HP Elitebook 8440P

It looks like Windows doesn't have support for the sensor, that's why ProtectTools is required. I hope Microsoft develops its own Biometrics Support for this sensor - its just better when you don't have to install ProtectTools if you don't use its other features.

The company I work for uses HP EliteBooks for their sales models. I have used the 6910p, 6930p and the 8530p/w. I can say that the combination of Windows 7 64-bit with the i5 chipset on the 8440p is amazing. The increase in speed and stability makes it a pleasure to use. Boot up time and application load time is great. Even running mulitple large apps like Adobe Photoshop run very well. I really didn't think this notebook could have been much faster than the already blazing combination of a 6930p w/T9400 - but it is. Everything just keeps getting faster -and intel keeps coming out with great processors.

It's nice that they kept a similiar feel on the outside from the previous generation. The keyboard is nice and solid, and the shell feels firm and feels like quality.

When it comes down to it, this is a solid notebook. No flash, just quality - and for most of us that's what we need.

-

 

I just got my hands on the 8440p. I love the way it looks. And the keys feel great -- I don't understand anyone who hates on it, which I think is typically Lenovo junkies. I admittedly might understand better if I had a Lenovo, but I tried to order a W510, and with their massive delays and various hardware/driver issues, I never got one. I got this instead.

I won't give any impressions for a day or so, but I'll try to take pics and attach them to the thread if possible, when I do post next. I will note that my IT guy said this was the easiest model to setup, vs the multiple others of other brands that he has to prep for other coworkers. That was a positive sign.

I know how badly I wanted info before I got my laptop, so I'll do my best to help provide feedback here shortly, since there's not a whole lot out there yet from owners.

 

Can you please describe the display quality? The Sony VAIO Z series and the 8440p/w is of interest to me. Display quality will be an important factor in my decision.
Thank you in advance! Look forward to seeing the pictures.
No doubt the high quality metal-finish is stunning!

P.S. Also, do you think that they'll offer an Ati-graphics card option?
They run cooler and are more efficient. Unless nVidia optimus will be enabled on these Elitebook models...

 

I didn't take pictures yet. Maybe tomorrow/later this week/never. Pictures are available online, so I don't think I'd really show anything off more than trying to show how nice the brushed nickel (gray casing) looks.

My 8440p Config: (hp part # WH257UT)

• Core i7-620M
• 4 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 Mhz)
• 320 GB 7200rpm HDD
• DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
• Nvidia NVS 3100M
• 14" Widescreen TFT 1600 x 900
• 6-cell + extra 9-cell battery (hp part # AT908AA, purchased separately here)
• Bluetooth, Webcam, Fingerprint Reader

Display quality: I'm not an expert. But it does look nice. Perhaps the viewing angles are slightly less than the 3-4 other laptops I have tried, but really that's not a big deal. For a single viewer, sitting in front of it, you will get a vibrant picture.

The only way to get a better picture is perhaps with a High-Nit display like that of Lenovo's which is bright enough to work outdoors on a sunny day without glare.

It has the ambient light sensor to auto-adjust the brightness, which is useful I suppose for conserving battery and not being full-brightness all the time -- you can turn it off, of course.

I connected a Sony BDU-X10S blu-ray drive (via external enclosure/USB 2.0), and installed PowerDVD (with BluRay support), because Windows Media Player does not ship with codecs. Details below, but playback was enjoyable.

Display adapter: No way for me to know on the ATI option. But I would guess not. I assume they chose Nvidia for a good reason -- targeted audience, cost, partnership, etc.

Again, the 3100M handled blu-ray wonderfully. The CPU utilization during playback was only 9-13%, so the card was doing its job.

Using a display port to HDMI adapter ( here), I was able to use both the laptop and a BenQ E2400HD-1 (24") monitor simultaneously, even during blu-ray playback.

I had issues with my BenQ monitor playing back sound. The Windows 7 configuration proved to me that the BenQ was detected as an audio device over the HDMI cable. And I could get it to play test audio through the right channel of the BenQ. I figure that this is an issue between my monitor and Win7 more than it is of being capable of playing audio over the displayport-to-HDMI cable, since I did get some audio to play. I'll have to try the laptop with another LCD or Plasma display later.

