HP Announces ProBook Series Notebooks

HP is well known for making stylish consumer notebooks, but today HP decided it was about time that business notebooks started looking cool too. HP today announced the new "ProBook" brand of affordable business notebook PCs that combine business features from the EliteBook series with "sophisticated design to stand out from the crowd."

HP ProBook 4515s

Unlike the award-winning HP EliteBook series, the new HP ProBook series offers a fresh approach to business notebook style. The minimalistic design of the new HP ProBook series combines matte and glossy surfaces for a clean look without the flare of HP's consumer-oriented Pavilion line.

The ProBook series comes in your choice of "merlot" or "glossy noir" finishes, a unique keyboard design and a set of professional innovations previously found only on higher-priced EliteBook models. In short, the HP ProBook series delivers much of the quality, business features, and functionality of the EliteBook series ... but with eye-pleasing style and budget-pleasing prices.

Notebook availability varies by region, but the ProBook 4510s ($529) and ProBook 4710s ($899) are already available on the HP website. The merlot color option is available only on 14-inch and 15.6-inch models and all models are expected to be available in June.

HP ProBook 4410s and HP ProBook 4415s -- Feature a 14-inch diagonal 16:9 HD widescreen LED backlight display, optional HP Mobile Broadband connectivity with built-in Gobi technology or standard Wi-Fi certified and optional integrated Bluetooth wireless technology. Incorporates an HDMI port to connect to HD displays, and include Intel (4410s) or AMD (4415s) processors. The starting prices for the 4410s and 4415s have not been released at the time of this writing.

HP ProBook 4410s and 4415s

HP ProBook 4410s and 4415s

HP ProBook 4510s and HP ProBook 4515s -- Offer a 15.6-inch diagonal 16:9 HD widescreen LED backlight display and optional HP Mobile Broadband connectivity with built-in Gobi technology or standard Wi-Fi certified and optional integrated Bluetooth wireless technology. The notebooks include a choice of Intel (4510s) or AMD (4515s) processors and choice of discrete or UMA graphics.

The HP ProBook 4510s has a starting price of $529 and the starting price of the HP ProBook 4515s has not yet been released.

HP ProBook 4510s

HP ProBook 4515s

HP ProBook 4710s -- Features a 17.3-inch diagonal HD widescreen display, the largest of the lineup. For more graphics-intensive environments, the notebook includes the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330, with up to 512 megabytes of GDDR2 for video memory. It also features the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

The HP ProBook 4710s has a starting price of $899.

HP ProBook 4710s

 

Wow those look mighty fine!

 

Do business users want 16 : 9 displays? If a computer company wanted to boost sales they would re-introduce some models with 4 : 3 displays.

John

 

It's not really a matter of people wanting 16:9 screens ... it's an issue of LCD panel manufacturers switching to 100 percent 16:9 fabrication.

The panel manufacturers discovered that they could cut more screens (regardless of screen size) out of a single sheet of glass if they switched from 16:10 to 16:9. So now every OEM producing screens is switching to 16:9 ratio screens.

In fact, there is a growing push from LCD manufacturers to switch to even wider screen ratios (similar to what you see on the Sony Vaio P). Let's hope 16:9 is the widest these screens get.

 

i beg to differ, they look horrible IMO

 

Everyone is chasing the SMB market these days, obviously these were built to compete more directly with the Dell Vostro and Lenovo ThinkPad SL lines.

 

I really don't consider these real business notebooks. 16:9? Boo. Chiclet keyboards? Why? Weak graphics, not cool. HP could, and have been making budget SMB laptops without all the fuss of these ProBooks. I really don't see what's the big deal.

 

Somehow the palm-rest area looked kind of bolt-on/glued-on. But kudos for switching to isolation keys...

 

i dig the looks but 16:9 on a business laptop? dumb move by HP.

 

Lenovo really should introduce a "classic" ThinkPad line with 4:3 ratio. If they did HP and Dell would follow. Sadly though, this just means Dell's next generation of Latitudes will be 16:9. And then some far away day in the future when HP and Dell have 16:9^10 screens, ThinkPads will adopt 16:9 to catch up.

 

If you cant make them better you might as well make them look nicer.

 

*BARF* Looks like the Sony AW after being beaten with an ugly stick. And that name! I can hear Apple's trademark lawyers rubbing their grubby hands together.

 

It's not up to Lenovo. Again, the 16:9 screen was the LCD panel manufacturer decision, not the notebook OEM's. And the Latitude will likely take longer to move to 16:9. Possibly the Vostro and Thinkpad SL, but true business laptops always lag behind in many of the trends (glossy screen, screen aspect ratio, etc).

May be on the horizon though. I would be less bothered if more webpages adapted to the now ubiquitous widescreen screen form though. But in the mean time, at least I can keep half my screen for other uses when web browsing.

It was actually based off of the existing "Elitebook" name, which has been there for quite some time.

These are some pretty good-looking small-business oriented laptops. Better than the bulky Thinkpad SL at any rate.

