*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

Ahh.. but that is letting them off the hook. Its not that they were, "oops, I didn't know," ignorant -- it is that they absolutely knowingly accepted money for product that had not began production, that was being produced in a country HP has produced from in the past, and therefore knows that the Chinese new year will certainly make the delay obvious. In addition to these excessive delays, they, in contrast to knowingly took your money knowing full well they could NOT! meet your expectations. The only reason it's not fraud, is because they certainly intend to either give your money back or ship you product. Come on, it's HP. BUT! That doesn't mean that you should ask for your money back. You could always toe-the-line just like they do and do a chargeback. Its the least you can do.

 

What date did you order/receive your product on? Can you PLEASE give us a review of your product? And take real pictures of it? Thank you very very much! Also, hows the keyboard? You're the first person as far as I can tell that has received an i7 product from HP.

 

8530p is not the 8540p/w =P

 

Duh. Its without the number pad and has a cheap graphics card and is pre-configured only. SO WHAT! lol. Its still relatively similar in construct.

Please... review? h

 

I may be able to do a mini review if you like, but in a couple days lol. I'm really busy.

look at the 8530p/w's owners lounge there are hundreds of posts about this machine.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=293308
couple quick points for now...
Screen on he 8530p is great, but it's not the same as the 8540w.
Keyboard is fantastic! equivalent to a Thinkpad keyboards (though definitely not the same).
build, wow, this is where I'd say the Elitebook line shines. these things are solid and very rigid.

 

Interesting message from HP. "The Chinese New Year Celebrations-Year of the Tiger-(wonder how that is working for them-hopefully better than for Elin) has caused a delay in shipping of the 8540w.
My message to them-please put down your sake and go back to work.

 

My bad Kamzu - I was thinking it was an i7 model.

SidsDaddy, you might want to get your racial slurs right for maximal impact.

 

I guess I'm in a similar boat as a lot of you with my 8440 order. Place on 2/1, I was provided an initial ship date of 2/8.. That was then extended to 2/22 (with a half-$(% excuse that I had to pry from a CS rep). The planned delivery date now states "Date will follow" which I interpret to mean "whenever we darn well feel like it".

It's clear that HP has no intention of providing legitimate production/ship dates for these devices. As such, I'm calling to cancel my order tomorrow. I'll just spend my money on a Dell/Sony/Mac or crack or something.

All in all, a very frustrating consumer experience..

 

Just read through this thread. It's rather disappointing that no one has received a 8540w yet. I'd really like to see a couple of reviews.

From the look of things, it seems like the 8540w is almost the perfect notebook for me. The one thing I'm worried about is the display. I'd rather have WUXGA, and I'm not so sure I want to be writing code at 141 DPI all day. (Please don't tell me about DPI scaling. I know already.)

I've been waiting to see what the 8740w will bring, but who knows when that will be up for ordering. As it is, I'm having trouble staying away from the 8540w BTO page. Patience may be a virtue, but it's one I don't have.

 

true. I talked to a rep online tonight. He gave me a link to the HP OSS site...guess what it says...let me tell you.

It says order received: Feb 5, ship date feb 12th. Then it says right underneath: Revised ship date: March 6th, date changed: feb 6th.

I think I will have a chat with the tomorrow if I have the time. This is verifiable lying at this point.

 

And yet, there's nothing legally you can do about it except perform a chargeback. It's not a torte, and companies can't be sued for loss of earnings potential for product they fail to deliver: Its beyond the scope of The Agreement.

I really can't imagine a way you could hurt them legally, so you basically have to plead for them to agree they were wrong to the degree that they owe you something. Good. Luck. I guess I'll start seeing reviews in about 20 days then.

 

looks like the 8440p's at least may be shipping. we ordered 3 today to be delivered tomorrow. that's a good sign.

 

I believe Im speaking for all of us here AND the web in saying, please do a mini-review! We're desperate for some facts and pictures.

 

does not sound any better for the 8540's, though. the rep told me they are waiting on a part. a lcd cover for this model. still quoting 3/31 to be on the safe side.

 

will do my best. however, they are not being shipped to my address. i may get to see one next week. will at least get some impressions from one of the persons receiving one.

me, i am still waiting on the 8540.

 

I really hope that's the case, though I'll believe it when I see it. I gave poor "Miriam" from HP some abuse on the phone today when I called in a status inquiry. She claimed that the ship date is 2/26... Fingers crossed.

