The word is out, the HP TouchPad Web OS tablet will be making its debut beginning July 1st in the US and through some parts of Europe (UK, Ireland, France and Germany) and Canada within July, although you can start pre-ordering the HP TouchPad from June 19 onwards at prices of $499 and $599 for the 16 GB and 32 GB variants respectively.
HP has also mentioned they’re going to do a ‘phased roll-out’ of the TouchPad tablet (Apple behavior much?) and expects it to become available in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy and Hong Kong as the months go by until the end of the year.
Quietly, HP has also mentioned in a post on their Palm website that they’ll be working with AT&T to introduced a ‘connected version’ (not sure if that means 3G or 4G, but if the HP Veer 4G is any indicator, hopefully it’ll be 4G) of the TouchPad ‘later this summer’ (probably August or September, says I).
Playing a new PC game and adding new things to HP Fansite… what a fantastic way to spend an early summer weekend! And next week we’re gonna be talking lots about computers, hardware and touch on a little gaming since E3 2011 is happening for most part of the week…
I’ve already got some things in mind, but I wanna hear your feedback – what’s the one new feature (or ten) you’d like to see on HP Fansite? Shoot me an email (email address at the top right corner of the site) or post your thoughts in our comments section!
I’m not sure if anyone else noticed but the release of the HP EliteBook 2560p and ProBook 5330m notebooks has certainly intrigued me, since the latter now is dressed like an EliteBook (not sure if actual build quality is the same though) and the EliteBook 2560p has downshifted to a 16:9 aspect ratio display, has a reshuffled right side of the keyboard that kicks away some important dedicated keys and seems to have done away with the upgrade bay. Had these main changes not occurred, the reasons to pick the pricier EliteBook 2560p would have been almost brainless (‘taller’ display and ability to add a secondary storage drive), but with the current set-up by HP, the EliteBook 2560p and its supposedly lower-tier cousin, the ProBook 5330m are closer than ever. Let’s take an in-depth comparison between these two silver machines:
In favor of the EliteBook 2560p:
Smaller surface area/footprint
More battery options (3, 6 or 9 cell batteries available, ProBook 5330m only has a 4 cell default battery)
Smart Card reader and Express Card 34 slot
Built-in optical drive (None on the ProBook 5330m)
Slightly better Core i7 processor option (Options max out at 2.7 GHz Core i7-2620M on the EliteBook 2560p, versus 2.5 GHz Core i5-2520M on the ProBook 5330m)
Lighter weight (1.5 kg/3.4 pounds on the EliteBook 2560p versus 1.8kg/4.0 pounds on ProBook 5330m)
Physical lid latches (Those used to latchless lids on laptops like Apple’s MacBook Pros and HP’s consumer Pavilion/Mini notebook models may digress but a latch-equipped lid like the one on HP’s EliteBooks make things feel a lot tougher and allow the hinges to be designed to let the screen open all the way 180 degrees back)
More durable (maybe… well, HP doesn’t say anything about the ProBook being business rugged, but we wonder if it has the same construction as an EliteBook since they do mention the ProBook has a ‘anodized aluminum display enclosure and magnesium alloy bottom case’)
In favor of the ProBook 5330m
Larger display (13.3 inch on ProBook 5330m versus 12.5 inch on EliteBook 2560p)
Dedicated Home, End, Page Up and Page Down buttons on the keyboard
Slimmer profile (ProBook 5330m measures under an inch thin, EliteBook 2560p measures 1.1 inches)
Lower starting price ($800 for ProBook 5330m versus $1100 for EliteBook 2560p)
Features in common:
Intel HD3000 Integrated Graphics for standard voltage Intel Sandy Bridge mobile processors
Both the EliteBook 2560p and ProBook 5330m will run games like Left4Dead 2 on native 1366 x 768 resolution at a mix of low/medium settings at around 30 frames per second
3 USB 2.0 ports (one standard, one eSATA+USB combo and one ‘always on’ port)
Two-in-one combo headphone + microphone jack
VGA display output port (for connecting VGA cables, a must for business notebooks as long as VGA-using projectors prevail, and until they’re phased out with new cable technology)
HD webcam with 720p video
SD/SDHC card slot
Matte displays with 1366 x 768 resolution
It’s a tie:
HDMI on the ProBook 5330m versus DisplayPort on the EliteBook 2560p
More devices such as TV, consumer displays (and usually upper tier enterprise displays) support HDMI but Display Port is more of ‘the’ business/corporate display port of choice. There’s a catch to this though: The EliteBook 2560p will have the upper hand if its Display Port supports daisy-chaining of multiple external monitors, but no word from HP on this so far.
