HP EliteBook 8560w Laptop Review

HP Elite Book 8560w laptop has 15.6-inch diagonal HD display with a 1600 x 900 resolution, choice of an Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU, up to 32GB of memory, up to 750GB HDD or up to 256GB SSD, and ATI Firepro M5950 graphics for 1 GB of video memory or NVIDIA Quadro 1000M/2000M graphics for 2 GB of video memory. It comes with Windows 7 professional Operating System and Powered with HP Long Life 8-cell (75 WHr) Li-Ion HP EliteBook 8560w battery.

Hewlett-Packard (HP), one of the well-known provider of IT products has recently announced another EliteBook series workstation laptop namely, HP EliteBook 8560w which is powered by Intel Core i7-2820QM/2720QM/2630QM/2620M processor or Intel Core i5-2540M/2520M processor. It runs on Genuine Windows 7 Professional 32/64-bit, or Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit/64-bit, or Genuine Windows 7 Home Basic 32 or Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic 32 or FreeDOS operating system. The upcoming workstation laptop of HP offers Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi connectivity options. It also offers Blu-ray R/RE DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL, DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL and DVD-ROM.

There is also a new (and ugly, in my opinion) silver strip decal along the bottom of the HP EliteBook 8560w AC adapter which boasts the notebook’s “Mobile Workstation” status in a questionable orange-colored font. However, some (including me) might be impressed with the new circular finish and backlit HP logo.

Port selection on the EliteBook 8560w include 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0 ports (one of them is an ‘always-on’ port, for charging devices when the PC is off), USB 2.0 + eSATA combo port, dedicated headphone and microphone jacks, Firewire, VGA, Display Port, Express Card 54 and SD/MMC slot. Again, no word if the EliteBook 8560w will support super high capacity SDXC cards.

Either way, the EliteBook 8560w is the first ever mainstream device (and first and only notebook right now) to have a CFast card slot, and I think there may be one reason or another behind this seemingly random appearance of the slot.

HP must have thought it could sneak this one by us -- and it would have succeeded too, if it wasn't for those meddling tipsters. A close examination of the recently announced EliteBook 8560w's press shot reveals it has a CFast slot, an interesting tidbit not mentioned in the release or the spec sheet. This is, to our knowledge, the first notebook to ship with a slot for the updated CompactFlash format, though the lack of cameras and other devices using the medium makes it a somewhat superfluous feature at the moment. Still, with transfer rates significantly faster than current CompactFlash cards and twice that of SDXC cards (with room to grow), we assume its only a matter of time before Nikon and Canon slap these bad boys in a few high-end shooters. Closeup shot after the break.

It is also kind of strange that the 8560w is the only one out of the three which sports a CFast slot in press photos, and the CFast slot appears in all standalone press images of the HP EliteBook 8560w battery but slot disappears all together on all three models in the ‘family photo’ of the EliteBooks above.

Additionally, the HP DreamColor display with Full HD (1920 x 1080) native resolution option and a backlit keyboard on the HP EliteBook 8560w. The EliteBook laptops are also equipped with a variety of ports, including USB 3.0, eSATA and USB 2.0 charging ports.

Like its two siblings released today, the HP EliteBook 8560w charger sports a new full-chiclet style keyboard, orange colored pointing stick, larger multi-touch trackpad and replaces the old (and sometimes imprecise) touch-sensitive control strip above the keyboard with hardware keys to HP Quick Web, wireless on/off and mute functions.

HP EliteBook 8560w is powered by Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU processor, upto 32GB of memory, up to 750GB HDD or up to 256GB SSD and AMD FirePro M5950 graphics for 1 GB of video memory or NVIDIA Quadro 1000M/2000M graphics for 2 GB of video memory.

The HP EliteBook 8560w sports a 15.6-inch diagonal HD display with 1GB of video memory of AMD FirePro graphic or NVIDIA Quadro graphics with 2GB of video memory. The optional HP DreamColor display on the EliteBook 8560w and 8760w also allows for more than 1 billion active color possibilities. EliteBook 8560w starts at $1,349–expected to be available in May.

Specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core i5-2540M (2.60 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache) / Intel Core i7-2820QM (2.30 GHz, 8 MB L3 cache)
• Memory: unto 32GB DDR3
• Hard Disk: 750GB
• Graphics Card: AMD FirePro M5950 with 1 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory / NVIDIA Quadro 2000M with 2 GB dedicated DDR3 video memory
• Display: 15.6″ diagonal LED-backlit HD+ WVA anti-glare (1600 x 900)
• Operating System: WIndows 7 Home Professional, 64-bit
• Connectivity: Intel 82579LM Gigabit, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Ports: 2x USB 3.0; 1x USB 2.0; 1 external VGA monitor, 1 stereo headphone/line-out, 1 stereo microphone in,
• Webcam: HD webcam
• Keyboard: Full-sized spill-resistant keyboard with separate numeric keypad and drains
• Touchpad: Touchpad with on/off button, two-way scroll, gestures, three pick buttons; Pointstick with three additional pointstick buttons
• Memory Card Reader: All In One
• Battery: HP Long Life 8-cell (75 WHr) Li-Ion battery
• Weight: 3.0 kg (including the supplied battery)
• Dimension: 38.2 x 25.75 x 3.45 cm