The Elitebook laptop is HP’s top of the line business notebook, and the 8540w is near the top of that series. The Elitebook 8540w includes several upgrade from last years model, including a faster processor, better screen, and a better video card.

Features

• Outstanding Workstation-class features

  Maximize onscreen performance with industry-leading, workstation-caliber graphics. Choose from the NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M or 1800M with 1 GB of video memory. HP’s extensive ISV certification program ensures highly reliable performance across the most demanding workstations-specific applications.

• Maximize your performance

  Enjoy new performance levels with the new 2010 Intel® Core™ i5 and i7 processor family, capable of working in a true 64-bit environment and 16 GB of memory capacity. Share information with fast transfer speeds using two USB 3.0 ports.

  Connect to external displays and get sharper, deeper images with DisplayPort.

• Industrial design

  Starting at 6.4 lb. (2.89 kg) with a 1.28-inch height in front, this Mobile Workstation combines premier design with business rugged construction. With a gunmetal finish, the HP EliteBook 8540w is designed to meet tough military standards (MIL-STD

  810G) for vibration, dust, humidity, altitude, and high temperature.

• HP Professional Innovations help you focus on your business

  Built to simplify. HP SkyRoom provides convenient video conferencing directly from your notebook with the ability to conference up to 4 locations at a time.

  Optional integrated HP Mobile Broadband allows convenient access to the internet, corporate intranet, and e-mail in more places than ever. With the WWAN card installed, you also gain a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to determine your position. Couple this with available applications to turn your notebook into a GPS device.HP QuickLook 3 provides quick access to email, calendar, contacts and tasks at the touch of a button without long boot-up time. HP QuickWeb grants access to the web in seconds… even if your notebook is turned off.

  Built to conserve. HP Power Assistant measures and logs reported platform energy usage and delivers comprehensive reporting (time, watts, energy cost and carbon footprint). The EliteBook 8540w is a BFR/PVC-free notebook.

Design

At 15″ the HP EliteBook 8540w is just the right size for a laptop. It’s not so small that it is hard to be productive, and it’s not too big that it cannot be carried about.

Because the 8540w is designed for the traveling business person it is important that is has a usable, yet rugged design. The HP EliteBook 8540w is lightweight, rugged, has an aluminum surface, and meets military standards (MIL-STD 810G) for vibration, dust, humidity, altitude and high temperature.

The case is made out of HP’s DuraCase material which is a magnesium alloy with a scratch-resistant anodized aluminum surface. The laptop also has metal hinges with hardened steel pins in the axles. The display is enclosed in a magnesium shell attached to anodized aluminum, all of this is able to withstand up to 300 pounds of pressure. To protect the hard drive against bumps and drops, the EliteBook uses 3D DriveGuard. 3D DriveGuard uses a three-axis digital accelerometer that stops the hard drive to reduce damage to your data.

Top

The right side of the 8540w has a Blu-ray drive, 2 USB 3 slots, an Ethernet and phone port, and a Kensington Security Slot.

Right

On the left side are a few more USB slots, a display port, eSATA, Firewire, Microphone, and Headphone jack.

Left

On the back is the power plug, and VGA port.

Back

As mentioned above the 8540w has a few durability features and a couple of those are found on the keyboard. The keyboard is spill resistant, and the keys are coated with a special material that prevents the print from rubbing off. I really like how the keyboard goes from edge to edge, but what is even more impressive is that HP managed to fit a separate number keypad in this space. This shows that HP is really trying to maximize the available space and make typing as comfortable as possible. They keys also have a very nice feel, and they provide good feedback when pressed.

Keyboard

Keypad

HP also includes both a pointing stick and a touchpad. The pointing stick does its job well by providing accurate navigation, but personally I don’t like them because they are not as precise as the touchpad, so I didn’t use it much.

The relatively small touchpad is adequate for moving around the screen, but just barely provides enough room to move around comfortably. I would prefer if HP removed the pointing stick and its buttons, and in their place made the touchpad a lot bigger. If you look at the picture you can see that without the pointing stick buttons HP could make the touchpad taller and wider. On a side note, both the pointing stick and touchpad buttons have a nice rubbery feel and they are easy to press.

