HP EliteBook 2560p Review

The HP EliteBook 2560p is what HP calls its "pint-sized powerhouse." This business laptop is billed as a travel companion with exceptional build quality, a slim form factor, and a weight of just 3.6 pounds. But can this 12.5-inch durable business notebook perform when you're away from the office? Read our full review to find out more about HP's smallest and lightest EliteBook.



Build and Design
The 12.5-inch 2560p was designed for the traveling business professional in mind as it is the smallest and lightest in the EliteBook family of notebooks and because it's built with HP's DuraCase technology. Meaning, this notebook is supposed to hold up against bangs, scratches, bumps, and falls--and prevent things such as display cracks, broken hinges, and hard drive data loss.

The chassis has a hard magnesium alloy as a sturdy support structure and is made to protect the top and bottom of the notebook against the elements. The display is layered in magnesium and then covered in an anodized aluminum sheet. HP points out that this construction is "50 percent stronger than magnesium alone." The palmrests are brushed with an aluminum finish that helps prevent against scratches, and the display's hinges are made of metal alloy with steel pin axels. HP has tested the hinges withstanding power, stating that the notebook can be opened and closed ten times every day for a total of six years or 25,000 cycles. It's quite impressive that the notebook still weighs in at 3.68 pounds with all of this added material and layering.

When pressing down in the middle of the keyboard, the notebook does not flex under pressure; nor do the palmrests. The display lid is similarly firm even though the outside screen surrounds are plastic. The entire bottom outside casing is also plastic but doesn't feel poorly constructed.


The design hasn't changed much from last year--it's still covered in black and silver accents and carries a very professional look without being bland. Simply put, the silver against black color scheme creates a nice contrast without being too outlandish. The surfaces are also smooth and feel great.

Overall, the build is exceptional and strong and the design is pleasing to the eyes. I have confidence that it will withstand years of bumps, bruises and the occasional mishap. Speaking of mishaps, the 2560p has a shock-mounted hard drive (to help prevent data loss in the event of a drop) and the keyboard is spill resistant. Really, there isn't much at all to complain about, but perhaps some users would be slightly put off or concerned that the battery sticks out from the backside. But, this is surely one of the best built and attractively designed 12-inch notebook I've come across.

Ports and Features
As we point out in our first look of the newer HP notebooks, the 2560p is the only notebook in the market with an integrated optical drive in this smaller 12.5-inch form factor. Our review model didn't come equipped with one, but users have the option of adding a DVD+/-RW SuperMulti or a DVD-ROM optical drive. The port selection the notebook is quite extensive. Since this is meant to be primarily a travel/business notebook, it doesn't have HDMI. It also doesn't have USB 3.0 even though given its cost, it should have. What it does have is three USB 2.0 ports in total (one for charging mobile devices), a Smart Card reader, ExpressCard/34, SD/MMC, DisplayPort, eSATA, and a lock slot.

Front: three speaker grilles	Back: VGA, USB 2.0 x2 (one for charging mobile devices)
Left: a/c power, Ethernet, Smart Card reader	Right: ExpressCard/34, SD/MMC combo, headphones jack, DisplayPort, eSATA/USB 2.0 combo, dock connector, exhaust vent, lock slot

Screen and Speakers
The HP EliteBook 2560p has a 12.5-inch HD anti-glare 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting. There aren't any upgrade options for the display. The display is of a lower resolution, but then again not many people will be photo/video editing or extensive work where a better resolution is needed while away from the desk, so the lower resolution shouldn't be a determining factor.

Head-on at full brightness, the details of the display appear good enough for getting regular work tasks done. The horizontal viewing angles aren't that good, however, and start to distort images about 5-10 degrees off-center. The vertical viewing angles are much better; images don't begin to distort until about 25 degrees off center.

The contrast ratio is average to low--we measured it at 196:1 with a peak luminance of 149 nits in the center. This notebook displays acceptable color contrast for what it will primarily be used for.




The 2560p has three speaker grilles, located on the front of the notebook. The audio is above average for a notebook of this size with a good range of volume at the high, middle and low levels. At a high volume the 2560p should be able to project audio out adequately for a presentation or training. At high levels the audio still sounds clear without sounding muffled or distorted.

Although, we had a few problems with the the location of the speakers. When the speakers are set on the front edge of the notebook instead of near the top of the keyboard, sound doesn't reach the ears as well because the audio doesn't project outward as it should. The placement also allowed me to feel the audio being played on the palmrests at higher volume levels. It's extremely distracting to feel the vibrations of the speakers when audio is playing; even in the middle volume range the speakers create subtle but noticeable vibrations through the palmrests.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The HP EliteBook 2560p has a Chiclet-style keyboard with extra spacing between the keys to help with key flow and travel. The keys are flat and have a textured feel to them. Key travel and throw are excellent; it's generally very easy to type with and is a quite comfortable experience. The support structure in the chassis prevents the keyboard from flexing under heavy typing pressure.

