*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

directly from the laptop, you would need a displayport to hdmi cable. from a dock, a dvi to hdmi should work.

 

If the 8540w outputs audio via DisplayPort - which isn't known yet AFAIK.

 

i just checked the promo offer for the 8540w that i ordered about a month ago. it currently shows an estimated ship date of 3/10. now, i am still being told 3/31.

seems very misleading on hp's part.

 

Absolutely agree. I placed my order on 2/1 and ended up canceling it about 2/18, mostly in disgust. And, I figure that when the pipeline does fill (and assuming I haven't found anything better) I'll be able to pick one up with about 1-2 weeks lead time, once I know that HP is actually delivering them.

 

Thoughts on this notebook anyone? For value in comparison to the 8540w

VPCF1190X Configure-to-Order $ 1,509 .99

* Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
* 500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
* No Additional Video Editing Software
* Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) w Turbo Boost -- 2.80GHz
* 16.4" VAIO (1920x1080) NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
* 4GB (4GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
* Blu-ray Disc™ player/burner
* Keyboard Backlight
* Standard Capacity Battery

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644691998&#

The main differences to me are:

Cons:

No USB 3.0
No point stick
No option for 2nd built-in HDD
No long life (3yr) battery option
Keyboard will probably not be *as* good (though I doubt 8540w is as good as lenovo)


Pros:

Backlit keyboard
$1200 less for equivalent configuration after 28% discount
Consumer Video card -- I don't do CAD/CAM
HDMI output


Anyone see anything I'm missing?

 

other differences:

+/- it is bigger (better or worse depends on your needs)

- lower battery life with included battery: HP claims 6 hours with 8-cell which is default, so we can expect 4,5 for light work - Sony claims 3 hours, so we can expect ~2h. You can get Sony's bigger battery of course, but then it gets more expensive

- one year warranty (HP offers three)

- included GPU is weaker then 880M, so we can expect the 1800M to outperform it easily

 

I had a sony a few years ago, and the cooling was so poor that I burned up the CPU in less than a month.
Also the cost for the 8540W was about $1700 including a docking station. Seems worth waiting for to me.

 

You're seriously comparing the business-rugged EliteBook to a plastic Sony consumer box? Let me point out some differences for you.

1. Durability? Absolutely no contest. The Sony doesn't have it. It will show wear and break before the HP. If you use it every day for work, you'll have a month or two before you start to notice the wear.
2. Support? Again, no contest. You have HP's next-day on-site support for business vs. Sony's consumer support. Good luck with that.
3. The only dedicated USB ports on the Sony are in the most inconvenient spot possible for the majority of people, who are right-handed. Audio ports too. Very inconvenient to use a USB mouse and a headset.
4. I wager the VAIO has crappy cooling like my AW, which overheats during gaming unless I crank down the gfx settings and prop the laptop up with a thick book.
5. Bonus: In case you can't find the webcam on the Sony, it has been helpfully labeled MOTION EYE. However, the same camera on my AW works for both still images and things in motion.

These observations are based on my experience with both a VAIO AW and EliteBook 8530w.

 

you nailed it, these are not in the same catagory, not even close. by the way is HP warranty on Elitebooks on-site next business day? I though it was just 3year, return to depot(but I've heard they ship VERY fast).

 

The w model pricing includes 3 years on-site. The p models are priced with depot warranties but you can upgrade them to on-site.

 

ah, that's why, I have a 8530p.

wow, I'm impressed so there is even more advantages to buying the w series! nice! (I'm still good with my p).

 

It wasn't an accident that I'm interested in the 8540w.. Im aware it should be a nice laptop. However, you can't call all vaios run-hots just because one did, without subjecting HP to the same prejudice. I owned the nx9420, which is an HP business notebook, and it was a scorcher. And if you're going to use generation as its alibi, then why do the dv6's exonerate HP, since they presently suck in many ways.. Each model deserves its own judgment. HP doesn't really make much - they're systems integrators, and some products they'll make well, and others will be crap.

If you think HP's support is something to write home about, you're DEAD wrong. They'll jerk you around just like every other company. Support is for one thing; an RMA number. Support never crosses my mind when I'm buying. They never know ANYTHING. Which is why, 1. I use the search key, and 2. I belong to forums. MUCH faster. And they won't have some monkey reading of a conditional hierarchy like its a skit.

I have to say.. you seem a bit emotionally charged. In my experiences (and I mean no offense) when people are intensely adamant about an argument they're making it stems from insecurity. Perhaps you're not fully comfortable with the price of the Elitebook?

And yes, I've owned a couple of vaios. They're not great. I hate the one my gf has right now. Its a slow badmouth with stupid driver names so you cant tell what function it does by naming convention. Companies are allowed to resurrect their status.

