Thoughts on Elitebook 8460w

Hello again everyone! I had a mental coin-toss about whether or not to put this under "what PC should I buy," or not... but this seemed more appropriate given that it's about this particular computer.

So, school is approaching relatively soon, and my time to order my replacement laptop is running out. I've seen a few candidates come and go... the Vaio S, and Z in particular, but none have really caught my attention. Also, I noticed that with the Sony's... you really get screwed on the high prices I did find the Elitebook 8460w, and considering the comparatively reasonable pricing, and the fact that it seems relatively sturdy compared the the cheap plastic trash you find at retailers, I'm considering ordering one...

Having never even heard of the EliteBook line until I started looking about a month ago, I do have a few questions:

1. How would I, a student, go about ordering an EliteBook. It seems these are geared towards more business purchasers than consumers. Do I just call? I have heard from some people that it's a pain, and yet I've seen enough reviewers that it must not be too hard...
2. There isn't much info on this model, but from what I can tell, the opinion is that it's very good except perhaps for the screen. It certainly gets bonus points in my book for the i7 Quad Core option... and yet, screen quality is fairly high on my list of deciding factors. For these kind of laptops (apparently the screens are quite similar in this series), what am I going to be looking at in terms of screen quality? When I go down to the local Best Buy, I would say most of those are lousy screens - very narrow viewing angles, poor coloring, etc. Obviously I'm not expecting like a DreamColor display, but I would consider a "good" screen to be like the old Sony SR.
3. I was originally restricting myself to 13.3" laptops in my search, but judging by the dimensions and weight, this doesn't seem to be too much different... in fact, it seems surprisingly small for everything that's in it.Thoughts? Obviously the DreamColor option on the 15.6" version is intriguing, but it's waaaay too big for me.
4. What would be HP's return policy for this sort of thing for either pre-configed or CTO? It's unfortunate, but these laptops simply can't be had from brick/mortar retailers, and there's always something about every laptop that doesn't translate well into the text descriptions.

Like I said, I'm hesitant to step out of the ultraportable sizes, but considering that the highest Z/SR config (which still can't touch this thing for it's Quad i7) is nearly $3k, and this can be had for under $2k with the coupons, I think I can make an exception And no, I'm not even going to consider those ugly Lenovo's.

Thanks everyone!

 

1. Get a preconfigured model from cost Central. They will have the best prices.
2. I really don't know (haven't got mine yet), but its not great. If you want the portability of the 14", you might want to invest in a good monitor for desk viewing if screen quality matters that much.
3. Its not small. Its about 5.5 pounds with the 9 cell, and the physical size is large for a 14, but it shouldn't be too bad.
4. I got mine from CostCentral which has its own return policy I believe. HP has a 3 week no questions asked return policy I believe, but that will be a few hundred more than Cost Central

 

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really comfortable ordering something like this from a third party vendor, short of Newegg or potentially Costco lol... in fact, I've never heard of Cost Central.

Well, it's obviously not small, but compared to my current SR, it's only a little bit taller, and the same average height (the Sony's slant from thin to thick). I guess I hadn't considered the 9 cell... but that does add a bit more weight. 5.5 is actually rather heavy considering I'm kinda old school and like my "notebooks" to still function as "laptops"... especially since there aren't always tables or desks where I am on campus.

I've heard you can get fairly good deals if you get a nice rep on the phone... any recommendations?

 

Hi Jacob,
I'm a student also...still waiting on an 8560w that was ordered in mid-June. Don't know what the ship times are with the 8460w.

1. Look at the preconfigs on HP's Small Business website first. Those are the best deals. I would still call in anyway (at least, I did). I heard HP will not give discounts on single order preconfigs, but my rep threw in 2 day shipping when I called. Definitely call if you do a custom order.
2. Can't help with the screen, either. Sorry :/
3. From what I've heard, it still pretty frickin' big for a 14.
4. 30 days, $15 restocking + shipping, I think, but someone can correct me. HP's Small & Medium Business Store - SMB Sales Center Return Policy

Edit: I see HP is throwing in a 24% off on 8460w custom orders, dunno if you can convince a rep to take off even more.

 

I noticed the ship times on the CTO's were pretty lousy... like end of month for the 8460. I was certainly considering a preconfig... they had one that was a pretty sweet deal, only thing I would have changed was up the 2630QM to the 2820QM... but at that point it's just bragging rights

I'll ask them over the phone about the return. $15 restocking or 15% ? $15 restocking makes me want to CTO and just return it if the screen is crap lol.

The 8460w is:
13.31 x 9.11 x 1.25 in

and
4.9lbs with default battery.

Macbook Pro 13"
12.78 x 8.94 x 0.95 "
4.5 pounds

Admittedly, I thought the MBPs were rather heavy ... though it just doesn't sound that big dimensions wise for a 14". Sure, it's not thin, but it's hardly taller and only a half inch wider...

But I was never really good at visualizing the differences - even with a ruler.

On the side: Doesn't the significantly off-centered touchpad on the 8560w bother you? And did you order it with DreamColor?

 

I have an 8460w with 9 cell. The speed of the quadcore 2.2 + intel SSD is really incredible. The battery life is excellent, if you are doing note taking in class and a little browsing you can easily get 6-7 hours. It's certainly not the lightest notebook around but in a backpack it's fine. I've been commuting into NYC for the last 2 weeks on a work project and it's not a problem. I've played with an 8560p we got for another employee. My personal opinion is it's too big and heavy and carry around a college campus all the time. If you were going to leave it on your dorm desk all day, it's fine, just not for constant travel.

The screen isn't the best but in the last few weeks i've gotten used to it. I do have it in a dock though when in the office.

 

That's exactly what I wanted to hear. So, I suppose you custom ordered it if you got the nicer i7 Quad. Right now I'm looking to see if I can find a local HP Partner that might have one I can see... I really would like to custom config it and get the nicer Wifi card and the 2820QM instead of the 2630QM on the preconfig, but I don't want to lose my chance to return such an expensive beast Of course... I could just order the pre-config and upgrade the CPU/wifi card down the line, but that's rather cost-ineffective.

And ya, while the DreamColor option would make me smile, I definitely think the 15.6" one is way too big/heavy.

Edit:
Hmmm... yes, rather expensive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106062

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819111022

 

HP is notorious about white listing their WiFi...just a heads up.

While it's not a perfect comparison, I loved the size of the 8440W. 14" and 1600x900 is my sweet spot, but I'm selling it because I want DreamColor. It's heavier than a comparable Thinkpad, but the build quality, well...you could use it as a hammer if you needed to.

 

What does this mean?

Also, I know the feeling about the screen. I would be so happy if there was dreamcolor for the 14", but the power requirements do seem to make that impractical for the formfactor I think.

 

If you're not running a card pre-approved by HP, it will throw an error. HP and Lenovo are bad about this. Dell and Acer (& Gateway) are not.

You have to buy the HP version of whatever card you're wanting, or it won't work. If you try to put in a retail or other OEM version, it won't work.

 

Interesting. Do you think it will be a problem for this though? I mean, they offer it CTO with Centrino Advanced/Ultimate, so I don't see why upgrading it would be a problem.

Still iffy on upgrading the CPU though ... if only there was like a local retailer I could go check it out at.