*HP EliteBook 8440p/w Owners Lounge*

[newcompsearch1]

On the 8440w I think the screen is pretty good once tweaked in the NVIDIA control panel. That said there is some room for improvement. The brightness could be a little better in really sunny environments at the highest battery setting, but is pretty good with the ambient light sensor on. As for the color, it looks decent once calibrated, but I wouldn't say excellent. Blue seems to pop too much and the contrast just doesn't seem quite right.

Compared to a matte screen 17 inch MBP from 2007, the colors on the 8440w look a bit off. They look good, just not as true. The viewing angles on the 8440w are also weak for me. I'm far from an expert with these things though, so take this opinion with a grain of salt. The 1600x900 resolution doesn't bother me at all.

Personally, I'm trying to decide between the much less expensive Vostro 3400and the 8440w. I haven't seen the Vostro yet, but I'm not blown away by the screen quality on this Elitebook, so I'm wondering if the Vostro is better value for me, even if I do downgrade to the 1366x768 resolution.

As for noise, I find the hard drive and fan noticeable when doing web browsing and watching video. The HD is somewhat noisy. It doesn't bother me though, and I've found the computer does an excellent job staying cool. Under a comparatively much lighter load the MBP gets pretty hot, the 8440w doesn't even feel warm on the bottom. Definitely great for those who use it as a "lap"top.

Also, the touchpad was a concern for me before getting a hands-on perspective. It is small, but it feels good. It tracks very smoothly and the multi touch gestures are actually very nice, once enabled. I don't use the trackpoint so can't comment on that.

[krazyd]

I didn't really follow my initial plan to run it as is for a week before upgrading to an SSD, I did it on the 2nd day.
This was a breeze and very straight forward. I moved the OHD to the caddy (bought on newmodeus) and run the intel SSD as OS and the other as Data disk (the HD has the original hp partitions hidden and reduced to a minimum so I can return to factory setting by swapping HD very quickly).

Oohh! I'm jealous!

My caddy arrived today but the SSD is still in the system somewhere.. due later this week.

[krazyd]

Hi krazyd,

I tried to install the final release of kubuntu 10.04 or to use it as a live CD. In both cases, I have a black screen after the menu where you choose either to go on with installation or live CD.

Did you encounter any issues when installing?

Hi!

I always avoid live-cd installs because I've found them to be less reliable than a good old text-mode install. The alternative disk was a little slow (this issue), but installed fine.

Most stuff works great with a couple of irritating exceptions:
1. Suspend/Hibernate doesn't work. I'm still playing around with pm-utils and newer kernels and will post an update if I get anywhere. (this bug)
2. Fingerprint reader, mobile broadband module, ambient light sensor don't work. But it seems there are people hacking support together already.

Also I'm very impressed with the integrated graphics my 8440p has. KDE desktop effects absolutely fly and I can play World of Goo and Nexuiz on medium at 1600x900 with ~25fps minimum (average about 35fps). I've never seen this kind of performance without discrete graphics (especially on linux! )

If you have the intel graphics you should install the latest drivers available from this PPA for best performance.

When my SSD arrives I'll install and do a proper review with Kubuntu.

[8millenium]

Thank you Antsiou and IllcOmm for your replies. They were very helpful.

[8millenium]

Hello newcompsearch1,

Thank you for your additional input on the screen. It was very helpful as well. I'm still split between 3 different laptops. I've ordered a Dell Latitude E6400, a Lenovo Thinkpad T410, and I'm considering buying an EliteBook 8440 as a 3rd computer for my business. The 2 biggest concerns at this point are the battery life and the screen quality. Whichever one of the 3 has the best battery life and screen quality will win my future business.

[krazyd]

Whichever one of the 3 has the best battery life and screen quality will win my future business.

HP has a 3-year warranty on their long-life battery.. that's hard to beat.

[MattB85]

Go to a computer store and bring your laptop to compare it to a 16:9 screen. If you can't deal with it then your options for current notebooks are the Dell E6410 and Lenovo T410/s. If you really want HP, the Elitebook 6930p is still a great option.

My Compaq Evo is 4:3, which IMO is the way these things should have stayed, so I can't easily do a side-by-side. I can deal with 4:3 --> 16:10 (not happy about it, but it could be worse) but from the picture that was posted of 4:3 next to 16:9 the widescreen just looks unnecessarily squashed. Time to call up the HP refurbished department and order a 6930p. If only Compaq hadn't crippled the Evo N620c with the inferior ATI Radeon 7500...

[newcompsearch1]

Hello newcompsearch1,

Thank you for your additional input on the screen. It was very helpful as well. I'm still split between 3 different laptops. I've ordered a Dell Latitude E6400, a Lenovo Thinkpad T410, and I'm considering buying an EliteBook 8440 as a 3rd computer for my business. The 2 biggest concerns at this point are the battery life and the screen quality. Whichever one of the 3 has the best battery life and screen quality will win my future business.

The negative reviews on the t410 screen scared me off. How do you find it?

Also, do you know if the e6410 and e6400 have the same design for the touchpad? By the way, it appears that the 1440x900 screen has changed slightly between the two models, or at least dell's specs have Find a Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at Dell. | Dell.

[sgogeta4]

HP has a 3-year warranty on their long-life battery.. that's hard to beat.

Dell does too.

[Terminator81]

I received a mail from HP support stating that a new Bios was released F.08

Here is the link : HP EliteBook 8440p Notebook PC and HP EliteBook 8440w Mobile Workstation System BIOS Update F.08

But the bios has not been uploaded yet in the driver section.