HP EliteBook 2540p Rugged Ultraportable Hands-On

HP have announced their lightest EliteBook ultraportable yet, the HP EliteBook 2540p, and while it may only tip the scales at 3.3lbs it's still got the same MIL-STD 810G vibration, dust, humidity, altitude and temperature resilience of the 2740p tablet.  Like its swivel-screen sibling, the EliteBook 2540p has a choice of Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors along with up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and various HDD/SSD storage options.  Check out more details plus some hands-on first impressions after the cut.

The 2540p is built around a 12.1-inch 1366 x 768 LED-backlit display, and has an optional 2-megapixel webcam, fingerprint scanner and Gobi EVDO/HSPA integrated 3G.  Other connectivity includes a handful of USB 2.0 ports, VGA, gigabit ethernet, ExpressCard/34, a memory card reader and audio in/out, while wireless ranges from standard WiFi b/g through optional a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

As for battery life, HP reckon users will see up to 4hrs from the lightweight 3-cell pack, up to 8hrs from the 6-cell or up to 10.5hrs from the 9-cell.  There's also HP Fast Charge, which promises to get your battery to 90-percent within 90 minutes (assuming the 2540p is switched off, mind).  The distinctive keyboard is paired with both a trackpad and a trackpoint stick.

Hands-on, the EliteBook 2540p obviously doesn't feel as flexible as its tablet sibling, but it's a reassuringly solid machine.  HP were obviously demonstrating a reasonably-specified model, which whipped through Windows 7 with no issues.  HP expect the EliteBook 2540p to go on sale in April 2010, priced from $1,099.

HP EliteBook 2540p rugged ultraportable hands-on

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