HP Fansite

Super HP belated Valentine’s day rumors roundup

Okay, fine, so this may have little to do with Valentine’s day… but let’s spread some love for the several HP notebooks that have been and continue to stay elusive.

Elitebook 8740w: So it seems a lot of people have a couple of grand lying around and are all set to drop it on this long-awaited Mobile Workstation on the precise millisecond it comes out. Question is WHEN?! There was a gap of roughly one month between when the Elitebook 6930p and 8530/8730w series were announced back in 2008. It’s been over a month since the Elitebook 8440 and 8540 models were announced at CES 2010, so where is the 8740w?! (And oh, before I forget 8740w, where are your smaller friends as well?). I suspect the Elitebook 8740w’s elusiveness has something to do with ATI launching FirePro mobile, HP launching DreamColor 2 displays or both. Most likely DreamColor 2 is the culprit. You see, DreamColor displays are a wonderful technology that you don’t see on notebooks everyday… so what a great party/bash it would be for HP to launch the flagship Elitebook 8740w FEATURING DreamColor 2?! It’s very, very, very likely that the 8740w and DreamColor 2 will debut hand-in-hand, at least that’s the way speculation seems to be pointing…

Envy 14 and Envy 17: Cooler than ever. Not that the Envy 13 and 15 aren’t cool enough, in the cool dude sense of the word, because they look awesome. Word is the Envy 14 and Envy 17 will not only LOOK awesome, but stay cool as well… as in, not burn up your palms and thighs as you work on an Office 2010 document or play Crysis 2 at high settings in the future.

Envy 17’s first sale?! Everyone rush out and check your local consumer electronics store(s) now! An enthusiastic reader claims (multiple times) that he’s bought an Envy 17 less than a week ago, from some place that he would’ve never gone to buy a computer from (he doesn’t mention where) and that he got a good deal on it. In another of his comments, he emphasizes that it has a “number pad”, though little else is mentioned. False alarm? Or could someone else really hit the jackpot and find a store selling the Envy 17? Pictures or it didn’t happen!

Shifting things around: If anyone has noticed, HP has shifted their new 8440 and 8540 forwards on their Elitebook page, and relegated the 6930p, 8530p and 8540w to the back seat (or right edge of the page). Perhaps this is a sign of the Elitebook 8740w to come? Or is this just HP doing some website spring cleaning, again?

Okay, I’m done shifting through rumors and whatnot for the day. Back to putting on the finishing touches to my Envy 15 + ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 review…

HP updates business notebooks page; prepping for new products?!

I gotta admit, I’ve  been obsessively visiting HP.com’s business notebook page ever since word of the new generation of Elitebooks surfaced (I make it a point to check at least once a week, but usually it’s more). Anyway, I noticed today that HP updated their business notebooks page, pushing the Probook series one step higher, just before the Elitebook series (Probook used to be in the 3rd column, where “essential” notebooks are now present). Seems kinda odd that HP would update THAT specific page at this time of year. I mean, what’s the rush/need? Who gifts business notebooks, which are really pricey anyway, for Christmas?

Well, that’s why I suspect three things:

1. HP is going to release their next gen Elitebook models soon (plausible, but why would they update the FRONT page of their notebooks page?)
2. HP might create another new, entry-level business notebook line to succeed the old HP Compaq b-variants (ie 6510b, 6530b, etc) that sits below the Probook line (likely, seeing they reshuffled their notebooks positioning). It’s likely that this new line will go under the “essential” series.
3. HP feels that their business notebooks page is getting old and stale, and decided to update it just for the kicks (hmmm…)

The screenshot above is what the HP business notebook page used to look like. See the diff? I guess time will tell what’s coming up.