HP ProBook 4730s is the next model from the 4720s, and his older brother, the HP ProBook 4530s that we have already reviewed. HP ProBook series is actually a commercial variety that should appeal to power users in the upper price segment. But ProBook Series 4 machines have already begun to move in the direction of the consumer market with the 4720s, the choice of brushed aluminum and glossy surfaces.
The latest model 4730, is now almost exclusively to consumers who want to own a well built, looks like a conventional notebook. The shiny surfaces may be gone again, but lacks features ProBook that could attract the interest of business customers.
Always about price, the laptop for private clients and business customers independent and can be purchased for around 600 euros. Currently, HP sells a variety of laptop configurations. Our model is ProBook LH335EA-'30 (identical to the ProBook 4730s-LH343EA), which is equipped with an Intel Core i5 2410M and AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics card.
Specifications HP ProBook 4730s-LH335EA/LH343EA :
- Processor : Intel Core i5 2410M 2.3 GHz
- Mainboard : Intel HM65
- Memory : 4096 MB, DDR3, 1333 MHz
- Graphics adapter : AMD Radeon HD 6490M - 1024 MB, Core: 750 MHz, Memory: 900 MHz
- Display : 17.3 inch 16:9, 1600x900 pixel, Samsung 173KT01-101, glossy: no
- Harddisk : Seagate ST9640320AS, 640GB 5400rpm
- Soundcard : -
- Connections : 1 Express Card 34mm, 4 USB 2.0, 1 VGA, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock, Audio Connections: headphones, microphone/ line-in, Card Reader: 2-in-1 (SD card, MultiMediaCard)
- Networking : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (10/100/1000MBit), Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (bgn), 3.0 Bluetooth
- Optical drive : HP CDDVDW TS-L633R
- Size : height x width x depth (in mm): 32-43 x 414 x 279
- Weight : 2.92 kg Power Supply: 0.54 kg
- Battery : 73 Wh Lithium-Ion
- Price : 620 Euro
- Operating System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
- Additional features : Webcam: HD, 12 Monate Bring-In Months Warranty
HP ProBook 4730 has been completely redesigned and now looks very different from its predecessor, the ProBook 4720s. While the former still had 17-inch glossy surfaces, you will not find plastic mat or brushed aluminum surfaces ProBook 4730. On the other hand, the height of portable 43 mm, which tapers down to 32 mm at the front.
The display lid and the top of the base are both equipped with brushed aluminum on the straights. The laptop and the lower edge of the screen consists of a matt black plastic. The quality of the construction of the case as a whole is good.
The base station is very strong. It does not give way to concentrate the pressure on a point, and can not be rotated as a whole. Only the keyboard in it to give way a little ', ie there are no particular problems for everyday use.
The display, however, is very unstable in spite of 9 mm thick. It can be twisted one way then another, and it seems almost flabby. The hinges are also difficult to resist the heavy lid, and some swing going on. Opening angle of # 133 is also a bit 'limiting when you want to use on your lap.
The following phones is almost entirely made up of a large access panel, which is published with the same outlet as sliding the battery, and can then just pull up and off. Below, in an easily accessible is the RAM, with only one of two seats occupied, and the hard drive, which is wrapped in a layer to protect against radiation. The hard drive can also be easily changed using a small Phillips screwdriver.
Connectivity
The port range is another thing that makes it difficult to see as a machine ProBook business. With four USB 2.0 ports of the product (two left, two right), HDMI, VGA and Gigabit LAN (all left), the laptop does not have much to offer.
The only concession to the industry Express Card 34 mm of space on the left side, well hidden among the USB ports. You have to do without the USB 3.0 or eSATA, and so transferring data to external storage media will be slow. The audio ports are located at the front, a headphone port and a line / microphone with a 2-in-1 Card (SD Card, MultiMediaCard) reader.
