Video Card, keyboard and point-stick -- comparison

Im interested in the HP ProBook 6540b:

I presently have a Lenovo T500 with the ATI 3650 video card, primarily use the UltraNav mouse (similar to point-stick), and regard the Lenovo keyboard as being pretty nice. Yes, i actually DO think the T61 keyboard was better.. but that's besides the point. What I want to know is..

How does the 3650 compare to the 4550?
How does the ultranav compare to the point-stick?
How is the keyboard in comparison to a Lenovo?

My desire is to have a number pad, nearly equivalent keyboard, faster graphics (its newer, it should be better), and hopefully, the point-stick doesn't drift like my Lenovo does. I don't do CAD, only light video encoding, and I fully intend to play Diablo-iii if it ever comes out.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

Ok, caveat: I'm using the HP 6545b which is the AMD variant of the 6540b. Which means I have no experience on your video card question, but the 4550 should be reasonably comparable to the 3650.

Now for the stuff I actually know about, since the two models use the same chassis and keyboard.. The point stick is on par with Lenovo's. I like the cover that it comes with better than Lenovo's "Soft dome" cover that they default to: HP's cover is closer to a soft rim, but with the texture of the soft dome. It's nice, unfortunately there's no other options around, though you can force-fit Lenovo's red TrackPoint caps if you really want to (unlike with Dell).

I miss having the third button but I didn't use it a huge amount. I do NOT miss "tap to click" as I always disabled that FAST. Haven't noticed any stick-drift at all. The touchpad has nice texture to it, and the scroll area works well. The buttons for both pointing devices are hinged at the front. They don't have the travel of Thinkpad buttons, but they've got good tactile feedback.

The keyboard is good. Not quite Thinkpad good but it's close. Keys have nice travel and nice feedback, but not quite as strong a feedback as on the Thinkpads. However, the key surfaces are slightly larger due to HP's design. Still not quite used to how monocolor HP's keyboard is (no color-highlighting for the FN key or icons on the function keys.) ANd of course, HP really does need to learn that the HDD indicator light goes ABOVE the keyboard, not way out on the front of the palmrest.

Incidentally, the Thinkpad point stick is called TrackPoint. The touchpad is called a touchpad, and Lenovo refers to both together as "UltraNav." HP has the PointStick and the touchpad, and combined they're referred to as "DualPoint." Not that that really matters much, but I thought I'd put it out there.

 

Thank you! That was a delectable review with articulate detail and precise awareness. And... You've owned BOTH! How auspicious! Which video card does your 6545 use? And how's the performance? If I start a video playlist -- every video on my T500 has about 5-7 seconds of lag, distortion, jaggedness.. if I rewind those ~6 seconds, it then plays back smoothly. This is new to windows7 for me. Im not sure what exactly to attribute it to except perhaps I could strip down the visualization and see if that smooths out video playback from 'go'. My hope was that the 4550 would actually be an upgrade over the 3650. Why spend 'new' money for same performance?

Also, I presently use my ultrabay in my lenovo for a 2nd HDD - and use an SSD as my Boot/OS/Program drive. I even keep my desktop and other special folders located on my 2nd HDD. In fact, its that I never use my CD-Rom drive except for installing at setup. Essentially, its been a waste to have a Blu-Ray burner, as 1, the disks are outrageously expensive, and for a fraction of the cost I LG blu-ray burner that's faster. I can also create an image file and use Magic-ISO. Essentially, the DVD-Rom is just for installation. However, I don't want to buy a HDD from HP at their inflated rates. Is there a way to get JUST the Caddy?

Since you do have quite the expertise, do you have any insight as to the performance comparative of the 8540w in terms of graphics in comparison to the 6540? Or is it actually a detriment for games (which although I rarely play, but would like to option to play diablo iii when it finally releases! To me it seems better made for CAD and of course, includes the enviable USB 3.0 built in. I am le jealous!

 

Easier to take this a piece at a time. The 6545b uses ATI's Radeon 4200 IGP, which would be utterly insufficient for your gaming needs. It's an improvement over an Intel GMA, but far below a Radeon 4550. Performance on this is great, but I shelled out for the top-end CPU. A Core i5 in the 6540b should be about the same or better: I couldn't wait for the 6540b anyway because I have a business trip in 2 weeks. Sounds like your videos hadn't finished loading...

it's probably available somewhere, not sure how much it would be though. I haven't looked: I'm more likely to get a battery or BlueRay there instead. The HP drives, while swappable, aren't as easily swappable as Lenovos...you have to remove a lock screw, and then push on a tab on the underside that just shoves out whatever is in the optical bay. Leaving the lock screw off like on Lenovos is not a good idea: nothing else is holding it in and I don't think it's meant to be hot-swappable.

I haven't looked into Diablo 3...I'm worried my video will only barely handle Starcraft 2. The QuadroFX 1800M chip in the 8540w would be serious gamer territory though...not sure where the 880M rates in relation to the 4550 but the 1800M is way above it. Either one should be OK though: they're based off of gamer chips, just tweaked for stability and image quality instead. .

I mostly play 4-10 year old games on my 4200 and they run fine. But they ARE old games though.

 

Thanks. That was above and beyond!