Event Coverage

HP's New Business Computing Products - Enhancing Productivity in Style

By Kenny Yeo & Leo Boon Yeow - 12 Nov 2013

HP Product Showcase 2013

HP Product Showcase 2013

Andy Wong, Director Personal Systems Category, Printing and Personal Systems, addressing the attendees and sharing HP's new products.

HP recently refreshed their entire lineup of ultrabooks, notebooks and desktop AIOs, following the release of Intel’s new fourth generation Core processors. We have already seen and previewed some of them earlier in our special hands-on session. We have even reviewed the Envy Recline 27 TouchSmart desktop AIO.

Checking out the limited edition Beats edition of the Envy Recline 23 and also the Slate 21 Android AIO.

HP's latest convertible tablet PCs, the Pavilon x2, Slatebook x2 and Split x2.

Today, however, we are checking out their business and commercial offerings, which includes new Probooks and Elitebooks, as well as printers, and also the world’s first workstation Ultrabook, the ZBook 14.

 

The ZBook 14

The ZBook 14 is touted by HP as the first workstation-class ultrabook. It features AMD FirePro graphics, which is sought after by professionals using specialized software.

Mobile workstations used to be bulky, chunky devices, but HP now has a world's first workstation-class Ultrabook. As you might know, Intel has strict requirements for manufacturers to meet before they can call a notebook an Ultrabook. For instance, the notebook must have a maximum thickness of just 23mm and must offer at least 6 hours of battery life when playing HD videos, amongst many others.

For a mobile workstation, the ZBook 14 is really thin at just 21mm thick. On the left side, we can find a VGA output, two USB 3.0 ports and a Smart Card reader.

On the opposite side are two additonal USB 3.0 ports, a DisplayPort, a media card reader, Ethernet jack and headphones jack.

The ZBook 14 features an all-aluminum chassis and comes in at just 21mm thick and weighs about 1.6kg. This is impressive when you consider that the top-spec ZBook 14 can be equipped with a quad-core Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, up to 512GB of flash storage and workstation-class AMD FirePro M4100 graphics.

To fit users with varying budgets, HP has made the ZBook 14 highly customizable. Apart from the abovementioned specifications, users can choose from a range of Core i5 and Core i7 processors, 8GB or 16GB of RAM, and even SSDs or hard disk drives. Even the 14-inch display can be customized - 1600 x 900 pixels or full 1080p HD resolution. Graphics, however, is fixed, with all models being equipped with AMD’s FirePro M4100 that comes with 1GB of GDDR5 framebuffer.

Prices of the ZBook 14 will begin from S$2299.

 Users demanding the most processing prowess can opt for the ZBook 17 which can be equipped with Intel's top of the line Core i7-4930MX processor.

Alongside the ZBook 14, HP also showcased the larger ZBook 17. This larger model features a 17-inch display and is also available in a number of configurations, with customizable processor, RAM, storage, display resolution and even NVIDIA Quadro graphics. Prices of the ZBook 17 will begin at S$2599.

 

HP EliteBook & ProBook Series

The ProBook 400 series notebooks are made for more budget conscious enterprises.

HP's new ProBook series is comprised of two models - the 15.6-inch ProBook 450 G1, and the 14-inch ProBook 440 G1. They both look similar and have painted plastic chassis to give it a more premium appearance.

Despite the differences in screen size, both sport the same resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels (unfortunately), but the larger ProBook 450 G1 has the added option of having a more powerful AMD Radeon HD 8750M discrete GPU.

In addition, the 450 G1 can also be equipped with a touchscreen - that is scratch, shatter, reflection and smudge resistant - making it more suitable for navigating Windows 8. Both machines will come with 500GB hard disk drives as standard, but will have the option of having a hybrid drive for better performance.

The new ProBook series of notebooks are now available in Singapore with prices beginning from S$1199. 

The HP EliteBook 800 series notebooks are more premium enterprise notebooks that have Ultrabook-like specifications.

HP's EliteBook series of notebooks are some of the most popular enterprise notebooks for a good reason. They have excellent build quality, are reliable, and are fairly attractive. Today, HP unveiled the latest EliteBook 800 series that companies can expect to buy for their next refresh exercise.

As with previous generations of EliteBooks, the EliteBook 800 series notebooks are completely encased in luxurious magnesium alloy and are now up to 40% slimmer, and 28% lighter than previous generations of EliteBooks. 

Besides being designed to be more portable, these notebooks are also rugged and are designed to meet military certifications (MIL-STD 810G). And with the optional Slice Battery, the Elitebook 840 G1 can extend its battery life to a whooping 33 hours.

Like the HP ProBook series, the HP EliteBook series of notebooks are already available in Singapore and prices for the notebooks start from S$2799.

 

Business & Commercial Printers

Demonstrating the new NFC and security features of the LaserJet Enterprise M800 printer.

Along with the new Probooks, Elitebooks and ZBooks, HP also showcased their new business printers. The departmental-class HP LaserJet Enterprise M800 and M500 multi-function printers combine traditional print, copy and scanning functionality with new security and cloud features.

For example, the LaserJet Enterprise M800 features NFC connectivity, allowing users in the office to quickly print documents from their NFC-equipped smartphone or tablet. The new LaserJet Enterprise printers also lets users scan documents quickly to Microsoft SharePoint for easy collaboration.

As befits a departmental-class printer, the LaserJet Enterprise is highly configurable and comes with advanced security features to streamline users and prevent unauthorized access such as scanning of confidential documents.

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