HP ProBook 4510s Review

by Jerry Jackson

The HP ProBook 4510s is the latest 15.6" business notebook designed to provide solid performance at a low price for small and medium businesses. If your company wants the HP Elitebook 8530p but doesn't have the budget to spend $1,350 per laptop, the ProBook 4510s might be a good alternative at a starting price of just $529. Is this budget-priced business notebook destined for success? Take a look at our full review to find out.

Our pre-production review unit of the ProBook 4510s is configured as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 Processor (2.1GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB)
• Microsoft Genuine Windows Vista Business (with option for Windows XP downgrade)
• 15.6-inch LED-backlit anti-glare HD display (1366 x 768)
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• 2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
• 250GB 5400RPM HDD
• LightScribe DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
• WiFi (802.11a/b/g/draft-n), Ethernet, Modem, and Bluetooth Connectivity
• 8-Cell 63WHr Battery
• Limited 1-year standard parts and labor warranty
• Dimensions: 1.25" x 14.6" x 9.83"
• Weight: 5.8lbs
• Price as configured: $749

Build and Design
The HP ProBook 4510s is a business notebook designed to meet the needs of small and medium businesses ... in other words, it needs to have a good balance of features and security at a low price. That said, small and medium business notebooks tend to have a very basic build and deign in order to help bring down the cost of production. At first glance, the ProBook 4510s looks very similar to a HP EliteBook 8530p with a new keyboard and all black finish. Unfortunately, the design similarities stop there.

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HP received much praise for the strong magnesium alloy chassis used in the EliteBook series of business notebooks. Unfortunately, in order to lower the cost and weight of the notebook the ProBook 4510s is constructed mostly of plastic. The base of the laptop flexes heavily under pressure, the palmrests likewise bow under the weight of your wrists, and the back of the screen lid is similarly prone to flex. The plastics used in the 4510s should hold up fine if the notebook is being used as an office desktop replacement, but the chassis might not survive multiple drops off a desk or the kind of abuse you expect from a mobile workforce. On the bright side, the new keyboard is pretty firm except for a very minor amount of flex around the directly above the optical drive (more on that later). The key point to remember in this section is that the ProBook 4510s looks pretty nice, but isn't as rugged as more expensive business notebooks.

The outer shell of the screen casing, like the rest of the notebook, is made of plastic. The lid is made of reflective glossy plastic with the HP and ProBook logos printed in silver. The laptop screen housing is a mixture of firm and flexible materials. The frame around the screen is solid enough to prevent me from twisting the screen when force is applied, but the back of the lid is flexible enough that I was able to create screen-wide ripples across the display when I pressed on the back of the screen.

The minimalistic design of the ProBook 4510s combines matte and glossy surfaces for a clean look without the flare of HP's consumer-oriented Pavilion line. Our review unit comes equipped with the "Noir" black finish but HP will also offer the notebook in "Merlot" red later this year.

Despite the plastic construction, the 4510s features hard drive shock protection in the form of HP 3D DriveGuard which will help to protect your hard drive in the event the laptop gets dropped or violently bumped. HP also includes HP ProtectTools with drive encryption, Device Access Manager, HP Spare Key (a program that helps employees access their computer in case they forget their password), HP Disk Sanitizer, File Sanitizer, and McAfee Security Solution for those small businesses that need reliability and ease of use but don't have the resources of a dedicated IT department.

That being said, we were a little confused by how difficult it is to make upgrades to the ProBook 4510s. While most notebooks have a removable panel on the bottom of the notebook to access the RAM, hard drive, and wireless card, HP designed the ProBook 4510s so that you have to remove 10 screws and the entire top half of the chassis (including separate speaker grill, keyboard, and touchpad area) in order to replace or upgrade components. As you can see in the image below, that is a lot of work for a small IT department or small business owner who just wants to upgrade the RAM or replace a hard drive. Granted, many businesses will never upgrade their notebooks and will simply use them as-is until they are replaced ... but the complexity of upgrades and repairs is something to keep in mind.

Screen and Speakers
The ProBook 4510s comes equipped with a 15.6" anti-glare display with a 16:9 widescreen ratio. At 1366 x 768 pixels, this 720p high-definition display is perfectly usable and features good color and contrast. We know many people are concerned about the transition from 16:10 to 16:9 ratio screens (because this means less vertical resolution) but the difference is so minor that the vast majority of notebook users will never have a problem.