Battery:
I received the 6-cell with the laptop, and got a 9-cell on the side. The 9-cell sticks out about an inch from the back, but doesn't really get in the way and sits flush with the bottom of the laptop just like the 6-cell -- meaning, it doesn't raise the laptop higher.

General web browsing on near-full brightness:
- 6-cell reported about 5 hours on full capacity
- 9-cell reported about 8 hours on full capacity

Full-brightness with some CPU activity (installing apps):
- 9-cell reported about 5 hours on full capacity

Full-brightness with blu-ray playback:
- 9-cell reported about 3 hours on full capacity

So, the lesson learned is that if you want to watch a long movie, like Troy, from a blu-ray drive attached to the laptop, then you are going to need a spare or a 9-cell battery to get you through it. I would figure that it's no problem to watch a full-length DVD of 90 to 120 minutes worth on a 6-cell battery, even on full brightness. Certainly fine if you reduce brightness. You might draw a different conclusion from those #'s, but that's what I'm basing it on.

Touchpad and stick:
The touchpad is nice. I don't see why people have disliked the texture. I think it's great. The buttons are hinged at the top, so you have to depress the buttons at the bottom. You'll quickly get used to this, feeling your thumb against the bottom edge. But it was annoying for the first minute or so. Again, you'll get used to it and get over it.

The pointing stick is a pointing stick. I haven't used a Lenovo stick for a long time (since it was still IBM). But it works and you'll get used to the pressure needed to move the pointer slow and fast. The buttons below the space bar are regular, not hinged buttons like the touchpad. You can easily disable the touchpad from a button at the top of the keyboard.

Top-row buttons:
I love this. There is a row of buttons which are touch-sensitive (not pushbutton style), flush with the laptop. They are above the number keys, just below the lid hinge -- for example, if letter "L" looks like your laptop with the lid open, the row is on the bottom part of the L, but toward the hinge.

Each button is indicated by an blue/orange LED-colored light. You have a button for mail, for web browser, for wireless toggle, for touchpad toggle, for speaker toggle (mute/unmute), and two more for volume up and down. It's perfect having the volume controls there, rather than on the front by your lap/tummy like some other laptops do.

Keyboard:
I love the feel of the keyboard. There is a minimal inward curvature to each button, which lets your fingers rest comfortably (all good keyboards are like this, but some laptops have a flat surface). Don't confuse this with ergonomic style keys, where there's a possibly very noticable inset. All I'm saying is, my fingers feel very comfortable resting on this keyboard.

The keys are large, like a desktop keyboard. And the layout is appropriate, with no surprises. The enter and backspace keys are a full size, for those that hate it when other laptops make these keys smaller.

Durability:
I haven't dropped it yet, or tested out 200 pounds of crush force by standing on it, nor have I tested the spill-resistance. I don't intend to. But the case is very strong. Though I haven't explicitly tried every key, I haven't noticed any keyboard flex or flimsyness.

Closing the lid finishes with a strong, latching click. And there is a solid push-button on the front to open it. The lid seems strong and like it shouldn't fail any time soon -- in comparison to laptops where the lid eventually falls backward due to gravity and can't stand up properly. I very much like the durability so far.

Network speed w/ 802.11n:
Windows 7 reported a 150Mbit connection speed to my home router (from downstairs with the router being upstairs). This is satisfactory, for sure.

I hope this gives some good initial information to you guys. I don't expect to run benchmarks. I'd trust on solid performance from the i7-620M cpu, 7200RPM drive, and NVS 3100M adapter.

EDIT: To my knowledge, Optimus is not offered on this laptop on any configuration. Someone can correct me if wrong.

EDIT2: I might add pictures after all, just not promising when. I'm forgetful, is all. I went back online, and actually didn't see well-representative images of this 8440p, so I'll try to get to it soon.

 

bdbuhr, Thank you very much for that nice real review.
You just got the model I'm looking at and you comfort me in my choice.
Again, thanks for providing said feedback.

