HP Fansite

HP updates ultra-portable EliteBook laptops; EliteBook 2770p tablet still missing

2012 HP EliteBook 2170p

If you’ve been keeping up with the news this week, HP has practically updated every single notebook they have. There’s a lot more happening on the consumer side with the launch of brand new Envy models and tweaked Pavilion models while on the business side, we’re mainly seeing ProBook models with slightly improved designs and selection of new processors. The EliteBook models are HP’s flagship top-notch laptops and they too have not undergone significant changes design-wise. You do get faster processors and new graphics options though, which is great if you’re stepping up from a year 2010 or earlier model but 2011 EliteBook owners shouldn’t jump yet.

Perhaps the biggest new thing about the HP EliteBook range is, ironically, the smallest (physically) thing announced today. HP just welcomed a new ‘baby EliteBook’ to their top business laptop range: the EliteBook 2170p. This model brings back the ultra low voltage Intel processors that have been around since the HP 2510p, 2530p and 2540p days but were missing on last year’s EliteBook 2560p in favor of more powerful full-voltage processors. Why on earth would anyone want an ultra low voltage (ULV) processor when a full-voltage one will be more powerful? Battery life and heat, that’s why! Having used and owned many HP products, and still using an EliteBook 2530p as my primary travel laptop, I can say I love ULV processors. My EliteBook 2530p which uses a now-ancient low-voltage Intel processor runs fanless on an almost full-time basis. The fan only comes on once temperature hits 45 Celcius, and the laptop usually hovers around 30-40 Celcius unless the weather is hot or if I’m running Photoshop or Premiere Pro on the tiny machine (silly me!).

The HP EliteBook 2170p which will run on currently-unspecified 2012 ULV Intel Ivy Bridge processors should run even cooler and have more battery stamina than ever, though HP doesn’t have any battery life numbers for us yet. As hinted by its model name, the EliteBook 2170p has an 11 inch screen (1366 x 768 resolution), making it the smallest EliteBook model so far. It’s also one of the lightest, weighing in at just 1.3 kg (2.9 pounds) which is a hair lighter than Apple’s 13 inch MacBook Air, but not quite as light as the 11 inch MacBook Air yet. But hey, what do you expect from an EliteBook? If the EliteBook 2170p is as durable as its ancestors in the EliteBook family (which we do not doubt), you could probably stand a person or two on its closed lid (not that we’re encouraging this)  and have absolutely no detrimental effect resulting from that… while any MacBook Air subjected to the same torture will probably have its screen cracked (or worse, remember not to try this at home and not stand on your laptop!). The EliteBook 2170p is constructed from the same magnesium-alloy material as its siblings and looks a lot like a shrunken EliteBook 2570p.

The EliteBook 2170p, despite being the smallest in the family, sports standard HP EliteBook business class features, including a big trackpad with buttons plus a pointing stick with dedicated buttons, full-sized keyboard, SRS Premium Sound branding, 720p HD webcam option, fingerprint reader and Smart Card reader. Strangely enough, the EliteBook 2170p will be compatible with the full-sized docking station used by larger ProBook and EliteBook models instead of the smaller docking station with a different design used by the EliteBook 25xxp series for years. This strangeness in design makes us hopeful that HP brings back support for secondary batteries on their ultra-portable range (The add-on secondary battery has been limited to 14 inch and larger models since 2007 though we have seen Compaq allow secondary batteries on their tiny 12 inch laptops back in 2005/2006, so it’s not impossible!).

The EliteBook 2170p does not have an HP Night Light but will allow you to configure it with a backlit keyboard as an option. Ports on the EliteBook 2170p will include 2 USB 3.0 ports, a combo headphone/microphone jack, full-sized Display Port, VGA, Ethernet and SD card slot. The EliteBook 2170p will start at $999, available June 22.

2012 HP EliteBook 2570p

On to the EliteBook 2570p, successor to last year’s EliteBook 2560p. As you can see, this 12.5 inch ultra-portable laptop inherits the design of its predecessor so it’s physically identical down to the ports and display. The EliteBook 2570p weighs 1.6 kg (3.6 lbs) which is slightly lighter than its predecessor, much to the delight of road warriors, and upgrades its guts with next-generation full-voltage 2012 Intel Ivy Bridge processors and integrated graphics. The EliteBook 2570p still uses the HP Night Light and does not have any keyboard backlight options. Also we’re very curious if HP will offer an IPS display option on the EliteBook 2570p like Lenovo has been doing with their X220 model since last year; it would bring great joy to us users if HP did that (the EliteBook 2560p was offered only with a 1366 x 768 resolution ‘standard’ LED backlit display). The EliteBook 2570p will be available on June 22 at a starting price of $1099.

And guess who’s missing in this week’s announcements? The 2012 HP EliteBook convertible tablet! The tablet-variant has been historically known to come out with its ultra-portable EliteBook 25xx counterpart, including the simultaneous announcement of the EliteBook 2560p ultra-portable and EliteBook 2760p convertible tablet last year. What happened to the HP EliteBook 2770p?! We’re not sure. The rumor mill runs amok with speak about the resurrection of a true Compaq tc1100 successor but who knows…

HP EliteBook Folio 9740m is a business-class ultrabook

HP EliteBook Folio 9740m business ultrabook

It’s an EliteBook! It’s a Folio! Nope, it’s both! HP announced their new EliteBook Folio 9740m this week. The new EliteBook Folio 9470m appears to be the spiritual successor to the HP ProBook 5330m and now packs even more features that business users will appreciate than before. The EliteBook Folio 9740m (yes what a long name) caters to business users more perfectly than before, providing them with an alternative to the HP Folio 13 which has been reviewed and found to be rather consumer-oriented.