Horizontal viewing angles are quite impressive and you only start to notice some color shift after you get 75 degrees off center. Vertical viewing angles are only average as the screen begins to wash out from above and colors begin to invert from below after about 45 degrees in either direction.

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HP generally impresses our editorial staff with the quality of the speakers used in their notebooks. Unfortunately, the speakers in the 4510s were less than impressive. Sure, the audio quality is good enough for watching a webcast or hearing system sounds, but the built-in speakers sound tinny and lack a good range of highs, middles, and lows. The highest volume settings are loud enough to fill an office with sound for a presentation, but audio sounds distorted at the higher volumes.

Despite the weak performance of the built-in speakers, they are well placed above the keyboard to direct sound up and toward the user.

The headphone jack on the 4510s works well with the two different brands of earphones I used during the test. No static or other noise was noticed through the jack besides imperfections in the audio source itself.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The full-size keyboard on the 4510s is a completely new design for HP and provides fantastic spacing between keys for typing as well as a dedicated number pad (a major plus for businesses that use their computers for number crunching or data entry). Each key is relatively flat with a nice matte texture and the keys sit above a glossy black support frame. The support frame surrounding the keys is quite firm thanks to the design of the chassis which adds additional support for the keyboard. The only obvious area of flex in the keyboard is when you press on the number pad keys. Keep in mind, however, that we received a pre-production unit, and HP claims that the production units shipping to customers have even better support against flex.

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The individual key presses are quiet without loud clicking sounds as you type. The depth of each key press is excellent, though some people may dislike the flat, chicklet-style keys. Overall the keyboard layout is extremely nice for a 15-inch laptop.

The touchpad is very responsive to my touch with a scroll zone on the right side that works exactly as it should. The touchpad texture is okay, but the low-cost material used is sure to develop wear over time and use. The plastic touchpad buttons are about the right size, but require a deep press in order to register a click. This wouldn't be a problem if the area directly beneath the touchpad buttons was indented to allow the side of your thumb to press the buttons all the way down. Unfortunately, when you try to press the touchpad buttons your thumb hits the bottom edge of the notebook and sometimes the buttons don't register a click. This would be a simple thing for HP to fix by replacing the palmrest and touchpad area with a new one that has an indented area beneath the touchpad buttons.

We would have also liked to see a dedicated touchpad disable button (like the ones HP uses on their consumer notebooks) so that you can disable the touchpad if you're using an external mouse.

Ports and Features
The 4510s features a good number of ports on all sides, so let us take a brief tour ...

Left side: Here we see the Kensington lock slot, GigE Ethernet, heat exhaust, VGA out, HDMI, an ExpressCard/34 slot, and two USB ports.

Right side: Two USB ports, modem (under a rubber flap), optical drive and power jack.

Rear side: The battery and hinges.

Front side: Media card reader, headphone out and microphone in jacks.

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The bottom of the notebook is completely bare. As previously mentioned, there is no way to access the RAM, hard drive, or wireless card from the bottom of the notebook. The top half of the 4510s must be completely disassembled in order to make upgrades or repairs.

Performance and Benchmarks
Our pre-production ProBook 4510s came with the Intel T6570 processor, clocking in at 2.1GHz, and Intel integrated graphics. Discrete graphics will be available at a later date, but discrete graphics will obviously increase the cost of the notebook. A 250GB 5400 RPM hard drive was also included, which helped applications load without much lag. This notebook didn't really exceed our expectations in terms of performance, but the 4510s has more than enough power to handle Microsoft Office or even very basic video work.

The obvious bottleneck in terms of performance here is the use of Intel graphics, but considering the small and medium business buyers interested in this notebook don't care about the ability to play video games or edit HD video, this isn't a major concern.