DO you intend to game a bit on your elitebook? If so, i'd like to know your feeling about it (more than benchmark and other stuff).
Like what game did you try, how do they run, etc...

And also, glad to know that video playback isn't an issue like stated in this article http://review.techworld.com/personal-tech/3213454/hp-elitebook-8440w-review/

Anyway, Cheers for the feedback

 

Antsiou,

You're welcome. I don't intend to game very much on this. However, there ARE some metrics on the NVS 3100M in regards to gaming. Typically, modern games are limited by GPU support, not CPU (I believe this is correct). I think that this link will help you out.

Notebookcheck.com reports that the 3100M is in the top of the 3rd tier, along with the Nvidia FX 380M, and better than the Radeon Mobility HD 4350/4550, and below the HD 5450/5470 (bottom of 2nd tier).

Some games that it was tested with, and their fps at certain game settings, include:

DIRT2:
- low (41 fps), med (25 fps)
Anno 1404:
- low (58 fps), ultra (12 fps)
CoD4 Modern Warfare:
- low (126 fps), med (56 fps), high (36 fps)
Crysis (benchmark):
- low (49 fps), med (20 fps)

They don't specify what the resolutions are in these low/med/high/ultra settings. Obviously, RAM and CPU do impact these values too, and perhaps the test systems used something more along the lines of i3/i5's or Core 2 Duo's, so maybe you could do a little better on this laptop. But this gives you an idea of what to expect for gaming.

My purchase was to satisfy business needs (and personally I'll admit I wanted some fun in it too, such as movie playing during trips). But I need to run multi-threaded servers and multiple processes on this laptop.

This is a solidly constructed laptop, and at 14" is more portable. If you want heavy gaming, you most likely have to look at a 15" with higher-end options for display adapter. An example is the Sony E series with the 5470 card, or another laptop with a card from the 2nd tier on notebookcheck.com. Note that they aren't extensive in their testing of games on that site, and perhaps you'd get additional information or suggestions from the forums over at tomshardware.com.

 

The 8440w review should be comparable to the 8440p... it's essentially the same laptop, but with the FX 380M, a darker brushed-metal appearance, and onsite warranty support I believe.

That review seems to wrongly infer the 620M is a quad-core, saying "Though the Intel Core i7 620M isn't the highest-performing Intel quad-core CPU...". Not the first reviewer to make that mistake now, lol.

I agree with the review's comments on the keyboard and touchpad.

I partly agree and disagree with the review's comments on the playback.

I disagree that playback was problematic. There are no problems whatsoever. I think they were upset they didn't get to play with a blu-ray drive on the machine. They critique Windows Media Player with the HD file. And I also don't see how they expect clean picture with old DVD's like Raiders of the Lost Ark. Upscaling won't add back quality that wasn't there to start with. It's truly stupid.

It did also seem to me that I saw a little washout of color on the blu-ray movie playback. But scaling to 900px full-screen might affect that, rather than doing exact 720p (supported by the 1600x900 res) or 1080p (not supported). Also, when I connected the video to my BenQ monitor, it looked a little deeper in color.

I think there's a reasonable expectation here, when comparing a big 24" monitor vs a 14" laptop display. I will admit, that a person with fickle, picky tastes might prefer a little deeper blacks and higher contrast. But then again, I'd recommend them straying from a business laptop and buying a gaming or entertainment laptop. You'll give up the durability and other nice features on this laptop in exchange, however. There aren't many alternatives for getting a better display... most laptops, especially of this size, have lower-nit displays.

The review complained about the audio control panel's equalizer -- I have not played with this. I also could care less about the quality of the laptop speakers. You can only do so well with tiny speakers. Headphones are the way to go if you want quality output.

 

bdbuhr, Thanks again for your input.
I agree with you about gaming, and I only intend to use moderate gaming between working session (the missus isn't thrilled about me working AND gaming
I've read those benchmark and that seems fine to me and my needs. If you ever do some light gaming yourself, i'd be happy to hear about your impression.

Regarding video playback, I think you're making some valid point (and also reinforce my conviction that I WANT and NEED this machine).

Audio, I couldn't careless as I always have my headphones or external speakers plugged in, so again, I join you on that.

