Go for 8740w or 8730w - advice please?

After a long nightmare with a Dell Studio, I've finally got rid of it and I'm thinking of changing to a HP Elitebook, looking for a quality notebook that would last me for years to come, but am having a hard time deciding to go for a 8740w or 8730w.

I've done a lot of comparisons with the specs, and I know the specs would be something like:

8730w
T9600 C2D 2.8ghz
Quadro FX 2700M
1650x1050

8740w
i5 520m 2.4-2.93ghz
Quadro FX 2800M
1650 x 1050

The main thing is I can get the 8730w some £450 or roughly $700 cheaper than the 8740w.

I know the speed difference is fairly marginal, and I can live with 2700M.

But what I really need to know is how everything else compares between the two, like:

Case build quality and durability
Keyboard
Trackpad
Noise
Temps
Screen (just standard 1650 x 1050, the 1920x1200 Dreamcolor version is too expensive for me)
Any common faults


Suggestions please?

 

I think it could be a bargain if you get a refurbished NN270EA with Intel Core2 Extreme Quad Core QX9300 (4 x 2,53Ghz), DreamColor, nVidia FX3700 (1 Gigabyte). However, I have no experience with refurbished machines...

but all other machines?

I like the 8740w gun metal color more and prefer the LED backlight (CCFL is so old school ) and it would be nice to have the newer machine with USB 3.0 and so on.

However, the 8730w is nice, too.

yeah, not easy

 

The keyboard is... different. I'm not sure if I like the newer keyboards more (8540p vs. 8730w). Touchpad and case are pretty much the same between the two, though they improved the latch system a bit. With the 8730w, you might find yourself needing to close the lid a few times to break the latch in. The tolerances are a bit tight.

 

the latch system on my 8730w is really not that good and I always hold the button to close it... (yeah, it would work just closing it, too, of course)

 

8450w is LED backlight so it has better colours/brighter than 8730w?

 

I don't know and it depends on the resolution, too, and you can get of course the 8730w with DreamColor (which has RGB LEDs)

 

It would be a shame to go with 1650 x 1050 with these machines...why dont you go with the (non-dreamcolor) 1920x1200?

Another option to get the dell precision M6500. I have the M6400, and can attest that its a very nice machine with the RGBLED 1920x100. The two HDD bays and 4 sodimm slots are the icing on the cake.

 

How would you say the screen is on the 8730w compared from the normal one to the dreamcolor one?

Also, how would the normal one compare to screens from other laptops?

 

Isnt the dreamcolor on 8730w less expensive than the one on 8740w (its a different dreamcolor)?

The dreamcolor screen on the 8730w has RGBLEDs --- the colors appear as if on steroids , red appears like painted on the screen.

The non-dreamcolor one - I think there are three manufacturers, at least two are very decent (if you get a bad screen from the third one, you can request HP to swap it out with another one). I have the mid level one (non-dreamcolor) on the 8710w, and while I like the RGBLED better, its still a very nice screen. Movies look awesome.

AFAIK, the screens are the same as on other laptops, 8730w dreamcolor = dell RGBLED; 8730w non-dreamcolor = dell WUXGA

Another thing to consider is that you can get a backlit keyboard on the 8740w but not on the 8730w...

 

the 8740w dreamcolor is 10 BIT instead of the 6 BIT (?) 8730w dreamcolor, don't know, however, the 8740w should be better and more expensive

I have one of the so called bad WUXGA non dreamcolor 8730w screens (Samsung) and it is by far not perfect but still good enough to do daily work. It is not bad if you ask me, I have had worse But if you are into graphics and need the best reproduction then it could be not enough.

 

This is no longer true with the DreamColor (2) of the 8740w. It has a very good sRGB emulation, so no more oversaturation and reddish skin tones

The old DreamColor screen is a 8-bit TN (Twisted Nematic) panel, the same as the panel used on the RGB LED screen of Dell Precision M6400/6500. Not only the new DreamColor screen is a 10-bit panel, also it's a IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel. This improves a lot the color reproduction and viewing angles (almost 90º vertical!). In order to get the picture, IPS technology is the best overall among all existent LCD technologies (TN, PVA, MVA, IPS...)On the downside, the DreamColor screen features a bit of lag (50ms average according to tests made by an user from this forum).

 

I did not mean the RGBLED was bad (although I did fiddle with the NVIDIA control panel to get the colors right); especially with animated films, the colors are vivid

And I have the (supposedly) mid-level non-dreamcolor WUXGA on the 8710w; it is pretty good too. For non-animated films, this one actually looks better than the RGBLED.

Sotton is right; all these WUXGA screens are good, unless you work in graphics and need absolutely the best.

 

But they're not natural I've posted before that only Media Player Classic HomeCinema can render natural (read real) colors on a wide gamut screen. With all other players you'll see oversaturated (unreal) colors in movies. None, except MPC, support color management. If you like them, ok, I can understand, but these colors are not real.

Our mate Aikimox doesn't think so

 

That's right. There are no oversaturated colors and the sRGB is just perfect to my eyes. That's the first time I can truly say - the screen is perfect.
Sometimes, I'd just stop working and stare at the desktop wallpaper mesmerized, lol

 

I disagree with Aikimox. I have been a fan of IPS screens for a while (from the thinkpad series). Good TN screens (ie WUXGA) are pretty good, especially RGBLED, are quite pleasing to the eye. To make it concrete:
IPS=10
RGBLED=9
WUXGA WVA (non-RGBLED) = 8.4
My 4 year old dell WUXGA (no RGBLED) = 7.5

Compared with the SXGA+ screen on the older thinkpads (pre T61) which I rate as a 2