*HP EliteBook 8460p Owners Lounge!*

[Yoshimeow]

Yea going to 8560p instead. Hopefully I can change it. I went thru our. It department. It's only been 4 business days so hopefully it's not too hard to cancel and change to the 15. It helps they are exactly the same price. Almost wished I waited for the 8560w since the 15 inch has a bigger difference. The 14 inch w and p series are almost exactly the same. Wonder why they can't make a nice 14 inch screen. I love the size oh well looks like I'll be lugging around 1.5 more pounds. But at least i have a iPad for email and browsing

[Dreamycreamy]

Backlit keyboard on the 14" anyone?
And battery life?

[BizcoBird]

So I was ready to pull the trigger on this system until I read this thread. I already have an EliteBook 8440p and actually like the system quite a bit. My wife needs a new computer, so I was going to give her that laptop and pick up an 8460p as a replacement.

Here's the question I have: For those have have used both the 8440p and 8460p, how to the latter stack up to the former? This thread has me wondering about bad screens (I don't find the 8440p that bad) and loud fans.

[Yoshimeow]

I think people that don't find the screen bad just havent used a good screen. My coworker has a Thinkpad T410 and that thing has the most horrible screen I have ever seen. The colors are all washed out. I told him I read reviews that the screen was really poor. "He was like really? It looks okay to me" and then he showed me. Gosh that screen has no contrast. From all the reviews I read the 8440p has really poor contrast also. I think notebook check rated it around 150:1 which is better than the T410 at 100:1 but still REALLY POOR.
The 15" screen on the 8540p for example had a contrast rating of 879:1

I just sent my 14 inch back. I didnt even receive yet but our vendor had already shipped it. He had no problem swapping it with the 15inch model at no charge. I'll carry the additional 1.5 pounds in weight if it means a much better screen. I just cant stand looking at a crappy screen.

[Yoshimeow]

Backlit keyboard on the 14" anyone?
And battery life?

no backlit keyboard..
that is only available as a option on the 15 and 17inch W series elitebook.

[on3eighteen]

I have the Core i5 8460p & was thinking of upgrading to the 1600x900 screen w/ the ATI card. Can someone comment on how "fine" the resolution is (DPI) & if the discrete card significantly adds noise and a reduction in battery life. The screen, to me, is fine so that aside I really think this is an amazing laptop w/ its redesign.

[stormslayer]

Folks:

I'm coming from a long list of different thinkpads; this is my first elitebook. Just got the 8460p w/ the i7, radeon card, and 1600x900 screen.

Likes:

Keyboard is great. Really solid, good feel, even compared to a thinkpad. I've tried the portege 835 and the macbook pro and my pref ordering is 8460p > macbook > 835.

Construction is way solid, though it's a bit heavy for me (it's 5#; I'm coming from a t410s and an x201s, so that's not surprising).

Trackpad is great. Personally, I like being able to "click" the trackpad like on the Apples (this has mouse buttons instead). But, the feel is spectacular. I haven't tried any gestures yet; just old school. I also like the thinkpad style eraser head; not sure what I'll end up using.

So far, the system seems fast / responsive. Installing starcraft 2 as I write this, so more on that later.

Heat is ok -- been watching videos, running the dvd, and typing this for an hour, and nothing so far.


Dislikes:

I'll admit it -- I'm not used to a matte screen. I have an ipad, and holding up the ESPN front page w/ a picture of Tim Duncan, there's no comparison. The iPad makes me feel warm inside, and I don't care if there's glare from the lamp behind me and it hurts my eyes. It's just so ... pretty. I watched some youtube trailers in 1080p, and they were gray on the 8460p. Text in word is great, but everything is a bit washed out. And last, it could stand to be a bit brighter -- I'm typing now on max brightness and would turn it up a notch if I could.

Fan is on and is staying on. I found an option in bios to turn it off instead of being auto-on when plugged in, but the is on and is staying on. I can hear it when I think about it, and that can be mildly annoying. I saw in another thread someone did an app to turn off fans, but it doesn't apply to all models, so... In general, though, it's about as loud as when your home central air is one. Whoosh!

So that's it. I bought it from Amazon w/ the 30 days return policy, and so far, I'm on the fence. Quality is as good as a lenovo. It's a very nice, solid, machine. I am confident someone will fix the fan issue, so that leaves the screen. I refuse to buy a 15" laptop weighing almost 7#; that's just stupid big. So if I trade it in, I could either get an x220 w/ the IPS screen, or get a mac book pro and use it only for windows (though this seems like a pain in the waiting to happen).
More to follow and some of this is bound to change -- I haven't even figured out how to switch from discrete to hd 3000 graphics yet.

[stormslayer]

Just fired up starcraft.

Had it at 1600x900 on medium settings. Played 1v1 vs computer and never dropped below 41fps.

So, that's good.

Screen though and fan remain as issues.

[stormslayer]

OK. This is humiliating. Turning off the ambient light sensor makes a world of difference. The screen is plenty bright, text clarity is good, none of the pixelation issues being reported with the T420.

So no, it's still not a macbook pro. But it's quite decent. Stupid ambient light sensor.

Fan? Still running.

[Judge22]

OK. This is humiliating. Turning off the ambient light sensor makes a world of difference. The screen is plenty bright, text clarity is good, none of the pixelation issues being reported with the T420.

So no, it's still not a macbook pro. But it's quite decent. Stupid ambient light sensor.

Fan? Still running.

Are you sure about no pixelation? Privious reviewer reported that it is a kind of grainy *HP EliteBook 8460p Owners Lounge!*
I was going to buy 8460p 58UT with i5 and hd 3000, hoping that fan wouldn't work constantly and better battery life, then upgrading the screen to 1600x900. But now I'm reading the thread and hesitating, whether 1600x900 worth it... I need it for text work outside, brightness and text clarity are the main issues..Would you reccomend it for my purpuses?