 

chill, bud, remember the CSR's don't have any control, all they do is read off a screen.

remember also every manufacture has just placed massive orders of millions of computers + Chinese new year = huge backlog of unfilled orders, this is really out of HP hands, they are weighting for parts. other manufactures are having issues as well. so yah, give if those CSR's a break there not at fault.

 

Poorly stated on my part - it wasn't directed at her, moreso HP.

Sorry, but I can't give HP a pass on this one. They were obviously aware of the Chinese new year, and should have factored resulting assembly delays into their (clearly unrealistic) shipping dates.

Having said that, I will probably be happier if it really does arrive in the next day as promised

 

fair enough, I agree they should have known of the delay and staggered there quoted shipping time accordingly. I just want to make sure your not send CSR's home crying... that's not fun no matter what. if you were just attacking HP I don't care

 

As far I know, DreamColor v1 is a 8-bit TN panel (24-bit color depth). According to the official specs, it has a typical contrast ratio of 800:1 and 300 nits of brightness. The contrast ratio may be the best you've ever seen in a laptop screen! I don't think DC v2 may be a non-TN panel, since the IPS panels are still expensive (I have one, a NEC 2490WUXi H-IPS desktop monitor) and the wider vertical viewing angles on a laptop screen are not as necessary as on a professional desktop monitor like mine, and don't forget they don't compensate the difference in cost. But, I have no doubt that the IPS technology it's nowadays the best for a LCD screen. To get the picture, my NEC monitor has the same contrast ratio as the DC v1 panel, and only 100 nits more of brightness (400). On the other hand, the horizontal viewing angles of the DreamColor screen are excellent (not the vertical ones as explained).

You can't get any info about DC2 on the HP web site, but in the service manual you'll see that 8540w will have the DreamColor 2 panel as an option. Read page 2 of this document. You'll also notice that the DC2 panel will be available for the 8540p.

I'm in the same boat like you. It's expected that the 8740w will be available when ATI releases its new ATI FirePro M5800 graphics cards series and/or DreamColor 2 panels. There are no realistic release dates yet , but I've heard this won't be available until end of march/begin of april...So we have to wait patiently

 

Hey guys,

i have access to a quite nice offer, i get a 8540w with *i think* the best specs for around 2050 Dollar.

Unfortunately i have to decide within a week and its still a good amount of money + im not up to date at all with hardware...

Short specs:

Intel QuadCore i7-720QM
4 x 256 KB L2; 6 MB L3
500 GB / 7200 RPM
8 GB (4 x 2 GB, DDR-3)
15.6" Full HD (matt), 1920 x 1080, LED
Nvidia Quadro FX 1800M, 1 GB GDDR5
8 Cell, Long Life d, 68 Wh
Blu-ray RE, DVD+/-RW
3 years warranty and pickup service

For a full list:

http://www.neptun.ethz.ch/hardware/modelsPC/f10_specs_modell4


Im a bit overwhelmed by the different choices on the hp.com website, can you please tell me *about* the price with the listed specs?

Is it a good offer? Im a bit in a hurry since i only have one week to decide and cant find too much info...

Kind regards and thanks, cauchy.

 

I think that is a very good price. but it's not 'maxed out'.

that machine will handle anything you through at it. by the way, the 3 year warranty is standard on all elitebooks.

 

Can you post the email they sent you with the order number?

Thanks

 

Hey,

i havent ordered it yet, so i dont have a order number...

I thought you only get the 3 year warranty for the battery if you choose the "long life" upgrade...

But thanks fot the answers..

 

I've ordered one from neptun; not exactly the same offer ( Modell 3, which is a 'lite' version, featuring the 620M, FX 880M, only 4 GB and 1600x900 resolution... no DC obviously, I just hope that the display will be okay). The price ($1,560 with tax) convinced me.
I wonder if someone here has received his 8540w yet?

 

Wow, those are ridiculous prices. Im jealous. :-( Vy cant i be sviss.

 

lol are you on crack!! you need to decide? Is this a one off price deal for you or will it be standard?
The only thing thats not ideal is that its not 820qm but 720qm is alot better than my t9600. i would snap that machine up at that cost no hesitation cos i dont lose out on my blue ray burner on this laptop i got now plus it comes FHD screen and the 1800m i want mine with.
id sell this straight for that price.
man! y am i broke.