All in all, I want that machine. Now I just have to wait for it to be available (sometime after easter) here in Norway. and Also accept the norwegian price (equivalent of 2,586 USD, I kid you not)

 

Need , want, same thing.

Wow, $2,586 USD? That's definitely a lot. I assume the cost for vendors to ship / export to Norway is the reason for the higher price, but do any brands have a competitive advantage over the rest?

 

Not that I can see.
The T410 is the same price (for same configuration). Overall I find prices here slightly higher than the rest of Europe, and stupidly wrong compared to the US. But that is true for all brand.
Advantage of buying in Norway though is a "reclamation right" that is like a warranty by law for 2 or 5 years. (Basically the vendor most offer a substitute product if the one you bought failed to live to its "estimated life").

How much would that cost ??

(Still looking to import from Us to save at least $500 but loosing the localised keyboard and superbe warranty).... Decision Decision

 

bdbuhr, thanks very much for your review.

I'm happy to hear your positive impressions of the 8440p, as mine should be shipping on 26/3 (lets see how far it gets on a friday )

Quick question: How noisy/hot does it run? During your testing, did the fan spin up to an audible level?

 

I haven't had it on my lap enough to get a real-world feel to how hot it runs -- had it on a table top mostly. But I don't think it's bad. The air is vented out to the left side, rather than down at your lap. This is a good design. The material that my wrists/palms sit on, as I rest my fingers on the keyboard stays cool, stays cool and only warms up from my skin.

The fan is audible through the left vent, but it's a calming white noise. It's a light, airy/breezy sound, not whiny or high pitched.

I hope you enjoy your laptop when it arrives. I'd like to hear others' comments, to see how they compare to mine.

 

Great, thanks for the info!

I'll definitely post my impression when it arrives.

 

You mention that the WH257UT has Bluetooth. On the HP site there seems to be conflicting info about this. Can you confirm it's there?
Thanks for the great review!

 

It's indeed there. I see the Bluetooth adapter in Device Manager in Windows 7. I am able to search and identify nearby bluetooth devices. I failed to pair with my bluetooth phone, but that's more of a user failure or incompatibility with my phone than anything else.

PHOTOS:

I've added 4 photos!

One shows the width of the spare 9-cell battery I purchased... about the size of a US nickel (less than 2 cm). The 6-cell battery does not stick out from the back like the 9-cell.

Another shows the HP logo on the top of the lid, and the light gray color of the finish.

Another shows the top of the laptop, hopefully demonstrating the brushed finish -- the color is darkened in this photo, making it incorrectly look more like the 8440w (I'm guessing). You can also see the large push-button for the lid, and besides that, the only other thing in the front is a memory card reader (SD/MMC) and additional LED's. No sound-related buttons to accidentally push with your tummy.

The final one shows the keyboard, as well as the led icons/buttons that I described earlier. The keyboard is more in focus, and unfortunately, small traces of dust highlighted in the focus (no it's not really that dirty yet). The buttons in the top row are not in clear focus, but you get the idea there.

EDIT: If there's any other photo you want to see, ask me in the next 5-6 hours from this post, because I have my camera ready to go. Else, you lose out. Really, there's not much else to show. You can see the side-view images elsewhere online, to see the port layouts. And I can't really give an appropriate demonstration of the display since my camera wants to adjust its focus and color based on light intensity of the screen.

 

Again Bdbhur you're the man.

Thanks for those pics.

What I'd like to see is the relative size of the machine, If you can put itside by side with another laptop, a phone a lady in a bikini (it works for car, should work for latops ) , something to give us an idea of proportion.

 

I'll give you two out of the three. No laptop side-by-side, but how about 2 out of 3:

1) a 8.5" x 11" (about 21.5cm x 28cm) piece of paper with Disney's Ariel ( girl in a bikini), printed on the paper. You can see the paper is not quite as wide as the laptop, just missing the top edge.

2) A DVD. I had a DVD below it against the front edge, so you can see it's not quite two DVD's wide, since the one in the picture hangs over the edge / on top of the 9-cell battery.

