HP 2730p review – Part 1

Hi, my name is Nicholas Rayner and the guys at Gadget Access have given me a
chance to guest blog about my experiences with the HP 2730p Elitebook Tablet PC.
I’ve now had the HP 2730p for nearly 2 months now and have had a good chance to
experiment with it by upgrading the hardware, installing 64-bit Vista and then
64-bit Windows 7…..then going back to Windows Vista (more on that soon) and then
going back to Windows 7 (another story!).

The HP 2730p Elitebook is a fantastic device and builds on HP’s earlier Tablet
PC the 2710p. The 2730p includes the obvious hardware upgrades such as faster
CPUs (up to 1.86GHz), increased memory support (up to 8GB!!!), Gobi mobile
internet chip. But it also contains some smaller modifications that are major
improvements such as:

•Pen Housing: on the 2710p the pen constantly fell out of the device and many
users became frustrated having to buy replacement pens. The 2730p introduces a
new 2 step removal process, push to unlock and then pull out to remove. If the
pun is pushed (and therefore poking out slightly) then you will not be able to
remove the pen until you pull it out, even if you shake it!

•Scroll wheel: There is now a scroll wheel on the right hand side of the device
when in slate mode (or left, depending on your orientation preference). This
works really well for reading rss feeds or long documents.

•Alt-Ctrl-Del button: I like the addition of these buttons as my laptop is
joined to a domain and need to use this all the time for logging in. I’m not
sure if this was included on the 2710p or not, but it’s a great addition to any
laptop.

•Easy access buttons (not sure if this is the correct term): HP have added
Volume control and a Presenter button above the functions keys on the top right
of the keyboard. This is great to easily change the volume or launch into
Presenter mode for connecting of a data projector, TV or a 2nd monitor

Before I go on, lets recap the specs of this device and included
accessories:

Ok, so when the device arrive, I quickly unpacked and booted the device while I
look through the accessories (so amazed that a docking station came with the
device, great work HP!!) I was completely shocked when all of a sudden I was
faced with a Windows XP Screen!! Apparently HP shipped some early 2730p’s with
XP and Vista upgrade discs.

So seeing as though HP were kind enough to include a docking station, I powered
down the 2730p and started the Vista install, 35 mins later and I was now
installing the device drivers and some of the included applications (HP Quick
Buttons, Roxio etc). After installing Windows Updates the install process took
around 90mins, which is a great result and much better than I've experienced
with any other restore DVDs (apart from those restoring an image from a recovery
partition.)

Stay tuned for the next part of my review

Links:

HP 2730p Elitebook Tablet PC

Press Digital – recommended retailer

My blog

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Filed Under: Mobile Computing • Product Reviews