HP Reveals New EliteBook and ProBook Business Laptops Discussion

HP today unveiled its newest notebooks designed for corporate clients and small and medium business customers. The new EliteBook p-series, ProBook b-series, and ProBook s-series promise something unique for every type of business user. The combination of the latest Intel Core processors along with extreme battery life make an attractive option for road warriors who need durable notebooks with plenty of performance.

Read the full content of this Article: HP Reveals New EliteBook and ProBook Business Laptops

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Interesting! The new Elitebooks seem to be a fair bit cheaper than the old ones, although I'm not sure how much I like the new look versus the old look. The old chassis just seemed more utilitarian, although not having seen these machines in person, I will reserve judgment.

The battery life games are definitely on though, 32 hours of battery life? Seriously? Two more hours than even the T420 with 9-cell + 9-cell slice?

 

No, replacement announced for the 2540, and/or 2740?

 

Any word on the Dreamcolor IPS screens making it to any of these?

 

It's hard to compare prices. The current generation Eilitebooks have an unmovable price when pre-configured, but the configurable price was subject to 24%-28% discounts depending on your sales rep and negotiating. My guess is that a lower price point will just mean a smaller discount will be available. Starting prices are usually pretty useless.

I also agree on looks. The shiny finish on the Elitebooks is not something I'd look forward to buying before seeing it in real life. I don't want glare off my laptop body.

 

That's true - in the past, though, even the starting price of the Elitebooks were higher than comparable T-series and W-series Thinkpads. This new line, though, seems to be more or less identical to the Thinkpads, at least in terms of starting price. Lenovo, however, historically offers far more discounts than HP.

 

It seems the p series went on the same way lenovo did with the t500 to t510 upgrade. Less graphical power. If the amd radeon hd 6470 card is the correct info. If the notebookcheck data is even a bit close to the truth, then this card is 20-30 % weaker then the current 8540p. The only strange thing is, that the quad sandy bridge hd graphics should deliver very close this hd 6470. Why use this dedicated card at all? It should be only hd graphics for the p series, and dedicated for the w series.

 

Marketing, because amd/ati gpu sounds better than intel gpu?

Does the Elitebook(12in or 14in) come with display or hdmi port?

 

Well, it could be. But that would be on the level of advertising graphic cards with the amount of ram. Cheap stuff for non-expert customers.

I only follow notebooks for the last five years, but I did not see yet a useless component built in the high end business notebook just for marketing. I mean if the output is nearly identical, then the dedicated gpu is just making the notebook worse (battery time, heat, etc.).

The Thinkpad T510 with dedicated graphics was a downgrade from T500, but it did at least have more then twice graphics power over the one with integrated graphics.

We will see in 2 months I guess, if we have a review.

 

Sandy Bridge is 5% better on average than the HD5470. Relative to the latter, the HD6470 has an updated architecture and twice the shaders. Sandy Bridge will not be close, although an argument for it can still be made given that Sandy Bridge is perfectly fine for everything except 3D gaming and the 6470 won't be that good at the latter.

 

So this hd6470 should about match the current 8540p in graphic power?

In that case it is only product line decision (a bad one I think), not a clear error.

I do think that a dedicated graphics card should at least have double grahics power over integrated graphics to make sense. When I bought my 8510p this ratio was at least 5:1.

But this is hard with sandy bridge, and will be even harder with ivy bridge.

 

Problem with integrated GPU is that it consumes RAM (even 1,7GB , depends on BIOS settings and resolution used). If someone really needs all ram (from 8GB configurable) then discrete GPU is somehow usefull. It will be different when 8GB SO-Dimms will be more popular.

 

Personally, I'm looking towards the HP Probook B 6360b, 13" with maybe 20+ hours of real use battery power... Which will replace my Envy 13. Shame the screen won't be as good as the 13

 

I guess they'll get anounced later on with the ULV processors?

i'm curious how the 2750p will look.. so far, i always had those. but i'm not sure if i might switch to an ordinary laptop with bigger screen?.. then again, finally i could get a version with multitouch.. oh the options..

 

I know the Envy 13 doesn't get anywhere near that 20+ hour mark... but isn't your Envy 13 capable of hitting at least 8-10 hours (with slice)?

I must say... I'm quite tempted to pick up an Envy 13 (SL9600, 1600x900, 5gb, 160gb SSD) mostly because of that screen! With slice, it should have ~100mWh battery and I figure that should easily stretch to ~10 hours. Did HP never fix the touchpad on them?

