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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chiddy - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
Also very interested if updated line will include W series, IPS, W/Station graphics etc.mschira - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
All very nice but where are simple stats such as weight etc.The look nice, but they also look heavy....
In particular what would the weight of the 14" elitebook with 32h battery be - that's what it all comes down to in my book.
So no real number here all just noise, moving on nothing to see.
M.
AmdInside - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
I dunno. These look so ugly compared to dells business laptops. Maybe they look better in person.bigd33ns - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
Have you seen the new line of Lattitude and Precision Laptops that's coming in march?They are most ugly. They look like consumer laptop with a much more rounded shape. They look really cheap and makes me think of their Studio lineup. I love their current lineup though.
On Topic, I was also really disapointed by the lack of GPU power. My 8530P currently has an Radeon 3650 which is 2 years older in design but still manages to be comparable. I understand that they won't put a premium GPU in this P line (Thinking about the W line) but I was maybe looking for a Radeon 6550M with good memory. That would have been much better and versatile.
Also, the move back to AMD is a good one. Since the G8x and G9x fiasco in laptops during the mid-end 2000's I will never ever buy a mobile Nvidia product again.
Byte - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
Im in the market for an i7 2xxx series. These look pretty decent. Middle mouse button can be done with two buttons if they are implemented in the drivers, just press both buttons at the same time. There are a few laptops where you can just push them both with one thumb. The easiest is my Dell 1705, what a great notebook, they just don't make em like they use to. All the new don't even have physical buttons. The older DVXXXX series at least had buttons that can be thumbable middle buttoned. Also the newer synaptic drivers remove this function all together so you have to find old driver. I use the middle button as much as I use the right button. This makes using the laptop in bed way easier, if i want to use a mouse, i'd go to my desktop.The more i look at the new stuff the more i'm thinking maybe I should just find a used 1705 for around $200ish.
LaptopDoc - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
As a retired IBM engineer with a laptop repair business, I am somewhat puzzled as to why nobody seems concerned about HP's failure rate and warranty/service policies. Over 60% of the laptops that come into my shop (last 3 years) have been HPQ. Grated most of these have been retail models (DV, CQ, and G series), but the internal build quality of HP products has certainly gone to hell....but they sure are pretty. A little less attention on marketing hype (ie..Beats commercial) and a bit more on thermal packaging would be appreciated. Most of them, especially the AMD packages, are little furnaces.Taft12 - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
As someone with a laptop repair business and former engineer, how have you not noticed this is true for all low-end consumer laptops for the last few years regardless of brand? They all compete on price only and are equally trash.The HP laptops this article is about are nothing like those.
mike8675309 - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Please remind HP when they show stuff off like this to you. Sure, the screen size has some impact but if not a proper resolution, who cares how big or small it is?LoneWolf15 - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
"It's fair to say the refreshes HP announced for their consumer computers earlier this month seemed fairly lackluster. While nobody can complain about improved notebook speakers and the triumphant return of dedicated mouse buttons, there wasn't anything else remarkably fresh or exciting about their spring line."If the refresh includes reliability, it would be fresh and exciting. I've seen far more reliability issues with HP consumer laptops than, say, Dell's consumer products. Overheat issues, solder joins causing power-on or fan-sensor problems, etc. I can't comment for the business line, (see my bottom question).
"The bottom panel of the notebook is a single large piece that can be removed by simply squeezing a latch and sliding it off, allowing for easy access to all of the internals. It's such a smart idea that one wonders why we don't see it more often—we'd love to get such a feature on more consumer laptops!"
Dell's been doing it for a bit on their business Latitudes, and possibly some Vostros. Looks to me like HP might just be using the same builder for some of their new designs.
One question: Is HP's pricing becoming more competitive? My past two business notebook purchases, I've been able to get both equivalent Dell or Lenovo for cheaper, which ruled out HP from the start.
Scipio Africanus - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
The Elitebook line has been very good but just so pricey. My 8530w is just a great machine. I owned its predecessors as well, the 8510p and the nc8430. I'm not too sure about the Mac-y look myself and the graphics card blows. They'll most likely introduce a 8560w which will have hopefully a way better graphics card. They are built like tanks though and I hope this continues.