HP ProBook, EliteBook Notebooks Refreshed HP Adding Core i7, USB 3.0

Last week HP introduced six new notebooks aimed at the professional
market. The ProBook and EliteBook aren't any sort of netbook or
ultraportable – instead, they're good old fashioned full-sized,
fully powered notebooks for the business market.
The first thing you'll notice is the new look of the notebooks.
Enterprise notebooks are sometimes known has being rather bland looking
(cough, Dell, cough, Lenovo), but HP has given these notebooks a stylish
new look. The notebook has a magnesium-alloy chassis with a
anodized-aluminum finish. HP's press release brags that the new
notebooks are incredibly strong and that the noteb
ooks can withstand rigorous usage .
HP responded to customer requests, and one of the six new models, the HP
EliteBook 8440W, is a smaller, 14-inch model. HP apparently received
customer requests for a smaller mobile workstation notebook. HP doesn't
explicitly give stats for all six models, but says that customers will
be able to custom order their notebooks in several areas.
Customers will be able to choice between Intel on-board graphics or
NVIDIA internal graphics cards. In an odd choice of wording, HP says
that new notebook buyers will have a choice between an Intel Core i7
processor or a future Intel Core processor. It's not clear if they
meant Core i3 or if they have inside knowledge on a new Core i9 or
something of that nature.
The notebooks will come with some bundled software, like HP SkyRoom, a
video conferencing program that works with the notebook's webcam.
They'll likely come all with some flavor of Windows 7. The notebooks
will start shipping in February to the United States, with pricing
starting at $1,100.