HP continues to flesh out its business-oriented ProBook line with its 13.3-inch ProBook 4310s, which joins the 15.6-inch ProBook 4510s and 17.3-inch ProBook 4710s. Like the others, the ProBook 4310s delivers good performance for business chores and a pleasing design at an attractive price: just $779 for the starter model. (Our tested configuration rang up at $799.) Though it's certainly not the thinnest thin-and-light laptop we've tested, it delivers very good value for business users who need a totable, capable machine.
The burgundy paint (HP calls it “Merlot”) on the lid and the area surrounding the keyboard give the squared-off chassis a distinct look, while, mercifully, the satin finish hides fingerprints better than the glossy shells on the other ProBooks we’ve tested. Our only complaint about the chassis is that it feels a bit chunky for a 13.3-inch thin-and-light laptop. At 4.3 pounds, its weight is appropriate for this class of laptop, but as with the Toshiba Satellite U505-S2930, we found the ProBook a bit thick (1.1 inches at the front but 1.5 inches at the rear). Granted, we’ve been spoiled lately by the likes of the inch-thick Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch), but the ProBook 4310s seems chunkier even than previous-generation 13.3-inch portables like the classic white MacBook and the Dell XPS M1330.
Flip the lid, and you’ll find a full-size keyboard with well-spaced flat-top keys emerging from a glossy black backplane. The burgundy color from the lid carries over onto the trim above and below the keyboard and spills onto the touch pad. The keyboard is very comfortable—and spill-resistant—but the touch pad (as on so many notebooks) is smaller than it ought to be. That perception is compounded by narrow mouse buttons that are hinged at the top, so you have to hit them toward the bottom to get your clicks to register. On the plus side, the ProBook 4310s includes the slick volume and mute controls found on the Pavilion line; a swipe of the finger raises or lowers the volume, and you can tap an LED mute icon to kill the sound. The machine’s assortment of aqua and orange LEDs add to the modern, upscale feel.
The ProBook 4310s features an LED-backlit screen with a native resolution of 1,366x768. At that resolution, text looks crisp (if a bit small at default font sizes), and colors really pop. The panel has a good viewing angle in Windows applications, but a very small sweet spot for viewing video: Move slightly off-center when watching a DVD or playing a game, and colors shift. The machine’s stereo speakers are fine for business audio, but crank the music and you’ll be greeted by strident sound that lacks bass. Also, the 2-megapixel Webcam delivers good image quality under medium and bright lighting conditions, but it can’t contend with low-light conditions.
On the right, the 4310s has one USB port, an HDMI connector, a VGA port, and an Ethernet jack. You'll also find a Kensington lock slot for keeping your laptop safe.
The ProBook 4310s delivers features typical for the class, including a 320GB hard drive with active protection to keep data safe from bumps, a multiformat DVD burner with LightScribe disc labeling, and both 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking. The machine also has three USB ports, HDMI and VGA connectors for powering external displays, and LAN, modem, headphone, and microphone jacks. Missing is an external Serial ATA (eSATA) port for high-speed external storage devices. You do get an SD/MultiMediaCard flash-memory reader (a reader that supports five formats is more typical for the class), plus a 34mm ExpressCard slot.
A fingerprint reader is a $24 option, and HP offers a Blu-ray ROM drive and mobile broadband on some versions of this model. Unfortunately, figuring out the exact price for those—or configuring a ProBook 4310s to your exact specs at all, for that matter—is less straightforward than it should be. HP's site offers four preconfigured models (our $799 model was one of them), but clicking on the “Configure your model” tab brings you to a page with another assortment of models that offer varying degrees of configurability; for example, the fingerprint reader and mobile broadband are available on some of them, but not others. We couldn’t figure out how to simply add a Blu-ray drive and mobile broadband to our $799 configuration.
On the left, you'll find a DVD burner, modem, and two more USB ports.
Our ProBook 4310s came powered by a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 processor and 2GB of fast 1,033MHz DDR3 SDRAM—not bad for what’s essentially a budget machine. The ProBook 4310s scored 3,315 on Futuremark’s PCMark Vantage test, which is about 10 percent better than the Toshiba Satellite (which is the same price) and also better than average across all thin-and-lights we’ve tested to date. The ProBook gives back that performance edge, though, when it comes to more multimedia-centric chores. Its times of 7 minutes and 37 seconds on our Windows Media Encoder test and 4 minutes and 54 seconds on our iTunes encoding test are within spitting distance of most others in its class.
When it comes to 3D performance, the integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD chip holds the ProBook 4310s back. The laptop scored 3,853 on Cinebench 10, which is about 400 points behind the Toshiba competitor and almost 500 points below the average for thin-and-lights. Also, its score of 895 on 3DMark06 is well below average, though close to what other budget thin-and-light models have mustered. And clearly, with a showing of only 9.3 frames per second on our Company of Heroes gaming test (at 1,024x768), intense 3D gaming is not in the cards. (If you need more 3D horsepower, some of the models in this series include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 GPU with 512MB of dedicated video memory.)
Battery life was dead-on for this class of laptop. The ProBook 4310s delivered 2 hours and 7 minutes of runtime on our harsh DVD-rundown test, which is roughly what we'd expect from the four-cell battery included at this price. If battery life is important to you, opt for the eight-cell battery ($159 extra), which should double the runtime.
One area where the ProBook line shines is in the thoughtful software extras that HP includes, and the 4310s is no exception. The HP ProtectTools suite lets you set software-based full drive encryption to protect files; you can also completely wipe files or the entire drive with HP File Sanitizer and HP Disk Sanitizer. Should you forget your system password, HP SpareKey can give you the chance to reset it by answering some personal questions you choose during setup. HP Recovery Manager helps you back up critical files and restore the system should something go wrong. Another plus is the HP QuickLook 2 feature: Press the QuickLook icon next to the volume controls when the PC is off or in hibernation, and you can access your contacts and calendar without having to boot to Windows. In addition to the Windows Vista Business OS on our unit (you can choose from a range of operating systems, including Windows XP and Linux flavors), HP includes InterVideo WinDVD for DVD playback and Roxio Creator Business for burning CDs and DVDs. HP backs the ProBook 4310s with a one-year warranty and 24/7 phone and online tech support.
All told, this machine has a lot going for it: a distinctive look, good performance and features for the price, and affordability. It could be a little slimmer, but since miniaturization costs money, the extra bulk will likely be just fine for buyers on a budget.
Price (at time of review): $799 (direct)
Key Specs
Processor: 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6570Memory: 2GB RAM
Storage: 320GB hard drive
Optical Drive: DVD±RW
Screen: 13.3 inches (1,366x768)
Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD
Weight: 4.3 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 1.3 x 12.8 x 9.0 inches
Operating System: Windows Vista Business