 

I'll grant you that one. Anecdotal evidence is poor evidence indeed. But I'll stick to my other points. A consumer VAIO will have a tough time competing with a business-class EliteBook in terms of durability and support.

Are you speaking about HP's business support? Personally, I have had contact with neither HP business support nor Sony consumer support. But I've done my research on the forums and through business contacts. I've heard mostly good things about next-day on-site business support by HP, Dell, and Lenovo. I've heard mostly bad things about Sony consumer support. As I understand it, business support can be a night-and-day difference with the same company's consumer support. And with next-day on-site support, a technician comes to your location, and if s/he can't fix your problem on the spot, you are given a replacement unit. Is that not the case?

No offense taken. My wording merely reflects a desire to be expressive, rather than a strong emotional charge. As for budget, I've budgeted $5K for this equipment cycle, which should be enough to purchase the desired configuration plus accessories. Currently, I'm waiting to see what the 8740w brings, although the 8540w might be a better choice if it gets a DreamColor 2 panel brighter around 300 nit.

 

Ordered 2/3/2010, So that's 30 days ago.
Contacted HP Wednesday 3/3/2010 and they said ship date was 3/17/2010.

Not holding my breath here!

One piece of good news-my credit card hasn't been charged yet.

 

well, 3/17 is an improvement over 3/31. they charged our company 2 weeks ago. though, they are crediting us 10% of the order and giving us free shipping.

 

Well stated. Its SUCH a rare thing for a company to live up to the full perception a customer has for their stated warranty. We all know they do the BARE minimum by default; they have to for cost savings. I HOPE they're going to fulfill the warranty just as we'd expect it. Also, I nearly always do something to my products that voids the warranty, whether its installing a different HDD, OS, or RAM... they normally find SOME technicality to get off the hook.

My rationale for defending the Vaio prior to testing it, is because Im thinking the i5 and i7 series probably have better heat characteristics.. but maybe not.

From my signature, you'll see I do agree with you on the value of a well built notebook. Im really hopeful it'll be similar in quality to my lenovo. I'd actually stick to Lenovo if they had a compact notebook WITH 10-key. I do worry that when I get this HP, I'll wind up having to pay a restocking fee. Im SO picky with my products. "Buying" a product isn't so fitting for me; I usually audition them.

What other notebooks did YOU consider, and why did you settle on this one as your most likely candidate?

 

Wow...I ordered on 2/5 all the Internet pages say mine is shipping tomorrow (which makes no sense) and is slated to deliver on the 9th... No updates though. I could use a laptop....

 

well I can chime in here. when I got my 8530p I had owned a Lenovo T500 for about a year and to be honest I was quite disappointed with the T500's build quality and (especially) the screen. That is why I got the HP. and build is outstanding compared to the T500. I know these are the last gen products but it it's a worth comparison. From what I've heard the Elitebooks have maintained/increased there quality this gen, where as the T510's quality is less than the T500 (plastic screen frame).

I can't comment on the keyboard, really, that's personal preference, I generally think both are good, they are not the same, but they are both very usable. The keyboard finish on the Elitebook doesn't show finger oil quite as much as the thinkpad keyboards.

glad to see your at least willing to consider what's out there, I used to be a Lenovo supporter, but after my Elitebook, I couldn't go back.

 

Always willing to consider a company that's trying to resurrect their reputation. Hell, I'd even consider Acer products now.. netbook, whatnot. I definitely have a list of gripes re: the T500. The navpoint drifts incessantly, the vertical sweet spot is narrow, they REFUSE to put a number pad on the 15.4", and they waste lid space with a big border. They give absolutely NO option for speedy graphics adapter. But, still, the keyboard does rock. There's no flex in the body. I love the all-black-no-frills-business look. The ultrabay's versatility, for battery, BD-RW, HDD, etc., is awesome. One of my favored things about this notebook actually, is that they gave me a REAL restore disk, with selective restore; i.e., options of what software I reinstalled.

Given that you owned the 8530, Im curious.. is the keyboard and mouse silent or clicky? I regard the lenovo as relatively silent pending on your speed of depressing the button - and i like being able to type silently when my gf's in bed sleeping next to me.

One thing Im nearly positive Im going to dislike about the Elitebook is that the leading edge, that your wrist drapes across, is kind of sharp - whereas on the thinkpad there's a bevel to it, which matches the angle of my wrist to keyboard. I despised this about apples (I hated it, but I always give products a chance to be good)..

On your previous Elitebook, when you restored from CD/DVD, were you able to do a selective install? Or did you have restore it completely? I like being able to choose which components get reinstalled... Also, since you've owned a thinkpad and an elitebook, which did you like more? UltraNav or Point-Stick?

