8540w 8540p 8440w 8440p spec sheets

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/HP_Elitebook_8540w_Datasheet.pdf

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/HP_Elitebook_8540p_Datasheet.pdf

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/HP_Elitebook_8440w_Datasheet.pdf

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/HP_Elitebook_8440p_Datasheet.pdf


Regarding 8540w/p models:

15.6" display = fail
"15.6-inch diagonal LED-backlit HD+1 anti-glare (1600 x 900), 15.6-inch diagonal LED-backlit FHD1 anti-glare (1920 x 1080)"

Quad-channel memory @ 1333mhz = win
DDR3 SDRAM, 1066/1333 MHz, *four slots supporting dual- or quad-channel memory2,1024/2048/4096 MB SODIMMs, up to 16384 MB total with Intel quad-core processor. NOTE: On models configured with 1066 MHz FSB dual-core processor, memory bus is dual-channel running at a maximum of 1066 MHz., and maximum total memory is limited to 8102 MB2
*Memory speed is processor dependent

USB 3.0 = win
Dedicated numeric keypad on 15" class notebook = win
Nvidia graphics with no ATI option = fail

 

8540w, very interesting...

 

thanks for the info on those data sheets for the new 8540 p /w.
the i7 option (quadcore, i hope) is what i am waiting for. ( 4 cores would really speed up my architectural viz - jobs)

i am curious to see one in real life, since i liked the old 8510p, especially how the keyboard and touchpad were located was quite a pleasure for me to work with, it was even a "pleasure" to model in 3d by using the touchpad/ keyboard without a mouse. those of you that use 3d software like maya, rhino will know what a pain it is not to work with mouse and keyboard in the programs.

about the touchpad itself, i hope the new keys for the touchpad will be better, than the ones in 8510p. i am using the right mouse button on the touchpad a lot, and that button is now only half a thick as it was when the notebook was new, so probably in a few weeks the rubber on that button is completely gone. let´s see how the new layout with the numeric keypad will be. it´s definitely way off from being centered in the chassis. would love to try and work with the new hp 8540.

about the weight, nothing seems to have changed here, i had at least hoped the 8540p/w would weigh less than it´s predecesors, but it still weighs 6.5 lbs +.

and i am totally with you, the 15.6" display is a fail in my eyes too. i am soo pleased with the 1680x1050 resolution, works perfect for me.

and having no ati graphics option might be really bad for the customers that don´t buy that notebook only for the reason to have a good nvidia graphics card. some people simply like the idea of working on a durable business notebook, without wondering when it will break.

with only having the nvidia graphics option it is possible that there will probably be only high priced 8540´s be available p- and w- models. the models with ati graphics were way cheaper with the the last series, and for me it was an definitely a deciding argument for buying one or not. depending on the prices a good share of those people that bought the 8510p and 8530p might be looking somewhere else for a good and reasonable priced replacement for their old notebooks.

 

Refer to these Quickspecs for more details:

8440p
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13520_div/13520_div.HTML

8440w
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13519_div/13519_div.HTML

8540p
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13521_div/13521_div.HTML

8540w
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13529_div/13529_div.HTML

The 14 inch models will also sport a Quad Core option (720M/820M), making the 8440w/p the most compact notebooks to sport high end Core i7 CPUs. What's also interesting is a 256GB SSD option as HP begins to ship notebooks with their own branded SSDs, most likely to be supplied by Samsung, to offset their Intel 160GB supply.

 

Wow USB 3.0...

 

so the only thing my 8530p doesn't have really is USB 3.0 , though the number pad sounds good.... 16:9 = fail.

 

I was happy to see the numeric keypad on the 8540w! I am neutral on the 16:10 vs 16:9 issue, so I guess I'm in the minority in feeling the switch to 16:9 has a distinct advantage now that there is room for the number pad. Dell better step up soon with their M4500 and impress me, the 8540w is looking great, and I'm even considering going smaller with the 8440w to save weight and money.

EDIT: HP has the demo up and going for the 8540w...I just noticed the business card slot for scanning cards...nice!

 

NVS 3100M, NVS 5100M, FX 380M, FX 880M, Quadro FX 1800M - that's not confusing enough! They should release at least five more GPUs.

Are there any benches of those GPUs available yet? The systems sound fine, but I got no idea which graphic solution is best for me.

 

Nice links - thanks for posting them.

No ATI options? That is disappointing. The 16:9 screens are basically expected at this point but nonetheless, also disappointing. That said, given what we have seen of the latest EliteBooks (see here: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5453), they are a step up from the current already-excellent series.

