HP EliteBook 6930P Notebook Review

The HP EliteBook 6930p is HP’s latest 14" thin and light business notebook. It is part of HP's premium EliteBook range of business notebooks that emphasizes mobility, performance and durability.

HP bills the 6930p as a business-rugged notebook, and with its brushed metal design, it looks both tough and elegant. It includes a brushed, anodized aluminum lid combined with a magnesium alloy chassis. Indeed, this 5.2-pound notebook is sturdy, but at 13.0 x 9.6 x 1.2 inches it’s a bit wider and thicker than the Dell Latitude E6400 (13.2 x 9.4 x 1.0 inches). To lessen the weight, you can opt for HP’s Illumi-Lite LED-backlit display for an additional $50.

HP Elitebook 6930P Specifications :
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.40 GHz with 3 MB L2 cache
RAM : 2 GB DDR2 800 MHZ (Upgradable to 4 GB)
Hard Drive : 160GB SATA 5,400 rpm
Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW DL
Display : 14.1″ at 1280 x 800 px
Graphics : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 256 MB (Default: Intel GMA X4500)
Wi-Fi : 802.11 a/b/g/draft -n
Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
Operating System : Microsoft Windows Vista
Ports : 3 USB 2.0, Ethernet, Firewire, Headphone, Microphone, Modem, VGA, 2 in 1 Card reader, Expresscard
Dimensions : 13.0 x 9.6 x 1.2 inches
Weight : 5.2 pounds

What constitutes a computer for the elite? If there's anything in a name, HP may have the answer with its latest business laptop, the EliteBook 6930p battery is out to create some separation between its new EliteBook brand and the EliteBook's predecessors—the Compaqs—by serving up a metallic look and up-to-date Centrino 2 parts. Aside from good looks, the new design is crammed with "business rugged" features. Whether it's the DuraFinish lid, the DuraKeys, or 3D DriveGuard, the 6930p is prepared to run marathons around the competition.

As for other components, there are three USB 2.0 ports, an SD card reader at the front, a Smart card reader, an ExpressCard slot, a DVD-RAM GSA-T50L LightScribe drive, modem and Ethernet connectors, a FireWire 1394 port for digital cameras, a couple of audio jacks and VGA for an external monitor. Some users have complained about problems with the VGA but on our sample it plugged and played as expected. However, it would have been preferable to have also been offered a DVI output.

Under the bonnet lurks an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.40GHz processor with 2GB RAM (expandable to 8GB) with a 160GB hard drive running at 5,400rpm, the laptop using the Mobile Intel 4 Series Express chipset. The hard drive is upgradeable to a 250GB and 7,200rpm model, or you can opt for an 80GB SSD. Even the basic set-up is decent enough to handle multimedia operations such as DVDs, spreadsheets and the Internet, all running concurrently.

This machine has also passed the same rigorous US military standard (MIL-STD- 810F) as the Hi-Grade, and can withstand drops from 2.9ft, sandstorms, vigorous vibrations and an altitude of 15,000ft.

The keyboard is mounted firmly on to the magnesium alloy chassis and, although there is a little flex, provides a crisp and responsive action. HP has coated the keyboard in a protective substance to enhance the longevity of the keys, and it gives the board an almost rubbery feel.

Consequently you'll only find standard ports on the device. There are three USB interfaces, Firewire, a modem, and a LAN connector as well as an analogue VGA port on the rear of the HP EliteBook 6930p battery. Of course headphone and microphone ports belong to the standard equipment. Unfortunately a digital video interface is done without, for instance a display or HDMI port directly on the device. If you want to save the cost of a docking station yet you want to connect an external monitor to the laptop, there's just the built-in VGA connection. In the test at a resolution of 1920x1200 pixels on our 24-inch test display (Dell 2408 Wfp) this produced an acceptable and thoroughly fit for work picture. Indeed this cannot keep up with the quality of a digital video interface.