 

The model numbers still have the "s" suffix which means it's not as sturdy as the "b" series and will not take a beating like the "p" (elitebook) series. Looks like the standard warranty is only 1 year vs. the 3 years the "b" & "p" models.

 

Nooooooo. It's their ploy for promoting 16:9 !!!
Please someone stop this madness !!!!

 

Wow. Latitudes with 16:9 huh? I dread the day. I hope at least a few of these LCD panel makers stick to 16:10. I'm sure there'll still be demand for them...

 

*insert screeching record noise here*

16:9?!? Really?!?

Your dead to me ProBook, ya hear?! Dead to me!

 

You guys can track me down and beat me up for saying this, but I've been hoping for something like this for a long time. Traditional (yet stylish) looks, dedicated graphics, and 16:9 screen. Now only if Windows 7 is out..

edit: Wait a minute, so they're using the DDR2 Radeon HD 4330 for the 4710s? Wow, that is weak. They should've at least put a 4570 in that thing.

 

Chicklet keys? Thats a mistake right there. I can not accept it as part of the business line! Leave those crap to the consumer line please. And even at 1080p, I can't fit 2 word doc side by side @100% with these 16:9 screens.

If they ever bring these craptacular keyboards to their top end business notebooks, I will refuse to buy HP business line again.

 

Darn. If any of the manufacturers reintroduced the 4:3 screen laptop, I would make sure to be the first in line. I'm so sick and tired of widescreen; they should do that on consumer machines ONLY. Keep the business machines 4:3. I miss that screen ratio with the ever expanding horizontal and ever shrinking vertical resolution. We'll probably all have 3200x600 screens in the near future. Woohoo! I can view like three lines of text at a time! How much fun that scrolling will be!

Lol, but seriously, I do miss the XGAs, XGA+, SXGA+, UXGA. I wish they would bring those back.

 

Well, if any of you is really serious about need a 4:3 screen (and not want and therefore don't want to pay the increased price), Panasonic still have a full range of 4:3 laptops and Sony has a 12.1" 4:3 XGA that competes with Panasonic's 12.1" line.

 

hmm, how bad is 16:9 actually, could it run 1024×768 res games with good quality? how about wxga

 

The 4710s looks nice but I think they should of at least put a 9600GT in it LOL

 

The sceen resolution really isn't relevant to how your game will perform (unless you're talking changing in game resolution). A game on a 16:9 at 1024x768 will run virtually the same as one on a 16:10 at 1024x768.

The reason why everyone (here) is complaining is the loss of vertical viewing space. Most 16:9 displays are at a resolution of 1366x768, which is abysmal considering most 16:10 ratio laptops had a resolution of 1440x900 or better, meaning you lose 132 vertical lines of viewing space. As a new WUXGA+ fanatic, I would loose 180 vertical lines (WUXGA+ is 1920x1200 pixels, compared to the highest laptop 16:9 res of 1920x1080 pixels).

All the while manufacturers are trying to put a pretty face on it by saying it's made for movies, which is not true, as most movies use 2.35:1 (IIRC). The black bars are simply reduced.

And as a result, me as well as several others have objections to these laptops being labeled as "business laptops." They are encumbered with un-needed consumer oriented "features", including...

1. 16:9 ratio screen, which reduces the amount of information that can be put on the screen. Reading off of one document while typing in another suddenly got harder...
2. Gaudy color schemes: No business person would dare walk into a meeting with a bright red laptop. Even the glossy black is pushing it.
3. Chiclet keyboard: It's unneeded flair with little improvements. While it does reduce mistyping on netbooks, these are full sized laptops: the keys are full sized.
4. Weak consumer grade graphics: Yes, I realize these are budget laptops, but still. The exclusion of a workstation card is forgivable, but the use of a weak one in its place is not.

These really are more like consumer laptops with more durability features. And even that isn't all that new: HP's consumer line has sported 3G accelerometers for a while, and even magnesium alloy chassis starting with the dv2.

 

Given HP's past record of introducing new designs and reusing them for their entire business line, I wouldn't be surprised if the next Elitebook would end up looking like the Probook's evil twin brother. Next to identical looks, more solid construction. I'm sure there'd be a higher-end model with better graphics, but maybe just for another model.

 

I can confirm that the next generation Elitebook will have the chiclet-style keys and LED-backlit displays. The keyboard revamp is meant to produce a keyboard that will not flex and is more durable than existing keyboards. It will still maintain the classic ergonomics of HP's business notebooks.

 

Well thats it with HP for me then. Unless they can actually produce one with enough travel thats comfortable to use.

 

The travel is pretty good, in fact, better than the one on my Macbook. I don't think the change has affected the actual typing experience and if anything, it should be an improvement.

 

Better than macbook is good news (new or old?). I will see when I get my hands on one.

 

What realy drives me crazy is the huge bezel above and below the screen. The new 14'' 16:9 notebook is basically an old 15'' 16:10 notebook with smaller screen space. I hate where the notebook industry goes. I know they want to cut cost by all means, but I'm ok to pay extra for a good design.

 

Oh no. 16:9 too? Any ideas when it comes out?

If it's 16:9 or too late, I'll be most likely getting an 8730w. A good CAD machine would be great for the 2010 FIRST season...