Sorry for going off-topic

The glass touchpad on the Elitebook has me intrigued... maybe it will finally be a match for Apple's? Not that it matters to me since I much prefer the nubbin.
And the arrow keys So much for function over form... (ignoring what I said earlier about my preference to my 8540w's looks ) I thought that's what business laptops were all about

 

Eyefinity? I know only the latest AMD/ATI GPU models support 3 active displays at once. I'm not 100% certain but I'd think HD6470 would be new enough to support that, someone else with detailed information please confirm this

Considering that the advanced dock has 5 display connectors: 2 dvi, 2 display port and one VGA ( http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/...ML#HP 120W and 230W Advanced Docking Stations ) having a GPU that supports three active displays at once, is a benefit.

Edit: few hours later I stumbled on this: http://notebooks.com/2011/02/22/hp-...tm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hp-elitebook-8560p

Supports Eyefinity as I thought. Basically that's the reason to choose discrete gpu over integrated.

 

Oh man...I'm an admitted Latitude fanboy (with some EliteBook love as well ever since the first time I played with one at work...) but man, these new EliteBooks make the new E-Series Dell's look pretty bad styling wise.

 

No, HP . . . no no no. These look ugly vs. the previous-gen. My first thought was a G42/G62 with a brushed aluminum cover. I will be surprised if they are as well built as the older versions. I will save final judgment for when I see one in person though.

They will only go in the Workstation models (models ending in w). They haven't been announced yet.

 

I agree... actually a bottom similar to the one of the probook B (but not as thick) with the cover of the old elitebook might have been nice

If the probook 4330s can be found at a reasonnable price, it might be a very nice laptop for non-demanding users (a macbook white replacement kinda ).

 

I've had my eye on the 8440p/w for about a week and I like the newer models they have just announced. True, I loved the no non-sense looks of the pervious generation, but do you really think the new ones look ugly?

I'd rather have the 8440 looks, but I think the better computer hardware inside outweights the slight drop from the "tough business" style.

 

usb3 instead of eSata is a good replacement ?

will there be switchable graphics between intel's and ati's?

will the prices be the same or dropped for the probook?

 

Is it just me or did they skip the 8550 and 8450 models?

Not a particular fan of the new looks, but as Chaz put it, it might look better in person. That said, I really like the current Elitebook designs.

 

In answer: The Envy 13 is, probably the best or top 5 best machines I've owned over the years. It does have amazaing battery life (I fitted a 1.8" Intel SSD in mine) but I simply want MORE

As for teh trackpad, if I can complete Plants Vs Zombies using it, it's fixed.

 

what's with the silver look on the elitebooks? I almost waited for the SB models to come out, glad I didn't now (looks wise at least)

 

Crazy ... the 8460p with 32 hour life?

Well, all I have to say is that I do not mind seeing such battery life competition!

 

I thought those models used the LV cpu? I too want to see the looks, but I am more curios to see what the battery life(I hear the X220 can do like 18+ hours) will be(32 hours would be awesome), and if they went the Lenovo route by going with a 12.5in screen. I think there is too many options for some of us now. I wasn't even really looking at the 14in category, but the specs and battery life of this and the T410 really caught my eye. If these prove to offer a better screen quality for Photoshop, and video watching then I may have to get a 14in machine over their 12in notebook or tablet brethren.

I wonder how long it would take to charge it to get 32 hours.

I take this has a display port? If so, does the HDMI adapter have audio pass through in previous models?

 

Hmm ... good point ... didn't think about this side of things!

 

I wonder if the new EliteBook workstation w-series will be announced soon, or still a few months off? (I noticed Lenovo also has not announced a new 17" W720 model yet.)

Some questions if anyone knows:

1) Will all EliteBooks and ProBooks 15" (actually 15.6"?) and larger continue to have a dedicated numpad?

2) Will the new 17" w-series continue to be the only model with a 16x10 ratio screen, while all others are 16x9?

3) Will the 15.6" and 17" w-series continue to be the only 2 models with an IPS screen option?

I'm thinking about waiting for a new HP w-series with IPS and numpad (since
many of the new ThinkPads won't seem to have USB 3.0, and I don't even think any of them offer IPS??).

The 17" may be too big and heavy, but I don't like the 16x9 ratio on the 15.6" screen...

 

Could these Elitebooks actually be using the HD2000 gpu that is rumored for the Vaio SB, as it seems the HD3000 is better than even the optional gpu it comes with?