Im sure I'll think of more questions for you..

 

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11482077&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|84|31022|59219&N=4018620&Mo=9&pos=3&No=2&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=59219&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10626-Cat31022&topnav=

Check that deal out.. Im partial to costco, because its free upgrades for life. lol. What do you guys think of that unit...?

 

I'm a software development consultant, with secondary use cases involving music production and gaming. That gives me some activities that would benefit from having a highly performant machine that is still portable from desk to desk. A big, bright, high-res display is important; battery life is not. Durability and support are critical, as time waiting for a repair is lost revenue. These requirements land me squarely within mobile workstation territory.

Lenovo W701? Unnecessarily big and ugly. Not enough visible metal. I don't trust Lenovo.
Dell M6500? A contender, but there have been some red flags raised over in that thread. Dell is addressing some of the concerns (esp. USB 3), but there certainly is a sense that the product line is being managed haphazardly. I'm not confident in Dell quality.
HP EliteBook 8740w? I was very impressed by the 8530w units I saw recently. Very solidly built, decent aesthetics. I like most of what's going inside the 8540w, too. I just would like a brighter display and 133 DPI, which should arrive with the 8740w.

I'm also considering the (eventually) refreshed MacBook Pro 17, although it obviously isn't going to be in the same league as the above products. There's still an open question as to how much I want to get involved in the Mac side of things.

 

I wouldn't compare an Elitebook with a Sony, but I disagree with the complaints about Sony durability based on my personal experience. See my sig, I take that thing to work with me every day...it has been plenty durable for me.

 

W7xx ... I agree. Absurdly big, but incredibly powerful.
M6500 ... Hadn't heard of these issues, but it was out of my budget anyway.
MacBook Pro ... In the interest of objectivity, I've tried Macs our when they've had (allegedly) quantum updates. Invariably, Im utterly disappointed. They're ALWAYS slow (stupid spinning pallet), ran hot, had that annoying sharp edge my wrist to lay across, and only have 1 mouse button. OS X is (as an extremely astute author well said) simple, but not easy. Furthermore, whereas in MS world, if something doesn't work, there's multiple ways of accomplishing the same thing - in Apple's utotia, there's but one way, and its normally termed something that tenuously describes what it does. Also, I resent that they imply having invented things by their "i" naming convention; i.e., Airport. And how it selects files is annoying.. if you use SHIFT to select multiple files, and accidentally bypass your mark by 1 file while pressing UP, pressing DOWN to correct will add 1 file on to the beginning of the group, as opposed to undoing the last in the string. Enter will enable you to rename a file if it is selected, instead of launching it. Again... personal preference, yes, but it seems retarded to me. Maybe I'm just MS-indoctrinated. Furthermore, there's a huge gap in administrative control. Unless you're comfortable with command line, in Apples ver. of linux, you're stuck using their GUI, which I have to say, isn't perfect. Additionally, I've found that moving large amounts of files within folders can be disastrous; failing in the middle, without any clear means of know where to pick up from the fail point.. Win7 new copy system is AWESOME! I've also had it corrupt file permissions in absolutely pernicious ways.. to which, I found extensive information on the net about the exact problem - which means its common.. Finally, that you often have to COPY data.. instead of moving it? Is this still the case? In MS-WIN, moving 20gb on my HD from one folder to another is nearly instantaneous, whereas on apple, I've had it actually rewrite the data.. I think they're really only in business because they focus on aesthetics more effectively.. and that they buy up artistic geared software (music, video, photo).. because these groups of people are more likely to forgive such annoyances I've listed, in lieu of something that looks pretty. Apple targeted these people because of these factors - to great corporate success. Clearly, I do NOT, think they have a better product. The iPod is good. Final Cut is clearly the best video editor that runs on either mac or PC (excluding Avid systems which have specific hardware requirements and isn't as user friendly).. Although I resent them pretending like they're all a bunch of earnest tree hugging socialists.. when in fact, they're as dirty a corporation as any. Can't knock their marketing though. They're the pinnacle in that respect. And I hope they're around for a long time.. more competition the better. I just hate it when poor friend of mine spends money on their product thinking its decisively better.

 

Not necessarily true unless its exlcusive to the 8540w cos i had the 8510w with onsite. my 8530w was just depot.

