I picked up one of these HP Probooks after seeing my girlfriends, which was provided by her employer. The pictures don't do this machine any justice. This notebook features solid contruction and a nice sleek brushed aluminum finish. I am in the gaming pc profession and needed a reliable notebook for after office tasks. The HP Probook has been a great product so far. I removed the stock hard drive and replaced it with a 128gb Samsung solid state drive with transfer kit (Norton Ghost). As expected the performance increase is simply remarkable. With the SSD installed, you would think i purchased a top of the line Core i7 series notebook. With the SSD purchased here from Amazon ($149) my total investment was $648. If you are handy with computers this model has incredible potential for performance and the looks to match. Bravo job HP!
The only con I see is the amount of bloatware that HP installs at the factory. It took me about 4 hours to remove the optional non necessary programs but for the price, it is still worth it. Also, even without the SSD upgrade, this machine is still very capable in its stock configuration. It is expandible from 4GB of RAM up to 8GB. There are no fingerprint readers or other security devices built in. The HP software suite offers a trial version of Norton Security, I removed that immediately and installed the always free "Microsoft Security Essentials" which I find quite adequate (plus i'm cheap).
If you are interested, here is the SSD I used that includes Norton Ghost so you can backup the existing hard drive and transfer it to the new SSD. Very easy to use.
Samsung 830 Series MZ-7PC128N/AM 128 GB 2.5 Inch SATA III MLC Internal SSD Laptop Kit with Norton Ghost 15
*********************
Updated Review
*********************
So after about 2 months with this device I still have zero complaints. HP is certainly not the same company it used to be 10 years ago. The Probook and Elitebook line is considered a business class device. What this means is as opposed to light home use (social media, email and web browsing) this device is designed for extensive daily use, as one would expect from a business computer. They are bit more solid in the construction than other HP models. I still beleive this is most likely the best possible notebook computer available today (Aug 2012) for under $500. Although many of you will use this notebook for home use. It is really a great device for business or school use. Another reviewer had commented about the screen being a bit thin and flimsy for their taste. I would have to respectfully disagree. This model does have a reletively thin screen, however the bezel that holds the screen is quite adequate. I was considering a [much more expensive] Sony model before purchasing this HP Probook. The Sony model had a wonderful thin screen but when you moved it... it felt extremely fragile. This particular screen has a nice 1/2 inch bezel to provide a solid feel even though the screen is nicely thinned. I think in comparison to other like model notebooks this Probook seems above par. There are certainly a slew of higher spec notebooks available today, however for the investment this i3 dual core (hyperthreaded quad core) sets the bar for others to follow. I am completely impressed with HP in this line of notebooks. Consider the price for the quality of the entire product, this is a hands down winner.
P.S. please don't post negative reviews for a product because USPS kicked the box down the street. Obviously you should return any product for an exchange if there is any damage. Also, I personally only purchase from Amazon directly OR a merchant that is "Fulfilled by Amazon" meaning it is shipped from an Amazon warehouse and not somebody's garage. Off the soapbox now...
I bought this surprisingly inexpensive little powerhouse about a year ago. I did upgrade the memory to 8GB and I got an external hard drive for backups, but this little puppy still hums along quite nicely. I am a computational chemist and having multiple processors has proven handy as I can run small computational jobs on two or three processors and still surf the web or play video with no noticeable performance lags.
I have actually been disappointed by HP before. In particular, I found their pavillion line to be be under powered crap that breaks quite easily (for some reason, this was the only brand/model my parents would buy me as a teen and in college), so I was pretty skeptical about buying another HP product. I reasoned that since this was supposedly a business laptop, corporate customers wouldn't repeatedly buy the same crap they peddle to home users. That, the fact that this notebook got a lot of great reviews on another major online vendor convinced me and the relatively low price convinced me. I have been happier with this computer than any other I've owned except for one which I put together myself.
Buy HP ProBook 4530s 15.6" Notebook (2.30 GHz Intel Core i3-2350M, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-R Now
I'm going to start by saying that in the past I never thought much
of HP computers and have purchased a few over the years. Pulled the
trigger on this one mainly because of the rave reviews on Tonymac forums
as I was interested in running osx on it along side windows 7.
I've had this about 24 hours now but was on it all night last night so here
are some of my immediate thoughts. Like the title says, excellent for
the money. Keyboard is full size and love the numeric pad on the right.
The brushed aluminum is an extremely nice touch and looks amazing.