 

@beq: I would actually expect the 17" Elitebooks of this new generation to go to the 16:9 screen format as well, so don't have your hopes up too high.

 

Radeon 6470? Seriously HP?

 

yay!! cool design, but air vents on the right side?
my previous notebook was with such vent configuration, believe me, that all hot air blowing directly into your hand with mouse isn't exactly the nicest feeling...

what HP designers are thinking?
they maybe do not know, that as wikipedia says "A variety of studies suggest that 70-90% of world population are right-handed rather than left-handed or any other form of handedness"

 

No, all SB mobile chips use HDG3000.

And HDG3000 is a bit below, though the upgrade would only be worth it for under $50.

 

I'm foot-handed.

Yeah, it's weird. I thought they learned the lesson not to do this from the dv2...

 

yes, but with the vent on the left side on my 8740w my cold beer I keep to the left of me when gaming doesn't stay cold that long...

 

I'm not big on the Macbook-wannabe looks, but the 8460 doesn't look terrible like the Dell E6420. However, the keyboard is a deal-killer for me. Who thought that arrow key arrangement and a chiclet keyboard were good ideas? Rather than copying the industry benchmark (Thinkpad T) they copied Apple. Not sure why.

 

ha ha ha yeah, I just pasted text from wikipedia...

 

I take it the bulk of comments (less than elated) are about design-only. You throw a quad core SB cpu into these and the power boost should make you forget that the machine you are looking down on is silver.

 

But it can't change the fact that it has a chiclet keyboard

 

There is chiclet and chiclet... Some are usable in my experience. I'd wait before judging it.

 

Indeed, not all chiclet keyboards are created equal. I absolutely love the chiclets used on apple's external keyboards-Firm, nice travel, great sizing.

 

maybe hp is promoting external keyboards market

 

Who are these aimed at exactly? I appreciate they're aiming for a younger professional audience but they look a bit too close to apple? They could end up losing their typical business notebook chasing after the young Apple market? I see an awful lot of young professionals with Thinkpads.

 

Maybe they'll sober up the workstations. These are, after all, the "light" business notebooks.

 

Don't hold your breath. At least historically, the p- and w-series Elitebooks shared the same chassis.

 

Oh I know. And I'm not, really, especially as I just got my 8740w last December. Still, though, we haven't seen the 8760w, yet, so it may still have the "old" styling. It would be a departure, sure, but it's still at least possible. Especially if they manage to hold out and keep 16:10.... (no, I don't seriously expect that.)

 

One would think they did some market research including focus groups before making such a "radical" design choice. Still t might be smarter for them to make two case options; in these days of flexible manufacturing, it would not be difficult or costly to do. Let the target market(s) decide which one makes the "statement" they wish to make. It does risk some fragmenting of their brand image, but that doesn't seem as risky as making an outlandish design choice in a staid, conservative market. (For car enthusiasts, it's a bit reminiscent of the disastrous "Bangle" era of BMWs in the mid-2000s, which damn near destroyed the brand's image for a long time.)

But let's also get real here: most business class notebooks are ordered by IT buyers, and though this group is not known for having avant garde tastes, they are known for going with the brand and model that has the features they need, are most easily maintained, secured and updated en masse, at decent price points. They are also intensely brand loyal (there are "HP shops, Lenovo shops, etc) and need to balance the management of legacy units still in service with newer models they bring into the IT infrastructure of the enterprise, and all this discourages brand-hopping, solely because a new model is a little shinier than they prefer. I doubt folks like us, who are enthusiasts, represent a significant piece of the pie to base design decisions on, though it is ironic that this thread goes against the notion designers probably hold - with or without focus groups - that younger, enthusiast buyers are more likely to be attracted to stodgy, conservative designs. Go figure.

BTW, I have to comment, Mr. Wright has about the most powerful, impressive rigs - the Dell Precision - I think I have ever seen, er, the specs of; I truly covet it. My point: that's one beautiful computer, and I have no idea what it looks like. I just know I want what he has.

 

is not it time for big companies to make a space for the opinions of the users and futural users and followers before they put their futural plans into action?

should not they listen to what people demand?

or is it a step too way to get?

 

These models are now for sale. The Estimated Ship date is 3/22. No configuration is possible yet, only pre-config models for now. I assume some corporate customers will be receiving shipments before the 22nd, keep your eyes open for pics and vids.

 

I can't wait for a retailer that does international shipping to have the 8460p in stock. Anyone else from Australia hanging out for one?