 

Those prices are for ACADEMIC institutions within a narrow list of regions, 2 per person. If I knew someone who fit those criteria, I'd have them buy for me.. however, since I don't, those prices simply don't exist in the US. And, it'd basically be like surrendering your warranty even if you could find someone who did to resell it without stealing your cash. :-( eBay one... please.

 

Just looked again at the detailed specs sheet PDF. Don't know why I didn't notice this before, but...

None of the displays is brighter than 220 nits.

Guess I'll be buying something else.

 

That is an incredible deal compared to what it would cost in the US. I just configured one and it came to $3,164 (and that was after a 24% discount). You are crazy if you don't buy it right now!

 

lol guys, relax

My only problem is the batterie...i do need to be mobile and dont wanna carry a almost 1 KG heavy charger with me all the time.

if the batteries last for 3 hours (normal work, not gonna do FEM or CAD when im around) thats just not enough...

Since nobody has this device yet its hard to find information...i dont want to have a laptop thats has super specs but needs to be charged every 2-3 hours.

Has anybody some trustfull information on batteries etc?

 

I'm in the same situation as you: very attracted by the specs but worried about battery life.
So far there is no review to be found on the 8540w. Here is a review for the 8 440w with an i7-920XM. It says that it can reach 6 hours for light work with the 6-cell battery.
The 8540w does eat up more power because of the bigger screen and the more powerful GPU, but your configuration also has a 8-cell battery so more then 3 hours could be possible.

 

Of all the laptops I've owned, not a ONE has ever exceeded 4 hours of use, and that was a Lenovo designed for it, with a 12" screen. If you have to cater your use to get longer use between charges it defeats the purpose. Also, you can use a the light weight charger. I'm assuming the smaller chargers are slower but lighter.. Unless battery technology changes, how can you expect charge-length to change? And even if it did, people would then just expect laptops to be lighter, because they'd use less battery (size & weight is proportional to charge capacity). Just process that compromise is necessary when economy is the goal. If you want longer battery sessions, buy the extended battery, or two. Turn down brightness, get a smaller screen, etc.. A watt-hour is a watt-hour. Watt hours per gram of battery would be more interesting, and then seeing if there's any detriment on that efficiency coupled with life-span (how many charges before reducing the battery's capacity by 10%). But consider, just above your comment regarding the battery's duty-cycle, is another post in which a person complained its only a 220-nits monitor. Ironic isn't it? In chronological and unintentional succession, one person is complaining about it being too dim -- okay, turning up the brightness does what? And yet, the very next post is someone saying they won't buy this model because the battery doesn't last long enough. This is a balancing act. Where do [some of you] expect manufacturers to compromise?

"I want a quad core 3ghz, 17" 400nits, bt, wifi, w-usb, that weighs 4lbs and has a battery that lasts 10 hours... so I can get through a full days work and watch a movie after."

Hmmmm.... 5 years from now?

 

In my case, I am using a 300 nit notebook already. Having owned many notebooks throughout the years, it's the first time I've felt that the display brightness was good enough. I made myself promise that I would never again settle for a dimmer display.

I couldn't care less for battery life. If I'm going to be somewhere for more than fifteen minutes, I go grab a power adapter.

 

No need to to be sarcastic

Actually you are right, i never asked fo a high end-spec laptop that has a 7h battery life...i was just wondering how long it can last...

For me Battery life and mobilty seems to be more important, so indeed i think im gonna go with the 8440p, which has lower specs, but the compromise between battery and specs looks more promising for my requirements.

And concerning to tests the batteries can last 6-7 hours in normal work, the same goes for macbook pros afaik. The only info i found concerning this:

Battery life: Isn’t this everyone’s concern when a Core i7 Mobile processor is used in a notebook? First off, I was amazed at the battery life of the Elitebook 8440w considering its powerful processor. Unplugged and working on documents/surfing the web, I managed to clock in 6 hours of work using the primary battery (6 cell) and another 8 hours with the secondary battery (screen at medium brightness). And using it for CAD work and gaming at maximum brightness slashes those numbers into half.

24 hour battery life: You read that right, but only the Elitebook 8440p models will manage that. The p “professional” variants run on less powerful (hence, less power consuming) processors and have other power saving measures, while the 8440w “workstation” variant here trades some battery life for power.

So i dont think its too much to ask for a laptop that last longer than 4 hours, to ask for one with the 8540w specs + 8 h batteries could be too much, thats the reason we were asking.

