The 8740w is a potent laptop that is also easy on the eye. That is a match winning combination that many systems cannot produce. Most machines are all power with no beauty, while others are nice -looking elegant machines with no substance. Not so the Elitebook 8740w, that proves to be both a powerhouse and an eye candy. But the machine does not come cheap as it starts at a tidy $2000, and with custom configuration the machine can set you back, wait for it, $7000.

The 17 incher comes in a matte LCD display with LED backlighting and a maximum resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels. The machine is propelled by a dual -core intel M520 processor that travels at an impressive speed of 2400 MHz. The memory armour is a strong one that comes with a pre -installed 2GB DDR3 memory with a speed of 1333 MHz. The system under review can be configured to a maximum capacity of 16 GB. HP also gives the option of upgrading to an overboard capacity of 32 GB of RAM. It defeats me what someone can be doing with 32 GB memory. The storage chores are undertaken by a single hard disk drive with a total size of 320 GB and a hard drive speed of 7200 RPM. The hard drive is complimented by other facilities, that is, SD Multimedia Card, SDHC Card and an XD -Picture Card. An express card is also in toe.The GPU comes in the form of nVidia QuadroFX 3800M graphics chipset with a 1024 MB graphics memory.

The keyboard is a combination of both regular style and the chiclet -style. The black keys are smooth chiclet -styled, while the bottom of the keys narrows out to produce a connected shape. The keys provides a superb feedback on top of being very efficient to type on. The keyboard comes with a draining system that funnels at the lower end of the machine, which means that spilling liquid on it is not catastrophic. The backlight is somehow a small setback as it allows you to turn off, but does not offer good dim mechanisms. The trackpad trades in the middle, size -wise, its not too tiny and not too big either. It comes ensuite three same -size rubber -like buttons that offers a strange texture, but are easy to operate nevertheless. The ace in the trackpad is the quickness and robust responsiveness.

The marvellous display offers great color rendition. The 1920 by 1200 resolution gives a pretty fair viewing angles. As you apply the angles the colors remain clear and bright, abeit getting a bit darker as you stear either side. The video playback is another big draw for the Elitebook 8740w as the videos stream with relative ease, though it suffers slightly when the class is scaled up to high -definition videos, more so at full screen.