HP ProBook, EliteBook Notebooks Refreshed [HP Adding Core i7, USB 3.0]

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Last week HP introduced six new notebooks aimed at the professional market. The ProBook and EliteBook aren’t any sort of netbook or ultraportable – instead, they’re good old fashioned full-sized, fully powered notebooks for the business market.

The first thing you’ll notice is the new look of the notebooks. Enterprise notebooks are sometimes known has being rather bland looking (cough, Dell, cough, Lenovo), but HP has given these notebooks a stylish new look. The notebook has a magnesium-alloy chassis with a anodized-aluminum finish. HP’s press release brags that the new notebooks are “incredibly strong” and that the notebooks can withstand “rigorous usage”.

HP responded to customer requests, and one of the six new models, the HP EliteBook 8440W, is a smaller, 14-inch model. HP apparently received customer requests for a smaller mobile workstation notebook. HP doesn’t explicitly give stats for all six models, but says that customers will be able to custom order their notebooks in several areas.

Customers will be able to choice between Intel on-board graphics or NVIDIA internal graphics cards. In an odd choice of wording, HP says that new notebook buyers will have a choice between an Intel Core i7 processor or a “future Intel Core” processor. It’s not clear if they meant Core i3 or if they have inside knowledge on a new Core i9 or something of that nature.

The notebooks will come with some bundled software, like HP SkyRoom, a video conferencing program that works with the notebook’s webcam. They’ll likely come all with some flavor of Windows 7. The notebooks will start shipping in February to the United States, with pricing starting at $1,100.