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Mark your calendars: Mid March 2010 (UPDATED)

One of the more reliable sources out there has recently picked something up on the radar: *something* will be announced somewhere in the middle of next month, perhaps biased a little towards the end, but nevertheless, something. *Something* because it is currently unknown what exactly it will be, but I’m sure many of us are all hoping it will be the some things we’ve been waiting for, huh?

Nope, don’t look at the categories I’ve listed below as hints I know something you all don’t – it’s just wishful thinking because my guess is as good as your’s. The time of month has been confirmed (mid-end March), but announcement/event is unknown. So remember to take some time off this weekend to do the lucky dance and hope it’s the new Elitebooks and/or ATI graphics options.

UPDATE: In case you were thinking the Feb 28/March 1 announcement of the Elitebook 2540p and 2740p and updated Probook models were “IT”, you’re wrong. Expect another round of announcements in March. So this time we can narrow things down to either the flagship Elitebook 8740w with Dream Color 2, the new Envy 14 and Envy 17, new Pavilion notebooks, one or more of the above, or something completely different (remote possibility: HP Slate pricing and availability?). And the speculation goes on….

HP 2010 Envy 15 Review (ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 and Core i7 Quad)

I have a friend who recently bought a new HP Envy 15, which HP updated last month with new Intel Core i5 mobile processor options and ATI Mobility Radeon 5830, and USB 3.0 (with Core i7 models only). First, a little intro on why he decided to buy the Envy 15, and why now – he wanted to replace his aging 15 inch notebook with some thing of similar size and with a lot of power for his PC games, and liked the 2009 Envy 15 (mainly due to build quality), but decided to hold out until ATI released their Mobility Radeon 5000 series graphics card. Coincidentally, the refreshed 2010 Envy 15 was the first (or one of the first) notebook with ATI’s new breed of DX11 mobile graphics available, so he got his cake and got to eat it too. So two weeks ago (or was it three), after his Envy 15 arrived, he offered me to take this new machine on a two week [intensive] test drive, in exchange for helping him set things up – install his games and software, remove the bloatware (ahem, Norton trial, ahem) and stuff… an offer I gladly accepted!

It’s gonna be a fairly in-depth review with many pretty pictures, and I don’t want to jam up the front page, so hit that link to continue reading.

Read more »

Super HP belated Valentine’s day rumors roundup

Okay, fine, so this may have little to do with Valentine’s day… but let’s spread some love for the several HP notebooks that have been and continue to stay elusive.

Elitebook 8740w: So it seems a lot of people have a couple of grand lying around and are all set to drop it on this long-awaited Mobile Workstation on the precise millisecond it comes out. Question is WHEN?! There was a gap of roughly one month between when the Elitebook 6930p and 8530/8730w series were announced back in 2008. It’s been over a month since the Elitebook 8440 and 8540 models were announced at CES 2010, so where is the 8740w?! (And oh, before I forget 8740w, where are your smaller friends as well?). I suspect the Elitebook 8740w’s elusiveness has something to do with ATI launching FirePro mobile, HP launching DreamColor 2 displays or both. Most likely DreamColor 2 is the culprit. You see, DreamColor displays are a wonderful technology that you don’t see on notebooks everyday… so what a great party/bash it would be for HP to launch the flagship Elitebook 8740w FEATURING DreamColor 2?! It’s very, very, very likely that the 8740w and DreamColor 2 will debut hand-in-hand, at least that’s the way speculation seems to be pointing…

Envy 14 and Envy 17: Cooler than ever. Not that the Envy 13 and 15 aren’t cool enough, in the cool dude sense of the word, because they look awesome. Word is the Envy 14 and Envy 17 will not only LOOK awesome, but stay cool as well… as in, not burn up your palms and thighs as you work on an Office 2010 document or play Crysis 2 at high settings in the future.

Envy 17’s first sale?! Everyone rush out and check your local consumer electronics store(s) now! An enthusiastic reader claims (multiple times) that he’s bought an Envy 17 less than a week ago, from some place that he would’ve never gone to buy a computer from (he doesn’t mention where) and that he got a good deal on it. In another of his comments, he emphasizes that it has a “number pad”, though little else is mentioned. False alarm? Or could someone else really hit the jackpot and find a store selling the Envy 17? Pictures or it didn’t happen!

Shifting things around: If anyone has noticed, HP has shifted their new 8440 and 8540 forwards on their Elitebook page, and relegated the 6930p, 8530p and 8540w to the back seat (or right edge of the page). Perhaps this is a sign of the Elitebook 8740w to come? Or is this just HP doing some website spring cleaning, again?

Okay, I’m done shifting through rumors and whatnot for the day. Back to putting on the finishing touches to my Envy 15 + ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 review…

Envy 15 receives ATI Mobility 5830 graphics, USB 3.0 ports and Core i5 options

HP Envy 15 updated: as seen on HP's retail website

HP has just updated their Envy 15 page, updating the 1/2 year old Envy with 1 GB of new ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 graphics and USB 3.0 standard with all models. The starting price has also dropped to $1299, with options for Intel’s dual core Core i5 processors for those wanting to go the affordable route.

Well, great. They just had to put ATI 5000-series graphics in this one and not in the Elitebook line?! Well, I’m not really swayed just yet because the Elitebook 8540w is more all-rounded compared to the Envy (in my opinion). Let’s just see which one ends up with a higher price after matching specifications to each other… and well, decide from there.

