HP's Business Notebook Hat Trick
by Dustin Sklavos on February 23, 2011 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- IT Computing
- AMD
- Intel
- HP
- ProBook
- Radeon
- EliteBook
- Sandy Bridge
- 6000M
Conclusion: Back, in Style
If this preview seems like a bit of a puff piece, I apologize. Having had the chance to sit down and actually see and play with these notebooks in person was a treat, if for no other reason than seeing what might hopefully become a minor sea change in enterprise hardware.
Simply put, HP's new EliteBook and ProBook machines are the kinds of smart, appealing designs that consumers even outside of the business world may want, and HP seems to have achieved to an extent the kind of crossover success in styling that Apple's MacBook Pro enjoys. They're so nice, in fact, that they make me wonder why anyone would bother with HP's warmed over consumer models—that is until I realize that for many users, the price tag is the bottom line. To each their own, but it looks like you'll get what you pay for if you spend up on one of these.
It would be remiss not to mention that all of these notebooks come equipped with USB 3.0 and Sandy Bridge processors, and the EliteBook and ProBook b-series also support integrated WAN. When HP first told me they had chosen to go with AMD Radeons for the line, I was confused: at this juncture, NVIDIA's 500M series with Optimus technology seemed like a clear win and a no-brainer. But AMD seems to have an ace up their sleeve with Power Express switchable graphics, a feature you can actually find on notebooks on retail shelves right now. It's perplexing as to why AMD isn't promoting this more since it puts them back on parity with NVIDIA in the mobile sector, but we'll have to get a Power Express-equipped notebook in house before we can say more.
HP is expecting to have their new lines available on March 15 and we've been told to expect to have review hardware in hand. Hopefully it won't be long until we can give one of these notebooks a more thorough investigation.
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Jellodyne - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link
We picked up a Probook 4250s to evaluate for work as a possible replacement for the Dells we buy, and the big thing I see it's missing is a real dock option -- the USB 2.0 dock is a half solution, requiring you to hook up both a usb cable and a power cord to the laptop to 'dock', and it lacks a power button -- you have to open the laptop to power it on. As far as I can tell the USB 2.0 dock is the standard for the whole line. The only USB ports on the Probook are all located on either side, right by the front of unit, which is frankly awkward to use IMO. What ever happened to ports on the back of laptops? The side of this thing is jam packed with ports, and the back is blank. The USB dock comes with a DVI port, so presumably you're working off some sore of USB video card while you're 'docked' -- it works slick and doesn't seem to be a problem for what we use them for, but if you're looking to do any video intensive work while docked it might be an issue. Or it might not, I don't know, we really didn't stress it.Anyway, Dell's docks are awkward to get the laptop into, but at least it's a real dock. But their actual laptops are crap, performance wise. So I suppose we're still looking for their replacement.
nbrenner72 - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link
I just started a new job and got a shiny aluminum lid HP EliteBook with a Core i7, so I was thinking I had one these refreshed models that is referenced in the article. Although, I don't have a single piece underbelly and it would appear I only have USB2 based on looking up the Intel 3400 Series chipset info. My model is the 2540p. Hard drive is slow as dirt and graphics are rather poor (Intel HD - or so running dxdiag tells me). Anywho, the article just confused me a bit because it sounded excited to talk about these shiny new aluminum models that are coming out soon (and yes I have the rubber bumpers under the lid too) with Core i7s and what not, and that is what I've had for a month or so now, but without some of the other bells and whistles mentioned (i.e. USB3)HMTK - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
Is nobody bothered by the numeric keypad on the 15" models? IMO a 15" notebook is not wide enough to include such a thing. A decent keyboard isn't even available as an option it seems. Guess it'll be a Vostro or Latitude E5510 for me then even though I can have HP's at resellers price.Besides that, I hate most recent laptops because for some idiotic reason, suppliers have switched to 16:9 displays of questionable resolution. As if 16:10 wasn't bad enough...
As for the article, I can't seem to find any specific model numbers which make the article rather useless. "And in further news, BMW has a announced a new car. It features 4 wheels, an engine and some pedals. A roof is optional."
jigglywiggly - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
can't wait till the review, I may get one of these.AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
What is business? Webpages, code, and documents. All of which are portrait. 1050 vertical, whether it's 14.1" 1400x1050 or 15.4" 1680x1050, is a must. (btw, Apple still sells the latter) And look at all that wasted bezel on these HPs.beginner99 - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
Is there any more info available if the graphics are switchable? The 6470m isn't exactly a powerhouse and if I lose QuickSync for it, I would say I don't really need it. Also how much faster is it than HD-graphics? not much I would say?