Event Coverage

Elites Ahoy - HP EliteBooks and Color LaserJets!

By Aloysius Low - 31 Oct 2008

Aluminum Leetness

Aluminum Leetness

Covered in anodized aluminum, HP's EliteBooks are virtually scratch proof and feature rugged functions such as shock resistant hard disk drives, a spill resistant keyboard, high and low temperature operation, and is able to withstand high humidity and vibration. This is due to HP's DuraCase feature, which has an inner shell of magnesium thermally bonded in an honeycomb pattern to the outer aluminum shell and is responsible for much of its toughness.

 Before you jump to any hasty conclusions, do note that this heavily scratched surface is actually from an older model. Our efforts with the steel wool on the newer EliteBooks left us with nary a scratch on the anodized aluminum surface.

Besides being extremely durable, HP's EliteBook series all come with different specifications and features for corporate users. Business users will be able to choose from ultra-lights, tablets, mobile workstations or business notebooks with up to 24 hours of battery life - easily trumping the 19 hours that was mentioned by Dell for their new Latitude E series (which we covered last month). It'd be interesting to see whether those numbers measure up, but we'd expect it to easily last for a long while.

First up we have the HP EliteBook 2530p, which is the smallest and lightest of the range. With a starting weight of just 1.36kg, the 12.1-inch notebook will also have the option for using either a 1.8-inch or a 2.5-inch HDD, though the 2.5-inch HDD means you won't be getting an optical drive on this EliteBook. SSD fans can also rejoice, as HP will also offer the option of using one (and we were told Intel SSDs) so if you're willing to pay, you'll be getting faster access and a much longer battery life.

 This HP EliteBook 2530p will feature either a Intel Core 2 Duo LV (1.8GHz) processor or a ULV (1.2GHz) processor, will have up to 8GB DDR2 RAM, up to 120GB HDD, and will use Intel's GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics. Be prepared to tack on a lot more to the starting price of S$2999 should you wish to get an SSD drive, of course.

Next we have the HP EliteBook 2730p, which is a tablet based notebook that looks slightly similar to the Pavilion tx2000 series (but classier and more business-like, of course). Like the 2530p, the 2730p uses a 12.1-inch form factor but features a touch-screen for tablet usage. It's also slightly heavier at 1.70kg, but that's still pretty light, though we do like to point out that this unit will weigh slightly heavy on your wallet with a starting price of S$3399.
 

 Like the 2530p, the 2730p shares pretty much the same specifications but with the inclusion of the touchscreen and the slightly heavier weight.

If you're one of those that need 24 hours of battery life (though we can't really guess why) for your work, then the 14.1-inch HP EliteBook 6930p will be the one. To achieve this 24 hours of juice time however, you'll need to tack on a 12-cell battery pack to the unit. We checked, and it seems that the rated 24 hours is not just limited to setting the unit to a power-saving mode; we were told the unit will last you 24 hours with Wi-Fi turned on! Without the juice pack though, the unit is rated at a pretty decent 4.5-6 hours, which is still pretty darn good.

 Unlike the first two models, the 6930p uses a normal notebook processor, with specs up to the Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.80GHz) processor. It will also come with up to 8GB of RAM, discrete graphics in the form of a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450, up to 250GB HDD and will cost you S$2399 at the lowest specifications.

New Laser Printer Additions

It's not only just notebooks that were on display at the event, there were three different types of Color LaserJet printers that HP is targeting at the corporate folks. Like the EliteBooks, each printer offers different functions and packages to provide solutions for SMBs. Besides the main draw of the CM2320MFP which you can see below, HP is also offering a fast S$1659 HP Color LaserJet CP3520 that's able to churn 30 pages per minute easily and a cheaper S$979 HP Color LaserJet CP2020 model.

 The HP Color LaserJet CM2320 MFP is a 4-in-1 device that can deliver print-shop quality marketing materials in-house and offers affordable black and white printing for SMBs. Starting from S$1469, the CM2320 prints, scans, copies and fax (on selected models) and can print up to 21 pages per minute. Also spotted on the right of the printer is HP's S$4999 beauty, the HP EliteBook 8730w, a 17-inch workstation class notebook that packs either an ATI or NVIDIA workstation class graphics, a HP DreamColor display and a top of the line Intel Core 2 Extreme processor for those with really intense performance needs.

 

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