Review HP EliteBook 8460p Notebook

Internet and Bluetooth

We have here speedy Draft-N wifi (WLAN 802.11bgn) gigabit Ethernet as well as a Bluetooth module, which is of the dated 2.1 version not the current 3.0.   The wifi card and bluetooth are not combined as is typical, rather the Bluetooth module is found at the front, which likely makes the Bluetooth signal easier to pick up.

For using a mobile network via UMTS, you have to choose the 8460p LG746EA configuration.  The model we reviewed only has an unoccupied Mini PCIe slot (incl. antennae) and a SIM card slot under the battery. 

Security

HP doesn't skimp on security.  The fingerprint reader, the Smart Card Reader and the spill-safe keyboard (liquids leak out through the base plate) are the visible elements.  The HP ProtectTools constitute the software side of things.  HP Disk Sanitizer, hard drive encryption, Credential Manager (passwords) and File Sanitizer (deleting without leaving behind a trace) are the big selling points. 

The TPM Embedded Security Chip 1.2 allows for "Central Management", i.e. remote access and repair is possible (Internet, LAN).  As far as BIOS goes, you've got lots of options such as password protection (Enhanced Pre-Boot Security).

Accessories

Warranty

The HP 8460p comes with a limited warranty for 3 years.  The warranty only covers the battery for up to 2 years.

Keyboard

The keyboard is in no way flimsy, which makes for firm keystrokes.   Some might find it takes too much effort to push in a key, while others will like the resistance and crisp feel of each keystroke.  The spacing between keys isn't quite as large as on a desktop keyboard, but the keys themselves measure the same width: 15mm.

The keys have a moderate depression depth and keystrokes feel very crisp.  The arrow keys no longer stick out below the bottommost row of keys but are still easy to feel out without looking thanks to the slight concavity of all the keys.  This arch in the keys means you hardly ever hit the wrong key.  There's no dedicated number pad, but the page up/page down as well as home/end keys are indeed found at the far right.  Those accustomed to a number pad need only hold the Fn key and use the keys marked with a number in a box. 

Touchpad

Depending on your preference, you have the choice of whether to use the touchpad or the trackpoint, which HP calls the Pointstick (Synaptics TouchStyk V2.0).  The two pointstick buttons are found under the space bar.  All the "mouse" buttons are made of a hard rubber and have a very long depression depth—which combined with their silent clicks makes them very comfortable to use.  Since you have to press the keys so far in they leave a kind of flimsy impression, but the quickness of use speaks for itself.

The Touchpad is a good deal bigger than that of the previous generation 8440p (110 mm diagonally, as opposed to 80 mm before) and picks up input all the way to its very edges.  Vertical and horizontal scroll bars are on the touchpad, although they are turned off by default.  The Synaptics Luxpad V7.5 supports all the usual multitouch gesture.  It's not a called Luxpad for nothing: it has a small sensor at the left that recognizes when a hand is laying on top of it and deactivates the touchpad.  Alternatively, tapping the sensor manually deactivates the touchpad.

The WXGA++ display on the EliteBook 8460p has a resolution of 1,600 x 900 pixels, making for a fine picture.  This panel (model number unknown) fortunately has a matte finish to it which prevents irritating reflections from popping up on the screen, which make it perfect for office work.  Its low screen contrast of 163:1 is, however, not ideal for making pictures appear as vivid as they could be.  Moreover, the resulting black level of 1.24 cd/m² (measured at max screen brightness) makes small black text and tables look a bit gray and sometimes hard to read.

The color space (the colors that can be displayed on this screen) doesn't nearly measure up to that of an sRGB display (standard reference), making the screen here just about on par with that of a typical consumer laptop.  Below, you can see a side-by-side comparison of the our screen's color space next to that a of a Dreamcolor display (8740w).  Some of the EliteBook Workstations come with a Dreamcolor display (e.g. 8560w).

The matte finish of this 14" screen makes it usable outdoors.  In direct sunlight, however, we quickly noticed that the screen is still not bright enough.  What's more, the range of viewing angles is incredibly limited in this scenario and colors soon start to look faded when looking at the screen from the side.  This means, the 8460p is not the perfect companion for a trip to the park or on the terrace of a cafe.  The matte screen, nevertheless, keeps most ambient light from turning the screen into a mirror.

