HP EliteBook 8740w: IPS on the Go
by Dustin Sklavos on December 8, 2010 3:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- IT Computing
- Intel
- HP
- EliteBook
- Mobile Workstation
- Quadro
- NVIDIA
Conclusion: Nice, But Oh! That Pricetag
Let it be said that the HP EliteBook 8740w really is a fantastic piece of hardware. It's fast, extremely flexible and capable, and boasts a healthy amount of expansion and potential upgrades. You can configure it with the fastest mobile workstation graphics on the market, the fastest quad core processor, and an obscene 32GB of DDR3. The 8740w is by any measure a lot of notebook. HP has even gone to lengths to get the notebook ISV certified with Autodesk and Adobe and done a healthy amount of reliability testing.
It's also pleasing on the eyes, and I don't just mean the IPS screen. Just because something is meant for business doesn't mean it has to look as boring as humanly possible, and HP's designers understand that. The gunmetal motif and aluminum lid are attractive and understated, drawing attention to the notebook without being gaudy. It's a good-looking piece of kit you'd be happy to have sitting on your desk.
But you will pay dearly for the privilege, though. Our configuration came to us north of six bills, beating even the insane pricetag on the Clevo X7200 we reviewed. Sure, the X7200 isn't the best built of notebooks and that power supply probably isn't long for this world, but it has two GTX 480Ms in SLI, a pair of SSDs, and a thousand dollar hex-core desktop processor. (The Eurocom "workstation" equivalent on the other hand can break $6000 without adding any SSDs.) What about the Dell Precision M6500?
If the M6500 didn't exist the 8740w would border on being a slam dunk. The problem is that it does. The M6500 costs less and its only major fault is that where HP has access to the Quadro 5000M, Dell does not. That means you lose some performance in workstation applications, and if you're buying a top-shelf mobile workstation that has to be important. Outside of the GPU and LCD, Dell is willing to offer you more computer for less money. As much as we'd like to recommend the 8740w—and it really is a great mobile workstation—it's tough to do with the M6500 running around. Let's end with a quick head-to-head to sum things up.
We'll call the build quality equal, though many will say the 8740w looks better. If we start from the 8740w SmartBuy option priced at $4900, it comes with the 5000M and the IPS LCD. Note that HP charges substantially more for a configure-to-order (CTO) system—$5792—but there's an 18% discount code (CTO8740W) to bring the price down to just under $4750, saving you $150 relative to the SmartBuy system. Drop the 5000M to provide a direct counterpart to what Dell offers and you're looking at $3966 (again with the code).
Configuring a similar M6500 with the FX 3800M and the TN RGB LED comes to $3555. So looking at the best possible pricing from each company right now, using the same setup as the previously linked SmartBuy HP but with the FX 3800M (i.e. Core i7-740QM, 500GB HDD, 2x4GB RAM, WUXGA LCD, and 3800M), you're looking at a price premium of $411 for the 8740w, and you lose out on the extra hard drive bays. But again we can't discount the Quadro 5000M option or the IPS LCD.
In short, both are extremely expensive notebooks, but they're built to satisfy enterprise customers and pack in just about every high performance (and security) option you could want. If you value storage flexibility, Dell has the better package with up to three HDDs/SSDs plus an optical drive. HP answers with what is arguably the best current laptop display and aesthetics that aren't quite so dull, plus a better GPU. If all you really want is an awesome LCD, unfortunately the cheapest way to get such a display in your laptop is to spend a minimum of around $2400, and that only nets you a dual-core i5-520M, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, and FirePro M7820.
One other (potential!) IPS laptop option worth mentioning is the HP EliteBook 8540w CTO (with 24% discount code: CTO8540W). You can get a 1080p "DreamColor 2" display with i5-520M, Quadro 880M, 2x2GB RAM, and 250GB HDD starting at around $2150. So, in answer to Jarred's recent post about the lack of IPS laptop LCDs, HP at least provides a couple options, provided you can spend over two grand for a moderate laptop—or $3500+ for an awesome workstation.
