Whilst notebook series aligned for consumers are always getting thinner, flatter and lighter, HP apparently adds a bit to guarantee higher stability. The 14 incher is indeed a massive piece. Its highest part measures 3.1 centimeters. We'll also notice what we are carrying around due to the weight of 2363 grams. It would be wrong to assume that business users aren't looking for the perfect weight. However, the manufacturer has uncompromisingly decided in favor of high-quality and stability. And it's made a home run with it.

The base unit is as solid as a rock and can't be twisted at all, even with force. We can't dent the wrist-rest or base plate anywhere. The lids stiffness is almost sensational. We can only twist it just slightly at the corners. The silver area stays firm up to the end. Of course, we can dent it slightly with a lot of selective pressure. But it's not possible over an area.

The reason for this quality is the selected materials beside the stability. Lid, wrist-rest and the strip above the keys are made of brushed aluminum. Thus, the surfaces feel cool and are very scratch resistant. The manufacturer uses real metal for the hinges, just like in the ProBook. The hinges are fixed tight to the base unit. No tearing or pressing can move them. They keep the lid tight in position (no teetering). We can open the lid single-handedly despite the base unit's heavy weight.

The somewhat seemingly over-sized silver display button is beneficial for single-handed opening. It releases the massive lock (metal) and allows the lid to open itself about half a centimeter. This gap is enough to pull the display open with one hand.

The same applies to the battery: Instead of pressing around on two locks with two fingers, we can simply pull the battery eject and it appears to push itself out of its compartment. A single-handed removal is thus possible.

The Elitebook 8440p's 14 inch (35.6 cm) HD Ready display has a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. The screen (type not identified) has been AR-coated, and is called glare-free by the manufacturer. A comfortable and clearly arranged working with the HD Ready resolution is only possible with massive scaling. Large Excel documents, website backends or company software with fixed dimensions quickly find their limit of clarity at a height of only 768 pixels. The low resolution won't suffice many potential buyers, which is why the manufacturer has a more expensive ProBook alternative (VQ664EA) with HD+/WXGA++ screen (1600 x 900) in its range.

The screen is set-up reasonably for its claim as a desktop notebook. The AR coating might be well and good, but the contrasts of 140:1 with a black value of 1.49 are more than poor. The ICC profile additionally shows a fairly small color space, as in the majority of consumer notebooks. The triangle should cover the color space better. Thus the test device is just as well taboo for professional image editing.

A particularity is the omission of HDMI. There is a display port instead. Users can use external TFTs with up to 2500x1600 pixels with it. Intel's HD graphics integrated into the processor would also allow HDMI, but the manufacturer would have to pay an additional license fee for using HDMI.

System Noise

Apart from the slight hum effect of the 7200 rpm hard disk, all noises emitted from the EliteBook 8440p are within a green field. Anything else would have annoyed us because the massive case has enough elbowroom to cool the "devoid of a graphic card" system. Surfing, writing emails or taking care of Excel lists - all of that takes place in the lowest fan rotation level (31.1 dB(A)). If the active cooling does get louder under low or short load, it turns itself off again almost immediately. The slight hard disk clicking during write and read activity stays within a limit with a barely audible 33 dB(A) and doesn't bother us.

Important: We first had to call up the BIOS and disable the setting AC power: Fan Always On, in order to achieve this pleasant noise level The second step was to set each power mode to passive in the system cooling policy of energy management.

The cooling system turns up to 35.2 dB(A) under constant processor load. This is a very low rate for a strong system with a Core i5 in view of an idle base level of 31.1 dB(A). The fan turns up to 37.5 dB(A) only in a stress situation (Furmark + Prime95 in this case). The fan rotates quietly, but we could hear a scratching noise. This "rustling" is caused by the fast air circulation in the cooling system and is only audible at maximum speed.