Touchpad

To the right of the touchpad is the fingerprint reader. This can be used for logging into the computer. However this is another piece of hardware that I would prefer to do without, it just ads cost without adding a lot of functionality.

The screen on the 8540w is a 15.6-inch HP DreamColor display. The Dreamcolor display is capable of displaying over 1 billion colors on its 30-bit LED balcklit, IPS, LCD panel. I know that is a lot of acronyms, but what it all means is that you are going to get very accurate colors in all your applications. I was also very excited to see that the screen has a matte finish. I really dislike the glossy screens that seem to have taken over consumer laptops.

As you can see from the image below the screen has good color no matter what angle you view it at.

Screen Angles

One bit of trouble I noticed about the screen is that it seems to be a bit discolored near the hinges. It is almost like the screen is being pinched by the hinges. It really only shows up when looking at a really dark pictures, but it is there and so I wanted to mention it.

Above the screen is the usual webcam, and the HP exclusive keyboard light. The webcam is nothing special at only 2 MP it is fairly low resolution. HP includes some facial recognition software that allows you to log into the PC without having to type a password or swipe your finger. The software works fairly well and only gave me trouble a couple times.

Web Camera

The sound is adequate, but not great. The speakers are located at the front of the laptop on either side of the SD card slot. The speakers are small and because they are front facing they are aimed at your stomach. Having them face up would have been a much better choice. I could hear movies, but not clearly, and when I was in a noisy room the sounds were definitely harder to understand.

Performance

To test the performance of this machine I am going to run several tests. These tests include a battery, graphics, and full system test. However, before I get to that lets take a quick look at the specs of the EliteBook 8540w.

The first test is 3DMark Vantage. This test focuses on testing the graphics system. The EliteBook 8540w got a score of 3412. While this is not the highest score I have seen, it is also not the slowest.

3DMark Vantage

Next I ran another graphics test. This time the test is Cinebench. As you can see from the scores the laptop did a fairly good job.

Cinebench CPU

Cinebench Score

Another graphics test I ran is SPECviewperf 11. This test is different than the 3DMark because it directly targets the graphics system and bypasses the CPU and other parts of the computer that might slow down the graphics. Here is the official SPECviewperf 11 results page, you can compare the results below and see that this laptop did a fairly good job.

SPECviewperf 11

The next test is PCMark Vantage. This test is an overall system test and does not focus on any particular system. The EliteBook 8540w got a score of 6162. Again, not a spectacular score, but when compared to other laptops of similar size it comes out near the top.

PCMark Vantage

The last test is the battery test. To test the battery I use MobileMark 2007, with WiFi off and the screen brightness set to 50%. As you can see from the image below the laptop came in at 174 minutes (2 hours 54 minutes) of run time. This is not a horrible run-time, I have certainly seen worse, but it is also nothing to brag about. I would certainly take this into consideration when looking to buy.

MobileMark 2007

As I ran these tests I paid attention to the noise level and the heat that was produced. I never felt like there was an excessive amount of either.

Support and Warranty

HP backs the 8540w with a three-year warranty and a one-year warranty on the primary battery. This includes pick-up or carry-in, and toll-free 7 x 24 hardware technical phone support. On-site service and warranty upgrades are also available.

I have never had to directly communicate with HP customer support, so I don’t know how they are, but I have also never heard of any major problems. Also given the fact that this is a workstation you are going to get a better level of support than a consumer level laptop will get. HP knows how to treat their business customer really good.

Conclusion

In the end I am impressed with the strength and quality of the of this laptop. It is put together with some top quality parts. My main concern is the battery life. A 15″ laptop is a good travel size and is going to be taken on the road, but with just under 3 hours of battery it is not going to last long if you don’t keep it plugged in. If you are a traveler I do recommend a second, or larger battery.

If your in the market for a mobile workstation that has lots of power, but is easy to carry around then I don’t think you will be disappointed with the EliteBook 8540w. However, if you want something that is going to last all day without plugging it in then you are going to have to look at something much smaller with much less power.

JusTech'n editors' rating
Features Design Performance Warranty Support Price