The HP EliteBook 8570w uses the same premium and very sturdy chassis featured in the predecessor HP 8560w. The chassis is very rigid and the materials are top-notch –  not surprising if one considers the expectations of its target audience. As far as look and feel are concerned, the 8570w is clearly a step above some of the competition (Fujitsu Celsius H720 and the Lenovo ThinkPad W530 for example). Thanks to the superior build quality none of the surface areas flex even when a decent amount of pressure is applied. The entire unit features a matte and highly resilient finish and the brushed aluminum surfaces (which have a slightly greenish hue) look very classy. Overall this is very well designed chassis with no apparent weaknesses. 

The battery locks firmly into place, while the base unit features four fairly large rubber feet which allow the notebook to be used without the battery inserted. Thehinge design is solid and the display itself resists twisting quite well – without any impact on picture quality. The display locking mechanism features double hooks and uses a good-sized (but still unobtrusive) push-button as the release. As far as overall quality is concerned, the HP 8570w is on the same level as the Dell Precision M4700, followed by the Lenovo ThinkPad W530 and the Fujitsu Celsius H720.

Of course the high quality has a negative impact on portability: the notebook weighs in at 3.25 kilograms (7.17 pounds) with the 83 Wh battery. According to HP, the minimum weight of 3.00 kilograms (6.61 pounds) requires an SSD and an empty bay drive (a blank is inserted instead). However, the HP EliteBook isn”t noticeably heavier than the competition.

Our review model features – just like the predecessor – pretty much all the ports a professional user could want: USB 3.0, FireWire 400 (IEEE1394, 4 pin), eSata, and a DisplayPort, to name a few. Those needing even more (and/or exotic options) can always add additional ports via the ExpressCard34 slot.

The location of the ports is also identical to the previous model, which is something not everybody might approve of. The ports are on the sides towards the front – which makes them easy to get to – but creates the potential for cables and devices crowding the work area. The VGA port is recessed too far into the housing and does not feature a screw terminal – some users who have an older VGA cable might not be able to attach it at all, while others have no way to secure those cables which do fit. This might not be a major issue, since most users nowadays will connect their displays using a digital connection (DisplayPort). We checked the quality of the VGA port using an ASUS PA 238 Pro Art Monitor with 1920×1080 pixels resolution and found the picture to be very clear and sharp. We also checked the transfer speeds of some of the ports: we recorded 175 MB/s for an external SSD connected to a USB 3.0 port and 128 MB/s for a LaCie Quadra D2 hooked up via eSATA. The limitations in those cases are the devices – high-performance SSDs should achieve even higher speeds.

HP does not offer a WXGA display for this workstation – said resolution is only available for the HP EliteBook 8570p. That means that there are three display options: two with very decent viewing angles – either HD+ (1600×900 pixels, 200 cd/m², 60% CG) or Full HD (1920×1080 pixels, 220 cd/m², 60% CG) – and the DreamColor Full HD display (1920×1080 pixels, 210 cd/m², 109% CG) with huge viewing angles and large color space coverage. All panels are matte and feature LED backlighting (the DreamColor display has RGB LEDs).

The conventional hard disk drive (from Hitachi) only offers a capacity of 500 GB, which we consider the absolute minimum for a platter-based drive. Transfer rates, access times, and perceived execution speed are not really up to today”s standards, despite the fact that this is a 7200 RPM drive. One of the reasons why conventional drives are still offered is the much higher costs of solid state drives. The EliteBook has several different options for storage – the best choice would be to replace the old fashioned hard drive with an SSD. In addition, a secondary SSD could be installed in the optical bay (or the old hard drive could be installed there instead). Another tempting option is to use an mSATA SSD in combination with the hard drive or a Solid State Drive. There are plenty of different configuration and combination options, which are probably mostly limited by the budget of the prospective buyer. One thing that needs to be considered is that the mSATA connection only operates at SATA II speeds, which might not make it a suitable choice for a boot drive.

As far as the suitability of this workstation for playing games is concerned, we can expect a similar result as with the Nvidia GT 630M GPU, although performance is a bit better due to the higher frequency of the Quadro K1000M. For most current games, medium and low settings are needed to allow for a high frame rate and a decent experience while playing.

System Noise

In order to get the cooling fan to stop spinning once in a while, it is necessary to change an option in the BIOS – otherwise the fan is on at all times. Even when the cooling system is silent, the hard drive is not: we measured 32.5 dB(A), which makes the hard drive sound like yet another fan. A solid state drive or a less noisy hard drive could improve this situation. When the workload is increased beyond just checking emails, document reading, and internet surfing, system noise increases to a pretty audible 34.7 dB(A). Full load causes the noise level to top out at 49.4 dB(A) –annoying even after a short amount of time. The DVD optical drive is also not really quiet at 37.2 dB(A), which can disrupt quiet movie passages.

Since the cooling system is active at all times (unless the aforementioned BIOS setting is changed), the temperatures of the workstation are well controlled. Even after extended periods of load, we never measured more than 38 °C (100.4 °F) even at the surface area above the cooling fan exhaust. Even a higher performance version of the workstation should not tax the cooling capabilities too much. We did not observe any throttling due to heat or because of power (the power adapter delivers 120 watts).