HP let the cat out of its own bag with an update to its Warranty Support web pages, where it detailed 68 new AMD Ryzen/Vega-powered laptops.
The leak comes shortly after Dell’s announcement of new Ryzen/Vega laptops, and it almost makes one wonder if HP added the warranty support entries as a way to stoke the mobile AMD hype train. However, the company has yet to make any formal product announcements.
Although there are 68 products listed, the many SKUs are all just different configurations of three models--the HP EliteBook 735 G5, 745 G5, and 755 G5.
Full specifications aren’t available, but the name of each listing gives the CPU, memory, and SSD storage details of each model. The EliteBook 735 G5 is the smallest of the bunch, featuring a 13” display. It can be equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7-2700U, R5-2500U, or R3-2300U processor with Vega graphics onboard; 120GB, 256GB, or 512GB SSDs; and 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of memory.
The EliteBook 745 G5 gives you a larger 14” display and greater minimum storage capacity (128GB), but it can also be configured with the three AMD APUs, up to 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSDs. The EliteBook 755 G5 raises the screen size to 15” and the minimum SSD storage capacity to 256GB, but you can still find models with R3, R5, and R7 APUs; 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of memory; and up to 512GB of SSD storage.
Despite any official product announcements from HP, the warranty support listing indicates that we should expect a reveal of the EliteBook G35 G5, G45 G5, and G55 G5 soon. Until then, pricing, full specifications, and availability remain unknown. Hopefully the pricing of HP's models will be more forgiving than Dell's Ryzen-powered laptops, which start at $679 and don't have SSD storage options.
| HP EliteBook 735 G5 | HP EliteBook 745 G5 | HP EliteBook 755 G5 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Options | - AMD Ryzen 3-2300U- AMD Ryzen 5-2500U- AMD Ryzen 7-2700U | - AMD Ryzen 3-2300U- AMD Ryzen 5-2500U- AMD Ryzen 7-2700U | - AMD Ryzen 3-2300U- AMD Ryzen 5-2500U- AMD Ryzen 7-2700U |
| Memory Options | 4GB, 8GB, 16GB DDR4 | 4GB, 8GB, 16GB DDR4 | 4GB, 8GB, 16GB DDR4 |
| SSD Storage Options | 120GB, 256GB, 512GB | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | 256GB, 512GB |
Honestly, given OEM price inflation on upgrades, I'd much rather get single channel then buy a second stick when I got the laptop than pay for an upgrade in most cases.
Laptops are often limited to single channel offerings of dual channel processors and it is frustrating. I guess every dollar counts toward profit. I can understand when they have lowered the clocks a second channel has less impact and powering a second stick effects run time. Some have soldered RAM ugh.
I think the main issue is that the demand is for small, slim and light computers.
Having two actual memory slots will add both size and weight which will decrease sales. :(
Really? Given that there's no second memory slot and possibly not even a first one?