HP has long made a name for itself as a provider of business laptops, which have been used by a number of businesses worldwide. This week, the Palo Alto company announced several business laptops that are designed to fit the needs of any business user or IT budget.

The fleet of HP laptops include the company’s ProBook series of business machines as well as its EliteBook series that offer customers HP’s Ultrabook experience without compromising durability, mobility and security.

ELITEBOOK 800 SERIES

The HP EliteBook 800 series is composed of three models – the 820, 840 and 850, all of which are compliant with the military’s MIL-SPEC-810G standards for ruggedness but are said to be thinner and lighter than their predecessors.

All three models feature magnesium lids, multiple coats of paint to minimize scratches and aluminium backlit keyboard decks that have a special coating that keep the buttons intact even after three years.

The HP EliteBook 820 sports a 12-inch diagonal display and weighs less than 3 lbs. The EliteBook 840 and 850 on the other hand packs 14-inch and 15.6-inch screens respectively. The EliteBook 840 comes with an optional touch display optimized for Windows 8 as well as a secondary Slice battery that adds a whopping 33 hours to its battery life.

The three EliteBook models feature Intel’s Haswell chips and come equipped with an LTE radio, SSD/HDD/Hybrid hard drive and a removable back shell that makes it easy to swap out components. HP is also adding its Sure Start technology and Sure Start Crisis Recovery feature for protection in case of malware attacks or corruption of BIOS.

PROBOOK 600 SERIES

One notch down from the EliteBooks are HP’s ProBook series, starting off with the ProBook 600 series, which is composed of four models: The ProBook 640, 650, 645 and 655. The 640 and 645 both have 14-inch displays with the ProBook 645 running on AMD’s 35W quad-core or dual-core APU while the 640 packs a fourth generation Intel Core processors.

The 650 and 655 on the other hand both feature 15.6-inch displays. The 650 offers crystal clear DTS Sounds while the 655 delivers great visual performance with Full HD options and an AMD Radeon HD 8000G series graphics.

PROBOOK 400 SERIES

Last but certainly not the least is the company’s ProBook 400 series, which now includes the ProbBook 400, 450 and 470. All three models will be powered by Intel’s 4^th generation Core processors from i3 to i7. The 450 even features an optional touch interface on a premium shatter-, reflection-, smude- and scratch resistant screen.

The ProBook 400 on the other hand is designed with an attractive meteorite grey chassis with  a soft touch finish and all-metal keyboard deck. The series also comes equipped with an SSD drive, optional 4G LTE, HSPA+ WWAN, Skype and DTS Sound+.

PRICING and AVAILABILITY

The HP EliteBook 800 series is now available states side starting at $799. Meanwhile, the HP ProBook 640, 645 and 650 are expected to arrive in the US by November 18, while the ProBook 655 is scheduled to hit US stores by November 25. Members of the ProBook 600 series will be priced starting at $699. Lastly, the HP ProBook 400 series is now available in the US with prices starting at $499.

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Lenovo has recently launched a number of new ThinkPad notebooks this week that promises extended battery life of up to 17 hours. The new ThinkPad models come from the X, T and S series and are intended for people and businesses looking for mobility and performance.

All models are equipped with 4^th generation Intel Core processors and Lenovo’s new Power Bridge technology that allows users to “hot swap” external batteries without powering down their PC. This feature is currently available with the ThinkPad 68, 68+ and 48Wh batteries and provides flexibility and maximum battery life in nearly any situation.

The new ThinkPad Ultrabooks also come with a number of sensors that monitor the system, including a G-sensor to detect shock, thermal sensors to detect and manage heat, voltage sensors to control current and critical voltage sensors to protect key components. There’s also a hardware-based biometric fingerprint security and tamper system that can be linked to the Trusted Platform Module to keep all data protected.

The ThinkPad T440s and T440 offers up to 1TB of storage or high-speed SSD. Its 21mm thin and are designed to provide maximum portability with exceptional battery life. Full HD touch enabled display comes standard with the T440s while it’s an option when it comes to the T440.

On the other hand, the ThinkPad X240 is designed for serious business and extreme mobility. It is 20.3mm thin and weighs less than a pound, yet it features the latest Intel Core processors and offers consumers with up to 1TB of storage. The X240 packs a 12.5-inch Full HD display with option with touch and is complemented by a Precision backlit keyboard and the ability to go “dongle-free”, thanks to a complete set of ports for full connectivity.

