Two ‘Books, one bag

Well, here’s a little picture for everyone’s entertainment while waiting for Part 3 of my “choosing an ultra-portable” journey… It’s the HP Elitebook 8440p stacked on top of a 13 inch Apple white/plastic MacBook! Before anyone asks, no I don’t use Macs =) (don’t own one either).

Anyway, I figured I published the first two parts of my series a little too early – because what I ordered hasn’t arrived yet, and I really want to have some ‘in the flesh’ pictures to show you guys. So expect the conclusion of the series to be dragged out to mid to end July after the delivery guy rings my doorbell!

HP Envy 14 now available; pre-built and CTO, starts at $1099

At long last, HP has finally made their Envy 14 available for order on their official website. And there’s even more positive news: you can tweak specifications to your liking via order customization and the Envy 14 (CTO options) are said to ship as early as July 15th. Things that come standard with the Envy 14 include a 14.5 inch LED-backlit display (with 1600 x 900 resolution, also standard), a full-size backlit chiclet-style keyboard, 1 GB of ATI Mobility Radeon 5650 graphics (though switchable graphics to save on battery life are only available with Core i3 and Core i5 processors) and a HD webcam. There’s also basic ATI Eyefinity support that allows you to connect the Envy 14 to two external displays via the HDMI and mini Display Port outputs built into its chassis.

For a little over one grand, you can have the Envy 14 and its most basic configuration, though things can quickly run up to almost two grand if you like to max things out like I do…

Choosing an ultra-portable companion: Looking at the iPad

I was about to move away from looking at tablets, but before I did, I decided to have a look at one more option – the Apple iPad. Like many of Apple’s products, the iPad has received and continues to receive plenty of hype – from its ‘awesome’ feature set and versatility to its slim profile and form factor suited to content consumption. And the fact that it even sold out faster (with some help from Apple taking pre-orders of course) than iPhones (well at least before the iPhone 4 came out) will make one wonder what the people who called it a ‘big iPod Touch’ have to say.

Many people say the main appeal of the iPad is the ability to use it as a big time content consumption device. Various apps available from the iPhone side such as Reeder (an RSS app), Docs To Go (office/document suite) and TweetDeck (a Twitter client) have retooled iPad versions to take advantage of its larger display. So on something like TweetDeck, you can see much more on the iPad as opposed to being limited to viewing one column at a time on the iPhone (I know because I currently use an iPhone alongside another Windows Mobile device). And like on the iPhone, the iPad has its fair share of games, now in 1024 x 768 resolution.

There are also apps that are far more useful on the iPad (versus on the iPhone) such as news reader and e-book apps. Combined with the long battery life and instant startup time, the iPad sounds like a good candidate for lazing around with in the morning, checking the day’s top headlines and agenda while waiting for the coffee to brew… But not quite up to task for long hours of typing and working with all day. One could argue that there’s always the Apple wireless Bluetooth keyboard to the rescue, but doesn’t come in the box (ie. It costs extra) and it’s yet another item to carry around (mind as well get a netbook or ultra-thin notebook, in my opinion). The storage expansion accessory (an SD card reader attachment) has to be purchased separately and, from what I’ve read, only works with photos.

The iPad, like other tablet devices, excels at content consumption (the exact purpose it was made for) but looks like a less suitable candidate for content creation. It’s also poor at handling files; if I threw an MKV or M2TS format video (commonly called ‘the Blu-Ray format’) at it, the iPad won’t play it. Same with other not-so-common file types (PSD and Illustrator files, anyone?). Oh, there also isn’t any sort of file manager for the iPad, probably one of those restrictions by Apple… which brings me to my next point.

The iPad depends a whole lot on the iTunes software on your computer – I see this as a big turn-off, a really big one. Having been (and still being) an iPhone user, I can’t say that I’ll appreciate using another device which behaves in the same way; using a locked-down platform. Everything, from transferring music, movies, contacts and applications, requires iTunes. Considering just about every mobile device I’ve used before never NEEDED any special software for basic transferring of files, why should I start now? Recalling the days of my primary phone running Windows Mobile, I could dump anything and everything (not limited to music, movies, photos and apps like on the iPad) on its memory card and treat it like a regular mass storage device.

One super useful app that I see various iPad owners tout is Air Display, an application that allows you to connect the iPad to your computer and hook it up wirelessly as a secondary display. This currently works only for Macs, but the developers for Air Display say Windows compatibility is next on their list and coming soon. The thing here is that I’m shopping for something that I will be using as a primary, not secondary, machine.

Even if I were to get a secondary device, it’ll probably be a “superphone” and very unlikely, an iPad. Not two weeks ago, a friend of mine just got an iPad and let me play with it. My impressions in brief are: it’s slight heavier than I thought it would be, the screen seems to pick up fingerprints more easily than the iPhone and the interface is really speedy (versus an iPhone 3GS).