With that said, let's jump into the performance benchmarks.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Lenovo T500 (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	27.471s
HP EliteBook 8530w (Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 @ 2.53GHz)	30.919s
Lenovo ThinkPad SL500 (Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.4GHz)	32.275s
HP ProBook 4510s (Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 @2.1GHz)	36.583s
Dell Vostro 1510 (Core 2 Duo T5670 @ 1.8GHz)	51.875s

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo T500 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3650 256MB GDDR3)	7,050 PCMarks
HP EliteBook 8530w (2.53GHz Intel T9400, Nvidia Quadro FX 770M 512MB)	6,287 PCMarks
Lenovo T500 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, Intel X4500)	5,689 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL500 (2.4GHz Intel P8600, Nvidia 9300M GS 256MB)	5,390 PCMarks
HP ProBook 4510s (2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6570, Intel 4500MHD)	4,192 PCMarks
Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100)	3,568 PCMarks

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP EliteBook 8530w (2.53GHz Intel T9400, Nvidia Quadro FX 770M 512MB)	5,230 3DMarks
Lenovo T500 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3650 256MB GDDR3)	4,371 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL500 (2.4GHz Intel P8600, Nvidia 9300M GS 256MB)	2,242 3DMarks
Lenovo T500 (2.80GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600, Intel X4500)	809 3DMarks
HP ProBook 4510s (2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6570, Intel 4500MHD)	748 3DMarks
Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100)	519 3DMarks

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
During normal use (browsing the web or working on a text document) the ProBook 4510s remained relatively cool but not very quiet. The exhaust fan seemingly runs a full blast when the notebook is plugged in, so your coworkers might hear what sounds like a distant hair dryer in a quiet office. When doing tasks that stress the processor and graphics, the laptop's fan works hard to keep this laptop cool. This is something of a mixed blessing in that while noisy, it helps to lower the internal temperatures and helps extend the life of your notebook components.

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Finally, we recorded the following external temperatures using an IR thermometer after running two consecutive PCMark05 benchmarks. This should serve as an indicator of how hot the notebook will get after about 30 minutes of serious use. All temperatures are listed in degrees Fahrenheit. It's obvious that the bottom of the notebook near the wireless card, processor, and graphics are the hottest parts of the notebook.

Battery
HP offers two different batteries with this notebook. The base configuration the ProBook 4510s comes with a 6-cell 47WHr battery while the $749 configuration comes with the 8-cell 63WHr battery. The battery life of the extended life 8-cell battery is a little better than average, but not amazing. During our timed tests, with the laptop set to "high performance" mode, wireless active, and 80% screen brightness, the 4510s lasted for 5 hours and 10 minutes with a power draw of about 11.1watts. Battery life can also be extended using the "power saver" power profile in Windows Vista.

Conclusion
The HP ProBook 4510s is a solid, though not overwhelmingly impressive small and medium business notebook. Compared to similar notebooks like the Dell Vostro 1510 and 1520 or the Lenovo ThinkPad SL500, the ProBook 4510s is more impressive than the Dell and is either better or worse than the ThinkPad depending on configuration. Whether you're a small business owner looking for a low-cost notebook for yourself or a medium business needing desktop replacements for a few dozen employees, the ProBook 4510s will get the job done.

Still, things like the plastic construction, uncomfortable touchpad design, and difficulty of upgrades might give potential buyers reasons to reconsider a purchase. Additionally, the fact that HP charges almost twice the price for custom configurations (CTO) means that business buyers are almost forced to choose pre-configured models.

Bottom line, the HP ProBook 4510s is a fine notebook for its intended market, but if HP made a few simple changes to the design and purchase options then business buyers would have even more reasons to buy this laptop.

Pros:

• A great price for a 15.6" business notebook
• Nice keyboard ... despite some flex
• Attractive design and relatively light weight

Cons:

• Not-so-great build quality
• Custom configurations are overpriced
• Touchpad buttons are just plain horrible
• Too difficult to upgrade

 

How are the hinges? They look really narrow and "cheap".

BTW no avatar

 

The hinges feel fine and provide plenty of tension to hold the lid in position, but nothing about this laptop is particularly rugged. It will work fine as a desktop replacement in an office or if an employee is very gentle with it, but I'd actually have to say that HP's consumer-grade Pavilion notebooks feel more rugged than this.

The avatar thing should be fixed now ... a temporary forum glitch.

 

Thanks Jerry

Seems like its really a "get what you pay for" notebook at base configuration.

 

Hi Jerry, do you have any experience with the Vostro 1500/1510/1520 lines, and if so, how would you compare the two? Seeing as to how the Probooks are targeting largely the same market, your thoughts would probably be very useful for those considering the two.

