HP Elitebook 8740w receives EPEAT Gold rating, puts on weight, and poses for pic?!

HP Elitebook 8740w on EPEAT's website (click for larger)

There’s a high possibility the HP Elitebook 8740w might be announced later this month, but right now, HP’s elusive 17 inch Mobile Workstation is more official than ever with news of Epeat (special thanks to Casper) giving this unannounced notebook their Gold award and Energy Star certification. According to that page on EPEAT’s website (EPEAT stands for Electronics Products Environmental Assessment Tool, by the way) on the Elitebook 8740w, the notebook was ‘registered’ for green certification not that long ago – barely a week – on February 23 and has since received 21 of 27 Optional Points along with an EPEAT Gold rating.

Elitebook 8740w listed weight on EPEAT site

But hey, how many of us actually obsess over how ‘green’ our notebooks are? Well, not yet… but if you’ve come here looking for other juicy titbits on the 8740w, not just the pride of improving air freshness and reduction of waste landfills, when you dispose your several grand Mobile Workstation one day, don’t fret. EPEAT also lists the weight of the HP Elitebook 8740w under the Materials section of their site – it will come in weighing 7.86 lbs (that’s 3.57 kg based on Windows 7’s units conversion calculator). Okay, you may be thinking “so what? If I could carry the 7.50 lbs 8730w, then what’s a mere 0.3 lbs increase to me?!”. Well, that leads us to become suspicious of WHY the Elitebook 8740w put on that wee bit amount of weight. Could it be that it has two built-in hard disk bays PLUS an optical drive?! Could it be an increase in build quality? Bulletproof plating, perhaps? Nah I’m just kidding about the bulletproof plating, but the various weight fluctuations between 2010 Elitebooks and their 2008 predecessors gives us a good reason to be suspicious – the weight increase in the 8740w could be because of an additional something or two, or nothing at all!

Pic sent by reader T.Y.: Is this the 8740w's lid?

And finally, a picture was sent by a reader going by the initials T.Y. claiming it’s the lid of the Elitebook 8740w. Using some rather primitive yet effective tools in Paint to measure logo distance and area around it, and comparing them to those of the 8440/8540, there is reason to somewhat believe that this may be real… or maybe not. Another one of those things up for speculation, folks.

Battlefield Bad Company 2: A PC Gamer’s Review

View of a village you are to raid in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Click for full-size 1080p)

One of the things that frequently bugs me is how most ‘mainstream’ video games made by big time publishers almost always get “high scores” and lots of praises from the ‘majority media’ nowadays. All those nines and tens sprinkled in the scores columns of video game reviews, games are being pushed too close for comfort to the ‘perfect’ point to consumers, despite having flaws that should’ve dragged down the rating. This is where our occasional PC game reviews at HP Fansite come in – we get raw and messy into various PC titles to uncover the REAL truth: whether a game is worth spending your hard earned cash on… what’s good… what’s not… how the experience on YOUR PC will be (especially given the increasing number of people gaming on their notebooks)… how’s replayability like… singleplayer and/or multiplayer… and the works. All from the perspective of a true PC gamer (not some news editor who happens to work for a gaming magazine), plus collective opinions from my circle of PC gamer acquaintances.

Today, we’re taking an exclusive look at Battlefield: Bad Company 2. For the benefit of those who may not have heard of the game (how could you? It’s been the watercooler topic of most FPS/PC gamers since it was announced, gaining even more publicity during the time Infinity Ward announced “No dedicated servers” for Modern Warfare 2), Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a first-person shooter game set in modern times. Overall, it’s a sequel to console-only first person shooter Bad Company 1, though you won’t be missing out too much if you’ve never played the first game before. The spotlight features of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 are a vast number of destructible elements (you can shoot through, blowup, cut and/or slash just about anything in the game, including making whole buildings collapse!) and ‘traditional’ Battlefield multiplayer with four classes to choose from, multiple vehicles you can drive and teamwork that you need.

That got your attention yet? Hit that link for more about Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for PC!

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Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Retail) Initial Impressions

Bad Company 2 main menu!

So I’ve been indulging a little guilty pleasure lately, playing Battlefield Bad Company 2, and delaying the HP Elitebook 8440p review. But rest assured, it was well worth the small compromise (plus, the review of the Elitebook 8440p will be out later this week). I’d like to take my big pair of headphones off and some time off the game to share a few impressions I’ve had so far about the game:

• The retail box is pretty
• The very FIRST map you play in single player is set in the World War 2 era. You don’t get your full set of gear and gadgets at first, destroyable elements are present along with a few explosions but not yet to the ‘full’ extent of modern day maps – think of the graphics in the WW2 map as a marriage between Call of Duty: World at War and Crysis.
• Despite the idea of the first map being set in World War 2, you still get 1) the rest of the game set in ‘present’ modern times and 2) you still get to man a machine gun mounted on the back of some Japanese truck while getting driven around by your AI teammates at full speed!
• Absolutely LOVE the vast variety of destructible elements in the game. Pretty much anything you see can be blown into shreds using explosives, or torn through using your gun!
• Optimization seems to have been done since “Beta” versions and the game now runs smoothly on many systems, including a Core 2 Duo wielding notebook. Nice! I also noticed a decent performance boost if you use a quad core system and/or graphics card supporting DX11 (like the ATI one used in the 2010 Envy 15)
• Again, if you have at least just a decent/midrange laptop, you CAN run this game well (albeit not at high settings) so don’t fret
• Multiplayer is as promising as it looked/looks in early videos around the net. Try the real deal in the retail game and it’s even more awesome (I’m gonna keep that a bit of a surprise till my “final” review of the game which I’ll be posting in the next 24 hours)

More to come in my final review of Bad Company 2 coming really soon!!!!