3) A Samsung Rant ( cell-phone), to finish the edge-to-edge length of the laptop.

 

This is nothing short of amazing.
Thanks again for doing it all. How did yo uknw about my childhood crush on Ariel???

It seems to be a very decent size (I compared your pic setup to my current laptop, a 15" Asus, and I can see the smaller size of the 8440p).

Ok, another 2 weeks (at least to wait now until I can get my hands on this machine).

 

Great pictures!
One question you may be able to answer:
is there an option to emulate a middle click with the trackpoint / trackpad buttons? Is it possible to press both button with a single finger?
I'm currently still using a Thinkpad and the middle click is really useful for closing browser tabs, free scrolling in docs with the pointer etc.

 

I can't really be sure. I tried in Firefox to use the free scrolling, and nothing. I checked the Mouse control panel, and nothing there to enable it. I checked Windows 7 help, and didn't find anything... so, possibly not? Obviously, some apps will indepently emulate the third button for you (I think Cygwin-X figures it out for me), but I can't seem to get Windows to recognize a middle click from the right and left being pressed together.

You may have to run a 3rd party tool to combine Ctrl or another key with a mouse key, or to emulate the middle button from left and right.

 

The Elitebook 8440p/w could have been even better if they added an option for a DreamColor display (1400x900 or 1600x900), an Ati HD5650 graphics card or the equivalent with the ability to switch modes, and an option for a 12-cell battery. A slightly larger touchpad and a backlit keyboard (so long as it doesn't ruin the quality) would have been appreciated conveniences. That would have been perfect!

P.S. Does this notebook already have a Quick-Boot feature?

 

Hi bdbuhr, thx for nice info, could you please find out exact weight of 8440p with 6cell bat.

 

Don't know, HP lists it as "starting at" 4.7 pounds. It's about 5 pounds basically.

I had to look up DreamColor to find out what that was. I guess it's reserved for HP's Elitebook 8730w only.

Regarding quick-boot, you mean to ask if the BIOS allows you to skip the lengthy memory testing to get into the OS faster?

EDIT: I haven't checked out the BIOS yet ... in fact, when it boots, it quickly goes right into loading Windows 7. You have about 1 second to hit a key that allows boot options.

 

The usual middle click method is to tap two fingers on the touchpad at the same time about 1cm apart.

Thanks for those pictures! Very nice looking machine, and great compact size for a 1600x900 screen.

 

I'll try that, and thanks for the lesson. I'll let you know again shortly by editing this post.

EDIT: Can't get it to work. It could be my fault tho (?).

 

Thanks so much for your pics and reviews. Is the small touchpad comfortable? I found the E6400 really cramped (also didn't really move smoothly). Also, does the touchpad support multi-finger gestures like zoom?

And as you continue to use it, further impressions of the screen and video playback HD or otherwise are always welcome.

 

Touchpad is good for me, but I can see people wanting more real estate on the touchpad. That's where the pointing stick becomes more useful, I suppose. I can't seem to discover any multi-touch support with the touchpad.

 

bdbuhr,

I think you have to go to the synaptics icon in your task bar, right click to enable "Gestures" before any of the multi-touch options will be made available. It worked on my 8440w, but I prefer to disable it because it seems to cause cursor drifting.

 

Hi guys, just about to pull the trigger on this model http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi?action=thispage&thispage=01000100U0110_BCM6200P.shtml&order_id=193751579 with delivery and tax to Norway.
I also have included the estimated price of a replacement keyboard (scandinavian localisation) and in the end it comes like 300$ less than the local prices.
I confirmed with HP norway that the warranty will be carried over.
Does anybody have a last word to say before I fire the credit card?
Experience with shopblt (they look serious).

In all, Why would I go through all of these troubles?
It might very well arrive before the models are even available in Norway. (ETA is expected to be mid april by HP norge, they are not even sure).
It's cheaper

What do you think?
E.

 

I'm a little unclear on Nvidia Optimus and I'm definitely interested in buying a laptop with switchable graphics. According to Nvidia, Optimus should be compatible with existing laptops as long as they have a chipset that supports it. From what I've read, the QM57 supports Optimus.

