The HP Envy 17 and its overview/specifications pages recently appeared on a HP website, and thanks to that, we now know a whole lot more about this 17 inch “luxury” performance notebook. First off, there really IS a number pad on the right side of the full-sized chiclet keyboard (turns out the info sent by the guy who apparently “bought” an Envy 17 two months ago was right, huh?). Also, in more keyboard-related news, those annoying quick launch buttons in the additional row to the left of the keyboard (found on the Envy 15, and annoyed the heck out of me) are gone on the Envy 17! Nice – now I can finally crouch in games (Ctrl button) without accidentally pressing the stupid calculator button and bring up Left4Dead’s command console (~ button) without hitting the e-mail client button.
Other than that, there’s also:
- Choice of Intel Core i5 dual core and Core i7 dual and quad core processors (as you’d probably expect)
- Up to 4 DDR3 RAM slots (presumably on Core i7 models; we’ll probably see just 2 RAM slots for Core i5 models like on the Elitebooks)
- 1 GB of GDDR5 ATI Mobility Radeon 5850
- NO optical drive (but that’s not an issue for some people like me)
- Thin profile
What’s strange is that the Envy 17’s front lip looks a whole lot like that of the Envy 13 with just two small grills for the speakers in front (the Envy 15 had big, large air intake vents on the front), which either hints to improved cooling efficiency that HP could remove those big (ungainly looking, to some) vents OR the Envy 17 will be a nice and toasty 17 inch frying pan! Hopefully it’s the former, and not the latter. More Envy news as it comes out… I’m sure now that the Envy 17 page has made a short appearance (HP has since pulled down the page), the Envy 14’s pages should be hiding somewhere around too…
This week is turning out to be another “Apple week” again, with plenty of unrest on the internet about the recent announcement of Apple’s new MacBook Pro’s, refreshed for 2010, even more iPad hyping and plenty of iPhone gen 4 rumors. Let’s take a look at the new (2010) 13 inch MacBook Pro. It has a Core2Duo processor, compared to dual-core i5 and i7 on its 15 and 17 inch big brothers. And a mere 256 MB of graphics (Nvidia GeForce 320M). So far, the HP Elitebook 8440w is the smallest notebook (14 inch) with a Core i7 Quad-core processor. Do you think someone can push the envelope even further and put Quad core in something… smaller… as a little bird hinted recently?
I’m not sure what is it with HP recently, making products (or at least their product and order pages) available first before an actual announcement. But regardless, they’ve just come out with a new Touchsmart-like (similar form factor with no touchscreen here), budget net-top computer – the Compaq CQ1. The CQ1 may look a whole lot like the more expensive Touchsmart PC’s in terms of design but their similarities end there. The CQ1 has a 18.5 inch non-touch display, a dual core Intel Atom processor, 2 DDR2 RAM slots, runs Windows XP (what year are we living in again?) and has a relatively affordable starting price of $430. The CQ1 also sports its fair share of ports and a slot-loading optical drive.
Engadget has uncovered supposedly an internal HP document that compares the upcoming HP Slate versus the recently launched Apple iPad. Well, it looks somewhat like that Apple iPad vs HP Slate comparison of our own made in January when both devices were announced… except this comparison sheet is in simplified point form has a couple of new details and tech specs.
Things that we already know about the HP Slate: the 8.9 inch 1024 x 600 multi-touch capacitive display that supports pen input, HD video playback, SD slot, USB 2.0 port, HDMI output port and Windows 7 with a HP-created UI injected into the mix (ie, what they currently do with their Touchsmart PC’s)
New info revealed by the Engadget-found document about the HP Slate include:
- The HP Slate will use a single-core 1.6 GHz processor (specifically the Intel Atom Z530)
- Not only will it play HD video, it will play full HD 1080p video (beats the iPad with its standard definition video playback “magic”!)
- The HP Slate will come in 32 GB and 64 GB flavors
- That SD slot on the Slate will support standard SD cards, SDHC cards and recently announced SDXC format (the latter coming in monstrous capacities measuring 48 GB and above); this allows you to more than double the amount of memory you carry with the HP Slate
- There’s a dock connector on the HP Slate, so it will probably be bundled with a dock (or have one available as an optional accessory). This also opens up the door to a broad range of potential accessories: from speaker docks to physical keyboard attachments
- The HP Slate is slightly smaller than the Apple iPad (also thanks to its 8.9 inch display which is a little smaller than the iPad’s 9.7 inch screen)
- The HP Slate will have dual cameras: a VGA unit on the display side for “webcam” purposes (ie Skype and video conferencing) and a 3 megapixel camera on the back for snapshots
What’s interesting is the HP Slate will have a built-in (read: not directly accessible) “long life cycle” battery that’s rated to last about 5 hours. HP (or whoever made the comparison document) proves that the HP Slate is superior to the Apple iPad in almost every way imaginable in terms of specifications, save for screen resolution, battery life and the fact that they can’t really undercut the 16 GB non-3G iPad.
