HP Compaq 6515b, Compaq 6715b and HP 510 Notebooks Released

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HP today unveiled three new business notebooks: The HP 510, HP Compaq 6515b, and HP Compaq 6715b. Each notebook has a budget price tag. The HP 510 comes with Celeron or Pentium M processor while the Compaq 6515b and 6715b are offered with AMD Turion X2 or Sempron processors. Linux or Windows are options on the 6515b and 6715b notebooks.

HP 510 Notebook PC

HP 510 (view large image)

The HP 510 is a 15.4&quot; widescreen budget notebook targeted at small business users, it isn't even offered with the new Windows Vista operating system (for which some don't care anyway). The processor options include the old Intel Pentium M or a Celeron M processor.

Here's an example configuration of the HP 510 that would cost $565 at HP.com:

• Processor: Intel Celeron M
• Display: 15.4&quot; WXGA with BrightView
• Graphics: Intel GMA 900
• Memory: 512 MB RAM
• Hard Drive: 60GB
• Optical Drive: DVD+ / - RW
• OS: Windows XP (no Vista)
• Wireless: 802.11bg
• Warranty: 1-year
• Dimensions: 1.26 x 14.09 x 10.12 in (31.9 x 357.9 x 257.0 mm)
• Weight: 6.0lbs
• Ports: 2 USB 2.0, 1 RJ-45, 1 RJ-11, 1 microphone in, 1 headphone/line-out, 1 AC power, 1 external monitor, 1 PCMCIA slot
  

If you got a Pentium M processor the price jumps to $699. Obviously there's nothing ground breaking or gee whiz about this notebook. But the price is right. Notice that they've adopted the dimpled touchpad that the HP tx1000z tablet PC has on it. You can see there's a scroll area next to the touchpad as well.

HP 510 keyboard view (view large image)

 

HP 6715b Notebook PC

(view large image)

The HP 6715b notebook comes in many configurations, all of which include an AMD processor option. You can get the 6715b for a starting price of $649, here's the configuration for the cheapest model of the 6715b from HP.com:

• Processor: AMD Sempron 3500+
• Display: 15.4&quot; WXGA with BrightView
• Chipset: AMD M690T
• Memory: 512MB of RAM
• Graphics: ATI Radeon X1250
• Hard Drive: 80GB (5400RPM) SATA
• Optical Drive: DVD/CD-RW combo
• OS: Windows XP or Vista, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, FreeDOS
• Wireless: 802.11b/g
• Warranty: 1-year
• Weight: 5.7lbs
• Dimensions: 1.37 x 14.05 x 10.43 in (34.9 x 357.0 x 265.0 mm)
• Ports: 4 USB 2.0, 1 RJ-11, 1 microphone in, 1 headphone/line-out, 1 IEEE 1394, 1 docking connector, 1external VGA monitor, 1 RJ-45, 1 AC power, 1 S-video, 6-in-1 media card reader, 1-Type II PC Card Slot

If you add in an AMD Turion 64 X2 2.0GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HD, LightScribe optical drive, 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth the price of the 6715b jumps to $1,349. Again, this is a pretty basic notebook, but a decent port selection and the price is again the story. The look of all black and some dark grey is quite classy, but nothing cutting edge by any means. And kudos to HP for offering Linux or FreeDOS in this model!

HP 6715b right side view (view large image)

HP 6715b back side view (view large image)

HP 6715b left side view (view large image)

 

HP 6515b Notebook PC

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The HP 6515b notebook is a 14.1&quot; widescreen business machine and comes at a starting price of $649 also. It offers the same AMD processor options as the larger 6715b. Following is the configuration for a $649 HP 6515b from HP.com:

• Processor: Mobile AMD Sempron 3500+
• Display: 14.1&quot; WXGA with BrightView
• Memory: 512MB of RAM
• Chipset: AMD M690T
• Graphics: ATI Radeon X1250
• Hard Drive: 80GB (5400RPM) SATA
• Optical Drive: DVD-RW/CD Combo
• OS: Windows XP or Vista, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, FreeDOS
• Wireless: 802.11b/g
• Warranty: 1-year
• Weight: 5.0lbs
• Dimensions: 1.33 x 13.03 x 9.57 in (30.3 x 330.9 x 243.1 mm)
• Ports: Ports: 4 USB 2.0, 1 RJ-11, 1 microphone in, 1 headphone/line-out, 1 IEEE 1394, 1 docking connector, 1external VGA monitor, 1 RJ-45, 1 AC power, 1 S-video, 6-in-1 media card reader, 1-Type II PC Card Slot

Again, once you add in better and faster components the price of this machine jumps to $1,29 when fully loaded. Which still isn't a bad price. The Compaq 6515b actually somewhat resembles the HP dv2000t consumer notebook in its looks, but without the wavy finish.