So, If I buy an HP 8440p with NVS 3100 graphics card, does that mean that Optimus will be supported in the future when HP makes a driver available? Is the hardware for the Intel integrated card included as part of the chipset and just not activated? Also, if this is the case, is there a way to switch between graphics cards in the bios even though there is no OS / driver software support currently available?

 

FYI, I recently purchased 8440w with $1497 shipped. I think you might get it cheaper than that since 8440p list price is $1509 and 8440w is $1649 in HP direct.

 

Iamthingy, where did yo uget that price? and also which model is it?

I am all ears for better deals

 

I got it from buy.com through Amazon on mar 24.
I saw some sites having 8440w(fn093ut model) in their stock. But after two days, they were all gone.

FYI, try costcentral, http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/HP_EliteBook_8440p/WH257UTABA/11069292/
8440p(wh257ut) was 1,3xxx but now it's 1,4xxx.

 

Hi guy I just ordered a 8440p with model #WH257UT#ABA.
It should arrive within this week. Will post what I find.

 

Did anyone get one with the 768p display? I wanna pull the trigger on a 8440p with integrated graphics. Of course, I'd prefer the 900p display but cannot afford to get a customized model. That limits my options to the 768p display basically.

As to the discussion regarding Optimus: I speculate we won't see it on the 8440p for a while. Basically, the business lines go through a lot more validation/verification so that they can be certified to run a variety of OSes and software. (OTOH, on a recent consumer model no manufacturer will support, say, Win XP so less validation needs to be done.) It'll take longer before manufacturer and/or OEM give their OK to distribute Optimus capable drivers. (This assumes they are indeed being developed for Quadro laptop cards which I haven't seen explicitly stated so far.)

 

In regards to this, can anyone who already has an 8440p with Nvidia card verify whether or not there is an option to switch between integrated or discrete card in the bios before booting up?

 

I got my HP 8440p today.
Everything is running good except the screen. The color on the screen is washed out and the contrast is very poor. I came from a Thinkpad T400 so my standard for screen is pretty low. That been said I still found the screen is unacceptable. Will ship it back to vendor tomorrow for a refund. sigh...

 

I agree with that. I am using 8440w, contrast is very poor and the screen is purple-blueish.
I have used inspiron 1501 which is very entry level laptop and I have never had this kind of problems. I am also having SyncMaster 245T and 8440w screen is way worse than 245T.

Is this normal for 8440p/w model ?
How about 8540p/w model's display ?

 

I agree the screen is the weakest component on my 8440w, especially when the rest of the hardware is exceptional.

The color temperature of the screen is cool (a function of HP's LED backlight, maybe?), and the vertical viewing angle is terrible. However, a simple calibration using the Nvidia control panel helps significantly on the color and contrast (not the viewing angle, of course).

With my 1600x900 screen brightness at around 80-90%, these are the number I use for Nvidia desktop color settings:
Brightness 40%
Contrast 55%
Gamma 0.93
Digital Vibrance 20%

I'm okay with the cool (bluish) color temperature, but if you want a warmer temperature, you can try reducing both the brightness and contrast of the blue channel even further.

There's also a separate video color setting which can be used to calibrate video playback quality.

This is very crude and primitive calibration, unfortunate, because that's the limitation of Nvidia's software. Normally, I prefer doing calibration with hardware controls which are not available with a laptop screen. Hp should have done a better job calibrating their displays during the manufacturing process.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for your input on the screen calibration settings. It did make a difference to the screen. I can see the color appears warmer. But the problem I got is the screen would reload the default settings every time after reboot. I have to open the Nvidia control panel and reset it. Any idea how to prevent this?

 

Agreed, vertical viewing angle is terribly bad too.

 

Okay, I had more time to do some calibration. I didn't use my colorimeter, just my eyeballs, so take it with a grain of salt. The greyscale tracks a lot better though, and the bluish tint is gone.

