The HP ProBook 450 G2 is something of a
rarity these days, sticking with the five-year-old Windows 7 operating
system instead of shipping with Windows 8 (upgrade discs are included).
For many, this could be a key attraction to this bargain business
laptop.
The chassis is exceptionally well built
for a laptop under £500, with a rubberised coating on the outside of
the lid and a dark brushed metal-style material for the keyboard tray.
These materials don't pick up grease easily and also feel pretty rugged,
meaning this is a laptop that should survive a fair amount of abuse
being slung into bags and taken on public transport.
There are four USB ports on the device: two
on the left and two on the right, with those on the left being super
speed USB3 ports. The presence of HDMI a VGA connector mean you'll be
able to connect to most monitors and projectors when giving a
presentation or stationed at a desk, and you could even connect to a TV
if you fancy watching some video on a larger screen.
The keyboard follows most other modern
laptops, using separated, Chiclet-style keys. There's a decent amount of
feedback to them and a generous amount of travel, too. This makes
typing for long periods comfortable and pleasant. A touchpad of equal
quality finishes things of nicely. Its physical buttons, located below
the pad, bring back the lost art of soft mouse buttons, and have a huge
amount travel, which is something we really like.
There's a fingerprint scanner just below the
number pad, which allows you to set up an alternative to a password when
logging into Windows. The pre-installed HP Client Security software
also lets you set up file encryption to secure your important data from
thieves.
The ProBook 450 G2 comes with 4GB of RAM and
is powered by a dual-core 1.9GHz Intel Core i3-4030U processor. It's not
the most potent of combinations but for basic business and leisure
tasks it's enough, especially because it uses hyper threading technology
to turn those two physical cores into four virtual ones for better
multitasking. Single core performance was particularly strong: in our
benchmarking tests focusing on single thread applications the ProBook
scored 46. This is a good score for a sub-£500 laptop. Tasks requiring
multiple cores were a little slower; for both video conversion and
multitasking the laptop scored 36, giving the ProBook 450 G2 an overall
score of 37.
This is a business laptop, so 3D gaming
performance is likely to be of little importance to HP's target market.
However, should you wish to dabble in very basic games, you may be able
to do so. The processor's integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 will happily
handle high resolution video but it will stutter with advanced 3D
applications and games. Running Dirt Showdown at 1,280x720 pixels on
High detail yielded an average frame rate of 18fps, which isn't enough
to be able to play the game smoothly. Some older games will be fine, but
if you're looking for gaming performance you'll need to buy a more
expensive laptop.
You get a 500GB hard disk, which should be big enough for most users to store their most important files. If that isn't enough, buyers also get a 50GB Box Cloud storage account for life, with a maximum file size limit of 250MB.
Battery life is reasonably long, with the ProBook lasting 5h 50m in our rundown test. You'll still want to take the fairly light charger with you if you're heading out for the day, but if you're going for a meeting or doing some work from the sofa, you will be fine for a few hours.
It's a shame that the 15.6in screen on the
ProBook 450 G2 isn't Full HD, instead only having a 1,366x768 pixel
panel. It's not a bad screen, but on a device this big a 1,920x1,080
pixel panel would have been welcome, not least because that resolution
allows you to run two programs side-by-side comfortably. It's able to
cover 66 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut (an average score for a
laptop) and it's nice and bright, meaning you could use this laptop
relatively comfortably outside. Your ability to view it outdoors is also
helped by the screen's matt coating.
The HP ProBook 450 G2 is a sturdy business
laptop with reasonable performance and a good keyboard, which is about
as much as you can ask from a cheap business laptop. If your needs are
modest, this is a great buy. Otherwise, spend £100 more and you could
buy the Chillblast Akira, which has a dedicated graphics card and a Full HD screen.
| Core specs | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Dual-core 1.9GHz Intel Core i3-4030U |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Memory slots (free) | 2(1) |
| Max memory | 16GB |
| Size | 375x262x25.5mm |
| Weight | 2.2kg |
| Sound | DTS Audio (3.5mm headset port) |
| Pointing device | Touchpad |
| Display | |
| Screen size | 15.6in |
| Screen resolution | 1,366x768 |
| Touchscreen | No |
| Graphics adaptor | Intel HD Graphics 4400 |
| Graphics outputs | VGA, HDMI |
| Graphics memory | Shared |
| Storage | |
| Total storage | 500GB hard disk |
| Optical drive type | DVD RW |
| Ports and expansion | |
| USB ports | 2x USB3, 2x USB2 |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Networking | 802.11n Wi-Fi, gigabit Ethernet |
| Memory card reader | None |
| Other ports | None |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Professional (Windows 8.1 upgrade discs included) |
| Operating system restore option | Restore partition |
| Buying information | |
| Parts and labour warranty | One-year collect and return |
| Price inc VAT | £499 |
| Details | www.hp.com |
| Supplier | www.ebuyer.com |
| Part number | J4S48EA#ABU |