HP 8540w and others are nearly here

What am I missing? Why would anyone buy the "p" model?

8540p - $2,525
i7-620M
15.6" HD+
4GB RAM
320GB HDD @7.2k
N6200
NVS5100
3/3/0 warranty (no on-site)

8540w - $1,679
i7-620M
15.6" HD+
4GB RAM
320GB HDD @7.2k
N6300
FX880
3/3/ 3 warranty

 

Price mix up? Though $2500 for that 8540w would me ridiculously steep IMO

 

Probably just bad Elitebook pricing, it's certainly happened before.

Won't be surprised if the prices get shuffled around soon.

 

Actually I think it is a spec error. Looking again, I see they offer the exact same specs on another 8540p for only $1,609. Still, even at that more reasonable price, I don't see why anyone would want the p model over the w. $70 for 3yr on site, FX880 and N6300?!?!

Anyway, if that price ($2500) is what they'll be charging for the quad i7's, I'm very disappointed.

 

The 620 is dual core only the 720 and 820 are quads

 

dtwn, how long til CTO do you think?

 

My main disappointment is there is nothing available in FHD. I was leaning towards the 8540w however the 8440w at the same specs/ except for video, but same screen none the less looks better for the weight aspect. CPU wise, i prefer 2 faster cores over 4 slower. I am just tired of waiting at this point. Even got a ssd waiting for its new home.

 

The 8540p price is for the non-SmartBuy model, but the 8440w is a SmartBuy model. SmartBuy configurations are significantly cheaper than non-SmartBuy and CTO models.

 

Good to see these up for order now. Bad that they are the low end models. I need more resolution, more RAM slots, and better graphics. Guess I get to wait a bit more.

 

Check the other thread...there are interesting hpfansite links mentioning a new ATI firegl card for the 8540w

 

I should have elaborated, I meant that the $2500 model which shows 620 (dual core) might be priced for 720 or 820 (quad core) models.

Clearly there is more to it than that. Again, look at the pre-configs for the 8540p. Note the exact same configuration is being sold at both $1,600 and $2,500.

 

Gotcha. I'm actually hoping for the fx1800m (or even better the ati card) the FHD display and at least the 720qm for around 2500 but I can easily see it over that I just hope it isn't...

 

No clue, might take a while though, and more importantly, the CTO Elitebooks tend to be exorbitantly priced.

Not necessarily, Elitebook pricing doesn't always make sense.

HP makes pricing/spec mistakes fairly often as well.

I do find it interesting to note that the P models don't have on-site warranty. I always thought they did.

I wouldn't be too bothered by prices to be honest, if the W model is substantially better and satisfies your needs, buy it before they raise the price or something.

If you think the 8540p prices are ridiculous, just remember that the 8530p/8530w are still on sale without a drop in price.

 

Prices definitely could be worse. Check out the M6500 pricing...

 

Not really a fair comparison until the 8740w drops.

Clearly the 8540p prices are wrong (at least the 2 more expensive models). I haven't really been complaining, the prices of the lower p and the 2 w models seem pretty good to me. In fact, the w is much cheaper than it should be in relation to the equal spec'd p.

 

While I'm sure there are a number of people who are happy that there is something to order, I find their first offerings a bit lacking. I was hoping they would at least publish a prebuild that was fully loaded for purchase. Guess I'm waiting for CTO.

 

Twas my hope as well. I called hp to ask but they're still dumb as ever.

 

I've been looking at the Thinkpad W510 with i7 820QM, 15.6" FHD Display (95% NTSC Gamut) with LED Backlight, and NVIDIA NVS 5100m Discrete Graphics.

The HP 8540W has me interested though with it's NVIDIA FX 1800M as I will be using the computer for 3d content creation and could use the extra power from a Quadro FX. the extra CUDA cores would be usefull too.

My question is, could I expect to configure a 8540w with FHD dreamcolour, 820QM, and FX 1800M for anywhere near the $2300us the Thinkpad is on sale for right now? I'm very tempted to wait and see but the sale ends on feb 3rd.

