Picture by reader T.Y.: Is this the 8740w's lid?!
It looks like we now have enough information to construct a rumors + specifications roundup, with special thanks going out for a few anonymous tipsters, a person by the name ‘HP Fan‘ who has seen an Elitebook 8740w datasheet (!!) and plenty of internet searchers =). First off, a little update about announcement time: a reliable source is “pretty confident” that the Elitebook 8740w will be coming out this month along with other products targeting designers and people who do graphics work (ie DreamColor 2 and new external display panels) – I can see the adrenaline build-up in the crowd already!
HP Elitebook 8740w processor options (Thanks, Google Cache!)
And here’s what’s been confirmed about the HP Elitebook 8740w so far (I’ve included links to old/related posts in case you’ve missed them in the past):
- Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6 GHz quad core processor and 820QM 1.73 GHz quad core processor; ‘other’ Core i5 processors
- 4 DDR3 1333 MHz RAM slots for up to 16 GB of total RAM
- ONE hard disk bay with optical drive; removable optical drive doubles as expansion bay
- NEW ATI FirePro M7820 workstation graphics; with 1GB GDDR5 memory
- Choice of new ATI FirePro M7820 graphics above, Nvidia Quadro FX3800M or Nvidia Quadro FX2800M
- 17 inch display (up to full HD); optional full HD DreamColor 2 display (same tech, but obviously different size, as 8540w DC2)
- Full-size keyboard with number pad; partial-chiclet style!
- Selective number of USB 3.0 ports
- Single-touch trackpad with pointing set; 2 sets of 3 mouse buttons
- 7.86 lbs weight AKA 3.57 kg
Oh, the Elitebook 8740w will also be compatible with some sort of new “2010 Advanced WKS Docking Station”… whatever that means, along with other newly launched Elitebooks (except 2540p and 2740p).
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Remember two weeks ago when there were whispers about the Envy series going global/outside of North America? Well, turns out there’s a HIGH possibility that might be true. The new HP Envy 13 just came out ahead of its Tuesday announcement. The new notebook features an ultra-thin profile, 13 inch screen, chiclet-style keyboard, huge trackpad (possibly multi-touch) and will most likely make it to computer stores around the world (unlike its Voodoo PC counterpart, the Envy 133). As for port selection, pictures show 2 USB ports, HDMI port and a combined audio in/out jack. Stay glued in your seats people, I predict a slew of new HP things coming real soon.
I’m thinking of trying to get the touchpads of a few HP notebooks to support multi-touch and gestures, via unofficial solutions of course. Thanks to two of my best buds who volunteered their PC’s, my lab rats at the moment are a HP Pavilion dv2 running Windows 7 and HP Compaq 6510b running Windows Vista, which use ALPS and Synaptics touchpads respectively. Today I downloaded an unofficial driver modified to give certain Acer (gasp!) models multi-touch, but the app author said it should work on any Vista computer… so I tried installing it on the 6510b and it works, sort of – Pointer momentum worked 100%, multi-touch two-finger scrolling worked for a few minutes but suddenly stopped (for unknown reasons) and since then, I couldn’t get two finger scrolling to work again. Pinching and chiral scrolling didn’t work at all.
I figure that the Pavilion dv2 MAY have a better chance at working since its rather big touchpad fitted into its slim profile hints at it being ‘new hardware’ (hopefully multi-touch and gesture enabled?) but I need to find and try more drivers first. I’ll post results of my findings as we go along.
Hey! I thought this was a HP Fansite?! What’s the Sony Vaio P doing here? True, but that still doesn’t stop me from posting a picture of probably one of the most hyped up products of 2009 and comparing it against the HP Mini, does it? It’s not mine anyway, neither am I even having the slightest thought of getting one (1. It’s way overpriced for what it REALLY is, and 2. It really doesn’t offer much over the HP Mini I already have besides the smaller size).
My initial impressions: The Sony Vaio P is small in size, it’s like the HP Mini with only a keyboard (chopping off the trackpad bit of the netbook to make the Vaio P a long, narrow PC), and comes in four colors. The Vaio P has a high resolution 16:9 screen with a resolution of 1600 x 768 pixels (that’s a little more than 200 pixels wider than the HP Mini 2140). The bad news is that if you thought the fonts and all were tiny on a screen like the HP Mini 2133′s, you’re gonna scream looking at the even smaller fonts on the Vaio P. I appreciate the trackpoint (or as some put it, the “nipple” point) on the Vaio P though.
The keyboard on the Vaio P has well spread-out keys that many will probably find better than on most other netbooks, like Asus’ Eee PCs and the Acer Aspire One. Compared to the HP Mini’s, the keyboard on the Vaio P has keys which are a tad smaller but better spaced out, though HP’s keyboards have the edge with a full-sized right SHIFT key and more “travel” when pressing a key… the latter, being my preference, is subjective.
Overall, I would consider the Sony Vaio P more of a luxury product rather than a true affordable netbook. While it does have some edges like a high-res screen and GPS, I’m not sure if the weaker-than-average 1.33 GHz Intel Atom processor and high price tag (almost two to three times more expensive than an average netbook) would make people rush for this thing.
My all-time favorite notebook PC trackpad has gotta be the one on the HP Pavilion tx-series notebooks. The tactile feedback of the little dimples are absolutely fantastic and I have no problem finding the trackpad area, even when I’m not looking at it. And the thing still works great when using wet hands to touch. By the looks of it, I suppose the one on the Voodoo Envy 133 will offer the same, nice control as the HP tx-tablets. Next up is the ones on HP business notebooks, which always have a matte like finish to the trackpad area and rubberized buttons.
The vertical scroll zone has gotta be the best thing since sliced bread too since I don’t need to shift my hand to the arrow keys or page up/down controls, or move the mouse to the scrollbar on the side of the screen. Practically, minimum finger/hand movement. I don’t quite care for horizontal scroll zones on my trackpad though, as it somehow isn’t as precise or natural as vertical scrolling and it takes up precious real estate (Really now, with widescreens and high-resolution displays nowadays, how often does one need to do horizontal scrolling?).
I’m not a big fan of the slippery trackpads on the HP HDX, and some of the HP dv-series and Compaq Presario models, which make them hard to use with wet hands and the horizontal scroll zone makes things worse, in my opinion.
I can’t wait to see multi-touch on more notebook PC trackpads. The Voodoo Envy 133 already has one which supports multi-touch and chiral gestures. I’m sure this will trickle to high-end notebooks and other premium notebooks, before (sooner or later) becoming a standard feature on all notebook PCs.