There are many keyboard features included with the 2560p. The first is a keyboard light located above the display; click the lightbulb button once to open it for use in dark rooms where there either isn't any light available or in situations where you don't want to bother the person next to you. It's small, but it is bright enough to lend a hand in dark places. Other features include a pointstick in the center of the keyboard, Wi-Fi, browser launch and mute quick keys in the upper-right, and a fingerprint reader on the bottom-right.
The only complaint I have about the keyboard is that the page up, page down, end, and home keys are set on the up/down and left/right arrows. Users must press the function key to use them, which may be a turn-off for frequent users of them.

The Synaptics touchpad is quite small--meaning if you want to move the cursor from one end of the screen to the other, it'll take more time than it usually does (even if the pointer speed is set to very fast). The surface of the touchpad is very smooth and creates an enjoyable experience that will still be enjoyable even when there's moisture on your fingers. The size of the touchpad is an issue, but if you turn the pointer speed up it shouldn't be a big issue. That being said, the touchpad is above average for notebooks of this size because of its texture; it improves its ease of use.



Our HP EliteBook 2560p has the following specifications:

• 12.5-inch HD anti-glare 720p (1366x768) with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
• Intel Core i5-2410M dual-core processor (2.3GHz, up to 2.9GHz Turbo Boost, 3 MB L3 cache)
• Intel QM67 chipset
• Integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000
• 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM
• 320GB Toshiba 7200rpm hard drive (MK3261GSYN)
• Broadcom 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n WiFi adapter, gigabit Ethernet 
• Bluetooth 2.1
• HP HD webcam
• 6-cell Li-ion battery (62Whr)
• Fingerprint reader
• Weight: 3.68
• Dimensions: 12.02 x 8.23 x 1.08 inches
• 1-year limited warranty
• Price as configured: $1,819 

The HP EliteBook 2560p currently starts at $1,485 for a more standard configuration. Although our model comes equipped with a Intel Core i5-2410M dual-core processor, users have the choice of selecting the Intel Core i7-2620M dual-core processor (2.7GHz clock speed/3.4 maximum Turbo Boost) for an extra $100. Other options include up to 8GB DDR3 RAM at 1333MHz, up to 500GB of hard drive storage space at 7200rpm or a 256GB capacity solid state drive. The only graphics option available is the Intel HD Graphics 3000.

Performance and Benchmarks
Our HP EliteBook 2560p review unit has an Intel Core i5-2410M dual-core processor (2.3GHz, up to 2.9GHz Turbo Boost, 3 MB L3 cache), an integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics card and 4GB DDR3 RAM at 1333MHz. System performance is very good, especially for a notebook in this form factor.
Its performance is better than last year's 12-inch HP EliteBook 2540p, especially in graphics performance, even though the card is almost a standard in today's mainstream notebooks. The 2560p will be more than capable of handling multi-tasking, work tasks such as photo/video editing and word processing. The system can also play video well as long as it's not on a high graphical setting or on 1080p (graphics simply couldn't play on 1080p, but we fine on 720p). The 320GB Toshiba hard drive with a 7200rpm rotational speed is fast, too, and reached just over 110MB/s at its peak.
wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark Vantage is a newer benchmark which measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:





Heat and Noise
The 2560p was able to stay very cool even when the hardware was under pressure. The highest exterior temperature reading we took was 94 degrees Fahrenheit in the upper-left corner and the lowest temperature was 81 degrees. The palmrests stayed very cool as well, around the mid-80's. There was virtually no noise to be heard from the notebook, surprisingly, even when playing an HD movie.


Battery Life
The 2560p provided great battery life during our standard life test. Our review notebook has a 6-cell 62Whr Li-ion battery, and users have the choice of adding the 9-cell 100Whr instead when customizing for even better battery life. During our tests we set the screen brightness down to 70%, turn the Wi-Fi on active (refreshing a web page every 60 seconds) and set to Windows 7 to the balanced power profile. The notebook stayed powered on for 7 hours and 45 minutes.
Battery life test results (higher scores mean better battery life):

Conclusion
The HP EliteBook 2560p is a good choice for business professionals on the go. The second-generation Intel Core i5-2410M dual-core processor and 4GB of system memory makes multi-tasking a breeze and users will be able to do any amount of work tasks with the system. Another reason this notebook will be able to perform on the go is that it was able to provide 7 hours and 45 minutes of battery life.
The build quality is exceptional--HP's DuraCase with a layered magnesium alloy chassis as a support structure will put users at ease when traveling. It's the kind of build that will hold up for years; this notebook most likely won't need any structural repairs for a very long time. You get what you pay for, though, and the $1400-1900 price point shows it. The 2560p also has a comfortable keyboard with great key travel and flow, but the touchpad is a little on the small side and prove to be an annoyance. Also on the downside, the system doesn't have USB 3.0 for faster flash performance, and when the audio is raised to higher volume levels users will be able to feel the vibrations through the palmrests.
Pros:

• Amazing build quality (HP DuraCase/DuraFinish)
• Almost 8 hours of battery life
• Good performance
• Great deal of business features

Cons:

• No USB 3.0
• Can "feel" audio playing on palmrests
• Expensive as configured

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 

* Ratings averaged to produce final score


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