Miss the old ThinkPads? Consider an Elitebook

[Djdjdjdj]

Keeping slim tip? c'mon...

[WillemB]

I am going to replace my Thinkpad X240 the coming months, after using it for 6 years its time to upgrade. When it was new I could use it for 1 hours on one charge, now this has been reduced to 4, still not bad for a 6 year old battery. Also I would like some more performance.

I was looking at the new Thinkpads and when I saw the title of this article I decided to check it out, maybe I should go for an Elitebook instead.
I am not happy with the current laptop trend where they tend to flatten everything to stupid thin models that loose connectivity, heatsinks and battery capacity.

However what this article did was confirm my initial idea to go for a Thinkpad. The article makes it clear that the new Elitebook line is reasonably comparable to the new Thinkpad line but with lower performance and battery life.

So though Lenovo has been cutting Thinkpad features that we love (due to the great flattening, first initiated by the Macbook Air from the evil fruit company) switching to a HP does not help at all, it is just a lower performing alternative with very little real advantages.

[WillemB]

wanted to type 12 hours, missed the 2 though

[Alin]

I am sorry, but this is a non-argument.

[Joschn]

Uhm, Elitebooks do have drain holes... That's something pretty standard in many business laptops.

nope. i have work issued elite book 840 g6 and 755 g5, neither has any drain holes. please check the manual if u don't believe me.

I have one right beside me (ok, it's an 830 g6) and it sure does have them.
And yeah, it's right there in the manual (emphasis mine):

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06358101

HP Collaboration Keyboard
● Dual point, non-backlit, spill resistant with drain
● Dual point, backlit, spill resistant with drain, with HP Dura Keys, supports ALS

That said, the layout of the HP keyboard is a dealbreaker for me. No dedicated Home/Ins/PgUp/PgDn, instead there's three dedicated videochat buttons you can't even reconfigure! What were they thinking!

[Never at]

From the information provided I see nothing special about this non think pad product. The port selection, out of factory performance, design, keyboard are simply superior. Sure it's changed to get closer to a modern ultrabook but that doesn't mean it's as simp as some other business laptop offering. I especially don't understand the point of the writer when it comes to charging option. Both "slim tip" and "barrel plug" are useless standards when it comes to low power laptops. With usb c accepting up to 100W you can use a decent smart phone charger with these ultrabooks. Borrowing charger becomes simple. The fact that the thinkpad offers 2 thunderbolt 3 makes charging possible while using another usbc device. How is that ever a downside?

Lenovo customer support is very adequate in North America. If Lenono does not continue on this path to throw away these good quantities, think pad line will continue to dominate other brands business laptop segments.

[A]

Uhm, Elitebooks do have drain holes... That's something pretty standard in many business laptops.

nope. i have work issued elite book 840 g6 and 755 g5, neither has any drain holes. please check the manual if u don't believe me.

840g manual for keyboard:

Keyboard
HP Collaboration Keyboard
● Dual point, non-backlit, spill resistant with drain
● Dual point, backlit, spill resistant with drain, with HP Dura Keys, supports ALS
● Dual point, backlit, spill resistant with drain, with HP Dura Keys, supports ALS Privacy

Unless your work somehow found ones that aren't... they are definitely there...

I have an older zbook which is same design as the elitebook and it has drain holes I can clearly see. Looking at pictures of 840g I see drain holes too.

Nope... as an user of both new Thinkpads and Elitebooks I have to say HP is still as s*** as always. No serviceability, replacement parts are hard to get, bloated as f... and loud.

What? HP sucks, don't get me wrong but their elitebooks are pretty darn good, especially in serviceability. I've seen few laptops as servicable as these. Of course newer models are less servicable than older one but they still score a perfect score in ifixit.

I also had no problem finding common parts after warranty was out. I replaced my keyboard for example with a generic from ebay.

If there is anything bad about elitebooks, its the high prices.

That said, the layout of the HP keyboard is a dealbreaker for me. No dedicated Home/Ins/PgUp/PgDn, instead there's three dedicated videochat buttons you can't even reconfigure! What were they thinking!