So that colors don't appear distorted or screen contents darker, a broad range of viewing angles is a must when more than one person is looking at the screen from the side or from different heights at the same time.  We really expected more from a laptop in the "elite" class of business notebooks.  This screen really cannot distinguish itself here from that of typical consumer laptops.

Looking at the screen from the left or the right at angles of up to 45º, the colors remain undistorted, but beyond that they start to look inverted very quickly.  Looking at the screen from an angle from below and off to the side, the picture remains undistorted for up to 40º. However, looking at the screen directly from above or below, we start seeing some distortion as early as 15º.  This EliteBook just can't offer the color stability that an external monitor can.

The fast-spinning hard drive (320GB, 7200 RPM) brings about some high data transfer rates.  The HDD score in PCMark Vantage comes to 4,022 points, a good average for a 7200RPM HDD.  In the HD Tune benchmark (76 MB/s read) and Crystal Disk Mark 3.0 (88 MB/s read), the hard drive shows a good performance.  Those interested in fast access only have one way to go, choosing the (128 GB) SSD configuration (LG746EA). The HDD activity LED is located along the front edge of the base unit and is hard to notice since it's so small.

The Radeon HD 6470M wound up showing an even slower performance than we've come to expect of entry-level GPUs.  What's more, we could not enter the "Details-set-to-High" results in the database of gaming performance because our benchmark resolution of 1366x768 was automatically reduced to only 1280x768. This phenomenon occurred with all WXGA++ displays tested.

Playing Risen, there's absolutely no chance of a smooth frame rate.  The HD 6470M can actually manage 23 fps with moderate detail settings (Vostro 3350, same configuration).  Our 8460p, however, managed only 17 fps.  High details yielded 12 fps (@1280x768)—far too choppy to play.

Playing StarCraft2 didn't result in anything better.  The 153 fps we expected with low detail settings was too much for the HD 6470M (HP 8560p, 2540M, HD 6470M). We only got as high as 135 fps.  Switching to moderate detail settings sends the frame rate plummeting to 21 fps (@1280x768).  In the native resolution of 1600x900, a completely unplayable 12fps is all that's possible.

Throttling During GPU Stress

The ability to lower the clock rate in response to heat is characteristic of a Turbo-Boost-capable Intel processor, and is in itself nothing bad.  The turbo clock rate is automatically reduced when there's not enough cooling power to sustain low enough temperatures.   In the case of our i7-2620M, the maximum turbo clock rate comes to 3.4GHz.

But something went wrong in this review when the CPU clock rate dropped all the way down to 800 MHz (or less).  The i7-2620M did exactly this when the GPU was simultaneously experiencing heavy use (Furmark, Cinebench R11.5 Shading) and CPU stress test (Prime95, all cores).  Once we lower the level of GPU stress, the turbo kicks back in after about 10-15 seconds and the CPU runs at the normal level (usually 3.2 GHz).  Whether Prime95, Wprime, SuperPi or Cinenbech Multi/Single, the dual-core processor always shoots back up to its usual clock rate and is not throttled. 

We picked up on the CPU throttling (during simultaneous GPU stress) on account of the peculiarly low power consumption during the extreme demands of the stress test.  The 40 watts measured (100% CPU & GPU Load!) are less than half of the 87 watts observed when stress-testing the identically-configured Dell Latitude E6520 i7/FHD. 

As the gaming tests and 3D benchmarks show, the GPU is not spared this reduction in performance.  Upon manually preventing the CPU throttling (Throttlestop), the GPU temperature rises nearly to the point of overheating (up to 107ºC) and rather than running at the usual 750 MHz, its clock rate drops to 400 MHz (core).  The scores and frame rate we observed were, however, uncommonly low for the HD 6470M considering they do not require simultaneous CPU stress. 

In short: those looking to squeeze out every last drop of performance the laptop has to offer will be disappointed with the HP 8460p.  Affected by an insufficiently cooled HD 6470M, the CPU has a good deal of its power stripped for the sake of keeping temperatures down.  Those working only with CPU stress (no GPU stress) will not notice any reduction in clock rate whatsoever because it does not occur in that scenario. 

Note: While testing our sample laptop, we repeatedly observed a reduction in clock rates (CPU+GPU, GPU-Solo) due to an overly high GPU temperature.  The update to the Catalyst 8.821.1.0 has since resolved the issue.

The battery life turns out to be a strength of the EliteBook.  Five hours browsing in the internet via wifi or a good four hours watching a DVD—that's pretty respectable even without very powerful performance.  Fully charging the battery takes a short two hours.