Here are the numbers I current use in Nvidia desktop color setting:
Red channel:
Br: 42%
Cr: 60%
Gamma: 0.93

Blue channel:
Br: 27%
Cr: 27%
Gamma: 0.93

Green channel:
Br: 40%
Cr: 55%
Gamma: 0.93

Digital Vibrance: 20%

Saving and loading it as a profile in Nvidia control panel kept the setting for me on all reboots, except in the case when both the battery and power are detached for extended period of time (weird, I know. I haven't found a solution to this).

On my machine these numbers give a decent greyscale (though not perfect), neutral color temperature, and good saturation. It's good enough that I no longer "hate" this screen. In fact, it gives the illusion that the vertical viewing angle is improved (better contrast maybe?). Along with the anti-glare finish and high resolution, I'll even give it a slightly above average rating for a screen in this class. It maybe even better with a more precise calibration. I don't think HP's LCD hardware is necessarily bad, but the default color is atrocious.

YMMV

 

Thanks for the setting and puttig back some confidence into the screen quality.
The last comments were kind of worrying for me as the screen was almost the only breaking point for me into getting an Elitebook 8440w (or p) over a T410.

Do you still give your approval for "good machine"?

 

thansk, YMMV,
the display color is changed a lot according to your color setting although it still has vertical viewing angle problem.

 

iamthingy,

These numbers are for my 8440w 1600x900 screen, which I assume is the same hardware for 8440p 1600x900, but individual screens can have significantly different color characteristics from one another, even if they are the same make and model. I calibrated mine using greyscale ramps and other basic patterns. I was too lazy to setup the eyeone colorimeter, so I just compared the laptop to my home theatre htpc. The home theatre projector was calibrated to D65. In the end, I was able to get them to be close enough for me.

antsiou,

My statement was for the screen default color only, and a "relative" feeling at that. I'm used to screens calibrated to D65; so I may be a little more critical than some laptop users. I've seen several of the thinkpad's screens. Although they seemed better at default setting, I wasn't impressed by them from color accuracy stand point. With a couple of exceptions, laptop screens are known to be inferior and color inaccurate in comparison to their other LCD siblings. Fortunately, modern graphic drivers, including the Nvidia control panel, give enough color controls to be useful in this respect. I would prefer a calibrated HP screen over uncalibrated Lenovo or Sony laptop screens.

Currently, I'm happy with 8440w's screen performance. Happy enough to recommend 8440w to you. The elitebooks' chassis are first class. It's a shame that HP don't realize that all the performance and build-quality in the world may not be enough to overcome a poor impression about the screen, especially when it's the most important and most direct visual interface between the users and their machines. Sony's have their priority right in this respect.

Very very few manufacturers market their screen products with "correct" color calibration (this is true whether we're talking about tvs, projectors, monitors, or laptops), but most manufacturers do set the color defaults for their products to make a "wow" impression (over the top brightness, contrast, and saturation), but it seems HP failed to do even that, which is a bit of mystery from marketing stand point.

In any case, the bad news is that the screen default color is sub-par. The good news is that it can be remedied through the graphic driver.

 

hi theologian,
Tanks for the seal of approval. I've just ordered the smartbuy 8440w (with I7-620M, FX 380, etc etc) and I look forward to receiving it.
I'll be jumping from a 5 year old asus (see my sig) and the screen wasn't its forte.
Good resolution, but very low luminosity and atrocious black (some muddy grey at best). So I would definitely think (and hope) that the 8440w screen will be a a big step up.
I don't even compare with desktop screen as I know they are easily so much better.
Will you game on your machine? If you do, i'd love to hear your feedback.

 

Awesome feedback, thanks for the help.

EDIT:

The taskbar item allows you to open Properties. From there, select the custom tab, "Device Properties". That opens the dialog box that allows you to control all the various settings. I had to enable horizontal scrolling.

 

Is it possible to scroll with the track point keys ? (like thinkpads)

 

another review for the 8440w http://labs.eweek.com/review/review-elitebook-8440w-hp-elitebook-8440w-wades-into-workstation-fray/
same old same old

 

Just got my HP Elitebook 8440w. Wow... VERY solidly built. The gunmetal finish feels amazing. Setting up Windows 7 right now. The screen doesn't seem so bad... colors are ok, contrast is a bit weak but I'm going to try theologian's settings and see the difference

Loving it so far!