Fun as it may be during the first few days, I just don’t see where the iPad fits in when it comes to daily life. Why use the iPad at home when I can use a notebook that runs a full-fledged operating system and any applications I want (coupled the vast amount of screen real estate in terms of size and resolution compared to the iPad’s small 9.7 inch, 1024 x 768 display)? I’ve had the “instant on” issue solved ages ago by simply leaving the notebook in sleep mode the previous night, for times I had to get on the net or continue working on something in a hurry the next morning. Otherwise, I’ll just wait out the 40 to 60 seconds it takes for a ‘cold’ Windows 7 boot and go brush my teeth in the meantime. On days when I don’t want to get out of bed just yet, I just grab my phone (and run through the daily RSS feeds and tweets) or netbook.

The iPad also has roughly the same footprint/surface area as a netbook, which raises a few issues and questions for me when going out. Since it’s bigger than say a phone (which I can and will carry with me all day without having second thoughts), I have to wonder every time before I step out the door: Should I bring this with me (requires a bag, and I like traveling light)? Will I need it/use it where I’m going today? Then the latter question leads to yet another question: to bring the iPad OR a similarly sized (but not as thin) netbook? If it wasn’t the case of me wanting to try and field-test the iPad before returning it to its owner, I would’ve chosen the netbook anytime, everytime. Why settle for the iPad, when something a little bigger in depth packs a comfortable, almost full-size keyboard, ports galore, full Windows OS functionality and long battery life that comes close.

And nope, I’m not buying the reason “but you can use Air Display!” Of the two and a half years using a netbook, and I’ve owned two (one of them was among the first of netbooks too; the Mini 2133), never once have I had any need for a secondary display while on the go. I’ve been content, tiling two application windows side-by-side, though a primary display larger than the 10 inches of netbooks would have been nice.

Verdict? No iPad for me, thanks. That was it for tablets, maybe I’ll reconsider in the future but for now my next step was to check out netbooks and notebooks… maybe I’d find one small and impressive enough to satisfy all requirements I need in my “ultra-portable companion”.

Choosing an ultra-portable companion: Shifting through tablets

Fresno, California. That’s where I’ll be heading this August. And that’s why I’ve been scouring high and low for the ultra-portable device that will be my companion for at least the next 3 years or so. Because I’m a long term planner, my hunt has been on-going since January (sometime near CES)… and after reading up on various devices and platforms, countless comparisons and obligatory “waiting for the latest”, I think I have finally made up my mind.

The first thing I did was strike phones off my consideration list: yes, I’m looking at you, smartphones (including the iPhone 4) and superphones (like the HTC Evo and Samsung Galaxy S aka Epic 4G). Not that I’ve got anything against them – I’ve been using smartphones for ages and will be getting something decent (or nice, if my wallet approves) when I arrive – but as my experience with them proves, I’m going to need a screen bigger than a mere 3.5 or 4.3 inches if I want to stay productive.

Exactly what will I be doing with my future device to need a bigger screen? Well I’m going to be using it on a daily basis for web surfing, RSS reading, working on documents, “socializing”/connecting with people and of course for some music and entertainment. Of course, any additional features and functionality like large internal memory or a physical keyboard would be most welcome.

I also plan on attending a convention or two, or more, next year (I currently have my sights set on going to CES 2011, PMA 2011 and the annual HP Workstation Convention, all for the first time – so anyone with invitations or press passes, do drop me an email ). Add that with some potentially long days out on my daily schedule (I’d rather not carry around a charger if I can help it) and the occasional unpredictable day where I’m suddenly away from home longer than I would like, and you end up with long battery life being almost compulsory.

How long is ‘long battery life’ for me? At least four to five hours of pure usage, preferably more. Take a look at all those requirements of mine and I’m sure many of you would say “go look for a tablet”…. Which was exactly what I did. I went looking at the available options in the land of tablets and slates (fortunately for me, 2010 happens to be the year of the tablet/slate, with manufacturers all coming out with their respective offerings).

At the time, the HP Slate seemed like a fairly viable option… Until all this news about HP acquiring Palm for $1.2b and uncertainty and speculation HP was dumping the Windows-powered Slate for a new HP Slate design with HP-Palm Web OS running the show. The HP Slate remains unreleased, and by the looks of it, we won’t be seeing it until fall or holiday 2010. But no, I need it now… waiting is not an option.

Come to think of it, I now wonder how well Windows 7 would run on a tablet form-factor device, powered by Intel Atom and components from your typical netbook. Stability and ease of use are my primary concerns – even a “touch optimized” Windows 7 would be questionable when used on a pure touchscreen device as Win 7′s primary methods of input are meant to be a mouse and keyboard. Also, Windows 7 is awesome when used on a real system but might run a little slow and/or hot on a slim, fanless, Atom-powered device. I’m confident that Windows Phone 7 will be more adept and suitable for use on tablet-style devices, but it isn’t coming out until fall 2010 and manufacturers are currently focusing on putting Windows Phone 7 on phones first.