 

hi guys, i have a question...

at my university i can get a 8540w model with this configuration:
Prozessor: Intel Core i7 7200QM
Takt: 1,66 GHz
HD: 500 GB (7200 rpm)
RAM: 4 GB (2 x 2 GB DDR3)
Display: 15,6“ FHD 1920x1080 LED
Graphik: Nvidia Quadro FX1800M (1 GB DDR5)
WWAN: optional
Batterie: 8 Zellen HP LongLife Akku
Laufwerk: DVD-RW
Kamera: integriert
Gewicht: 2,9 kg
Garantie: 3 Jahre welweit vor Ort

for 1457€.

now i wanted to know if this is worth it? how much does it cost eslewhere?

greetz shu8i

 

Take a look here
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/at/de/sm/WF25a/321957-321957-64295-3955549-3955549-4096175.html

 

the keyboard is as far as I am concerned is quieter than the T500. the mouse is definitely quieter than the T500, I usually just use 'tap-to-click' so it's not a big issue to me either way, and in my opinion the surface of the touchpad is far better on the 8530. Also one thing to know that depending on your liking the point stick on the HP is not as good as the Thinkpad. but it doesn't drift (but nor did my T500).

I don't want to come across saying the Elitebook is perfect (because it isn't). but it definitely does a few things better than Lenovo. (build, screen, config options). pro's for Lenovo, they are cheaper, tend to do better on battery life, in my opinion the point stick.

to me build and screen trumps all other pro's another manufacture may have. that's why I like my Elitebook more than my T500.

 

I've compared the pros/cons of the Apple world literally exhaustively. Suffice it to say that there are aspects that I like and some that I dislike. Some aspects are relevant to my business and some are personal interests only. I'm well aware of the tradeoffs and will make my purchase decision accordingly.

 

More information about the DreamColor 2 coming, supposedly, to the 8540w and 8740w:

http://hpfansite.com/hp-elitebook/dream-color-2-rumors/

 

dead??? =-O

 

Just take a look at geizhals.at or directly on the HP site. Just like the neptun offer the austrian university offer is great, unfortunately the neptun offer is even better (with the bluerayburner, 8gb ram). After all, I'd buy both offers it in a heartbeat!

 

Is This Some Kind of Joke?

 

are there any US universities that offer this kind of academic discount? How would I find out who/where, etc...? thanks.

 

Yeah, what's up with the "DEAD" marker on the thread title?

 

perhaps because no one has seen the elusive beast?

 

Has it actually shipped?

 

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

no

 

What's the new ETA then?

 

still tomorrow

 

called up. they said it would ship on the 11th and deliver on the 16th. kinda figures it would be delivered the week i am not in town. i think hp tries to be a pain in the a.

 

Sounds like they finally solved the LCD production problems (if the rumor is true).
Hopefully mine won't take a month and a half as well, just ordered today.

 

Well hp has been known to bs everything possible.

 

yah, so why do people buy them? lol HP has a solid following in the Elitebook line (I'm one of them). they are fantastic computers with top tear quality and service. oh, and remember guys, with Win 7's release almost every single business is looking to upgrade XP and the machines that they run on. I'd be willing to bet HP has well over 100,000 orders for the 8530p/w. and a lot more coming when service pack 1 comes (most businesses wait to SP1). you can expect supplies to be short especially considering the Chinese New Year caused all kings of production problems.

just saying HP isn't 100% BSing, there are some valid reasons why it's taking so long. that said I don't think they should have been selling machines so early.

hope these start coming in! I want some reviews!

 

Which university?

That is really low price. Can you buy one for me?
Here in Germany the same configuration will cost around 2600€

 

Seem like you picked the wrong German-speaking country to be born in.
The offer he mentioned is avalable to all Austrian students and it's limited to one laptop per person for each term.

 

No one thinks HP is PRETENDING to have delays. We all believe the delays are real - and that HP wishes it could ship on time. But LYING about availability to capture the interest of customers who would, if they knew the delay period, buy from elsewhere based on their time line, is definitely BSing its customers.

 

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but it has a ton of specs on the 8540w.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13529_na/13529_na.pdf

If nothing else, it's something to read until we start seeing some official reviews.

 

that's right... i only can buy one machine per semester and i already bought this 8540w since I heard here that's a great deal

 

If you study in Germany you can take a look at uni-notebooks.de

Config. ID: WD930EA

• i7-620M
• 8 GB (2x4GB)
• 500GB Highspeed HDD 7200U/min
• Blu-ray ROM DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL LightScribe Drive
• LED 1920 x 1080, matt
• FX 1800M, 1 GB GDDR5
• GPS
• G3 / UMTS / HSDPA
• USB 3.0
• 3 Years warranty

1699.00 EUR

a very good price imho.

 

I ordered mine 2/1 and was charged immediately - the last date I received (on March 3) was 3/31.

The funny thing is, the online order site still shows an estimated delivery date of 2/8/10 and the "line item detail" page says 2/22/10.