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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.

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

Elitebook 8440 and 8540 have better heat dissipation than old generation

I just finished several hours of intensely working out HP’s new Elitebook 8440p, Elitebook 8440w and Elitebook 8540w models this week running several games in a row (special thanks to several friends who helped). Well, to be frank, we weren’t just ‘officially’ testing them – we had lots of fun playing the latest game titles and creating fancy CAD car models while at it!

I’m not gonna post a whole bunch of benchmark and temperature numbers here, perhaps at a later point in time, but today, I want to keep things simple and straightforward. The HP Elitebook 8440 and 8540 models have very much improved heat control compared to previous models. So far, I’m not sure what’s bringing such a huge improvement – better fan speed control, reshuffled component layout or more efficient components – but there was a tangible difference I could feel. After about 8 hours of running a mix of AutoCAD, 3Ds Max, Left4Dead 2 and Need for Speed Shift, I could literally hold the quad core Elitebook 8440w and 8540w models using my bare hands, by the bottom of the notebook, without getting my fingers and hands fried. The dual-core Core i5 running Elitebook 8440p fared much better: after going through the same stress test, it really didn’t feel as if the notebook had been doing any work at all – it was as cool as a notebook that had merely been idling with some windows open.

For comparison’s sake, I wouldn’t touch the bottom of any old generation Elitebook that I knew had just undergone some heavy task lifting because they can literally burn!

Off topic: Anyone know why notebooks can suddenly ‘switch off’ and how to solve this problem? There was an Elitebook 8730w (among other various notebooks) at the gathering which frequently (and suddenly) switch off without warning. I suspect it’s due to overheating (processor can go up to 90-100 degrees Celcius running the same apps/games as above) though I’ve tried cleaning the fan and even removing the bottom panel for better airflow – but no luck.

Envy 15 receives ATI Mobility 5830 graphics, USB 3.0 ports and Core i5 options

HP Envy 15 updated: as seen on HP's retail website

HP has just updated their Envy 15 page, updating the 1/2 year old Envy with 1 GB of new ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 graphics and USB 3.0 standard with all models. The starting price has also dropped to $1299, with options for Intel’s dual core Core i5 processors for those wanting to go the affordable route.

Well, great. They just had to put ATI 5000-series graphics in this one and not in the Elitebook line?! Well, I’m not really swayed just yet because the Elitebook 8540w is more all-rounded compared to the Envy (in my opinion). Let’s just see which one ends up with a higher price after matching specifications to each other… and well, decide from there.