HP ProBook 4430s

Big businesses and corporate IT departments may be able to afford to spend a grand or two when purchasing a business laptop, but the latest offering from HP caters to the little guy; the small business with a correspondingly small budget. For the price of an entry-level consumer laptop, you can pick up the HP Probook 4430s ($620 street), a slim, portable business laptop that won't embarrass you in front of a client or leave you high and dry during a major project.

Design
The HP ProBook 4430s has an all-metal design that brings to mind the MacBook Pro, but deeper inspection shows a myriad of differences. Unlike the MacBook Pro, with its silver unibody and rounded corners, the 4430s has a design that's all right angles, and a two-tone look that shows off its two metal constructions. The lid and palm rest of the sport bare brushed aluminum, but the frame is made of light and tough magnesium alloy. The underside is magnesium alloy as well, but it's hidden behind a coat of black soft-touch rubberized paint, which provides a better grip and traction than bare metal.

While most of the laptop features metal construction, you'll find black plastic surrounding the 14-inch screen. The display offers 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is average for this size screen, but the SRS Premium Sound does provide better than average sound, whether listening to music or teleconferencing. Speaking of teleconferencing, an HD webcam sits just above the screen, ready for use with Skype or your preferred video conferencing tool. It's also commuter friendly, weighing only 4.75 pounds, nearly the same as the Dell Vostro 3350 ($741 direct, 4 stars), though it's a bit bigger, measuring 1.11 by 13 by 9.26-inches (HWD).

The 4430s has a chiclet-style keyboard, and its matte-black keys are actually rather stout. Where many laptops use low-profile keys for a light and effortless typing experience, the keys of the Probook feel sturdy under the finger tips, and no comfort in typing is lost. It's also spill resistant, so you can use it during a working lunch without experiencing beverage anxiety. Below the keyboard is a multitouch trackpad that lets you scroll, swipe, and zoom with two or three fingers. The trackpad is covered with a layer of chemically-strengthened glass, which feels superb beneath the fingers, as do the separate right and left mouse buttons.

Features
The 4430s has a full feature set, offering three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, VGA and HDMI outputs, Microphone and Headphone jacks, a multi-format card reader (SD, MMC, MS/Pro), and an ExpressCard slot on the left hand side of the laptop. You also get a full selection of networking options, with Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0. The only feature that was missing was WiMAX or another wireless 4G broadband solution, as on-the-go connectivity is a must have for many business users. In addition to the regular collection of ports and connectors, the ProBook also features HP's ProtectTools, a built-in security suite that includes everything from secure log-in with fingerprint or facial recognition to full disk encryption and BIOS-level password security.

The 4430s is equipped with a DVD +/- RW dual-layer optical drive, though configurations are also available with Blu-ray. A 320GB 7,200rpm hard drive offers enough storage for all your daily work, and is the same size and speed as the hard drive found in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 ($1,399.99 direct, 3.5 stars). HP protects this hard drive with its 3D DriveGuard, which automatically slows or stops the spinning disk when the laptop is moved or dropped. They further protect the laptop with a one-year warranty covering parts and labor.

Performance
The 4430s is available in a variety of configurations, with a wide selection of processors, graphics solutions, and drives to meet whatever your specific needs may be. Our review unit, however, was equipped with an Intel Core i3-2310M processor, a 2.1GHz dual-core CPU from Intel's second-generation line-up. With 4GB of RAM, this combination offers significant productive power while still fitting into the budget of a small-business. In our PCMark 7 benchmark, the 4430s scored 1,988 points, on par with the consumer focused Toshiba Satellite L745-S4210 ($639.99 list, 3.5 stars) (2,035) and indicating that the system is well equipped to handle any business task you throw at it. In our CineBench R11.5 processor speed test, the 4430s scored 2.02 points, but it fell behind the speeds of other portable business systems that were equipped with Core i5 and i7 processors. For example, the Lenovo X1 scored 2.25.

Despite relying on Intel's integrated graphics, the 4430s still produced respectable scores in our graphics benchmark tests. In 3DMark 06, the 4430s scored 3744 points at medium resolution settings and 3181 points at full 1366 by 768 resolution. These scores show a huge improvement over the integrated graphics found in previous Intel systems, like the Dell Latitude E5510 ($884 direct, 4 stars), which scored only 1,864 (medium) and 1,418 (native). Even if you don't plan on gaming with the Probook, the graphics capabilities are enough that you could, with the 4430s producing 13.78 frames per second in Crysis and 13.1 fps in Lost Planet 2 when running at medium resolution settings. While neither game is playable at this level, and neither would even run at native resolution, these scores indicate that gaming is not out of reach for lighter 3D games like Team Fortress 2. More importantly, the underlying capability is strong enough to handle the graphics load of most any business application.

If your work ever ventures into the realm of multimedia presentations, you'll be pleased to know that the 4430s handles those demands as well. It completed our Handbrake video encoding test in 2 minutes 23 seconds, besting consumer oriented laptops like the Toshiba Satellite L745-S4210 (3:10) and HP Pavilion dv6-6013cl ($649.99 list, 4.5 stars) (3:13), and even edging past the Dell 3350 (2:33). It also cranked through our Photoshop CS5 test in 5 minutes 37 seconds, beating the Toshiba L745-S4210 (6:35) and HP dv6-6013cl (5:48), but failing to match the Lenovo X1 (3:55) and the Dell 3350 (4:17). While this performance won't match anything used by professional graphic designers, you can rest easy knowing that you can still do multimedia work on the road with the 4430s.

The 4430s comes equipped with a 6-cell 47Wh battery. In our MobileMark 2007 battery-life test it lasted 3 hours 31 minutes. This actually beats out the Lenovo X1, which managed only 3:10 with its 40Wh battery, but other systems are better equipped for the road, like the Dell Vostro (9:37, 80Wh), which offers a battery twice as large and lasts three times as long.

For small businesses having to make do with a tight budget, the HP ProBook 4430s provides a competent, professional looking laptop that can meet the demands of a busy professional, whether in the office or on the road. While you'll still feel the compromise in a few areas, like the lack of mobile broadband or the 3:31 battery-life, overall the 4430s is a solid solution for small business and home-based professionals. Anyone who demands faster performance or a better feature set will probably be better off with the Editors' Choice Dell Vostro 3350.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
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