The 2740p sets out to challenge the established ultraportable design by altering the display to change it into a tablet entity. The machine fits a powerful performance into its limited body. But to do that succesfully you will need to add another battery and extra weight to have the EliteBook look complete. The system is commendably fast, and quite versatile due to its interchangerble touchscreen. You can trust the machine to serve your mobile needs pretty well. But that is at the cost of a short battery life and display colors that obviously disappoints. The Elitebook 2740p goes for a price of about $1699 -as of 8th may, 2010-, but you will have to dig in another $179 to acquire the extra battery.

The 12.1 inch, 1200 by 800 pixel maximum resolution machine is powered by an intel core i5 M540 processor that works at a robust speed of 2530 MHz. It comes with integrated graphics chipset also from intel. The machine comes equipped with a pre -installed 4GB DDR3 1333 MHz memory. The storage is in the form of a single 250 GB hard disk drive that speeds at 5400 RPM. The other storage facilities in the armour are an SD/ Multimedia Card and an SDHC Card. HP also throughs in an Express Card 54 into the deal.

The pretty robust networking connections come in the form of 10/100/1000 mbps ethernet and 802.11n/b/g Wi -Fi. Your shipment of the EliteBook 2740p will come ensuite three USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire port and VGA video interface jack.

The machine scores an impressive mark of 104 on the WorldBench 6 Test that puts it on the upper echerons in the category of ultraportables. The EliteBook comes with an impressive touchscreen mechanisms that allows you to poke the display with with your finger or stylus, in either tablet or laptop mode. This is predominantly due to the presence of Wacom screen technology features like the aforementioned stylus that comes with an eraser end for fast alterations. The other feature is the 255 levels of pressure sensitive mechanisms. The screen aids two fingers touch simulteniously, allowing you to synchronise and reshape items in supported software.

The machine weighs a total of 3.9 pounds that balloons to a maximum weight of 4.8 pounds when it is fully stuffed with softwares, which is still quite light. It measures a length of 11.4 inches, a depth of 9 inches and a modest height of 1.3 inches. It operates with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Edition, bundled with Microsoft OneNote 2007 software. The EliteBook 2740p comes with in -built microphone and webcam, coupled with a stereo speaker.

The keyboard comes with flat keys that bounce back well, unlike the overly springy keys found in other laptops. The touchpad is pretty nice and quite responsive. You will also get a pointing stick that moves the curser quite well. There is also the added bonus of security mechanism that protects your data from unauthorised use. This is in the form of a Smartcard slot and a fingerprint scanner. There is a LoJack utility that helps in recovering a lost laptop or destroying the data in the lost laptop.