 

I agree , this is a business laptop not entertainment , i need those extra lines on my screen , don't want to have to scroll , and if i watch a movie the black top and bottom do not bother me . bring on 16:10 and ati gpu .
Or could i just put a 8510 screen on that new comp ? dell still has 16:10 on precission line , come on hp !

 

I will have to see the 1600x900 HD+ in person before I judge too harshly. I had a 1600x900 widescreen panel on my last laptop and liked it, but I think that was primarily because it had excellent brightness and color. The 1680x1050 on the 8530w does a good job with color but it's not bright at all especially when there's much ambient light.

Also important to note - 4 memory slots ONLY on i7-quad based systems.

So if you get the i7-620m, you're stuck with two slots. Which sucks, because for those of us who don't need/want a quad but want a performance boost, the i7-620m is a very nice option. But not if I have to buy 4gb sticks.

 

I also see in those HTML spec sheets above that there will be a 1366 x 768 screen option. Gag.

 

I noticed that too. I was leaning towards the 620m since the cost of the 8540w will surely be at the edge of my budget. But giving up the ability to go up to 16 GB Ram in the future somewhat limits the extra-long life I want from my laptops.

 

What was HP smoking when they decided on a 16:9 screen? What makes them think the workstation market will accept 16:9?? The 8540p/w isn't meant soley for HD video/editing! And instead of increasing the horizontal resolution, they decreased the vertical resolution!! The screens have lost 120-150 pixels of vertical resolution! Why can't they have a 2133x1200 option???? I wouldn't mind that at all....

This 16:9 obsession has offically gone to far!!!

Better snap up an 8530p/w before they're gone....

 

3d modellers and other people working with cad and image-editing programs who want quadcores will have to look for some other option then. still there is no news about the new dell precision 4500m. i hope at least dell has a 16:10 with a decent graphics card and quadcore + 4 sodimm banks. that would be what i´d be buying without thinking.

well, even if the hp 8540 p/w is awesome, i´d dare to say i won´t buy it because of the missing pixels. i don´t need a 16:9 viewport for modelling.
hope your hear this, you funny folks at HP : consider who actually needs such a high end notebook and why !!

 

Like I stated here, it's hard to place the blame solely on HP for using a 16:9 screen:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5703650&postcount=52

That said, I do wish these notebooks offered ATI graphics. The Nvidia chips are basically the same ones we've had for years. Nvidia has been doing nothing but rebranding its cards since the GeForce 8 series.

 

Well the quadro fx 380 is just a rebaged card, the quadro nvs 5100 is a pretty good card from spec sheets. It is sad that HP isn't using ati again their really kicking butt recently. I hope they use ati soon and seriously what is hp smoking here with 16:9 crap cmon this is business not your crappy consumer notebooks.

 

They will lose market share , the extra cost of the business machines should cover the 16:10 screen , it's needed , 16:9 does not cut it .I'm wondering if a 16:10 screen can be adapted to the 8540 .
And when are upgradeable/changeable video cards going to happen ?

 

well , so even dell will even have the 16:9.... aargh...
that´s not what i hoped for.

this has been discussed a lot lately, bit basicly it means for working with these notebooks we´ll have to get comfortable with having more space for the toolboxes ... and less for the actual viewport.
*frustrating*

maybe if hp decides to undo the numpad they could saw off something from the side.. tape a little... and voila 16:10

 

To whom will they lose market share? Dell has not leaked any specs on the M4500 and that is the last possible alternative to the 8540w. W510 is 16:9 and it seems highly probably the M4500 will be 16:9 as well. Maybe it will prompt some to go for the M6500, but there's people like me who need more mobility than that (not to mention the cost difference).

Also, the aspect ratio of the laptop chassis matches the ratio of the screen...so there is no way to adapt a 16:10 screen that would make sense (even if you had the technical skills required). A 16:10 screen with the matching width would be too tall when closed and overhang the latching point. One that is the right height would be too narrow. Fitting a 16:10 panel into the form factor of the existing 16:9 lid would cause you to lose even more screen real estate and you'd have really wide bands on each side of the screen.

 

Fortunately, the much expected (at least for me) 8740w will have a 16:10 screen (it's already confirmed, thanks God ).

I (and others) think HP won't change the aspect ratio for the panel of this model due to cost saving (the DreamColor panel is expensive and HP wants to reuse it). I believe it's the same reason as the M6500 still have the 16:10 RGB LED panel, since it seems the "16:9 illness" is transmitting among all manufacturers (unfortunately).

 

Does anyone know if the 9-cell battery sticks out of the back of the 8440w?

As for the 16:9 ratio, I hope they move to keeping the same vertical resolution (or increasing) as I have decided that is the only number that matters anymore.

