HP Elitebook 8730W. Time to ask apple a question!

[Babaknt]

HP took the wraps off a trio of notebooks aimed at business users that want the security and durability of a business machine, but with the multimedia functionality (Blu-ray, discrete ATI and Nvidia graphics) of a more mainstream machine.

Specs:

HP EliteBook8530P

15.4-inch display (with optional 1280 x 800, 1680 x 1050, and 1950 x 1200-pixel resolutions)
Windows Vista Business, Vista Basic, or Business downgrade to XP
Intel Core 2 Duo processor (up to 2.8-GHz)
Supports up to a whopping 8GB of RAM
120GB/160GB/250GB 5,400-rpm hard drives; 160GB/250GB/320GB 7,200-rpm hard drives (with HP 3D DriveGuard); 80GB SSD
Blu-ray R/RE optical drive; DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL drive. The optical bay can also be used to store a secondary hard drive (250GB, 5400-rpm or 320GB, 7,200-rpm) that allows RAID 1 mirroring or RAID 0 striping
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 graphics with 256MB of video memory (512MB of HyperMemory)
Optional EV-DO or HSDPA mobile broadband
2-megapixel webcam
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.0
ExpressCard/54, memory card reader
4 USB 2.0, HDMI, eSATA, FireWire, VGA, headphone, mic, Ethernet
TPM, fingerprint sensor, HP ProtectTools, Disk Sanitizer, Drive encryption, Enhanced Drive Lock, Credential Manager, integrated SmartCard reader, Intel Centrino 2 with vPro capable
8-cell battery
14.0 x 10.4 x 1.1 inches
6.3 pounds
Certified SuSe Linux Enterprise Desktop 10

HP EliteBook 8530w

15.4 inch display (with optional 1280 x 800, 1680 x 1050, and 1950 x 1200-pixel resolutions)
Windows Vista Business, Vista Basic, or Business downgrade to XP
Intel Core 2 Duo processor (up to 3.0-GHz)
Supports up to 8GB of RAM
120GB/160GB/250GB 5,400-rpm hard drives; 160GB/250GB/320GB 7,200-rpm hard drives (with HP 3D DriveGuard); 80GB SSD
Blu-ray R/RE optical drive; DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL drive. The optical bay can also be used to store a secondary hard drive (250GB, 5400-rpm or 320GB, 7,200-rpm) that allows RAID 1 mirroring or RAID 0 striping
Nvidia Quadra FX 770M graphics (with 512MB of memory); ATI Mobility FireGL V5700 (256MB memory)
Optional EV-DO or HSDPA mobile broadband
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.0
ExpressCard/54, memory card reader
4 USB 2.0, HDMI, eSATA, FireWire, VGA, stereo headphone, stereo mic, Ethernet
TPM, fingerprint sensor, HP ProtectTools, Disk Sanitizer, Drive Encryption, Enhanced Drive Lock, Credential Manager, Intel Centrino 2 with vPro capable
8-cell battery
14.0 x 10.4 x 1.1 inches
6.3 pounds
Certified SuSe Linux Enterprise Desktop 10

HP EliteBook 8730w

17-inch display with optional 1680 x 1050, 1920 x 1200, or 1900 x 1200 LED ( with DreamColor Panel with Nvidia graphics)
Windows Vista Business, Vista Basic, or Business downgrade to XP
Intel Core 2 Duo processor (up to 3.0-GHz)
Supports up to 8GB of RAM
160GB/250GB 5,400-rpm hard drives; 160GB/250GB/320GB 7,200-rpm hard drives (with HP 3D DriveGuard)
Blu-ray R/RE optical drive; DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL drive. The optical bay can also be used to store a secondary hard drive (250GB, 5400-rpm or 320GB, 7,200-rpm) that allows RAID 1 mirroring or RAID 0 striping
ATI Mobility FireGL V5725 (with 256MB of memory), Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M (1GB of video memory); Nvidia Quadro FX 2700M (512MB of memory)
2-MP webcam
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.0
ExpressCard/54, memory card reader
4 USB 2.0, HDMI, eSATA, FireWire, VGA, stereo headphone, stereo mic, Ethernet
TPM, fingerprint sensor, HP ProtectTools, Disk Sanitizer, Drive encryption, Enhanced Drive Lock, Credential Manager, integrated SmartCard reader, Intel Centrino 2 with vPro capable
8-cell battery
15.5 x 11.1 x 1.3 inches
6.6 pounds
Certified SuSe Linux Enterprise Desktop 10



Well with this much power fitted in what seems to be a quite thin 17" laptop you got to ask what the future holds for Steve's Apple and the MBP line. I dont hate the MBP or Apple, on the contrary I think they have created a very good and effective market for themselves with some iconic products. But somehow I still feel as a consumer with a choice that my question is legitimate: How much thinner and lighter can one design a laptop and lable it as "Pure power" and somehow ignore the rest of the market??

 

[winninganthem]

Newer offerings from HP, Dell and Lenovo, etc. are all relatively new things; we'll have to wait until September to really be able to compare Apple to its competitors.

What do you mean by "ignore the rest of the market"?

 

[Dreamail]

And now?

September's come and gone.
January 2009 is here and the 17" MacBook Pro. So what's the tally comparing both:

HP
+ better LCD option
+ up to 1GB VRAM
+ BluRay drive option
+ quad-Core CPU option
+ numeric keypad
+ eSATA
+ Fingerprint reader
- poor battery life (just about 1 hour)
- DDR2 RAM at 800MHz

17" MacBook Pro
+ DDR3 RAM at 1066MHz
+ better battery life
+ smaller, more stylish case

Not sure the Apple is the clear winner here...

 

[kumbaya]

You forgot:

HP
-$5,558 with all the options you listed

17" MacBook Pro
+$2,849 (with harddrive upgrade to match HP)

I think the clear winner will be the one that sells more units

10 x 5,558 = 55,580
100 x 2,849 = 284,900

As a *very* generous guesstimate of relative sales..

It's been said elsewhere, Apple produces at best pro-sumer machines, with the possible exception of the Mac Pro?

 

[AndyCro]

+ numeric keypad
+ Fingerprint reader

Fingerprint readers are an unsightly novelty, and a numeric keybord has never been an issue before. These are quite throw away things in terms of both plus points or neccessities to regard in comparison.

 

[infernohellion]

I'm quite happy with the 17" unibody spec except the GRAPHIC CARD.

9600M GT is so not high-end! Apple should have picked 9800M GT. I would rather have better graphics card than the optical drive.

 

[Dreamail]

HP
-$5,558 with all the options you listed

17" MacBook Pro
+$2,849 (with harddrive upgrade to match HP)

I think the clear winner will be the one that sells more units[...]
It's been said elsewhere, Apple produces at best pro-sumer machines

But what if you actually need a professional portable workstation for serious 3D work and a pro-sumer class machine is just not good enough?

And what if you are happy to spend $5600 for it as you need a portable machine (i.e. a high-end desktop is not an option for whatever reason)?


You're basically saying if you're in that bracket - don't buy a Mac!

Those people face the dire choice of either dumbing down their hardware (using an Apple product) or dumbing down their OS (using Windows or Linux).
That's not ideal...