Laptop with serial port!

[Sxooter]

Judging by the picture that's a USB serial port, not an RS232 serial port.

[KLF]

8560p review on notebookreview:
HP EliteBook 8560p Review
Pin-up shot of the rear end
Notebook Reviews - Laptop Reviews and Netbook News Picture

I don't have physical access to such computer so hard to say anything further.

[Indrek]

A few other relatively recent laptops that have serial ports:
Dell Latitude E5500 & E5510, HP ProBook 6540b, Fujitsu Lifebook E780

Judging by the picture that's a USB serial port, not an RS232 serial port.

Just curious - how can you tell from the picture?

[Sxooter]

Just curious - how can you tell from the picture?

Good point those pictures are awful. Looking a second time I'm still not sure.

[trwrt]

I've got an Acer Travelmate 800 with a busted hinge here that ticks all of the boxes. $2400 should just about cover it. :-)

[Indrek]

Good point those pictures are awful. Looking a second time I'm still not sure.

That wasn't a point, but a legitimate question - how can you tell from a picture whether a serial port is USB or RS-232?

[Sxooter]

That wasn't a point, but a legitimate question - how can you tell from a picture whether a serial port is USB or RS-232?

By having the engineer use more accurate labels? Or from a better picture?

A db-9 serial port connector is the same size as a db-15 high density VGA connector, but with 9 larger sockets. They're disappearing pretty quick. A lot of hosting centers now keep old VT-101 terminals etc on carts because you can't count on having one on your laptop anymore.

[Indrek]

A db-9 serial port connector is the same size as a db-15 high density VGA connector, but with 9 larger sockets.

Yeah, I know that. Incidentally, the correct label is DE9, not DB9 (and DE15 for the VGA connector; DB connectors are about twice as wide). And I can see pretty easily from pictures that the laptops mentioned above (including the EliteBook 8560p) have a male DE9 connector. What I thought you were saying was that having a serial port didn't necessarily mean full electrical compliance with the RS-232 standard, and that some serial ports could simply be RS-232 adapters internally hooked up to USB or something like that, rather than a native RS-232 controller on the motherboard. If instead you were referring to the connector and saying that you weren't sure whether the one shown in the 8560p quickspecs was USB or DE9, then I retract my previous question and invite you to look at a larger version of that picture:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/q.../13947_ov5.jpg

Edit: also, the picture posted above by KLF (link) clearly shows a male DE9 connector with the corresponding symbol |O|O| next to it.