HP ProBook 4425s Laptop Computer Review

The ProBook 4425s is the AMD-variant of the popular small and medium business notebook from HP. Designed as a near carbon copy of its Intel-based siblings, the 4425s features a quad-core Phenom II processor with integrated ATI Radeon 4250 graphics. In this review we find out how well the AMD offering stacks up against its Intel competition.

While the ProBook 4425s may be light on performance, the HP software extras may make up for it, depending on your business' needs. Most notable in the machine we tested is the slick new HP DayStarter utility. While your notebook boots up, instead of staring at the Windows splash screen, DayStarter puts up a snapshot of your calendar, scraped from Outlook. As on past ProBooks, you also get the new version of HP QuickLook preboot environment, which lets you get to your Outlook contacts, e-mail, and calendar without booting into Windows. The new HP ProBook 4425s AC adapter allows you to add items (versions 1 and 2 were read-only), then syncs them with Outlook when you do open Windows. The ProBook 4425s also comes with HP QuickWeb, a full-featured browser you can use without launching Windows.

HP ProBook 4425s Specs:

• CPU Options: AMD Phenom II Quad-Core, AMD Phenom II Triple-Core, AMD Turion II Dual-Core, AMD Athlon II Dual-Core, AMD V-Series Single-Core Processor
• Display size/resolution: 14 inches/1366 x 768
• Hard Drive size/speed: 250, 320, 500GB/7,200 rpm
• Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250
• Optical Drive: DVD SuperMulti DL, Blu-Ray
• Wireless: Realtek 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1
• Size: 13.2 x 9.2 x 1.1 inches
• Weight: 5 pounds

Users looking to quickly swap out components will be in for a bit of a shock. To access the processor, hard drive, or even the system memory, you need to fully dismantle the ProBook 4425s. On this small and medium business notebook HP opted for centralized support and maintenance, with very little work being done by the end user. In terms of looks this gives the bottom a clean appearance without any access panels, but in terms of difficultly, it adds a lot of work to swap out components. To open the system, you remove four screws underneath the HP ProBook 4425s battery, pop off the speaker bezel, remove four additional screws that hold the keyboard in place, slide the keyboard up. This gives you access to the system memory. To get at the hard drive, you remove three more screws that hold the palmrest in place, slide it carefully to the right to release it from its clips. Once that is removed you simply take out three more screws that hold the hard drive in place, and take it out (with four more screws holding it into its cage). To say upgrades on the ProBook are difficult or confusing is putting it lightly.

The full-size keyboard near to the HP ProBook 4425s is effortless to sort on and extremely relaxing for lengthy typing sessions. every sole vital is pretty flat getting an ideal matte texture along using the keys sit above a glossy dark help frame. The frame surrounding the keys is instead organization many thanks toward the design belonging toward the chassis, which adds additional help for that keyboard. The dude or ladies vital presses are quiet without any loud clicking seems when you type. The depth of every sole vital press is excellent, although some individuals may properly dislike the flat, chicklet-style keys. basic the spacing and layout HP chose for that 4425s is extremely great for just about any 14-inch notebook, without any sensation cramped from as well numerous keys.

The ProBook 4425s' eight-cell battery took 1 hour and 10 minutes to reach a 80-percent charge. To get to 100 percent, it needed a total of 1 hours and 55 minutes. During that time, the system used an average of 45.3 watts. Its LAPTOP Battery Efficiency rating of 28.6 was slightly worse than the 22.2 category average (lower is better). EPEAT gives the ProBook a rating of 21 out of 27.

This is primarily a business notebook, meaning battery life is important. HP Power Assistant gives battery information so users view and monitor battery consumption. With either a 6 cell or the optional 9 cell HP ProBook 4425s battery, you will have plenty of power. To protect your mission-critical information HP is providing security both in software and also features like HP 3D DriveGuard, which kicks in if the notebook is dropped. The accelerometer detects the drop and parks or freezes the hard drive so you won’t lose data.

Port selection on the ProBook 4425s is very nice for a small and medium business notebook, featuring three USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA and HDMI-out, LAN, modem, and headphone/mic jacks. The notebook also features a SDHC-card slot and ExpressCard/34 for future expansion.

Performance is comparable to that of the HP 5310m, which uses a previous-generation Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Against the Core i5 CPUs of the Lenovo T410s, Dell V3300, and Dell E5510, the HP 4425s didn't stand a chance in tests like video encoding (1 minute 5 seconds), Cinebench R10 (4,999), and PCMark Vantage (3,835). Even the Core i3 processors found in the Lenovo Edge 15 and Toshiba R705-P25 were speedier in these tests. The ATI Mobility Radeon HP ProBook 4425s charger is an integrated graphics chip and performed about as well as the Intel GMA HD (Core i5), such as the one found in the Dell E5510. Its 3DMark 06 scores (1,972) indicate that it can handle non-3D intensive games like World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2.

The new ProBook also features up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, a DVD writer, a 1366×768 LED-backlit anti-glare display, ATI Radeon HD 4250, and a hard drive that can be upgraded up to 500GB. You can also choose from Windows 7, Vista, or SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 OS. And, you can start building your HP ProBook 4425s right now, with a starting price of $619.