 

I wrote the review of the Dell Vostro 1510 on this site as well as the Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (14-inch version of the SL500) and spent some time with the Vostro 1520 and ThinkPad SL500 ... so I feel pretty up-to-speed with small and medium business notebooks.

If I had to choose between the Vostro and the ProBook, I'd personally pick the ProBook. That said, the Vostro 1510 (and I think the 1520 as well) has access panels on the bottom on the notebook for easier access to the RAM, hard drive, and wireless card.

All the notebooks in this low-cost SMB notebook class have flexible plastic chassis designs, but I like the keyboard on the HP ProBook much more than the keyboard on the Vostro. The touchapad buttons on the Vostro weren't very good either, so I'd recommend an external mouse for either of those notebooks.

HP seems to have a good package as far as the 3D DriveGuard and additional software are concerned. In terms of support, both Dell and HP offer different warranty/support options depending on what you're willing to pay for. Dell used to offer a fantastic no-questions-asked return policy on the Vostro line, but I'm not sure if they're still do that or not. That's something else to consider since it means a small business can simply send it back for a full refund if they don't like it ... assuming Dell still offers that deal.

In any case, it's a tough call for the SMB notebooks. They are cheap and usually offer a good value for business buyers, but you can find better notebooks if you can afford to spend just a little extra.

 

This is disappointing. Then, what does it make a "business laptop" if it's less rugged than Pavilion? I can think of only 4 reasons:
1. Some security/management software preinstalled
2. So-so speakers
3. "Stable" look that will not offend the boardroom
4. Price higher than Pavilion

Thank you for the in-depth review.

 

is it me or the notebook is uglier then thinkpad?

 

LOL mate!!! I think the chassis design has been copied from the previous macbook pros generation.

 

Not really. The current HP.com price for a dv5t is $699 and it comes with a slightly slower processor than the $749 configuration of the dv5t. If you want a better processor in the dv5t then the price jumps to $749.

That said, the $749 dv5t also comes with a free upgrade to 4GB or RAM and a better build quality.

Now ... "that" being said, if you want Vista Business on a Pavilion laptop that's a $100 upgrade.

Overall, I hear what you're saying. There are still some compelling reasons to purchase an HP Pavilion over this.

 

I say it looks like my old HP Compaq 7400...

 

Hp is starting to go with the "cut down the cost" route, unfortunately this time with the business series.
They better not mess with the higher-end models, otherwise they will lose a lot of customers.

 

^you mean 16:9?

 

The move from 16:10 to 16:9 isn't a cost-cutting issue ... it's a "LCD panel OEMs are switching to 100% 16:9 ratio production" issue.

Yes, notebook manufacturers could demand LCD fabricators supply 16:10 or even 4:3 ratio screens, but since that requires major work for the OEMs to switch their production lines to a different screen ratio the OEMs would charge laptop manufacturers an arm and a leg for every screen. Companies like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, etc. would then have to pass that cost onto consumers and businesses. And since neither consumers nor business clients are willing to pay more for laptops at the moment, notebook manufacturers are pretty much stuck building notebooks with 16:9 ratio screens.

Any "current" notebooks with 16:10 ratio screens are being built using old inventory of screens. Once that inventory runs out we'll be seeing nothing but 16:9 ratio screens ... with a few exceptions.

 

Although there are no component panels on the bottom of the laptop, at least there aren't any fans either. Should be a very bed friendly laptop.

 

The absence of the bottom panels=ridiculous. You better max out the specs beforehand cause upgrading could be difficult

 

Good review!

That's one good-looking notebook! I probably wouldn't mind having to remove the top cover to upgrade stuff (I like taking stuff apart anyway). I was expecting the build quality to be better, though. That, and I would prefer a dedicated GPU. Oh well.

I'm assuming the nx7400? I personally don't think it hardly looks like an nx7400 at all... maybe it terms of basic shape/color, but overall, it certainly didn't remind me of my ne8440 (which looks 99% identical to the nx7400).

 

Wow, that's quite a bit of metal backing behind the keyboard. The internals look quite durable, despite the chassis flex.

I think the ProBook is now my favorite budget-business laptop: looks quite good for the price you pay.

And great review, Jerry!

 

Too bad the speakers seem to be under par. That's unusual for HP and this size.

 

Im thinking about upgrading from an HP nx6310 which has great build quality and a fantastic keyboard, but sadly a low brightness & resolution screen. Are these probooks supposed to replace the low end HP business notebooks such as nx6310, 6530b/6730b etc? If so, judging from the review, this looks like a step backwards regarding build quality.