Regarding the positioning of the individual interfaces it should be noted that they are limited to the rear area of the right-hand side of the case as well as the middle area of the left lateral edge. For this reason there are slight advantages for right-handed people but also left-handed people should generally get on well with the EliteBook 6930p. Ports which are potentially permanently occupied for example the VGA output and the connection for the power supply are fitted on the rear of the device.

The 6930p contains all the basic ports, but nothing exciting. There is a 1394 FireWire port, but no DVI or HDMI. There are three USB ports, but there is no charging over USB when the laptop is switched off. There is no eSATA. There is a dial-up modem, although we are not sure if anyone uses them anymore. There is also a MMC card reader slot on the front of the laptop.

Pre-installed software on the 6930p is fairly light; there are no anti-virus software trials or DVD burning software (or the Google Desktop, we're looking at you Dell), but there is the obligatory 60-day trail of Office 2007. You also get two different toolbars in IE, AOL and bizarrely, "Delio", which we haven't seen before. It appears to do nothing.

EliteBook 6930p also has hard disk protection (HP 3D Drive Guard) and keyboard with drainage system which results in ultimate protection of your hardware and data. Built to satisfy demands of Americas Army, HP guarantees reliability even under extreme conditions: temperatures above 60 degrees Celsius and below -29 degrees Celsius, extreme vibrations, high humidity and dust environment. HP DuraKeys and DuraFinish are technologies that are intended to provide better keyboard and other surfaces protection. All this speaks enough for itself when it comes to build quality of EliteBook series.

There is a trend with more recent notebooks to offer more granular power management, and HP have gone out of their way to maximise the battery life on the EliteBooks. In this respect HP have done well. We conducted our standard taxing battery test by setting the screen brightness to 50 per cent, and then playing a DVD. This produced an impressive 3 hours and 10 minutes of battery life, well above average. The battery for HP EliteBook 6930p has a 55 Whr capacity.

The 6930p contains all the basic ports, but nothing exciting. There is a 1394 FireWire port, but no DVI or HDMI. There are three USB ports, but there is no charging over USB when the laptop is switched off. There is no eSATA. There is a dial-up modem, although we are not sure if anyone uses them anymore. There is also a MMC card reader slot on the front of the laptop.

The HP Elitebook 6930p still uses a matte display, so it is easy to view under fluorescent lighting. However, some reviewers say the color output is a little lackluster. Testing shows that this business laptop provides good performance for office applications, and reviewers calls the HP Elitebook 6930p is a great value. If you need serious power and all the latest features, reviews point to the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds (*Est. $2,100 and up). It's heavy and expensive, but this laptop is the closest you can get to desktop performance in a notebook.

The HP 6930p battery uses a 14.1-inch widescreen LCD, and the high-resolution (1440x900 pixels) panel is bright and exceedingly crisp. You can even read tiny on-screen text, although the high resolution means default text sizes on some Web sites and in Windows’ menus (like the All Programs list) can be pretty small. The LCD delivered vibrant colors in Windows apps, as well as good motion reproduction for video.

Above the screen you’ll find an integrated Webcam, ideal for video chat, video e-mail and videoconferencing applications. HP’s easy-to-use utility lets you set the camera’s resolution to eight different levels ranging from 160x120 (good for grabbing a tiny snapshot of yourself to append to your e-mail signature line) all the way up to 1600x1200 (for taking a photo as good as a 2-megapixel camera might). At the default 640x480 resolution, the camera showed good color accuracy, though lots of motion resulted in lots of blur. Icons at the bottom of the utility let you take a still picture, capture video or capture audio only.

When working with different windows at the same time, it was found that the HP Elitebook had a very good capacity to be able to handle some complicated programs at the same time. For example, you can use the video features and check on the e-mails at the same time and the speed of the computer is as good as any other, this is creating a very good impact on the way how people are getting what they really need.

You can easily find many kinds of HP laptop battery and laptops in the market at present that are giving you the best features available, however, you should definitely check up the Free HP Elitebook 6930P and make sure that you check the specifications and prices, as this is considered to be the best that you can find in the market for all your needs. This is a computer which is especially designed for the people that need to be on the move at all times, however, you can also find that some of the features are worth having even if you are not so mobile, as well.

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