Beats Audio on the ProBook 5330m versus SRS Premium Sound on EliteBook 2560p
Two fancy-sounding brand names for marketing the notebook’s speakers (which would otherwise be brandless). The ProBook 5330m might have an upper hand here if it has dedicated, separate left and right speakers… the EliteBook 25xxp-series have traditionally had a single ‘central’ speaker placed directly under the touchpad area and audio quality has only started to sound good starting from last year’s 2540p.
Your mileage may vary warning: Backlit keyboard on ProBook 5330m versus HP Night Light on EliteBook 2560p
The HP Night Light is more practical in cases when you want to read documents in the dark (like in an airplane or hotel room) without switching on a bunch of lights that would annoy people around you. But this depends on whether you do this often or at all, because that backlit keyboard surely looks stylish on the ProBook 5330m (if this comes as a surprise, hearing this from me, I must say the backlit keyboard seems to complement the Probook 5330m’s design very well, better than other notebooks)
A preconfigured ProBook 5330m on HP’s website with a maxed out 2.5 GHz Core i5 processor, 4GB memory and 500 GB hard disk comes in at $899, while a similarly equipped preconfigured EliteBook 2560p comes in at $1499! A big difference there. I can foresee it being a bit of a challenge trying to justify that difference in price for some buyers, since the three features in favor of the ProBook are quite appealing AND the fact it’s cheaper, while the EliteBook’s features over the ProBook are more like ‘nice to haves’ (unless you absolutely must have a top-notch mobile Core i7 processor). Of course, enterprise and big time buyers who order these laptops by the truckload might already know what they want and/or need the Smart Card reader of the EliteBook. Food for thought.
I’ve been meaning to post this for some time but better late than never, right? The EliteBook 2560p is the first laptop in HP’s business EliteBook laptop line in years to receive a completely redesigned keyboard. I’m not talking about switching keyboard styles to partial chiclet and then full-chiclet… those are minor, cosmetic changes.
The keyboard change on the EliteBook 2560p marks a change in terms of layout and usability. The tilde (~) and number one (1) keys are now normal-sized on the EliteBook 2560p’s full-sized notebook keyboard, compared to previous models which had shrunken versions of those keys. You can thank that 16:9 display on the EliteBook 2560p for this change, no matter how much disdain you may harbor for this new aspect ratio.
You also get much larger Tab, Caps Lock and Left Shift and Control keys… but one of the most significant changes on the keyboard is actually on the right side of the keyboard, where a shift in layout has occurred. Gone are the six keys to the right of the F1-F12 buttons, replaced with just 4 keys (Scroll lock, Pause, Insert and Delete). This has allowed for each individual key to be larger since the keyboard’s top row on the EliteBook 2560p has a grand total of 17 keys (versus 19 keys on EliteBook 2530p, 2540p and Compaq 2510p).
Full view of the HP EliteBook 2560p's keyboard layout (click for larger)
The Home/End/Page Up/Page Down functions have now been consolidated into the EliteBook 2560p’s arrow keys, which require the pressing of Fn + (Arrow) to operate, versus dedicated keys on previous models.
Some folks may be happy with this more ‘typing-focused’, full keyboard… however, for someone like me, who does a lot of article reading and page-paging, I miss the dedicated Home-End-Page buttons. I also occasionally eat or drink in one hand, so dedicated buttons that require just one hand’s fingers to use are really helpful when I’m reading an email or something over a cup of coffee or meal.
What’s your thought? Do you like this new keyboard design on the EliteBook 2560p or no?
It’s short and simple but doesn’t really tout the Veer or WebOS’ main features in a ‘straight in your face’ manner, unless you count the ability to “count 2000 situps” as a WebOS feature… however, this latest (First?) commercial of the WebOS-running Veer 4G smartphone touts its small size pretty well (look at how small it is in-hand) and emphasizes one shouldn’t judge a smartphone by its size.
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