 

Good God! a quadcore 14 inch with Nvidia graphics? It's gonna melt straight through the Earth!

 

Our test unit only had the dual-core i7 but it ran quite cool:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5453

Agreed, vertical res is most important. I have found I can get the most work done with 1000+ pixels of vertical space. I like my 1920x1200 desktop monitor.
My HP laptop, on the other hand, has 1366x768. Quite a jump. The vertical resolution is the only number I miss.

 

As far as I know none of the HP laptops have stick out in the back battery. They use to have the 8-cell, but I guess since the laptops got wider, an extra cell is included.

 

Dual core makes all the difference. Everywhere I read about a quad i7 laptop, it's about heat and the low battery life, just check out the Envy 15 and the SXPS 1645. Maybe the 8440w has better cooling for quad core, that's what I would hope.

 

The 16:9 still eats me... Love my 8530p, with 1680x1050, which is my absolute favorite res. if I have to buy 16:9 I'll be buying a 17inch one just to get more physical screen realistate. common HP please bring the 16:10 back, just give samsung/LG/who ever a ear full and get the 16:10 back!! (I know it's not gonna happen, but it's worth a try).

other than that they all look pretty impressive.

 

Does anyone know if the 8540w will support 16GB of memory with the dual core processors - or is it only with the quad cores like the Envy?

EDIT: Nevermind, this question was answered earlier. (no, dual cores will not support 16GB)

 

You'll get over it.

I think Lenovo alluded to 2010 being the last year for laptops with 16:10. They said they had to convince their LCD makers to keep making their 14 inch panels in 16:10, and they said it's probably going to last only another year. The writing is on the wall, and panel makers don't want to continue making 16:10 anymore, and laptop makers aren't about to bring LCD production in-house.

 

Hmmm, 8540w is 15mm wider and 10mm shallower than 8530w, I reckon someone could hack in the previous 16:10 screen into that if they were really keen.

Also, I guess its moot now that USB 3.0 is available, but there is no 1394b, only 1394a.

 

I think the problem with the quad core i7's (720QM+'s) is that they're not really mobile CPUs. I think that they're just underclocked versions of the normal desktop parts. Which have a fairly unreasonable thermal envelope. The quad core of a properly designed mobile platform shouldn't have the atrocious battery life that the initial i7 based laptops had. How much worse battery life were the Core 2 based quad cores vs. the normal Core2Duo? I don't think it was "an hour of battery life" for the quads vs the 3+ hours for the dual cores like they seem to be now. I've seen reviews of the i5 generation notebooks that are getting 3+ hours of battery life out of them.

 

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800M graphics with 1 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory

WIN!

 

The C2Q's were basically 2 C2D dies in one. The quad core i7s are very efficient on idle, which is what most users will be at on battery. They consume more power than the C2Ds but less than C2Qs on idle. The problem with a lot of reviews is that they have older and much more powerful GPUs and giant screens. Just like ATI's new 5 series, on idle, they are much better than previous generations but on load, they consume more power (the cost for more powerful graphics).

Yeah, definitely a lot better than last generation's Quadro FX 1700M...

 

I measured the C2Q as the same power as a C2D on idle. It switches off 3 of its cores so it behaves exactly like a C2D. Only thing is it doesn't have superLFM, but the measured power difference was negligible. I would put this down to the idea that intel must use the absolute top shelf C2D cores to turn them into C2Qs. How else could they fit 2 C2Ds into one 45W TDP package, when the equivalent single C2D is 35W?


Also the C2Q can share all of its 12MB of cache with any of its cores, so theres a bit more to it than just 2 C2Ds slapped together.

 

Two questions:

(1) Any idea when these will be available for purchase?

(2) Is 1920x1080 on a 15.4" screen (8540w) too small for Visual Studio work at its default font size and DPI setting? (I get 20/15 vision with glasses. WUXGA on 17" is no problem.)

 

I was hopeful when I read about the upcoming 8540w series, geared toward photographers. Several pieces of information, however, appear to missing either from the laptop or informational literature about it. Forgive me if I'm overlooking something obvious, but here are some of my questions and concerns:

1. I'm curious about the quality of the display. I see that WUXGA resolution is available and that the screen is anti-glare. But is it a matte or glossy screen, and what percentage of the RGB gamut will it reproduce?

2. I see no reference to switchable graphics, in which the computer uses the onboard (and power-saving) GPU when the discrete graphics card isn't needed. This is a feature found on the Sony Vaio Z series and, I think, the Lenovo W510. Is it present in the 8540w?