HP 6515b right side view (view large image)

HP 6515b back side view (view large image)

HP 6515 left side view (view large image)

 

Pricing and Availability:

Each of the new notebooks are available now from HPShopping.com

• HP 510 at HP.com
• HP 6715b at HP.com
• HP 6515b at HP.com

 

I think the best response was

6515b and 6715b ticks all the boxes then

 

Obviously the "b" they put at the end of each notebook here stands for "budget". Yeah, nothing exciting. It's interesting to see the touchpad they've used on the 510 is the same they used on the tx1000z. Other than that, I'm not writing home to anybody about these notebooks.

 

I like the styling of them, but the performance is pretty shoddy, even for a business notebook.

 

Nice the new amd M690 chipsets , finally

 

they finally build an affordable 14" widescreen business notebook, and its got a turion x2. yuck. And why continue to use brightview on business notebooks? 90% of the environments in which i use a notebook have heavy use of overhead flourescents, which makes brightview screens all but unusable

 

I'm surprised, way better looking than the "older" HP business laptops if you ask me. Here's hoping the new Santa Rosa laptops would share the same designs... fingers crossed.

 

The HP 510 is looking mighty delicious.
Sony just called HP, and they want their FS-series hinges back.

 

Couldn't get any info on the FreeDOS version online. Had a chat with a live-popup rep

 

That's a nice observation on the 6515 and 6715 having the AMD M690 inside. There's a press release on that from AMD / HP here:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal...Lang=en&div=-1993463876&newsId=20070328005909

Quoted below for ease of reading:

 

Well, if you decide to call and find out, let us know what kind of pricing they quote

 

This exists?

 

Yes http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonxpress1250mob/index.html

And an ATI X1270 is apparently coming soon to provide better performance over the X1250 according to this internal AMD document:

http://www.amdquizzes.com/es/pdf/T_AMD_Mobile_Platform_070111_v3_english_OK.pdf

(search on 1270 in that PDF)

 

Anyone miss the day of the affordable V2000z and V3000z? It seems like laptop prices went up. You used to be able to get a pretty darn good laptop for $600. Now I'm having trouble helping my friend find one for even $600.

 

M690 is probably a better platform than 945 in terms of graphics, battery life, and memory benchmarks. But obviously will still get beat in processing scores because of the cpus.

It will be interesting to see how it compares to Santa Rosa though.

 

I'm interested in the FreeDOS version myself. While the press kit says that it is "Certified" for SUSE Linux specifically, that does suggest that the hardware is intentionally Linux-friendly and be supported by the distro of your choice. That is always nice to see.

(Note: The datasheets only describe SUSE as "Certified". It does not appear to be available preinstalled. Of course, Linux is always an "option" )

 

Which one's going to be faster? Radeon X1250 or GMA X3000 with mature drivers? Really makes me wonder.

 

im going to go out on a limb and say x1250 > x3000.

Pretty much cause its ati graphics vs intel graphics.

and the x1150 was already more than 2x better than GMA950.

 

510 looks nice, but Pentium M? 60GB PATA hard drive? Not configurable?
What are you thinking, HP?

 

Possibly a bit off-topic, but has anybody got an idea of when HP might release the successors to their nw8440 and nw9440 ?
I'm quite tempted by the 9440, but i feel like i should wait in case they release something in April or May (I'm thinking about something with a Goforce 8x00 nVidia GC)...

 

i like the design of 510, but why celeron m?

 

Yeah, the 510 certainly a stellar looking design. It's ironic really. A so-called "new" Pentium-M laptop that looks far superior than their current Core 2Duo line? Oh man I never saw that coming.

 

Well, I called, and got "John Curry" from HP Small Business. The news is not good.

John insisted, and re-insisted that the 6515B will ONLY come with Vista. When pointed to the specification page http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-321838-89315-3368537.html John CLARIFIED the [Operating Systems] specifications to mean that these OS are SUPPORTED, but ONLY Vista will be sold. John further said that if a buyer wants any other OS other than Vista, such as XP or FreeDOS, the buyer must buy the 6515b with Vista and dump it (Vista).

When asked about quantity discount (we were thinking about 400 notebooks for the balance of 2007), the answer was a flat NO to any volume discount.

Needless to say, I was shocked, dismayed, and disappointed.

 

From what I learned today from HP Small Business, perhaps the kudos were premature.

 

Hi - I have been using various HP laptops for a while, mostly by chance it turns out. It is time for me to buy a new laptop, and I and looking at the 6515B as well.

I found that HP's site is only selling it with Vista, but PC Connection has one model with XP here that I am strongly considering"

http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=7632174

I already use XP software, and really wanted built in blue tooth for a VOIP application I want to use.

This ships with only 512 mb ram, but I figure I can add an extra 1 GB ram in the other slot, letting me dedicate quite a bit to video ram.

What do you think ?

Thanks