Maybe it is because I am a child of the Eighties, but there is something ever so appealing about angular gadgets with a brushed-steel look, and this solid yet stylish-looking EliteBook notebook from HP makes me want to run away to Wall Street with it tucked under my arm.
The EliteBook is a power dresser of a notebook, but it also has power under the hood – the battery life is designed to last up to 24 hours, but only if you buy a special optimised battery separate to the standard one that is included.
I didn’t get an exact time on battery life myself – I powered it up fully, opened five or six applications and forgot to check back until the next day, but it seemed fine and in no way near dying. Obviously it went into power-save mode, but previous notebooks I’ve tested would have run out of juice at this point.
As you can guess from the name and design, this is very much a businessperson’s laptop, and it has some good features to complement this – the hard drive is self-encrypting, and it has a fingerprint scanner for secure log-in.
In fact, in functionality and angular design, this EliteBook wouldn’t look out of place in a line-up with Lenovo’s ThinkPad range.
There are some little extras that make it ideal for business travelling – it has a little pop-out light above the screen for darkly-lit conditions such as overnight flights, and the hinges are very flexible – the notebook can rest at 180 degrees.
The screen is supposed to have a special anti-glare finish that renders it easy to read in all lighting, but I found it a tad duller than what I was used to, even after adjustment. It is true that there is no glare, but the matte finish would make me think that gamers would be best to go for another notebook – video games usually look a little better with a gloss-finish monitor.
Having said that, this little laptop is a thing of beauty, and very powerful and secure – expensive, but worth it if you want a serious business machine.
The HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook PC RRP is €1189 excluding VAT.
By Marie Boran
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