I know nobody really knows for sure but it would be great to at least have an idea.

 

Considering prices for HP Elitebook CTO units in the past, probably not. Not without coupons at any rate.

 

Thanks, guess I'll go with the Thinkpad then, shame it doesn't have better graphics. With any luck the nvs 5100m will be able to be bios modded to a full FX 880m, and not just partly such as consumer equivalents usually do (gt330m)

 

I also doubt you'll get that price on the 8540w with those specs. Regarding the W510, if you have a Visa card, you can get 10% off the "sale price" anytime until this summer. If you own IBM stock, you can get about 15% off anytime you want (I bought 1 share in my IRA just in case I go for the W510). Anyway, Lenovo always has coupons and deals, don't get pressured into buying now unless you have even better deal I am unaware of.

 

That sale is not as good a deal as you think.

You'll need to tack on a $219 warranty upgrade to match the HP warranty (3yr onsite). You also won't get the EliteBook's strong metal chassis, and you'll be stuck with DDR3 instead of GDDR5 video memory. You also will be stuck with an ugly ThinkPad.

 

Eh, as far as I know, the Nvidia cards are pretty much NOT moddable in that sense, and haven't been for a while now.

Any proof of GDDR5? FX 1800M is available in both GDDR3/GDDR5 versions according to Nvidia.

Metal chassis is not necessarily stronger. i.e. MBA vs. Thinkpad. The difference is that the Elitebooks enjoy a metal shell, as well as a magnesium chassis, while the Thinkpads have a rubbery layer with a metal (not sure what it is, since it has been rumored to have been changed if I recall correctly) chassis/roll cage.

Another thing about Thinkpad warranties is that they are not necessarily global coverage, it is actually a little tricky.

 

1) I ordered a W510 will the i7 820 + FHD multitouch screen and it came to less than $2000 Canadian after taxes through visaperks, so you should be able to do much better than $2300 if you are in the states.

2) The video card has been clarified as actually being a FX880M not a NVS5100.

3) Thinkpads, at least the T/W series still have the full mag rollcage in the body. It's just been replaced with some type of plastic in the screen like in the T400S.

 

As of this year they discontinued the roll cage in the top of the notebook in at least a few of their models.

 

I was referring implicitly to the EliteBook's durable chassis, which is advertised to meet MIL-STD 810G standards. I recall one review (HP Fansite?) where a heavy guy stood on the HP unit prior to the review.

 

I would suggest you look at HP's manuals before calling it durable based on HP's marketing of it meeting MIL-STD. It doesn't have anything to do with heavy guys standing on laptops, and more about heat/cold/vibration/sand/dusty conditions.

Note: I'm not saying the Elitebooks are not durable, merely saying that HP has quite a few qualifiers in their service manual when advertising these tests.

This is for the 8730w

Ah, I see, I remembered there was mention of it, but wasn't too certain. Wasn't there speculation of the change in material(roll cage) for one or two of the models as well? I don't usually step into the Thinkpad realm very often.

 

Correct, the material is a light steel now for the bottom of the chassis. Only reason I know this is because I was weighing the W510 v the 8540w for my next purchase.

 

HP website lists the options as FX 880M GDDR3, FX 1800M GDDR5, and FirePro M5800 (most likely 128-bit GDDR5 as well), in order of weakest to strongest.

 

Thanks. I doubt the M5800 will be based on the 58XX series though, it would seem the the 57XX series would be more likely.

 

HP's US website now lists three preconfigured 8540w models, but two appear to be identical except for two things: (1) one has Windows 7, the other Windows XP, and (2) the first costs $2,649 and the second $1,679. I really prefer Windows 7, but I'm leaning toward the second configuration. That's quite a premium to pay for an OS.


http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF25a/321957-321957-64295-3740645-3955549-4096175.html

 

I can pretty much assure you that the most expensive one is a placeholder since it's identical to the $1679 model.

-edit

I will say however that if the max pre-build pricepoint is $2650 that makes me quite happy since it will probably contain everything maxed out, and few of us need everything that is offered.