The ports on the left is placed very close together. Then you need a VGA connector very close, if you want to use the LAN port at the same time. We should also mention that all ports are positioned toward the front of the laptop, causing an annoying "Spaghetti Junction" of cables on your desktop when you spend a lot of devices.
Communications
ProBook offers a choice of three Communications: Gigabit LAN b / g / n WLAN and Bluetooth 3.0. The HP switch off the WLAN and Bluetooth quickly and easily when it is in flight mode. On the right side of your laptop with DVD burner and USB port, is one of the plastic cover over the telephone symbol. More expensive models, this is where the modem would.
Accessories
HP provides the user a wide range of services. For example, HP Power Assistant determines approximate figures of energy consumption for portable and makes it easier to implement energy saving measures. HP Connection Manager enables and disables network connections. HP ProtectTools is particularly wide, allowing you to develop facial recognition, data encryption, shredding and location data to the laptop if the laptop is stolen.
Warranty
The warranty period is one year standard, but can be expanded up to 6 years. However, it is doubtful that it would be worth the additional cost of 300 euros, it would be better to buy a new computer in six years.
Input Devices
Keyboard
The chiclet-style keyboard with flat keys. It is convenient to write, travel and clear enough tactile feedback. The block number is useful to introduce more numbers, although this is virtually the norm for 17-inch laptops.
The arrow keys make a negative impression of us, like up and down keys are compressed at the same time integrated into a single row. This makes it difficult to achieve the right without looking. There are two special function keys insertion through the top right speaker to turn WLAN on and off and start surfing the Internet.
Touchpad
The touchpad supports multitouch with all the known characteristics. Unfortunately, the touchpad is poor compared to the physical properties of its surface. With quick movements, you can "hop" across the surface, also the sensitive area are not clearly separated from palm to touch, so you sometimes deviates from the pad accident.
Display
HP has used Matt Samsung panel (SEC3254) for the ProBook 4730s, with a resolution of 1600 x 900, which is not really HD. Distribution of brightness is very good, 89%, even if the screen goes blank as you go from bottom to top.
In the bottom center, the brightness reaches 210 cd / m², while the upper corners of the screen, we only see a 185 cd / m². But this glory is enough to work in most environments. Contrast ratio is 147:1, black is dark gray deposit. Together with the limited color space, makes the colors look pretty lifeless.
Color space, the display is capable of representing the country is very small. ProBook 4730s does not even begin to cover the colors of the Adobe RGB color space, and has much to offer in the sRGB color space. This does not mean that movies and photos look a bit 'faded, but it would really just a lot of image editing software switch for professionals.
Without the screen brightness of 193 cd / m², on average, is suitable for outdoor use. If the sunlight is reflected in the head even when you do not see anything on the screen, but a small change in your home without any corrects this problem. Matt successfully prevent glare panel to appear in their environment.
As you would expect at this price, the ProBook 4730s screen is better than the hordes of other groups of consumers with low cost, when it comes to viewing angles. Horizontal movement, color and brightness are reasonably good. But when you tilt the vertical direction, the brightness of the screen will lose very quickly, and the colors are distorted, or upside down. Dark gray blue slip.
Performance
HP ProBook 4730s is available in several main components: the CPU can be either an Intel Core i3-2330M or 2410M significantly faster than the Core i5. AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics card, supports 512 MB or 1 GB of fast GDDR5 memory. All models have 4 GB of DDR3 1333 MHz RAM speeds. You can select the hard disk has a capacity of 320 GB at 7200 rpm or 640GB 5400-rpm.
The operating system is SUSE Linux, Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional. In our test model, the HP ProBook 4730s-LH335EA/LH343EA, the Intel Core i5-2410M and AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 1 GB of RAM is used.
Intel Core i5-2410M processor is popular right now, that you find in many laptops today. In addition to the usual office applications, it allows you to edit images and videos, or use a CAD program, while the AOS is not too demanding.