HP Envy 15 Beats edition featured in Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”

HP Envy 15 Beats Edition in Lady Gaga's music video

So I had meant to post this ages ago but due to a combination of Christmas, lots of HP notebook rumors this month and other things that take precedence in terms of priority, I’m only posting this now. Four HP Envy 15 Beats edition notebooks were recently featured in Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance single video.

Camera zooms into two Envy's at 2:45

The Core i7 Mobile packing, ATI Mobility Radeon 4830 blazing luxury/premium notebooks had about three seconds (2:44 to 2:46) of screen time. The Beats by Dr Dre headphones also made its appearance, draped on the third Envy 15 Beats notebook in the video at 2:44. This same pair of headphones is part of the “limited edition” HP Envy 15 Beats package.

Another better view of the HP Envy 15 Beats in the Bad Romance video

Compared to the “regular” HP Envy 15, the Envy 15 Beats Edition is essentially the same notebook inside with “Beats” branding, black casing design (regular Envy is silver/beige-ish) and includes the mentioned Beats by Dr Dre headphones and Traktor DJ software for… well, DJ’s to do their thing with music tracks.

HP Envy 15 Beats Edition product picture

Oh, before you rush out there to place your order for one “just because Lady Gaga has four”, the Envy 15 Beats Edition also gets a $500 price premium slapped on top of the price of a regular Envy. Food for thought. Okay, given not everyone’s a fan of Lady Gaga, at least you can relate to playing games like Left4Dead on full HD/max everything at 60 FPS on HP’s slimmest Core i7 notebook. Right? Have a great New Year’s eve folks!

Alert: HP Envy 17, Envy 14, Elitebook 2540p and 2740p in the pipeline

Screenshot from search results: Elitebook 2540p and 2740p, etc listed on HP's website

Spotlight: One of our readers, Dana, has tipped us off about Elitebook 2540p and Elitebook 2740p in the works after spotting a new 9-cell battery available for a “2540p” model on a HP Korea website (Update: I can’t seem to access the page Dana posted, but HP has updated thier list of “notebooks supporting Windows 7″ to include the new Elitebook 2540p and 2740p models).

16:9 displays on Elitebooks: It is currently known that HP’s smaller Elitebook models: the ultra-portable 12 inch Elitebook 2540p, 12 inch tablet PC Elitebook 2740p and medium-sized 14 inch Elitebook 8440p/8440w, will all sport 16:9 widescreen displays which may put a little crinkle on foreheads of people hoping for 16:10 displays. However, thank goodness it seems that HP will maintain 16:10 displays for their larger Elitebooks. If you think of it this way, 16:9 displays with a resolution of 1366 x 768 is slightly wider than current 16:10, 1280 x 800 displays, while sacrificing a mere 32 pixels of vertical reading space. For people frequently opening two programs side by side, this is great news. For those fretting about “scrolling and reading” web pages and documents, well, I can’t change HP’s minds. But you can always look for the “Go fullscreen” option in your browser or program (F11 for Firefox).

Elitebook 8740w news: We have also received confirmation that the HP Elitebook 8740w (17 inch Mobile Workstation) will sport a 16:10 LCD display just like its predecessor, the current 8730w. This comes after Dana found a 16:10 privacy filter (but 15.4 inch? Probably a typo by someone there) with product number AJ358AA for a certain 8740w model. Joy to the world! Looks like potential desktop replacement/mobile workstation buyers WILL get their 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 extra large displays after all (what did I tell you?! Told you HP won’t do away with 16:10 displays on their 8740w, not when they’ve spent so much effort developing the 17 inch DreamColor panel for 2008’s 8730w).

Envy 14 and Envy 17 listed in document found on HP Korea

Envy 14 and Envy 17: If you liked the Envy 15 notebook but crave for a bigger display, more graphics power and bigger everything, then good news, this document located on HP Korea’s website (don’t worry, the title is Korean but oddly, the text and content of the Excel file is in English; scroll to the very right side to view the new models) reveals that they’re planning for an Envy 14 and Envy 17. Not much is known about the two models now other than their screen sizes: 14 inches and 17 inches respectively. I can, however, make an intelligent/educated guess that the Envy 17 will have a 1080p full HD 1920 x 1080 display while the Envy 14 is likely to “recycle” and share the Elitebook 8440w’s 1600 x 900 panel.

HP Compaq CQ42, CQ62, G42 and G62; Mini 210: The same document listing the Envy 14 and Envy 17 above also show that HP has new stuff for those with smaller wallets and lower budgets for their next notebook. Introducing the new Compaq Presario CQ42/G42 and CQ62/G62 models. As far as I know, the two different names (G and CQ) are just used in different regions/parts of the world, but the notebooks themselves *should* be the same. The HP Mini 210 also makes its appearance in the document, confirming the info posted before Christmas about the Mini 200 series debut from a trusted source.

Probook 6440b and Probook 6540b: Here’s something that most people would overlook. Don’t assume these are the same as the existing Probook 6445b and Probook 6545b on HP’s Probook page. They’re not! I been observing HP’s naming conventions with their notebooks and the last digit indicates the processor used in their business notebooks. “0 (Zero)” used as the last digit equates to an Intel processor, while “5″ points to AMD processor.  The 6440b and 6540b are likely to be the same as their “6×45b” siblings except they will sport Intel’s processors, most likely Core i3.