However, they did manage to accomplish their little mini-mission (if the document is correct) to undercut their Apple iPad equivalents of similar capacity – it’s likely the 32 GB HP Slate will go for $549 while the 64 GB version will go for $599; that’s $50 and $100 cheaper than the 32 GB and 64 GB iPad’s respectively.
This picture is for illustration only =) but you get the point
Totally excited about the upcoming 17 inch HP Elitebook 8740w? Then there’s even more exciting news! It’s obvious now that, not only does the Core i7 Quad, 4 DIMM RAM slot sporting Elitebook 8740w want your attention before you drop several grand on a MacBook Pro 17 “for graphics design”… it also wants to be an Asus G73 (a gaming notebook, the only one in the market at the moment with ATI Mobility Radeon 5870 graphics) fighter as well. A reliable source who only wishes to be known as “HP Fan” has posted findings on their recent hands-on with the ATI FirePro M7820 equipped Elitebook 8740w, that the FirePro M7820 is based off the consumer top-of-the-line (for mobile graphics) ATI Mobility Radeon 5870! Like its consumer counterpart, the workstation-class FirePro M7820 supports DirectX 11, has a huge 1 GB of memory and sips a humble 50W at max (compared to 100W of the top Nvidia Quadro FX3800M card).
Want proof? HP Fan has discovered that CPU-Z lists the Elitebook 8740w’s FirePro M7820 to have GPU and memory clock listings of 700 Mhz and 1000 Mhz respectively (which is in-line with the listings detected by CPU-Z in various reviews of the Asus G73 + ATI Mobility Radeon 5870, and also specifications on AMD’s official website). Even better yet, the ATI FirePro M7820 in the Elitebook 8740w has apparently the more powerful GDDR5 memory (because weaker GDDR3 and DDR3 variations of the Mobility Radeon 5870 exist) and it scores 12,249 points in 3D Mark 06 (even when unfortunately paired with a comparatively, lowly Core i5 520M dual core processor); ORB even lists the card as “ATI Mobility Radeon 5870″ (!!!).
The sad part to all this good news? If you’re looking to go for the color-precise DreamColor display option HP offers, you can only pick a Nvidia card to go with it. However, if you’re not some photographer, hardcore graphics designer, or work at DreamWorks… just someone who wants a computer for “regular” CAD and design work, which can also double as a very nice gaming notebook, then the HP Elitebook 8740w with ATI graphics is probably for you. Pair it up with a Core i7 (Quad) processor and the Elitebook 8740w + ATI FirePro M7820 can effectively become a nice alternative that’s lighter and more compact than the Asus G73 gaming notebook (and also the Alienware M17x gaming notebook). Nice!
So to get DreamColor (and forced with Nvidia graphics, at the moment) or butt-kicking ATI graphics? That is the question… but just remember that the ATI FirePro M7820 supports DirectX 11 (Quadro FX3800M) doesn’t, performs better (in gaming, at least) while consuming half the power of the FX3800M and is a whopping $895 cheaper than the FX3800M (strange, isn’t it) using HP’s CTO notebook configurator. It’s also noteworthy that “HP Fan” says there will definitely be a new graphics card option towards later this year for the Elitebook 8740w, and it’s probably Nvidia “Fermi Quadro for Mobile” (say that three times as fast).
They’ve done it! They’ve finally done it! Earlier today, the 17 inch Elitebook 8740w appeared in its full unofficial glory on HP USA but the good news keeps on coming – seems that in the midst of all the 8740w madness, HP has also quietly added the new 1 GB ATI FirePro M5800 workstation graphics card (the one discovered 2 months ago in a service manual) as an option for the existing 15 inch Elitebook 8540w. They’ve also added a little note on the same specifications page (here) stating that DreamColor display options for the Elitebook 8540w will be available in May.
The listed “DDR3″ ATI FirePro M5800 suggests that it could be based off an ATI Mobility Radeon 54×0 or 56×0 card, instead of the Mobility Radeon 5800 series rumored earlier, which means that it won’t be a whole lot more powerful than its Nvidia Quadro FX counterparts, but will still offer two main advantages – DirectX 11 support and power-sipping efficiency.
Written by Brad in HP Envy on Apr 22, 2010 | 
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