HP EliteBook 8460p: Everything But The Screen

Second Worst Matte Ever

What may be the biggest crime about HP's EliteBook 8460p is that for how attractive the rest of the notebook is, the screen is quite terrible. While I appreciate the matte finish, this screen is easily the third worst I've ever tested personally, behind the Gateway ID49C's awful color and my own Lenovo ThinkPad X100e's absolutely dire matte panel. It's devoid of color, contrast, and halfway decent viewing angles.

You read that right: the EliteBook 8460p's 1366x768 matte panel has a contrast ratio well under even 200:1, and believe me, it shows. Color gamut and accuracy don't fare a whole lot better, with a Delta E over the minimum 2.0 we like to see and a gamut of just 42%. To add insult to injury, look at these viewing angles.

They really are about that bad in person. HP offers models of the 8460p with a 1600x900 screen and I can't conceive of a world where that wouldn't be a smart upgrade to make. The higher resolution would be much appreciated, and viewing angles, color, and contrast can't be any worse than this. Just to put some stank on it, the whole screen in practice seems to skew slightly green. We hope customers are planning to use the 8460p for business, because the stock screen is useless for most other tasks.