 

Here's one reason I absolutely hate the idea of a 16:9 display: if you watch a 16:9 movie or video on a 16:10 display, you have ROOM for stuff such as subtitles and the taskbar. If your display is 16:9 too, you have two choices: A. Controls OVERLAP the movie. B. Movie shrinks, letterboxed on ALL 4 sides!

Here's what we should do to the LCD manufacturers' homes: reduce their ceilings to leave only 1 inch of free space, er, "black bars" -- let's see how they like it. Hey, same logic applies... saves costs, too.

 

HP ProBook... looks like Mac book Pro

 

As much as I hate the ProBook... People really have to stop complaining about the name. It stems from HP's EliteBook naming, which was given to their best notebooks, thus the name Elite. These are aimed to be a step below, thus Pro. Whether or not they hit the target is a whole other issue.

 

Seems like a nice idea, but HP is making a HUGE mistake by marketing these things as "business-class". Seriously, how can you even consider them "business-class" when they feature 16:9 HDTV-style screens and flashy colors?? A more accurate description should be

Either market them as premium, high-grade consumer/entertainment notebooks, or put in traditional 16:10 screens. This whole "let's-make-notebooks-compete-with-HDTVs-and-home-theaters-by-throwing-in HDTV-ratio-screens" craze has gone WAYYYY too far!!

Still, I could easily see these notebooks competing head-on with the Dell Vostro line, and again, if it weren't for the HDTV screen ratios, these new ProBooks would be surefire winners. But as they are, the ProBooks seem to have an identity crisis regarding whether they should be consumer/entertainment notebooks or business notebooks.

 

I don't think HP has much of a choice when it comes to display aspect ratio. It is a fact that LCD manufacturers are phasing out 16:10 displays, so unless HP wants to encounter similar screen shortages already seemingly plaguing the Thinkpad T-series, it will have to adapt.

 

Remember the Latitudes from Dell come in a variety of colours as well. HP is simply responding to business customers who love their pink Latitudes.

 

I really think HP product design must have been smoking something when they though this up. Why 16:9? HD output is a non-feature for a business laptop; businesses don't want laptops with HDTV capabilites, it's a disadvantage due to lost productivity and it decreases screen real estate.

Also, glossy red pain. Why?!

Or ThinkPads could stay on 16:10 and gain a unique selling point as everyone else screws their business lines .

I'm sure the LCD manufacturers could be "persuaded" with sufficiently large check to compensate for lower production.

 

Awesome, great news indeed. I'm just wondering, does the chiclet keys on the new Elitebook have the same smooth surface found on current-gen Macbooks?

 

I disagree. It a joint decision by both LCD manufacturers and OEMs. The OEMs will tolerate whatever the LCD manufacturers tell them so long as it does not cut into notebook sales. But when consumers start favoring the 16:10 ratio, the notebooks OEMs will pay a higher price to get 16:10 screens.

 

Not going to happen ... at least not according to EVERY notebook manufacturer we've spoken to.

You are correct in the assumption that if enough notebook manufacturers demanded it, the LCD panel fabricators/OEMs would supply 16:10 (or even 4:3) ratio screens ... but it will ONLY happen at a substantial increase in cost.

The LCD manufacturers have all teamed up to support 16:9 since it gives them the best profit margins for production of both HDTVs of various sizes and notebook/desktop LCDs. Sure, they could retool/adjust their production for different screen ratios ... but they'll make notebook manufacturers pay an arm and a leg for it.

Profit margins are already unbelievably thin for notebook manufacturers, so none of them are embracing the idea of pay 4+ times the cost of the 16:9 screen just to get a 16:10 screen.

At this point, 16:10 ratio screens are on their way out. In fact, there was already a recent news story about the fact that notebooks with 16:10 ratio screens are basically just being cleaned out of existing inventories and soon we'll be seeing nothing but 16:9 screens of various sizes.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5005

I suppose if enough consumers band together and tell notebook manufacturers that they're willing to pay more for a notebook with a 16:10 screen then we might see them again. But let's get serious ... consumers aren't exactly standing in line to pay MORE for computers right now.

 

I agree with Jerry. Expecting screen other than 16:9 does not look realistic at least for a foreseeable future. I think it is more realistic to wait for laptops with swivel displays at affordable price.

 

Yeah, that's true, but consumers will have no choice if there's a 100% switch to 16:9, which is what will happen in the next year or so. Also keep in mind that the bulk of business users do not actually mind 16:9 too much.

 

How-to take it apart ? Hi I have a big problem about how to taking apart the probook to put more ram in it , could you point me how you do it in the review?
Does i have to remove the rubber at the bottom?

 

Found the service manual at HP

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/CoreRedirect.jsp?redirectReason=DocIndexPDF&prodSeriesId=3935055&targetPage=http%3A%2F%2Fbizsupport1.austin.hp.com%2Fbc%2Fdocs%2Fsupport%2FSupportManual%2Fc01758292%2Fc01758292.pdf

 

16:9? Man, go away! Seems I have to get a new book soon.