8460p vs 8460w

Elitebook 8460p or Elitebook 8460w, that is the question.

But I have a hard time deciding which one. I read the review from Anandtech that the 1366x768 display of 8460p was downright bad, a big fail. However, the 8460p I`m looking at is 1600x900. Is that display any better? And what about the display on the 8460w?

The specs of the 8460p is:
2620M, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, AMD 6470M.
This laptop is brand new but the seller have been upgrading the RAM from 4GB to 8GB, so this scares me somewhat because he may or may not have done something wrong when he opened up the laptop.

The specs of the 8460w is:
2540M, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, AMD Firepro M3900.
Brand new, original box unopened. Same price as 8460p

I will be using the laptop for office work, coding, light gaming and perhaps a movie when I have time.

What should I pick? And if anyone can direct me to a reseller that ships these laptops to Norway and is below $1400 (or near) please post them here because I have a hard time finding them without going through Amazon which have restrictions of shipping these HP laptops outside US.

 

The 1600x900 display is still bad.

I would choose the 8460w simply because of the cooler design Its more or less the same system.

maybe you can get some better impressions of the 8460w here on my little review: HP Elitebook 8460w review | Thomas Maurer (tm)

 

wow someone out of the 80 people who viewed this thread who actually responded...

Anyhow I found out after reading 9999 reviews that the display of the 8460W is very bad like you mention. And that it is noisy. Too bad because I really want a 14 inch to be honest because I will be dragging the laptop with me everywhere. So I searched more and found a great offer on the 8560p. The GPU is 6470M and is virtually the same performance as the GPU inside 8460w, only a different brand. But from the review for notebookcheck it seems that the 15.4 inch doesn`t make so much noise and most importantly have a much better display. So I think I will jump on that offer.

Great review btw Thomas. What notebook are you using right now? I remember seeing a comparison note on 8460w vs 8560w at your homepage.

 

@cloudfire
I am also interested in the 8460w (the design is nicer than the p-series IMO) with a quad-core, but in my situation I am not sure the 14 inch is really small or light enough to be brought in a normal shoulder bag...

@tomtom86
Could you comment on the weight and portability, Thomas? Great review by the way!

Also, please tell us, is the 8460w noisy when you are doing office work (writing, excel, browsing)?

What really gets me down is the lack of a Dreamcolor option for the 8460w, because I spend a lot of time in front of the screen and would like to have something better than a TN-panel.

I am also considering the Lenovo X220, although the Lenovo X220 IPS screen has some problems like image persistence (a phenomenon not seen on IPS-displays since their infancy which is a little alarming)

UPDATE: It is becoming clear that this was not the intended functionality of the IPS-panels in the X220. Lenovo community moderators have forwarded some new info here.

Choosing the i7 dual core (X220) makes me sacrifice some computing power, but it isn't that important as I run my larger calculations on an external computing cluster anyway.

What do you think the chances are for successfully replacing the TN-panel in the 8460w with a better panel (IPS, PVA) bought online? Is it even a viable option?

 

My 8460w does not make a lot of noise... I can hear the fan sometime but in my opinion its okay...

I am using the 8460w, because of the better battery life and because the 8560w is not mine ;-)

 

How I said I can't really hear anything... only if I create some heavy load I can hear the fan...

check the weight by the end of this week...
I don't know if you can change the panel by yourself... but I would not recommend that...

 

@tomtom86
Hehe, I was writing while you posted - I spent some time eating while writing

Thanks for your answers - You dont really need to weigh the laptop, just think about the following; can you stick it in a bag and walk to work or to the cafe/park without your shoulder getting tired...?

I am glad to hear it is not loud, and no I probably wouldnt dare to change the panel, unless someone had done it before me and posted a nice howto

 

sorry for the late anwser

yes! I really would say its light enough even with the 9 cell battery but maybe if you travel a lot you would use a 6cell battery which makes it even lighter...

 

@tomtom86

Thanks for your update! You're probably right about going to the 6-cell battery.

 

I purchased a 8460w as a replacement for a 8510w. I wanted a smaller form as I travel constantly. The battery life (with the 9 cell) is 6 hours - fantastic. The drop is screen size is taking a bit of getting used to but I have no complaints to date.

I Live in Australia but ordered from the USA. I had to pay by wire transfer as they do not take international credit cards. It was shipped by USP and was at the front door 14 days after pressed the order key. Goto CompUSA.com - Computers, Laptops, Televisions, Software, and Electronics from the All-New CompUSA!