I suggest going for at least the 840 model, it has those buttons just fine. I like the HP layout on the 840s way more than the thinkpad one.

[Brian Cody]

This whole articles premise is flawed, as the Lenovo X1 line of ThinkPads are not even considered here.  They are their top of the line models and are superior in so many ways.  PLUS, new models are on their way in a month, this article refers to models that have been out over a year.

[Joschn]

I suggest going for at least the 840 model, it has those buttons just fine. I like the HP layout on the 840s way more than the thinkpad one.

Damn, you're right...never realized that - now that's a useful layout.

Too bad company only offers 830s or 850s (with its - at least for me - useless keypad and thus cramped, asymmetric layout) :(

[7x22]

Compare that to the simple repair of just unplugging and installing a new barrel and the benefits become clear.

The barrel jack on the elitebook 840 is soldered to the motherboard.

What a joke of an article.

[A]

Compare that to the simple repair of just unplugging and installing a new barrel and the benefits become clear.

The barrel jack on the elitebook 840 is soldered to the motherboard.

Correct, not to mention if you look at the other USB port that is on the left side, it has a small daughter board with a single USB. If a manufacturer wanted to make it easily serviceable without soldering, they can do the same for the USB-C port. So the whole notion of saying there is any advantage to barrels is silly.

For any laptop 100W or below, you are better off with 2 USB-C charge ports.

Though you technically aren't even limited to 100W. That is simply the specifications. A manufacturer can always go above those specs if they include slightly thicker cables. Just like the Dell XPS which had a 130W USB-C charger.

[S.Yu]

I use two types of magnetic cables too but I'm not aware of 100W PD cables, maybe they no longer transmit data?

They do, both data and power. Though not all of them would say support thunderbolt 3, so you gotta pay attention to the amount of pins. Full USB would be 20 pin, Thunderbolt would be 24 pin.

Also, I should add it might make sense to get a 100W USB-PD magnetic adapter over a whole cable. As those can often times be cheaper and you can reuse the USB-C cable/charger that came with the laptop rather then letting it collect dust.

Very interesting, from the sound of it that adapter is a female C on one side and male C on the other, with magnetic attachment in between, I've never seen such a product before.

[Austin]

You ThinkPad fanboys are outrageous. This is a well written and unbiased article, with multiple thought out viewpoints. I use an EliteBook 840 G5, it's phenomenal, and looks much better compared to the over-sized and clunky look of the Thinkpad.

[Loki Rautio]

Correct, not to mention if you look at the other USB port that is on the left side, it has a small daughter board with a single USB. If a manufacturer wanted to make it easily serviceable without soldering, they can do the same for the USB-C port. So the whole notion of saying there is any advantage to barrels is silly.

For any laptop 100W or below, you are better off with 2 USB-C charge ports.

Though you technically aren't even limited to 100W. That is simply the specifications. A manufacturer can always go above those specs if they include slightly thicker cables. Just like the Dell XPS which had a 130W USB-C charger.

Hi,

Yeah, it's true that you can put USB-C on a cable (and I believe I even mention this in the article). My point is that it's not terribly common, and in this case the EliteBook doesn't do that. Plus, someone mentioned (and you noticed) that the barrel was soldered, so yeah I'd agree there's little benefit to it regarding repairability.

Thing is, USB-PD is fairly more complicated electrically than just taking a standard DC power plug. Things can go wrong much more easily with that opposed to just a standard charging circuit to a charging rail.

USB-PD is great (I love it, I can charge my phone with my laptop charger), but until more companies start putting their cables on daughter boards, I'm not going to be the biggest fan of it.

[Loki Rautio]

Very interesting, from the sound of it that adapter is a female C on one side and male C on the other, with magnetic attachment in between, I've never seen such a product before.

I've used one of those 20-pin magnetic USB-C connectors before. They're pretty great (the 5 pin ones just break) and definitely reduce the amount of wear on the USB-C port. They tend to be pretty generic junk though, so don't be surprised if chunks of the plastic break off over time haha.