The most interesting feature is the Turbo Boost feature that allows the processor to adjust performance, and thus the energy consumption to meet its immediate needs. When there is much work to do computing, processor speed, up to 2.9 GHz.
In Cinebench 10 64-bit multi-tear, the processor must produce an image of a 3D model, and time is measured. Reference in this laptop is precisely in the center of the other competitors with the same processor. It is neither the top nor the bottom of the stairs.
A similar picture emerges in the Cinebench R11.5, the Core i5, score 2.6 points AO placing others in its class. All this means that the 4730 settings in chosen here offers enough processing power for everyday tasks.
In the PCMark Vantage benchmark, which measures the performance of the laptop as a whole, the results ProBook a good 6311 points. This score does not test all the components separately and then to a combination of these results, but by simulating various applications in a very practical way. This includes hardware encoding of the film, for example, photos or copy the data conversion.
This result ProBook 4730 exactly one hundred points ahead of Sony Vaio PCV-CA1S1E, which has very similar specs, but comes with a much worse player. But the laptop has to accept defeat when against Dell Vostro 3350, also equipped with Core i5 and AMD Radeon HD 6490M, as Vostro, HDD AOS scores better in PCMark testing.
The hard drive is manufactured by Seagate, ST9640320AS name and offers a generous 640 GB of memory with a speed of 5400 rpm. Due to the slower speed, wouldn, AOT expect optimum performance from this album, but then there are quieter than a 7200 rpm disk.
Of course, AOT can keep pace with a fast SSD, which would be quieter, faster, more energy, but also much more expensive. With an average transfer rate 67 MB / s, the hard disk is, as expected, towards the bottom of the stack of disks 5400 rpm laptop drive.
AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics card scores 2471 points in 3DMark Vantage benchmark, placing it well above the 3000 Intel Integrated HD Graphics processor. The ProBook 4730, the video card can release its full potential, reaching the highest score we Äôve yet to see that the graphics card.
It outperforms all other laptops with the same graphics system and sits on the top spot by a certain way. But compared to the popular NVIDIA GeForce GT 540, AMD cards AOT can hold its own, it reaches only about two-thirds of the performance of a GT 540m.
Verdict game
For a brief description of the gameplay of some recent PC games on this laptop, we tested the Company's first-person shooter Battlefield Bad 2 and the racing game Colin McRae: DiRT 3. Results can also be easily compared with those of our games database. With the lowest graphics in games can be played very well, she, OSA only with higher resolution graphics and effects that the frame rate drops sharply.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 which had 30 fps, which is still good, the graphics on average temperature, although the frame rate dropped to a very stuttery 7 fps for a brief underwater scene in the first mission. With the highest detail settings, the game becomes unplayable.
DiRT 3 plays at a very good 72 fps, while still on the low settings. With the average retail laptop can only handle 21 fps, but that does not sink below 19 fps at any time.
Emissions
System Noise
The ProBook 4730 is generally a silent companion. Although the fan runs continuously and can be heard clearly, and the hard drive can not be silent because of its design, but the fan does not remain at a constant speed of light use, then it disappears almost completely in the bottom. The hard drive is quieter than a fan at 32 dB, and is barely audible. With heavy use, the fan speeds up significantly, from 38.7 dB to 46.8 dB very strong. But even then, the fan noise is constant.
Temperature
At rest, the laptop remains cool as expected. The wrist rests on the left side only heat to 27 ° C, but this is still a way of being cut too hot, and they do attract attention if you focus on things.
With heavy use, the laptop is actually pretty hot in some places. While the right side about 3 degrees warmer on the bottom of the left rear corner of the CPU temperature can reach up to 45 ° C. So in heavy use, you should leave the laptop on a solid surface rather than resting on his lap. The touchpad does not stay cool or warm up your fingers with its large 39 ° C. But the temperature here is still within reasonable limits, so there should be no complaints.
