Posts tagged: confirmation

HP working with Palm real soon; to stick WebOS into slates and printers

Hey, did you hear? It’s true! Now you can stop dreaming and really have your WebOS slate/tablet in the “near future”, thanks to confirmation directly from HP via a press release reporting their Q2 2010 financial results and also their Twitter feed (they have a habit of placing the most exciting things in the oddest of places, don’t they? Like listing new processors in service manuals). HP has also mentioned that we should also expect WebOS (or some sort of variation/edition) to make its way into printers (huh?!) as well – I presume these will be all-in-one printers as well as high end business printers where using a dedicated OS would come in handy the most.

Strange enough, they haven’t mentioned anything about stuffing WebOS into digital picture frames yet… I was kinda expecting that one.

New 2010 Elitebooks up for order; new ATI FirePro M5800 graphics to come

New 2010 Elitebooks up for order; new ATI FirePro M5800 graphics to come

Good news folks, they’re finally up for order! Yes, I’m talking about HP’s new Elitebook models. The Elitebook 8440p, 8440w, 8540p and 8540w notebooks have just appeared on HP’s official website, are up for order and have the following base list prices:

  • HP Elitebook 8440p starts at $979
  • HP Elitebook 8440w starts at $1425
  • HP Elitebook 8540p starts at $1299
  • HP Elitebook 8540w starts at $1399

I currently have access to three of the Elitebook models above (don’t ask!) and I’ve been very impressed with them, each with a unique strangth: the 8440p for very cool (temperature-wise) and silent operation, 8440w for portable power (the only 14 inch notebook with quad-core Core i7 in the market) and 8540w for sheer power (more versatile than HP’s own Envy 15 and more powerful than some Elitebook 8730w configurations!)

So far only pre-built models are available, with “configure to order” models that you can customize expected to become available soon, later this February.

Impressed by ATI’s new Mobility Radeon 5000 series graphics cards?! Want plenty of power in your new Elitebook 8540w? Well, apparently someone listened to my plea/bright idea… because the new Elitebooks available today were initially planned as “Nvidia Quadro exclusives” but now, there’s word that ATI’s new (and currently, unannounced) FirePro M5800 workstation-class graphics card (a professional variation of one of the consumer Radeon 5000-series) will be making its way to the Elitebook 8540w some time in the future. This is according to a PDF document spotted by one of our readers, Domiel, on HP’s support page for the 8540w, one of the graphics options listed for the HP Elitebook 8540w was a “ATI FirePro M5800″ card.

I have also received confirmation from several trusted sources that ATI’s new line of workstation class graphics will indeed be coming soon for both the Elitebook 8540w and currently unannounced Elitebook 8740w. Yay for the world! Stay tuned

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

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).

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

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 “6x45b” siblings except they will sport Intel’s processors, most likely Core i3.