While we don't normally find ourselves terribly jealous of laptops designed for massive rollouts at medium and large businesses, the new ProBook and 6545b (15.6-inch) and 6445b (14-inch) almost have us ready to reassess that assumption. They're pretty boring AMD-powered workhorses on the surface, but HP has reworked the keyboard tray so that it automatically drains spills through the laptop and out through the bottom -- without running past any of the vitals. It's not foolproof, but it's a great first stab at making us all a little safer from accidents -- and hopefully finds its way into consumer lines sooner rather than later. We're similarly jealous of the new energy management software that HP has packed on here, which has a configuration panel that provides battery-squeezing estimates based on various settings, letting a user pick a goal for battery life and set the specs to match. The corporate end of that is an IT app that lets a business actually set its own power consumption goals and constrain user laptops to match -- we don't know how well that would play out in practice, but the delicious string-pulling it entails is enticing. Prices start at $799, and there are naturally configurations as far as the eye can see. Check out a video of the spill-proof-ness in action after the break.
posted Oct 13th 2009 12:20AM
good for late night boozing and cruising (the internet)
Great for one-handed internet surfing.
nah, thats no good cuz it'll drip on your desk instead.... which is just unsanitary
Will it handle a Big-Gulp?
yeah, I usually spill my drinks with a funnel and a hose too
"If you have an accidental spill it will channel the liquid, at least giving you a fighting chance".
Yeah, I don't either, but this is better than nothing.
I could swear I saw this tech in notebooks ages ago. Sony or IBM or something.
Yep, all IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads do this. Nice to see HP adding it in.
well, hp has the feature for all commercial/business laptops (HP Compaq series, and now EliteBooks & ProBooks series) since 5 years ago.
Lenovo (IBM) has had this feature in some of the models in the Thinkpad line for years...
Not sure how HP made this one, but with the Thinkpad it's marketed as spill "resistant" oppose to spill proof. Hopefully this implementation by HP is actually spill proof where the water does not even leak into the machine will just drain out unlike the implementation on the Thinkpad where it may still flow into the rest of the computer.
Thinkpads have a drain hole; water flows out. Even the new desktop keyboard has a drain hole.
Great, now I don't have to aim away!
or u can put ur laptop in a bag o' rice and wait for a week
How much?
Seriously, screw "consumer" laptops. I want this despite the fact that it will never be used for productivity.
I'm starting to be drawn more to the industrial look anyway.
"drains spills through the laptop and out through the bottom"
it's like a makeshift water-cooling system for your laptop!
Depending on what they're spilling (I would imagine coffee, tea, scotch...), I'd say the next step is to figure out a way to unstick the keys. Anything with sugar in it wreaks havoc on the free play of key motion.
LenovOh no he didn't!!!
Keyboard drainage holes is not a new idea. Thinkpads have had this forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTRA-_p4Lk
I only bother to read other's comments after I post my own. I see the other Thinkpad fanboyz beat me to it. They didn't include the video though, so pretty half assed. See you at the convention guys.
This will make a good water filter :P
I could be wrong, but that "PowerBook" looks exactly the same as my EliteBook 6930p.
wtf why aren't you ip banned or something
i'd like to high-five the person that thought up that keyboard...
thanks for the spill-proof technology invented by HP. I think someday Acer, Panasonic and other laptop makers will follow closely.
Wow a feature the Apple IIc had over 10 years ago.
Although I seem to recall it required a very large lap.
Bring on the ghetto liquid cooled notebook projects !
First hand experience as the owner of an HP EliteBook 6930p - my cat decided to use it as a litter tray one night, it did still work (after a through wiping down of course!) except the system clock and the wifi were screwed... but it did smell badly of hot cat urine whenever I turned it on so it had to go. It was only 4 weeks old :/
Jeff Dunham ad! "I keel you!"