Untill yesterday, the 2740p was just a mysterious convertible tablet from HP, but now that it was presented to the press, I know what’s all about it and will share that info with you.

    The HP 2740p is part of the Elitebook series and is a premium convertible tablet PC, with magnesium alloy rugged case and is compliant with military grade MIL-STD 810G standard for vibration, dust, humidity, altitude and temperature resistance plus has a chemically-strengthened glass display panel.

    Live shot of HP Elitebook 2740p

    Live shot of HP Elitebook 2740p

    From the loops of it HP Elitebook 2740p doesn’t look like a road warrior, but once you get your hands on it you get the feeling of strength and quality build. It’s what you would expect from a tablet starting at 1599$, but you’ll definitely want to beef up the standard configuration with a normal voltage Core i7 CPU (default is Core i5), add some RAM, up to 8 GB, add a 320 GB hard drive, or 160 GB SSD, add another expansion battery or travel base that adds some expansion ports.

    HP 2740p is really a nice tablet to have

    HP 2740p is really a nice tablet to have

    You can even pick up a better screen specially build for outdoor use. Both options are capacitive screens, offer multi touch and pen input and offer 1280 x 800 pixels resolution. Connectivity options are also top notch: WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, EVDO/HSDPA and even GPS. The whole package is 1.25 x 11.42 x 8.35 inches and weighs from 3.8lbs with the 6 cell battery that’s good for up to 5 hours of use (so expect 3 t0 3.5 hours with it). You can add another slim battery that’s attached at the bottom of the laptop which increases overall thickness by a few millimeters and also adds another 6 hours to the original 5 hours estimate. There’s even a LED on the screen that’s used to illuminate the keyboard.

    HP 2740p can look like a laptop

    HP 2740p can look like a laptop

    If you’re crazy about connections you can add an Ultra-Slim Expansion Base that supports DispalyPort, an eSata port and includes a DVD+/-RW drive for 299$ but I bet you could live without those if you have a fully loaded desktop at home. Even if it weights 3.8 lbs it doesn’t seem that heavy, at least compared to the Lenovo X201T we’ve presented earlier. Below there’s a hands on video from Slashgear:

    Source: Engadget, Ubergizmo