As soon as I plugged it in I wiped the hard drive clean and installed Mac OSX
and Windows 7 to dual boot which it does very nicely. Powers up quickly.
The 4GB seems like plenty for most people. Machine performs really snappy
I like it alot. It's not too heavy so traveling with it daily or longer
would not be a problem. One major thing I noticed is that it runs very cool.
I've had three other laptops over the years and they all ran so hot that you
couldn't keep them on your lap. I've also seen more than my share of clients
machines come in with burned up processors, boards, and hard drives from the
excessive heat. Don't think you're gonna see that with these new processors
they run super cool. Now for the cons. The screen is thin. I have
already seen one in existence with pressure damage. The battery latches
are flimsy and I would suggest being really gentle if you remove the battery
to avoid snapping something. Same with the rear access cover. Thin and flimsy.
I ordered a sleeve to put the laptop in so that other stuff in my briefcase
doesn't damage the laptop banging off it. All in all I'd say this is a great
choice for someone who needs a work and play machine in one and at this price
it's a no brainer.
Read Best Reviews of HP ProBook 4530s 15.6" Notebook (2.30 GHz Intel Core i3-2350M, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-R Here
I've been a HP fan for awhile. Our household has over multiple HP machines running (2 laptops and 3 PC). I decided to purchase the HP ProBook for its durability and quality.
Although the i3 processor isn't going to win any performance contest, it is suitable for most applications including Adobe Photoshop CS5, Lightroom and even video editing.
I was excited to make this purchase. However, had to return it for unexpected disappointment Loud and Constant FAN noise.
I have 2 pavilion laptops that is over 4-5yrs old and runs quietly til this day, thus made the same assumption when purchasing this probook.
Upon first day of usage, the fan would kick only after 10minute of use. And for those doubting, I have chill AC running at our house at 68 degrees...so I know it was not any kind of environmental heat causing the fan to kick in constantly.
I let it run for 2-3hrs with basic web browsing (checking emails, youtube) but was disappointed to hear and even feel the FAN turn on and stay on for 80% of the time.
I gave it second and third chance to cool down and try again next day. Same result.
Then another disappointment kicked in when I ran the DVD in the DVD writer. I simply put in a DVD movie and let it run.
The spinning motor noise and the fan noise made it unbearable to watch any movie on the laptop.
I was fairly disappointed with the experience and had no choice than to return it.
I will hope this has nothing to do with the whole HP computer business fiasco where they are cutting back on quality parts in order to make ends meet.
Either way, HP may have lost a customer... I may have to convert to another brand following as HP quality is now questionable.
Want HP ProBook 4530s 15.6" Notebook (2.30 GHz Intel Core i3-2350M, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-R Discount?
Laptop's Purpose I bought this lap top to do homework and take notes while in class. I also planned to surf the web pretty much on a daily basis. I might want to occasionally play a game or two.
Does it meet my expectations? Yes, laptop meets my expectations. It even exceeds them. The battery life on this is phenomenal. One thing I did immediately is put more RAM in the laptop. It might even be a bit of overkill. The 4GB that comes on the computer would be enough to handle pretty much anything you throw at this thing, aside from resource heavy games. You'll never run something like Skyrim or Battlefield on this laptop, but that's not a downside because you wouldn't purchase it for that reason. That being said, I'll breakdown what I think of this laptop piece by piece.
Overall Feel / Look of the Laptop: 5/5 The brushed aluminum look is one of my favorite looks. It doesn't show smudges or finger prints very easily. It's a good quality finish. I haven't seen any chipping or cracking anywhere on the exterior. Also, there is nothing flimsy about this laptop. It feels like a solid, high quality machine.
Weight: 4/5 This laptop weighs a little more than I had anticipated. However, if I would have read the description like I should have, I would have known the exact weight. It just feels heavier than it looks.
Size: 5/5 No oddities here. The size allows for a full keyboard and number pad, as well as a bright clean screen. It doesn't expand too much off the screen, which is a plus because it can fit in cases with more ease.
Inputs: 4/5 The keyboard is a bit fickle. There are some built in shortcuts on this laptop that I don't quite understand fully. For example, I have noticed when I'm typing a paper and I type anything that ends in "ound" it goes to save the document, which is just odd. The keyboard itself is well made with responsive buttons and they are spaced enough that even a sausage fingered neck beard like myself can type without a whole bunch of screw ups. The touchpad works just fine, however I use an auxiliary mouse on a day-to-day basis. Webcam works fine, offers a good picture. