HP EliteBook 8760w: Color, So Dreamy
by Dustin Sklavos on August 25, 2011 2:30 AM ESTConclusion: But You'll Pay for the Privilege
So now that you've seen what a monster the HP EliteBook 8760w is, you get to experience the sad knowledge that you'll probably never afford one like the one we tested unless your job buys it for you. It's an incredibly attractive piece of kit, but $6,500 is a heck of a lot to pay for a notebook. So let's see if we can't break that down somewhat, shall we?
First of all, the major upgrades that bury the needle on the price are the NVIDIA Quadro 5010M, the DreamColor display, and the SSD. The Quadro 5010M costs a punishing $700, while the DreamColor is $650 and the SSD is $500. If you just want a solid workstation notebook, the 8760w preconfigured model at $3,499 seems a heck of a lot more reasonable, giving you a decent workstation GPU and the benefits of the DreamColor display. You sacrifice 8GB of RAM, the i7-2820QM, the SSD, the blu-ray drive, and the Quadro 5010M, but the RAM and SSD at least can be made up for down the road (though it's worth mentioning the upgrade cost on the SSD at least isn't unreasonable). The problem is Dell will sell you a Precision M6600 with roughly the same specs and performance as HP's $3,499 EliteBook 8760w for $2,624, and that's a massive difference. When you look at it that way, the premium on the DreamColor display goes up to nearly a grand.
There's another wrinkle, too. If you're willing to put up with a bit more noise, a lot more weight, and a non-IPS glossy screen, Clevo's X7201 actually supports the Quadro 5010M and some boutique vendors like AVADirect offer it (for an impressive $2,000 upgrade cost). If performance is the only metric you're interested in, the Clevo X7201 is nigh unbeatable, since you can get the Quadro 5010M and an i7-990X hex-core desktop processor.
So why buy the EliteBook 8760w? If build quality and aesthetics aren't a concern for you and you have no need for HP's helpful Performance Advisor software, it's going to come down to exclusives. HP can sell you the DreamColor IPS display and NVIDIA Quadro 5010M with 4GB of GDDR5; the best Dell can match on the screen is a high-quality TN panel (or even a touchscreen if that's what you're into), and they only go up to the Quadro 4000M at present (though we'll almost certainly see 5000M/5010M at some point).
When you're dealing with notebooks that cost as much as cars, it's a little difficult to make recommendations. That's doubly true as you start having to make compromises and trade-offs. What's most important? Battery life? Mobility? GPU performance? CPU performance? Build quality? Display quality? The HP EliteBook 8760w undoubtedly finds a niche here, offering the best mobile workstation GPU performance alongside very fast processors and a fantastic IPS display that the other vendors can't touch. Build quality is also frankly stellar, and it's not too heavy given the high performance components inside.
Oh, you'll pay for the privilege. Then again, if you need a mobile workstation and you happen to use one of those >$20K software packages these are certified to run, what's another six grand?
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Impulses - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
HP should showcase it at retail to show people what they're missing... You can't even buy desktop IPS screens at a brick & mortar store anymore, it's sad. I'm about to but three 1920x1200 displays (ZR24W or possibly the new Dell if I can get a discount) and I'm already dreading the day one of them dies, because I know I'll have even less options by then.Roland00Address - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Ever since LG has made E-IPS screens you been seeing a steady decrease in prices for ips screens. This has accelerated now that LED monitors are the norm.Yes you can get IPS at B&M, and you can get them for $150 to $300 dollars. Currently microcenter has lg ips 226v for $159, bestbuy has lg ips 236v for $199, frys has lg ips 231p for $199. LG also designs the panels that other manufactures then use, Asus, Dell, HP, and Viewsonic all have ips monitors, and some of the monitors are in various B&M.
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
The problem is that these eIPS screens are 6-bit color and not 8-bit. I think they're still a major improvement on TN and would love to see the market shift over to them, but they're not as good as full-on IPS panels (although I still very much prefer *VA panels for their deeper, inkier blacks.)DanNeely - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
While they're better than TN, I dislike *VA for blackcrush. That's when the lowest 5-10% of the brightness all appear equally dark from head on, but pop up when looking from an angle. Hubble galaxy pictures tend to demonstrate this effect well since the edges of the galaxy generally fade down to the background black in a relatively smooth fashion.Dustin Sklavos - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Honestly I found my ZR24w (IPS) to crush blacks far worse than my LP2465 (*VA). A decently calibrated VA panel can produce fine detail in the darks, but the shimmer on an IPS panel's black drives me insane.DanNeely - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Odd. My NEC 2090's and 3090 are blackcrush free. I have an HP panel I never tested for it, will take a look when I get home. I've never noticed anything that could be called shimmer on my screens; but I've never looked either...velis - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Yep, agree with Dustin. This monitor is WAY better than my U2711, not to mention that it consumes A LOT less power. The U2711 heats like it was intended to (do only that) while this monitor stays perfectly cool. Plus backlight uniformity issues and bad out-of-factory colors - had to calibrate to get anything resembling good colors out of it.$500 + $200 = $700 * resdiff (1,78) = $1250, not $2500 (for the same res)
I see no reason why the panel should be different except to keep the DPI lower on desktop, but I said I dream of a desktop variant of this same monitor == same panel.
Much more competitive market == much lower prices. Limited to mfg options = higher prices.
Agree about targeted pricing for a market, but I don't agree with the premium HP charges to this market.
As far as I'm concerned, I super love this display and would gladly see it duplicated for my desktop. I hated the U2711 for its heating before, now I just do most of my work on this one... But I do agree a comparison would be in order. Mostly a $200 1080p desktop IPS will more than adequately serve as the primary screen for a crappy 1080p laptop. The dreamcolor is definitely expensive, but IMO it's worth it at this price point. Not so much at $2500 :P
velis - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Forgot to mention:You really have to see this monitor with your own eyes to see how good it really is. The colors are just so ... smooth ... I'm not sure it can even be described. Like the display was soothing your eyes as you look at it.
Not to mention it's uniformity which compared to other LCDs is just about what LCD geometry is to CRTs.
wsaenotsock - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Well, looks like the workstation & enterprise products are finally succumbing to the market forces behind 16:9 panels. Oh, and simultaneously charging more for the IPS upgrade as well. Margins must be really tight.alpha10 - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
I would like to see the 2 full HD screens compared for the 8760w.I did a comparison with the 8560w, and wasn't impressed by the Dreamcolor, the "grain" or "sparkle" was too much for me, the regular screen looked a lot cleaner and nicer. Obviously the Dreamcolor has much better viewing angles, but who cares about this when working and looking at the screen at an optimal position? I also found the over-saturated colors to be too much. For a web designer all the colors were too strong, I had to set the color profile down to sRGB to get correct colors.
I ended up buying the 8760w with the regular screen, after a calibration using Spyder 3 Elite, the colors are perfect, gone is the blue tint that most TN panels have.