quad-core.

The DreamColor 2 in the HP is unmatched; it is a 30-bit IPS panel with an RGB LED backlight. It has special electronics in the screen as well. The Dell and the Lenovo both use lower-grade TN panels (albeit decent ones, however nothing close to an IPS in quality). If you're looking for the best screen on the market, then the 8740w is your ticket.
The build quality of the 8740w is also better than the Dell/Lenovo in my opinion.

Scroll down here to see some details of the DreamColor2 screen (scroll down a couple posts):
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/223/7928
Here's some info on various screen types (IPS, TN, and so on):
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/specs.htm

 

Well if you need color accuracy in Laptop form, using the Laptop's screen, is there really any competition? Sure you can come close with some of the other top-of-the-line TN screens and a good calibration; main requirement being with those screens is you must keep your head & viewing angle of the screen in the center and perpendicular to it. IPS vs TN display tech comparison isn't even close when you're using it for photo or film editing (TN is largely 'better' if you hold gaming more important than viewing angle) in regards to image uniformity over a wide viewing angle. Then given the IPS screen we're talking about here is coupled with the RGB lighting, 10-bit driver, and hardware+software to control it all ... I think it's pretty clear that the DC2 screen in the 8#40w series has created a new high water mark for displays in a mobile form.

Your need was exactly why I bought mine. Here is my lengthy post on the topic: http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...-best-screens-photoediting-2.html#post6486482
Hope it helped.

 

That's the same or very similar screen to the one found in Lenovo W701 and AW M17X. IMHO, it's unbearable with the standard (2.2) gamut, you have to change it to 1.8.

Also, with the discounts offered by both Lenovo and HP, M6500 is much more expensive. I don't see how you can get more than 10% off if you're not a student or Dell employee.

 

I'm still interested in this notebook depending on battery life, what's the most one can realistically expect (standard vs extended batteries)? -Thnx

 

I have finel 2 quations . i am going to buy the Hp elite book 8740w with the dreem color , wuxga 1920x1200. i am returning the lenovo w701.


1- which video card to specify if i am doing heavey photoshop work and color accuracy ,get the Ati fire pro or Nvidia 2800?
2- Do we have to get 3rd party external calibration for this laptop screen.?Or just use the Hp moible disply assistant color calibration software ,that comes with this laptop?

 

I provided my thoughts regarding question 1 in response to your question in the "Best Screens for Photoediting?" thread, so I won't take-up space/bytes repeating it here. ...so I guess you didn't put-in your order on Monday after all... lol

The HP MDA (as we call it) is really only for switching between calibrations or pre-set gamuts. If you wish to actually re-calibrate to your card/screen's behavior, or to be more accurate by calibrating for your ambiant light conditions, you'll need either HP's private-labeled calibrator or another wide-gamut calibrator (in which case you are no longer using the HP MDA beyond setting the selected gamut to User/Native or whatever it's called).

 

Thanks for your responce, But did not understand your message!. yes did not place the order till i had to negotiate with return the lenovo w701.

The 1st Q was which video card type to order on th eHP? I like the idea where lenovo had its build in calibration system, so do not buy third party hard ware. My Q could i just calibrate the HP with software comming w. the laptop? or i need to get the external hard ware to place on the screen? also . is the video card ATI or Nvidia mhave any effect on this process ?I realy like not to get involved in profiling and 3rd party hard ware!see below for profiling.Thanks for you answer.

HP DreamColor Advanced Profiling Solution (KZ300AA) specifications - HP Small & Medium Business products


MCADCafe -