On the outside, the HP EliteBook Folio 9740m sports a body which has the same design philosophy that HP introduced with last year’s EliteBook models, including a solid aluminum construction. The EliteBook Folio 9740m will be available on yet-to-be-mentioned 2012 Intel Ivy Bridge processors, though it’s no biggie of Intel hasn’t announced some of their new mobile chips yet since the HP EliteBook Folio is expected to become available in October this year (no that is not a joke!) which gives prospective buyers give-or-take 5 months to twiddle thumbs. Since release of this model is so far away, we don’t have a lot of information so far but here’s what we do know about HP’s business Ultrabook:

• Upcoming 2012 Ivy Bridge Intel Core processors (not sure if low voltage or full voltage)
• Unknown slots for DDR3 1600 MHz RAM (though HP says it will support up to 16 GB)
• 2.5 storage drive bay for HDD or SSD (plus optional 32 GB mSATA SSD if you go with a hard disk as a main drive)
• 14 inch matte display (1366 x 768 resolution only); no word on higher-resolution 1600 x 900 option
• Intel Integrated Graphics 4000
• Trackpad with physical buttons; pointing stick with dedicated buttons
• Full-sized backlit keyboard with dedicated Home/End/Page Up/down keys
• Display Port and VGA ports
• Connectivity ports include: Smart Card reader, 3 USB ports (at least one of them is USB 3.0), SD card slot, combo headphone/microphone jack and Ethernet
• SRS HD Audio branding for speakers
• HD webcam
• 1.9 cm (0.75 inches) thin, 1.6 kg (3.6 lbs) weight
• Available in October; base price starts at $1149

The HP EliteBook Folio 9470m has features that cater to business uers such as a TPM security chip, HP Protect Tools security software with full encryption options, underside port compatible with HP docking stations (the standard one that has been available for years) and support for an optional secondary battery.

HP Folio 13 Ultrabook Review at pc.sk

HP Folio 13 Ultrabook

Earlier this year, one of our loyal readers, Tomas Hlatky posted his in-depth review of the HP Folio 13 on computer hardware website PC.sk (I think the best description about PC.sk from me is that they’re the DPReview of computers in Slovakia). His review spans a whopping 13 pages long and extensively covers hardware and benchmarks, along with plenty of photos showing views of the HP Folio 13. Such an in-depth review should definitely be appreciated, so if you don’t know Slovak, Google has a handy and very nicely translated version of Tomas’ HP Folio 13 review.

I’m not a spoilers type of person so I’ll leave discovering the Folio 13 to you. However, it’s interesting that he concludes the review with a mention that the HP Folio 13 is more of a consumer ultrabook. It lacks a couple of things that business users will appreciate, notably a fingerprint reader, HP ProtectTools and a higher resolution display. We think that HP has addressed this with today’s launch of the new business-class HP EliteBook Folio 9470m but we’ll find out once the EliteBook Folio review rolls out.

HP announces 2012 Pavilion, EliteBook, Probook, Envy, desktop models

And we’re back with HP announcing a boatload of new notebooks and computers yesterday, plus a printer and monitor or two. There’s so much news right now (and as usual we didn’t get any info ahead of time from HP) so expect some writeups and opinions soon once I manage the massive amount of specs and stories of the new products.

On the consumer side of things, HP has refreshed their Pavilion models with the new dv4, dv6 and dv7 full-size laptop models with 14 to 17 inch screens along with a new entry-level affordable ultrabook model called the Pavilion m6. HP has also updated their super-budget G-series laptops with the new HP g6 and g7.

If you’re a fan of HP’s prestigious Envy line, they have a whopping 5 new Envy models announced today. There’s the HP Envy Spectre XT which is a scaled down version of their premium Envy Spectre 14 announced earlier this year. There’s also the Envy Sleekbook and Envy Ultrabook models, each come in two flavors: 14 and 15.6 inch display sizes.

For their business-class products, HP has launched a whole line of new EliteBook models, including a brand new 11 inch EliteBook 2170p ‘baby EliteBook’ model along with more ProBook models, Compaq desktop models and new entry-level Compaq monitors (one is a touchscreen model).

Other things launched include a new 23 inch IPS LED monitor, Officejet 150 all-in-one printer and Photosmart 5520 printer.

We’ll be writing up more on these shiny new HP products to give each of them well-deserved attention and coverage so wait till we post those articles!

Custom modified EliteBook spotted with eye-tracking sensor

Custom EliteBook used by Tobii Tech

Well hello everyone, hope you had a good holiday season and happy new year 2012. CES is coming and we’ll be sure to get busy around here. I spotted something very interesting two days ago when Tobii Technology showed off a video with their new hardware for mouse-free interaction with Windows 8. This was made possible via eye-tracking, whose hardware was incorporated into a modified HP EliteBook (specifically the 14 inch EliteBook 8440p).

Custom EliteBook with eye tracking hardware

It’s an interesting concept, though practicality of everyday usage is questionable (I can certainly see this being used on public interactive displays/advertising panels, but not at home), and you can check out the full two and a half minute long video below… be warned though, I’m pretty sure chopping your EliteBook in half and piecing it back together with your Xbox Kinect cameras or future Tobii hardware will be certain to void your HP warranty!