HP has provided a docking solution specifically for the 2540p, unlike the larger EliteBooks and ProBooks. The VU895AA (from €130) is not compatible with other HP business notebooks. While the 14- and 15-inch laptops have their docking port on the bottom of the base unit (HP NZ223AA Advanced Docking Station), the docking connector for this laptop is attached on the right-hand side.

The station contains almost all the same ports that the 2540p has (port replication). In addition you get an eSATA port and four more USB 2.0 ports (one powered USB). The laptop also charges when it is in the docking station. The ethernet port is connected through the docking station (pass-through). This prevents issues with duplicated network cards.

GPS - where’s my notebook?

As well as WLAN draft-N (Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 AGN), the 2540p has practically every wireless technology that you could wish for in a notebook (though it varies depending on the model). Bluetooth 2.1 is a fairly pedestrian addition these days; it starts to get interesting with the HP mobile broadband module (mini PCI Express), which has GPS capability using Gobi.

Gobi is a Qualcomm technology which provides the notebook with GPS functions together with a 3G module. The Gobi2000 module supports A-GPS (assisted GPS) and gpsOneXTRA (determining your location when A-GPS is not available). After the Sony Vaio P series, HP was one of the first manufacturers to include GPS technology in its notebooks using Gobi.

The GPS receiver allows you to access location-based services such as navigation or geofencing. Provided you have the appropriate software - since nothing of the sort is pre-installed on the HP 2540p. So our enjoyment of the GPS technology was confined to activating our T-Mobile UMTS connection via HP’s Connection Manager and then seeing our location data appear by clicking on GPS. Because A-GPS taps into the UMTS signal to determine your position, it also works indoors. A standard navigational device won’t work without a direct line of sight to a satellite. We see potential uses for this particularly in the professional arena, where it would be useful to send location-based data to or from the notebook.

Keyboard

The keys give crisp tactile feedback but only depress to a medium depth (about 2 mm). The arrow keys are clearly separated from the rest of the keyboard, and stick out slightly from the bottom right-hand corner. They are very easy to locate without looking. A separate number pad is out of the question due to the size of the notebook, but helpfully users can turn on an integrated number block using function keys. The numbers and operators are clearly marked next to the letters on the keys.

The base of the keyboard is firmly mounted, giving the user a firm point of impact at the end of their keystroke, although it is not as hard as on the EliteBook 8440p. The keys have a pleasant non-slip feel to them, and appear to be very slightly rubberized. They do not pick up fingerprints.

Touchpad

HP has included two options here, to cater to their professional audience. Depending on your preference you can either use the conventional touchpad or the point-stick (Synaptics TouchStyk v2.0). The two point-stick keys sit below the space bar. All of the mouse buttons are made of hard rubber and because of this are as soft as they are matt. The buttons have a very clear stroke depth and give light, sustained feedback.

These mouse buttons are convincing in every way. The sustained feedback and the fact that they work extremely quietly (especially the point-stick keys) puts them miles ahead of what you find on the majority of consumer notebooks.

The Synaptics touchpad v7.4 is not particularly large, with a diagonal of 7.6 cm. But it is sensitive right up to its edges. The pad has vertical and horizontal scroll bar areas, although only the vertical one is marked, and only the vertical one is activated in the laptop’s initial state.

Synaptics pads are generally multi-touch pads. However these functions (pinch zoom, multi-finger gestures, etc) are not available initially. The options are visible in the pad’s settings window, and first need to be activated using the Quick Launch buttons.

Does the notebook’s matt screen make it ideal for outdoor use? An anti-reflection screen coating is the first and most important prerequisite for working comfortably in daylight. However we positioned the 2540p, no reflections appeared. But the mediocre maximum brightness of 195 cd/m² is too low for it to win much praise from us. The photos below show the screen outside on a slightly overcast day. With a face-on view the brightness is sufficient, but from the side the picture darkens. If the direct sunlight grows more intense, the screen gets too dark to work with.