 

When I saw the first picture, I thought "lego". That thought got stronger with every passing picture
If there are EliteBooks in the higher end of things and ProBooks in the middle, what would be at the bottom?

 

Thank goodness for this review. I've been seriously considering this new model because of three things: smaller than 17", full keyboard with numpad and matte screen surface.

But all of that is flushed down the toilet when the fan is always on and is also loud. I could forgive the hard-to-reach innards, as I would probably only upgrade once (double the RAM and put in a 7200rpm hdd), but I first and foremost I need a quiet machine.

Does anyone know of ANY other machines out that that match my 3 desired criteria above? I am currently using a Samsung R610, which only fails in having a glossy screen.

 

Well, if you get the version with Intel graphics and don't stress the processor you could go into the BIOS and disable the "FAN ALWAYS ON" feature (or whatever HP calls it. Just be aware that doing so increases the likelihood that your processor will have heat-related failure issues if you're constantly stressing the processor but have taken steps to disable the fan.

Really, it depends on how sensitive you are to fan noise. There are some notebooks with whisper quiet fans that still drive sensitive people crazy if they're running the notebook in a quiet room. The only perfectly quiet notebooks I've used are passive-cooled notebooks with SSDs ... such as extremely rugged notebooks that are designed to withstand use in the rain and sand ... and therefor don't have fans or vent holes. Unfortunately, those extremely rugged notebooks cost MUCH more than a ProBook 4510s. The GETAC B300 or GETAC M230 for example both cost more than $3,000 in the base configuration ... and even more than that for one equipped with a silent SSD.

 

Haha those ruggedized laptops are way out of my budget, which is fine because they're more of a niche product.

And forcing the system fan to stay off would not be a viable solution to the noise problem, imo.

Oh well, with the 16:9 15.6" LCD becoming more and more prevalent, there'll probably be a much higher range of choices for laptops with full keyboards in the near future. I'm sure Dell or Lenovo will have something up their sleeves.

 

Huh? Not anything like it at all.

 

Really unimpressive, especially if you are used to the Elitebooks. Why they insist on putting numpads on so many of their laptops is beyond me. I would not want to travel with this laptop as I don't think it would last long.

 

I think he's mainly referring to the keyboard style - but it should be noted that Sony had the chiclet style keys for a lot longer than Apple.

With the 16:9 format, if there is no numberpad, there's a lot of extra "wasted" space at the sides, so why not? My only issue with this is that the touchpad is way offcenter and a bit unsightly.

 

I think the rationale behind that is similar to what I mentioned in the review ... there are a lot of business clients that want to buy cheap notebooks as desktop replacements for their workforce ... and many of those jobs involve number crunching or boring data entry where employees often use number pads to speed up their work.

 

The "Fan Always On" option in the HP BIOS is only observed when the notebook is not plugged to the AC. Otherwise, HP's engineers have tuned the notebook to have the fans to spin all the time, albeit at different speeds according to the temperature, when it is plugged into AC. As a result, the fan noise will almost always be there for the ProBook.

 

Since almost every normal notebook thus far has its touchpad under the space key, then the rationale behind the off-center (for the 16:9 format) touchpad would be what most current users' are used to. Besides 17" notebooks with full keyboards, even in 2006, had their touchpads off-center under the space key. In other words, I think the current arrangement is fine.
As for the fan, maybe its too early to make conclusions since its a pre-production unit, after all.

 

I'm in the process of finding a key-pad equipped notebook and came upon 4510s. Just wonder, is the noise problem remain the same? Did HP issued an update to mitigate the issue?

Besides, after a few months, is there anything new come up?

 

boomboomboom:

You've probably already decided on a notebook by now but in case you haven't and for those that read this thread later, I just received a 4510s in this morning and have been setting it up. It's very quiet. I haven't had it long enough to give a full review or anything but the fan definitely doesn't run on high all the time. I'm guessing that the pre-release version that was reviewed here may not have had the fan control optimized yet but the one I've got has been quiet most of the time. The fan is very loud when it spools up to max speed but so far I've only heard it run loud like that during boot-up. Afterward, the fan speed dropped down so far that I have to put my ear against it to hear it.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Jack