Then there’s the Dell Streak: the 5 inch version appears to be shipping now but it’s a bit on the small side if I use it to create documents or do anything that involves typing on a virtual keyboard for extended periods of time. Dell is planning to make larger versions of the Streak but they won’t be coming out until the end of this year or next. I wonder if HP would have something better to compete by then…

In the previous months, I definitely considered an Android OS backed tablet but if you’re used to using high resolution screens like me, you’d want to wait until Android 3.0 AKA Gingerbread which supports large, high-res screens (up to 1366 x 768) comes out. Less than a few weeks ago, there was a lot of chatter about a Blackberry tablet but like Windows Phone 7, Android OS 3.0 and larger sized Dell Streaks, it is said to only make an appearance later this year. Even then I don’t think it’ll be ready for primetime yet as app development would take at least another few weeks.

So much for getting a tablet to be my daily mobile companion, huh? By this time I sorta figured perhaps it was time to look elsewhere…

Check out my next article of this series: Choosing an ultra-portable companion: Looking at the iPad

New Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 dual and quad core chips appear in Elitebook CTO options

Hey, what do we have here… looks like HP has quietly added a bunch of new and currently unreleased Intel Core i3, Core i5 AND Core i7 Mobile processors to their Elitebook line of notebook PCs! If you’ve checked out my posting about the HP Envy 17, SOME of these new processor options may not come as a surprise, but I bet you never knew about those new Core i3 Mobile processors, huh?

All of today’s new processors have already been priced and are available for order, which is strange because even Intel themselves have only scheduled release to be in “Q3 2010″. But then again, it’s gonna be Q3 2010 in less than 48 hours (July to September), so HP probably wants to be the one of the first ones out of the door (along with Dell, thanks Chema) with these spanking new options and has put them up already as a sort of ’preemptive action’.

For the Elitebook 8440w, 8540w and 8740w Mobile Workstation notebooks (which have 14, 15 and 17 inch LED-backlit displays respectively along with Nvidia/ATI workstation class graphics cards), as well as the more conventional (and affordable) 15 inch Elitebook 8540p notebook, these new processor options have appeared under CTO. In case you don’t know what it means, CTO stands for “Configure To Order”… so you’ll find these new processors absent from the “specifications” section but buried deep inside the “Configure your model” section.

• Intel Core i7 740QM – This new quad core processor succeeds the 1.6 GHz quad Core i7 720QM of 2009 with a slightly higher clock rate of 1.73 GHz (quad core), and Turbo Boost up to 3.06 GHz (versus 2.80 GHz). L3 cache remains the same at 6 MB.
• Intel Core i7 840QM – Replacing last year’s 1.73 GHz quad Core i7 820QM, this guy packs 1.8 GHz of quad core goodness (8 threads in total, of course) and Turbo Boost up to 3.20 GHz. However, the 8 MB worth of L3 cache of its predecessor remains unchanged here.

Nice, HP, very nice. But can you please tack on Intel’s Core i7 Extreme Quad core processors as options as you’ve promised (in the Elitebook 8740w’s manual), pretty please?! EDIT: HP does offer the 2.0 GHz quad Core i7-920XM Extreme as an option for the Elitebook 8740w in some countries, but it’s still not as ‘mainstream’ as the conventional Core i7′s which are available everywhere. Also, the 2.13 GHz Core i7-940XM will be making an appearance soon…

Well, HP hasn’t left out the ‘baby’ of the Elitebook line, the Elitebook 8440p. How kind of them to allow you to soup it up with Intel’s latest Core i3-370M or Core i5-540M processors, among other existing options from earlier this year…

• Intel Core i3 370M – The Core i3 370M is a 2.40 GHz dual core processor that will sit above (but not replace) the current dual core 2.26 GHz Core i3 350M processor. The only change here appears to be the slight boost in clock speed; the 3 MB L3 cache and lack of Turbo Boost in the i3-370M makes it consistent with other Core i3 Mobile processors Intel has released so far.
• Intel Core i5 450M – This is one of the lower end options in Intel’s Core i5 series of processors. It has the same 2.40 GHz (dual core) clock speed and 3 MB of L3 cache as the i5-520M, but a slower 2.66 GHz Turbo Boost speed (versus 2.93 GHz Turbo on the i5-520M). Unfortunately, there appears to be a little typo by HP here regarding Turbo Boost speed (it’s supposed to say 2.66 GHz, n0t 2.93 GHz)

And that’s it, folks! There you have it, Intel’s latest Mobile Core i3, i5 and i7 (standard voltage) for Summer/Fall 2010; revealed and now available from HP as options on their Elitebook PCs. Will we see similar processor refreshes for the low-voltage Intel processor line on the 12 inch Elitebook 2540p ultra-portable and Elitebook 2740p tablet in the near future? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Later this week ON HP Fansite: If you’re a long-time reader of HP Fansite [shame on you if you're not ], you would probably know I’ve been shopping around (for way too long, since January!) for an “ultra-portable” computing device that suits my needs for mobile productivity/working on the go (Planning to attend a few conventions and trade shows next year, anyone got any invites?). Having looked at everything, from HP’s Elitebooks to Lenovo’s X200-series Thinkpads to even the iPad (and everything else in between); I’ve finally made up my mind. Find out what I’ll be getting and why, later this week!