3. There appears to be no HDMI port. The 8540w has a DisplayPort, but I have no idea what that is. Does it accept an HDMI connector? I would like to connect to an external monitor in my office and my plasma HDTV at home, both of which use HDMI connections. While I might understand the omission of an HDMI port in a purely business laptop, I don't understand it in a laptop that is being marketed to photographers.

Thanks for any enlightenment you can offer on these points.

 

1) The screen should have a matte option. I don't know what color gamut it will provide, but I haven't seen anything but a TN panel on a laptop for a long time.

2) They support quad-core processors which I don't believe have integrated graphics, therefore I am inclined to believe they never developed the switchable graphics.

3) Display port can output an HDMI signal and you can get (fairly cheap) connectors to convert over to HDMI for $10-15 dollars.

 

Response to #1.

I contacted HP and they are pretty tight lipped about a release date for these machines. I am (im)paitently waiting for a 8450w myself, and wish these were ready for preorder at the very least.

 

WUXGA on 15.6 is great, you quickly get used to, but it can be tiring after some time.

 

I'm really starting to like the 8540w especially with all the upgrade options it will have...might have to return the envy for an elitebook.

 

I'll 2nd this request. I'm in the market for one of these machines, my graphics requirements aren't high but I'd like to have and idea of what these are like.

My desktop PC has a (rather low-end now I presume) 7600GT, it'd be interesting to know how these compare with my current setup.

 

I hear you. But I already liked the 8530w...the only downside was weight and the Envy came out cheaper...so more power and for less, not bad.

 

That post was a little while ago, I'll give you my approximations though. The NVS 3100M and FX 380M will be 64-bit GDDR3 cards and hence entry level cards. The NVS 5100M and FX 880M will be 128-bit GDDR3 cards, mainstream level. The FX 1800M will be a 128-bit GDDR5 and is a high end card. There is also the FX 2800M and FX 3800M which are the highest end 256-bit GDDR3 cards.

 

This site has the answers: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
Where benchmarks are not yet available, it predicts likely rankings based on the specs (number of processors, memory type, etc.)

I am very excited about these machines. My development work has begun to demand more than what my MacBook Pro 17 can provide. The new EliteBooks look like a good upgrade in terms of capability, configurability, and durability. Now if only the 8540w had a 16:10 screen...

 

well I did put in my request for cancellation and they said it would take 30 minutes to update (over an hour ago ) so I suspect I am getting the run around from HP for this envy 15. Weight does not bother me, need to have reliability though. That 3 year warranty is nice too. I almost bought the 8530w on ebay but decided my purchase would be based on long term survival of the notebook with the apps im using, so 16gb RAM and quad core are necessary. I just hope I can snag at least an i7-720 with 500gb and 4gb ram for less than $2300, if not I'll consider the options then.

 

Displayport is becoming more prevalent on Business class notebooks. It is supposed to carry the audio portion just like HDMI but is an optional part of the spec. For displaying on a HDMI or VGA display/TV a converter would need to be purchased.

Hopefully the Displayport on these notebooks have Audio enabled or else its going to be a waste if one wants to connect up to a HDTV display.

Why HDMI is not used is beyond logic because it just makes it that much more incompatible with everything else. You can thank Apple for the start of this kind of trending with these ports on their Macbooks.

 

isn't that wack display crap they have on the macbook a rather new invention? less than 6 months old or so??? If so thats quick adoption...i'll end up buying a displayport to dvi adapter when the 8x40w/p come out. Though, the vga out is a nice touch so its not like the display port adapter is a requirement to use an external.

 

HDMI isn't used is because it was designed to replace consumer electronics' S-video and component video (that and it isn't free). DisplayPort was specifically meant to replace VGA, DVI, and LVDS (this last one is of particular importance since it's used to communicate to the LCD panel), and hence will be preferred in business notebooks.

 

Thank you for the update. The Video card options on the 8440W/P (not sure what the real difference is between the models) will be the deciding factor for me. I'll have a PS3 for gaming but on the laptop for the odd 2/3 games wouldn't be bad, but most importantly learning Photoshop, and Virtualization with offloading cpu intensive instructions to the graphics core (thank you OpenGL2.0/3.O) will be a huge benefit going down the road. I'm not sure about everyone else on the boards but I don't upgrade every 12mths or sooner.

USB 3.0 is only on 2 of the 4 ports (not sure why not ALL), but I've never heard of 1394a. I'm guessing it is a typo.

I'd like to have a decent 128-bit graphics GDDR3 mainstream use (eventually video editing), along with the Core i5 for under 12-1400CAN but I doubt that'll ever happen.

 

Would anyone know if the second drive bay (upgrade bay) could hold a second SSD? The specs only show standard HDD info. Thanks! - M