 

I agree, the 57xx makes more sense as it would fit under the 48xx series (FirePro 7740 aka HD 4860).

 

The 5800 series was already announced in the 5840w, so it's official.

 

so do they announce the release of the elitebooks? then decide on configurations? I'm totally wanting the ATI card with the 1080p monitor (preferably dreamcolor) and an i7-720 or 820. If I could get those at least for $2600 i would jump on it in a heart beat.

 

Are you sure? Have you seen THIS? And I don't think that video was tricky...

 

How is this relevant to MIL-STD exactly? That's my point.

Ever seen the Thinkpad motorbike trick?

Videos like that are simply marketing videos. Sure, they demonstrate that the chassis can take the weight, but that has absolutely nothing to do with satisfying MIL-STD.

Feel free to stand on your Elitebook once you purchase one.

 

The video is a great example of distributed weight. Not to mention I don't care too much about if I can park my car on it, more so than if it can take a 5 ft fall.

 

Yeah, they've had placeholders on the 8540p since launch. I hope they get a quad core config out at 2k, or maybe just allow CTO without taking you to the cleaners (wishful thinking).

 

These new Elitebook models seem far more better than the new Lenovo and Dell notebooks (business line-up). Its good that they have the option for Ati graphics. I heard that the new nVidia Gt330 and such heat-up pretty quickly.

I'm concerned about the display though. How is the display quality in terms of contrast, brightness, black levels and visibility outdoors? Its good that the display type remains matte (matte>glossy).

Is it possible that they are using older displays like Lenovo with the T410 (display specs exactly the same to those of the previous model)? That would be a dissappointment...

 

This 8540w will offer their Dreamcolor display, which is one of the best in the business. It will be a premium for it, but I'm huge on screen quality since you spend most of your time looking at the screen..

 

Details - > http://hpfansite.com/hp-elitebook/dreamcolor-2-full-hd-displays-coming-elitebook-8540p8540w/

 

Thanks for the website link. Finally, the 8530p/w has the option for a Dreamcolor display! I find the display quality to be the most important thing when looking for a new notebook. Unfortunately, there aren't too many notebooks out there with good displays.

The only problem will be the resolution. 1920x1080 is rather high for a 15.6" display. I checked the PPI and it was approximately 141.4. That will make text incredibly small and hard to read. Even with scaling, it will only make the text blurry.
I was really looking forward to the Dreamcolor option too...

I just don't understand why there is so much hype for higher resolutions on relatively small displays. Not everyone watches movies ALL the time. 1400x900 or 1600x900 would have been the ideal resolution for this 15.6" display. Oh well, there are always compromises to be made... Superior display quality with uncomfortably high resolution vs. inferior display quality with comfortable resolution for productivity purposes.

P.S. The only other thing that should have been added in this refresh, is the option for switchable graphics, which would help increase battery life.

 

Have you had the opportunity to play with W7's scaling? I use it on a 1920x1200 and it works great and is very crisp.

 

Here is an example of the text quality with scaling at 150% on a 1920x1200 screen via built in W7 functionality.

 

Some software just doesn't play nice with DPI scaling. Things did get way better in Win7, but it's not perfect. It won't be perfect until all software is developed speciically with scaling in mind.

Another problem with DPI scaling is that you see less information at once on the display, which is is the problem drivng many people to want higher resolution in the first place.

 

For reading webpage, you can just pinch zoom.

 

It is rather inconvenient to zoom in or out all the times. Such small text on a 15.6" display with a 1920x1080 resolution will strain the eyes.

Does the Dreamcolor display also come with a resolution of 1600x900 or 1400x900 or is it exclusively available only with 1920x1080?

Also, what would the standard display quality be like? Is the display CCFL or LED?

 

Now they can compete better with Dell's M4500 (M4400 had a great RGBLED screen, the M6500 and 8740w will probably use the same screen as the M6400 and 8730w did unless the 8740w has switched to 16:9).

 

Do note that it does not appear to be available. Also I'm sure HP is pricing themselves out of the market at this point already.