Seems i go better with a 14" with lower specs but better battery ratio...everybody happy again?

 

Excuse my sarcasm please, it was meant to illustrate a point.. but I realize it came across as condescension in re-reading it. As well, to the extent I meant to be condescending, is that of a blanket statement for all of us who expect everything without compromise, myself included. No one likes it when their battery dies... but portability requires knowing your primary and secondary use's consumption, what sacrifices you can tolerate, and how to balance all of that together. In saying that last sentence, it makes me feel sorry for unsophisticated buyers who don't know their usage patterns and priorities, as they'll rarely get what's ideal for their uses by accident.

For me, since so many of my passwords are numeric, I LOVE number pads, which trumps all other matters - such as liking a lightweight notebook.

However, if I weren't committed to a number pad, which 14" demands the concession of, you might as well get the Lenovo unless you're hell bent on the 3-year-warranty-battery. Is there any other spec HP has a lock on? I realize the Lenovo has a less powerful GPU, but again, battery life is more important, so I'd think that's not the issue... and given that Lenovo is what everyone compares their build quality, keyboard, etc. to, the fact that Lenovo will actually SHIP your product immediately has to make it a compelling offer. lol. If the lightweight and multitouch t410s is too expensive for those feature's worth, you could always choose the T410 with switchable graphics, which gives the lenovo not only the aforementioned advantages, but also furthers the gap over the HP 14" offering with switchable graphics.

Lenovo drawbacks however are that navpoint drifts, the speakers are quiet at max (at least on my T500), and the lid:LCD ratio isn't perfect. Aside from that, they're perfect.

 

Has anyone got this notebook yet. i would like to have a review of it. not so much the 880m but the 1800m and then the m5800 which is like ages away. the 880m in 3d mark is only 20% better than 770m on stocks. but performance will be about 30% better.

 

Then you'd better consider a non-mobile workstation. You'll get even better specs, a screen far brighter than your 300 nits if you really need it, and all for a far smaller price, with the mobility you like (i.e. always plugged in).
A laptop is usually meant for mobility. 15 minutes autonomy isn't enough for most if not all scenarios

So nobody received his 8540w? I hope I'll receive mine at least in a few weeks...

 

Unfortunately, a non-mobile workstation would be much more difficult to transport between my four work locations.

Mobility means different things to different people. In my case, the vast majority of destinations have electricity outlets.

 

Are there hard facts about the FX 1800M GPU yet?
Can't find any benchmarks so far.

 

No wonder since 8540w is the only laptop with this GPU.

My estimation: the same rating as the Quadro FX 2500M/3500M or better.

1800M has lower memory interface (128bit vs 256bit), but in the end almost the same memory bandwidth (38.4 vs 35.2 GB/s) due to DDR5.

The double amount of memory schould also speed up the processing.

Code:

GPU		G3D*	GB/s
FX 3800M	875	64
FX 3700M	788	51.2
FX 2700M	688	51.2
FX 3600M	665	51.2
FX 3500M	596	38.4
FX 2500M	587	38.4
FX 1800M	!!!	35.2 !!!
FX 1700M	445	25.6
FX 1600M	399	25.6
_________________________
* Passmark Rating

 

Those numbers mean... the best version of 8540w has still half the GPU of the Lenovo's W7xx series? I'm.. surprised. Does the 3800m demand more cooling than the 1800m? Have I been bashing the w7xx's ginormous size unfairly?

I'm guessing about 700 for the 1800m's G3D based exclusively on the above chart... thoughts?

 

3800M is 100W, 1800M is 45W TDP. You can expect the 3800M to consume twice as much power and produce twice as much heat.

 

i was told today that the lcd cover is still on backorder. no update on a ship date. last i was told was 3/31.

 

How. Pathetic.

 

Any news about any delivering of the 8540p?

I don't see any thread for it, and they are cousins with the 8540w. Are they being delivered or suffer from the same problem?

Well, let's be positive. Drivers will be better!!

 

Who here has the record for having paid and waited the longest?

 

I ordered mine yesterday from the Swiss Neptun Project. Don't know when I will get it.

Question:
Since there is no HDMI output, is there some other way to use the blu-ray player with the TV?

thanks

 

It may not be a fair comparison, but my 8440p was delivered today. I ordered it early on 2/1/2010..

 

i ordered mine on 2/8. i suspect the 8440's are delivering because they use a different lcd cover. thus, the 8540p and w are delayed..