8440w
Latest
HP's 8440 and 8540 EliteBooks ready to ship with Core i7 inside
HP promised us a mobile workstation refresh in February, and sure enough, today we are staring down the retail pages for its quartet of upgraded business laptops. The new top of the line EliteBook models come in 14- (8440p/w) and 15.6-inch (8540p/w) varieties, with the w-appended models sporting appropriately beefed up NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics with up to 1GB of dedicated GDDR5. If you want to grab one for under a grand, you'll have to make do with the reasonably powerful Core i5-520M / 2GB DDR3 RAM combo, but we're most excited by the future customization options, which include a low-voltage Core i7-820QM CPU with 8MB of internal cache, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 256GB in SSD storage. Course, we can't put prices to these spectacular beasts just yet, as HP is still only offering preconfigured rigs, but we think it'll be less than five figures. [Thanks, Jared]
HP EliteBook 8440w lives up to its "workstation" title, says the reviewing masses
Since the royal unveiling of HP's six new Elitebooks and ProBooks last week, the Elitebook 8440w (w standing for workstation) has been making the review rounds, and receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from the chaps at Notebook Review, LAPTOP and Computer Shopper. All were impressed by the Core i7-620M and NVIDIA Quadro FX 380M power that's been crammed into the 14-inch chassis, but unsurprisingly that causes some warm underside temperatures. Other than that, the 8440w received high praise for its durable gunmetal-build and "exceedingly" comfortable keyboard, but the touchpad was noted as being too small. Actually, the guys over at Notebook Review even go as far to say that the laptop would be "absolutely perfect" if that pad and its buttons weren't so squished. Now that's quite a bold statement. All in all, the 8440w seems like a solid and very mobile workstation, but hit up the sources if you're dying to know more about the $1,650 rig.
HP refreshes ProBook and EliteBook lines with Core i7 processors and just about everything else (update: USB 3.0!)
HP has six new professional laptop models in the mix, with Core i7 processor options across the board and plenty of other high-end accouterments. The ProBook models, the 6440b (14-inch) and 6540b (15.6-inch), have a starting price of $949, while the gunmetal aluminum-clad EliteBook 8440w and 8540w start at $1,299 and $1,499, respectively. Finally the more traditional platinum aluminum 8440p and 8540p start at $1,099 and $1,249. The differences between the six models might seem minimal to the untrained eye, but high marks like the spill-resistant drains in the EliteBook models, 24 hour battery option on the 8440p / 8540p might help make sense of the endless configurations that will be available among these models. Everything should hit virtual shelves in February, and there's PR after the break. Update: PCWorld claims that HP will also be offering up to 3x USB 3.0 ports on its EliteBook 8540p and EliteBook 8540w laptops. %Gallery-81641%