A good range of viewing angles is the sign of a high-quality screen, allowing you to look at it from the side without immediately losing brightness and colour. The 2540p is no more than average in this respect. The 12.1-inch subnotebook has the same limited range of viewing angles that we see on around 80% of machines that we review - poor vertically, acceptable horizontally.

Anyone looking at the screen from the side or from above will see heavily inverted colours and a darkened picture. Horizontally the colours are clear only for about 45°. After that they invert noticeably and the brightness decreases. We had expected a little more from HP’s ‘elite’ range of business notebooks. The EliteBook can certainly not compete with the stable colour of a desktop monitor.

How fast is the Core i7-640LM? We used the Cinebench R10 Single test (32 Bit) to find out. Using only one of the four threads (Turbo Boost up to 2.933 GHz) the system scored 2,980 points. This is a good achievement, being at a similar level to many of the 15-, 17- and 18-inch multimedia notebooks with an i7-720QM processor that we have tested (e.g. the Asus G51J or Dell Precision M6300). Machines with an i5-520M are on average slightly faster with 3,050 points (e.g. the Samsung NP-R580-JS03DE).

It’s more good news for low voltage performance, especially when you compare it to the Core 2 Duo processors, previously the most powerful low voltage processors. An SP9400 (2.4 GHz) trails behind with 2,650 points (Dell Latitude E4300). An SL9400 (1.86 GHz) barely manages 2,205 points (Lenovo ThinkPad X200s). The slowest SU9400 (1.4 GHz) is completely beaten with 1,532 points (Panasonic Toughbook CF-W8)

So the i7’s Turbo Boost function helps the 2540p to high performance with single-core applications. Do we see the same thing with multi-thread operations? We tested it using the Cinebench R10 Multi (32 Bit) benchmark. Our system produced a score of 6,043, with each thread having a speed of 2.3 to 2.66 GHz. In this benchmark, the i7-720QM notebooks which scored about the same on the single-core test start to ease away from our low voltage model, with 7,800 to 10,000 points (e.g. the Toshiba Qosmio X500-10V). An i5-520M is also slightly better with around 6,819 points (e.g. the Dell Vostro 3500).

But there is no need for the i7-640LM to feel sorry for itself, as it is better by a long way than the Core i5-520UM from the consumer market (3,368 points, Aspire 1830T); although the 520UM can reach 5,225 points when it is overclocked (Asus PL30JT, Asus UL30JT). The SP9400 (5,000 points) and SL9400 (3,850 points) are beaten again by the 640LM, as they were in the single-thread test.

The 2540p is fitted with a 62 Wh battery (5,225 mAh). This keeps the notebook on its feet for four and a half hours (275 minutes) while surfing the web. When you consider the increased processor performance compared to the Core 2 Duo SP9400, for example, the battery life seems appropriate. The Dell Latitude E4300 with SP9400 achieved a marginally longer battery life (290 minutes).

Genuine ultra-low voltage processors like the i5-520UM achieve somewhat longer battery life but give lower performance. An Aspire 1830T, however, despite the same 63 Wh capacity and a smaller 11.6-inch size, only lasts 4 hours 47 minutes in the WLAN test. That is only 12 minutes longer than our HP machine.

A film played on the integrated DVD drive runs for four hours (241 minutes). The brightness was set to 100 cd/m² during this and the wireless modules (Bluetooth, WLAN, 3G) were disabled.

Very frugal users could make the laptop last for 7 hours and 50 minutes with the maximum energy-saving options enabled. This is the maximum battery life as given by the Battery Eater Reader’s test. The display brightness was on its lowest setting, the wireless modules were disabled, and the processor was idle. But this scenario is completely unrealistic; no user would stare for so long at a dim screen and not use any programs.

If four and a half hours isn’t enough for you, you can swap the 6-cell battery for the HP MS06XL (BS555AA). This battery weighs 330 g and gives you an slightly higher capacity of 73 Wh. But the battery life will only be a little longer with this battery; you should only expect an extra half hour or so.