For a road-warrior having a light weight easy to access computer is essential, that is why the ultraportable is the only option. Ultraportables are easy to carry because they are so small, but the still offer enough power to get any task done. The EliteBook 2540p is HPs latest ultraportable laptop.

Features

• Ultra-portable
• Business-rugged construction
• Security and convenience
• Environmentally responsible design

The HP EliteBook 2540p is called an ultraportable because it is lightweight and compact. With only a 12.1-inch diagonal display and a weight of 3.38 lb the EliteBook 2540p is very easy to carry around. In addition, the EliteBook 2540p has several wireless connectivity options. These include HP Mobile Broadband (customer upgradeable), Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WLAN, and Bluetooth.

The EliteBook 2540p is also rugged, it is built to meet military standards (MIL-STD 810G) for vibration, dust, humidity, altitude and extreme temperatures. The EliteBook 2540p also has a full-size, spill-resistant keyboard with drains which help protect the system board from minor spills. To help make the EliteBook 2540p even more rugged it features a magnesium-alloy casing, hardened-steel pin axels, and scratch-resistant HP DuraFinish. The hard drive is also protected against drops and sudden impact with HP 3D DriveGuard.

Because this is a business class laptop, HP has also done its best to make it both secure and convenient to use. With HP ProtectTools mobile PC security infrastructure solution it is easy to centrally manage security policies. Optionally, the HP EliteBook 2540p can also include vPro out of band management.

To make the EliteBook 2540p convenient HP has given users quick access to e-mail, calendars, contacts and websites without waiting to boot up using QuickLook 3 and QuickWeb

HP has also not forgotten their duty to the environment. The EliteBook 2540p carries the label of environmentally friendly because it uses a minimum of 12% recycled plastic and is EPEAT Gold registered in the United States.

Design

The EliteBook 2540p is a very small notebook. With dimensions of 11.1 x 8.4 1.10 in and a weight of 3.38 lb you would hardly even know you are carrying it.

The top of the laptop is made out of magnesium-alloy. This is a very durable alloy and helps to keep the top of the notebook protected from all sorts of other things.

Lid

The right side, starting with the front, there is an SD card slot, 1394a port, combo stereo headphone/mic jack, VGA port, DisplayPort, and a docking connector.

Right

On the left is the DVD drive, USB port, RJ-11 port, and an AC power port.

Left

The back has 2 USB ports, an RJ-45 port, and a big battery. The battery actually sticks out of the back. As far as design goes this would be a big negative, but for battery life, having a big battery is a good thing.

Lid

Opening up the notebook gives us a view of the screen and the keyboard. Starting with the screen, it is a 12.1″ diagonal LED-backlit WXGA anti-glare. In a world of glossy screens it is really nice to see that anti-glare is still out there. Above the screen is a webcam and a light. The light is turned on by pressing it, and it is used to light up the keyboard. The light is a nice thought, but as soon as you start typing the light is blocked by your hands. So if you are not a touch typist then you will have to move your hands to see the keys, in this case a backlit keyboard would probably be better.

Front

The keyboard is full-size, spill-resistant, with drains to protect the system board from minor spills. The keys themselves are HP DuraKeys, and are made to keep the keyboard looking newer longer. The keyboard also has a pointstick and two buttons below the spacebar that are for the pointstick. I really like the feel of the keys, they are kind of rubbery and soft, and my fingers don’t slip off them.

Above the keyboard is the button panel. The only physical button is the power button and it is on the left. The rest of the buttons are touch and the are QuickLook, QuickWeb, Wi-Fi on/off, Touchpad on/off, Mute, Volume down, and Volume up. I had some trouble with the sensitivity of the buttons and found myself wishing that they were all regular buttons like the power buttons. Sometimes we forget how nice it is to feel a nice solid click when we press a button. With the touch buttons you don’t get that and it is hard to tell if you actually pressed the button hard enough.

QuickLook and Quickweb are two programs that can be used for instant access to email and the web. Both programs boot up outside of Windows and so they don’t require the long boot times. In fact, from a completely powered off state it only took 20 seconds to boot up QuickWeb and open a browser window, compare that to booting up Windows 7 pro which took about 50 seconds to boot up and get a browser window open.

Below the keyboard is a standard touchpad with scroll zone and two buttons. The touchpad is very smooth, but not slippery. It has some texture so that you can really feel yourself moving the mouse, it also make it hard to accidentally slip to the wrong location.

Also below the keyboard and to the right of the touchpad is a fingerprint reader. The fingerprint reader can be used for quick login without having to type a password.

Performance

Before I get into the performance tests lets talk about what hardware is inside, below is a list:

• Intel Core i7-640LM 2.13GHz Dual-Core Processor (4MB Cache)
• Intel GMA HD integrated graphics
• 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2GB x 2GB)
• 250GB 5400rpm 1.8-inch SATA II

The processor is a Dual-Core 2.13GHz Intel i7 with 4MB of Cache. This is one of Intel’s latest Dual core processors and it has a fairly high clock speed. The L in the model number means it is a low power processor and so it is good on battery life, but not good on performance, so I don’t expect high CPU scores.

Integrated graphics have never performed well in graphics tests and I don’t think the Intel GMA HD integrated graphics is going to be any different. The fact that it doesn’t have any dedicated graphics memory isn’t going to help either.

The 4GB of 1333Mhz DDR3 memory is not bad for this Notebook. However, I found it interesting that chose 1333MHz memory when the Intel spec indicates that this CPU only supports up to 1066MHz. I might be reading the spec wrong, but it is interesting.

The hard drive is another example of where HP is choosing power consumption over performance. Even with a 7200 RPM drive the hard drive is usually the bottleneck in most systems. HP decided to go even slower and included a 5400 RPM drive in the EliteBook 2540p. This drive is only going to slow things down further.

Judging from the specs above I really don’t expect this laptop to do very well in any of the benchmarks that I use, but no one really expects an ultraportable to be a high performer.

The first test I ran is 3DMark05 (I could not use 3DMark Vantage because the screen resolution is too low). As I guessed the scores were not very good. the 3DMark05 score for this laptop is 1516, compare this to the fastest system which scored 47240, this laptop is only 3%. However this should not be surprising because this is an ultra portable with a low power processor and an integrated video chip. Certainly don’t buy this if you are expecting to play high end games on it.

3DMark05

Next I ran PCMark Vantage. This test is not as much about graphics as it is about office and other productivity apps. The score it got is 5803 compared to the fastest of 38684 this laptop is 15%, which is much better than 3DMark and rightfully so.

PCMark Vantage

The last test is a battery test, for this I use Bapco Mobile Mark. This is where this laptop should shine, with the large 6-cell battery, low power processor and the integrated video card this laptop should be able to last a long time. I actually ran this test twice, once with the power settings at their lowest, and once with the power settings at the highest (including turning on Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen on full brightness, etc.). For the low power test the laptop lasted a total of 454 Minutes, and for the high power test is lasted 329 minutes. As I expected this is fantastic.

MobileMark Low

MobileMark High

Warranty and Support

The warranty that comes with the HP EliteBook 2540p is a standard 1 or 3 year warranty depending on the model and is upgradable to 5 years.

Support comes in the form of phone, email, and a plethora of online services.

Conclusion

I am really happy with this laptop, don’t let the low scores fool you, these are great scores for an ultraportable. The HP EliteBook 2450p is a great ultra portable for any road warrior that is looking for a easy to use and very portable machine to take with them when they are on the road.