HP Elitebook 2540p and Elitebook 2740p: both official!

The new, upcoming HP Elitebook 2540p!

After months of speculation and a slip up in picture posting, HP finally made official the two new ultra-portable notebooks in their Elitebook line today. Meet the two new family members: the Elitebook 2540p ultra-portable notebook and Elitebook 2740p tablet PC. Both look like evolutionary upgrades to their predecessors announced in 2008 – on the outside, you’ll get a new partial-chiclet style keyboard, HP Night Light lamp and button consolidated into one and a low-profile, inconspicuous fingerprint reader, just like I speculated last week. The Elitebook 2740p tablet also got a change in touchpad button colors: they’re now black, instead of beige/silver on the 2730p tablet.

On the inside of both notebooks, you’ll get Intel’s latest generation of Core processors. My prediction was fairly spot on again, about those low-voltage Core i7 processors… but wait, here’s a surprise that probably none (or few) of us saw coming – both the Elitebook 2540p and Elitebook 2740p notebooks are configurable with Core i5 Mobile processors as well as a full (as in, non “low voltage” branded) Core i7 Mobile processor. Yes, that 2.66 gHz dual core Core i7 620M processor will now be available in notebooks even smaller than that compact Sony Vaio Z that everyone’s been talking about!

Now, someone could scream “hey, HP could’ve stuffed in those power-packing Core i7 Quad processors, seeing they share the same socket with the conventional Core i5 and dual Core i7!” but no, they use different sockets (there’s a variation/branch off the original socket) plus power consumption would be too high. Speaking of battery life, I wonder how the ‘new’ processors would fare in a face off against the old SL-series Intel Core 2 Duo low and ultra-low voltage processors with TDP almost twice that of the processors used by the 2530p/2730p pair, and clock speed that’s up to 20% higher (yes, true the new Core i5 and i7’s have the ability to throttle down effectively when running on battery power, but it still does make me wonder…)

Other than that, you still get pretty familiar designs, akin to the previous generation of Elitebook ultra-portables… plus the addition of a Display Port on the Elitebook 2540p. The 12 inch screen size stays put on both new notebooks, though the Elitebook 2740p now appears to support multi-touch. Choice of 1.8 inch hard disks/solid state drives on the Elitebook 2740p, plus 2.5 inch form factor varieties on the Elitebook 2540p, remain. And of course, you can attach external battery to the Elitebook 2740p tablet.

Excited yet? Unfortunately, only Intel integrated graphics are available as of now, with no [official] word or hint about discrete graphics, though there was a whisper or two about the remote possibility of dedicated graphics in the future, or never.

Check out the Elitebook 2540p specifications sheet and the Elitebook 2740p tablet specifications sheet both on HP’s official website. No prices listed yet, but word is that both notebooks will have starting prices upwards of $1000.

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….

Elitebook 2540p and 2740p tablet both likely to have Core i7 LV

Based on the various tablet announcements from other companies this week, I think we can safely assume that HP will be including low voltage Core i7 (and probably i5) in their upcoming Elitebook 2540p ultra-portable notebook and Elitebook 2740p professional tablet. Both should be announced very soon so HP doesn’t get left behind after all their manufacturers launch their stuff. Lenovo and Toshiba are already done announcing their Core i7 tablets. Who’s next? If the leak about the Elitebook 2740p’s spring manufacture/launch is correct, then HP may jolly well be next in line, or not far from the front of the line at least, to announce their 2740p tablet…. along with other juicy goodies.

What else should we expect from the two 12 inch Elitebooks of the future? HP’s updated design cues for their business notebooks as seen in their new 14 and 15 inch Elitebook models announced at CES – that includes a  fingerprint reader with a new ‘low-profile look’ (apparently gonna make its way to HP’s consumer line as well, so the whispers say), partial-chiclet style keyboard that’s spill resistant, one-press HP Night Light and solid metal build quality. Hey, we’ve already seen pictures of the Elitebook 2540p leaked by HP themselves… but there’s still a chance of them coming out with a totally radical re-design for the Elitebook 2740p tablet.

As for graphics options, these ultra-portable Elitebooks will have battery life as a priority over sheer performance, though no doubt Low Voltage Core i7 will still be able to pack quite a punch. Integrated graphics (by Intel, doh!) has been confirmed by a reliable source. Before you slap your own forehead doing a facepalm, feel assured there’s a small, small, small chance HP is considering discrete graphics as options (not sure if it’s gonna Nvidia or ATI).