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.
For those trying to decide the ‘perfect screen size’ for your next notebook, look no further – here’s a nice illustration/comparison between screen sizes of four screen sizes commonly found on notebooks/netbooks.
Starting from the bottom is HP’s Elitebook 8730w Mobile Workstation, featuring a massive 17 inch DreamColor display (1920 x 1200 pixels here!). Brilliant notebook and beautiful screen but perhaps size is the reason it sits on Mark’s desk 99% of the time.
Next is my trusty silver+black HP Pavilion dv4 notebook PC. It’s not the latest edition, as some HP fans should be able to tell “all-black” is the color scheme for the latest Pavilion dv4. It has a 14 inch screen (1280 x 800 pixels) which is a good compromise between size and portability.
The HP Pavilion dv2 has a 12 inch screen (Also with 1280 x 800 pixels)… and the reason why its screen seems to sit higher than that of the dv4 is the same reason why Trisha hates the design of this ultra portable – big bezel around the screen. But other than the design annoyance, the dv2 is a pretty good portable notebook: slim, light and it plays modern games like Call of Duty, Left4Dead and Need for Speed, and possibly Batman: Arkham Asylum for PC that I wanna get soon. In real life, other 12 inch notebooks with smaller screen bezel areas would be lower-profile, making them even more compact.
And lastly, sitting on top of all the other notebooks (good thing the Elitebook down there can support all that weight), is the HP Mini 2133. Yes, I still use it, although the 2133 has been feeling a little cranky this week – refusing to come out of sleep mode if I leave it for more than an hour. The Mini 2133 has a 8.9 inch screen, slightly smaller than the 10 inch displays that have become the staple of 90% of netbooks this year. The screen is a little small but it’s high in resolution (1280 x 768 pixels). People do ask me if I can actually see the tiny, ant-sized letters on the screen when I’m typing out a Word document at 80% magnification (so I can see two pages at one go).
That’s it for now. I’ll be talking about the HP Envy 13 and Envy 15 more later this week, so stay tuned for that!