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darwinosx - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link
Because the other all in ones suck.Joos - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link
Because a iMac is even more crap to drag around and has useless hardware for a workstation.Joos - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link
And a 15" chassis is to small to be able to handle the thermal output of all those high spec components.Belard - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
Not really.... ThinkPad and others make 15" notebooks with top-end i7 mobile CPUs. The 17" models typically have room for a 2nd drive and a 2nd video card and because of the bigger screen, a much larger battery.So in general, no... the extra 2" are not helping to keep it cool.
erple2 - Friday, December 10, 2010 - link
The CPU isn't the primary heat generator in a high end laptop. Even the top end mobile i7 940XM puts out about half the heat than the GeForce 480M (or Quadro 5000m).And the Thinkpad 15" doesn't have a great GPU. The Quadro 880m is "ok", but it's just a slightly tweaked Geforce 330M.
Fast CPU in a laptop without the corresponding fast GPU = unbalanced laptop that, in general, disappoints. Then again, I'm looking for a laptop that is reasonably speedy in games.
Candide08 - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link
I have 1920 x 1200 resolution on my main workstation and really appreciate it, that is the main reason I chose this laptop... that and the 8GB RAM and i7 860 processor.You ask a very good question about laptop screens - and why nobody really has decent resolution on a smaller laptop.
The point with this is that I can take it places. I have a rolling laptop case for longer trips. This is not a netbook or a carry-into-Starbucks laptop, it is a desktop replacement, running two or three Virtual-machines that I can take to meetings or other locations in my company - and work, REALLY work.
There are many classes of "laptops" these days, from ultra-light netbook to, well, THIS.
seanleeforever - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link
they do have 15 inch dream color notebook, just FYI.anand finally get their hands on a non-apple premium notebook. something i have been using for years, and wanted to see a objective review badly. the IPS screen is very very good and certainly not anything TN can be compared to, that include RGB LED TN that apple, lenovo, dell uses in their high end. the chart doesn't really do all the justice. if you actually view the screen from an angle, you will very, and i do mean VERY appreciate the benefit of IPS technology. in a realistic situation, you, or people who you want to share view, are never in a ideal 0 degree angle from screen, and that's when the IPS matter the most.
however, i disagree with the track pointer. they are far far away from ones you find in the thinkpad. as matter of fact, if you don't use track pointer at all, you won't see the difference. However, for people who rely on track pointer, it is a big deal. or example. say you are scroll up or down a page, or zoom in and out in firefox (with help of holding ctrl) , the easiest way to do on lenovo system is, hold the middle mouse button on the track point pad, and move the point up or down. super, super easy, and allows you to move pages left/right/up/down with millimeter movement on your finger. now, on HP unit. first of all, track pointer button require a lot of force to be pressed, i would say it probably requires 3~4X more force than thinkpad, second, the track pointer is level below keys,so you have to dig in to operator the pointer. and the worse part is the middle button cannot be configered. let me give you an example below.
say you are on cnn.com reading news, and you want to scroll down. on a thinkpad, no matter where you cursor is, just hold middle button using your thumb, and move your figure on the pointer (similar to type "space" + "B"). on a HP, you can only do it OCCASIONALLY. meaning you have to move the cursor away from any hyper link before you can navigate. or else it will open a new tab, very very annoy. and there is no way to fix it either...
and again, the touch screen audio bar, is there any one can operate it at all?
seapeople - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - link
What is it with you people? I'm currently sitting on my couch with my 17" laptop on ... wait for this... wait for it... IT'S ON MY LAP! OMG! How dang small are you? Three feet tall? Do you ride around in hotwheels all day? Is Mini Me your physical superior? A 17" laptop is like 15-16 inches wide, most people are wider than that. Where do you like to put your laptop, on your nose? Hold it in the palm of your hand?You say even 15" laptops are a pain to carry around? Were you born on the moon? Are your bones brittle and weak? Stop being a wuss, maybe this is why heart disease is starting to rise in thin people even, because people are so weak and out of shape that they think carrying a 6-7 lb laptop is hard. I hope you enjoy sitting there squinting at your 10.3" 1000x600 laptop placed precariously on the armrest of your sofa just so you can feel unencumbered.
andy o - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link
I got a little excited to see "32 nm" cause the first 32nm quad-cores should be Sandy Bridge!Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link
You're right. Fixed it!