Stress Test
The stress test with Furmark (GPU), and the first (CPU) does the best books for at least an hour. It is possible that the bottlenecks that occur when the material is too hot.
The ProBook 4730 internal temperature remained in the green area of insurance, with a maximum of 93 ° C for CPU and 80 ° C for the graphics card. The clock speed of Intel Core i5-2410M remained at a constant 2.7 GHz and the GPU did not start well gas.
Speakers
HP boasts that this notebook is SRS Premium Sound, which is probably intended to suggest that a good sound system is included. SRS Premium Sound is a technology that should improve the sound quality of the software. Usually the default is set to the "Music".
In this selection, the software adds a little 'of the composer, reverb, and it points out several shades. The software also overamplifies almost all high, then you can simply enjoy the music, if the volume is set at the center. Playing with the settings, in practice, resulted in no improvement, and the best result ever was when it was turned off the audio enhancements.
The speakers are strong enough that you can watch a movie at random using a projector without external speakers. But you should not expect too much from them, this notebook you have to do everything without the bass.
Battery Life
Compared to laptops with Nvidia Optimus system, the HP ProBook 4730s has the disadvantage that its AMD Radeon HD 6490M automatically turns off the low yield is in standby mode. Cards such as NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M is turned off in standby mode, leaving the Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated processor do the work for them.
So the ProBook is kept on stand-by mode, requiring a minimum of 12 watts, portable Optimus technology, or without a separate video card to come in less than 9 watts. The heavier the use, consumption of portable power is average, a few watts less than the competition with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M.
Ion battery is equipped with lots of capacity 73 Wh, and is loaded with a 540 g, 90 W AC adapter. Fully charge the battery lasts about 114 minutes, or less than two hours.
Battery Eater Reader test simulates the reading. Txt, using this to determine the battery life can be expected. ProBook managed a modest six hours and a half, once again demonstrates a high energy consumption during idling.
The battery life for wireless Internet use is determined by a realistic test Web surfing, away from food. The laptop lasted 220 minutes, making it perfect for a short ride by train or car. But for something, the more you will come back to the exit.
In the test of DVD, DVD-Video is played at full brightness. In this test, the ProBook lasted 150 minutes. Therefore, most of the films can still be seen on the fly. However, the movies too long, as the Lord of the Rings or The Green Mile 3 should be considered within the scope of the power supply to avoid interruptions.
With heavy use, the ProBook survive a poor 84 minutes. This result is given by the Battery Eater Classic test, which makes the battery varies in real time.
Verdict
HP ProBook 4730s-LH335EA/LH343EA is a stylish 17.3-inch notebook with modern hardware. If, for the most part composed of aluminum, plastic and Matt, is a robust and well made. The only problem is the screen cover, which might be a bit 'hard. One thing we noticed was a great cover of the handset, making it easier to do updates.
HP could easily have been a bit 'generous to the port area, because there are a lot of space for a laptop. But he decided not to include the technology's high-speed access to external storage media such as USB 3.0 or eSATA. Even the doors are too close to each other a lot of discomfort to the front of the notebook.
Although the keyboard is very good writing in touchpad is a vague and sometimes jumps.
The screen is matte, but other than that, is quite poor, with viewing angles of the poor and low contrast. Increased maximum brightness, it would be preferable for use outdoors.
Performance of the hardware is top of the midrange, unable to rise en masse to other similar portable devices. Dedicated to the surrogate is also useless in business notebook, especially when it is really too weak players.
The fan runs continuously and at a constant speed, so as not to interfere, and not generally acceptable surface temperatures. With a dedicated graphics card power consumption in standby mode is quite high, but the large battery of 73 Wh still help ProBook good battery life.
In summary, the handset can be recommended for all private consumers and business people also use their private laptop. If you do not expect all the features of the most important are the HP ProBook 4730s-LH335EA/LH343EA a laptop at a reasonable price that allows you to perform office tasks, and editing your vacation video games or game demanding computer.