For small businesses on the go, Lenovo’s ThinkPad S line can be a great choice. The ThinkPad S440 and S540 provide a premium look and feel with bevelled edges to give the impression of a floating PC. Again, it features the latest generation Intel Core processors and sports a Full HD anti-glare touch displays and discrete graphics.

The ThinkPad T440s, T440 and X240 will be available starting October for the price of $1149, $899 and $1099 respectively. The ThinkPad S440 on the other hand will be available this month at a suggested retail price of $923 while the ThinkPad S540 will be available next month for an estimated $857.

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The gaming arm of Asus – Republic of Gamers (ROG) announced this week its newest gaming desktop PC with the latest-generation Intel Core processor and one-click, no-reboot-required, all-core processor overclocking – the Tytan G70.

The PC features a one-click Turbo Gear overclocking that allows gamers to make the most of the Core i7-4770k processor without the need to reboot. Asus’s Turbo Gear technology provides simultaneous four-core CPU overclocking to push the Tytan G70’s clock speed from the standard 3.7GHZ to two stable levels – 3.9GHz and 4.1GHz respectively.

The G70 also features the latest Nvidia GeForce GTX780 graphics card that has the capacity to deliver smooth gameplay at the highest in-game graphics settings and can support up to four displays, as well as the option to game in 3D with its Nvidia 3D Vision Surround.

Pop-out mechanism in Tytan CG8890

Moreover, the Tytan G70 comes equipped with a 10-way venting design that takes advantage of its 10 cooling fans, which pop-up with the top and side panels of the case in a manner fit for a sci-fiction movie. This system of fans can be integrated with a liquid cooling system to provide effective thermal management, which is most useful for long hours of gameplay as well as prolong component life span. 

In terms of audio performance, the Tytan G70 features Asus’s SonicMaster technology with MaxxAudio from Waves. It also comes with an Asus-exclusive AudioWizard interface that allows users to customize audio settings according to their needs. Lastly, the G70 also comes with a wireless charger for cable-free charging of smartphones and tablets that is compliant with the Qi inductive power standard.

Expand Full Specifications

• Operating system: Windows 8 (64-bit)
• Processor: 4th generation Intel Core i5 / i7
• Chipset: Intel Z87
• Graphics: Up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (3GB GDDR5)
• Memory: 4GB (32GB max) dual-channel DDR3 (1600MHz)
• Expansion slots: 1 x PCI-e x 16, 1 x PCI-e x 1, 1 x PCI-e x 8 (shared with x16), 1 x PCI-e x 4
• Storage: Up to 15TB (5 x 3TB) SATA 6Gbit/s hard drive (7200RPM), Up to 256G SATA 6Gbit/s SSD
• Drive bays: 3 x 5.25-inch, 5 x 3.5-inch
• Optical drive: Super-multi DVD burner / Blu-ray combo / Blu-ray writer
• Audio
• 7.1 channel with ASUS SonicMaster technology
• Xonar Phoebus sound card (optional)
• Connectivity
• 6 x SATA 6.0Gbit/s
• 4 x USB 2.0, 6 x USB 3.0
• HDMI-Out, DVI-D, DisplayPort, VGA D-sub
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 3.5mm headphone, 3.5mm microphone, 3.5mm 7.1 audio-out, S/PDIF-out
• PS/2 mouse/keyboard
• 16-in-1 memory card reader
• Power supply: 500W / 700W
• Size: 300 x 530 x 630mm
• Weight: 24kg

The Asus ROG Tytan G70 is now available worldwide with pricing to be announced shortly.

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Intel announced this week a limited run of its new Haswell chip that promises lower energy consumption, which will potentially allow the chip to operate without a fan.

Given these abilities, manufacturers will be able to fit such chips into extremely thin devices such as tablets, smartphones and laptops. The chip also runs at a “Scenario Design Point” (SDP) of just 4.5 watts. This means that the chip only requires 4.5 watts of electricity to function properly under normal circumstances. Furthermore, the reduced power consumption also reduces the heat generated, which will in turn let the chip use only passive cooling.

According to Intel, the new Haswell chip can still perform albeit lower power consumption and actually boost speed higher for short periods to improve performance. At the same time, manufacturers can also limit the processor to allow it to fit in even smaller devices.

The fan-less processor was first mentioned during Intel’s presentation during this year’s COMPUTEX in Taipei, Taiwan a few weeks ago and according to rumours, the first wave of fan-less Intel Haswell processors may debut later this year.

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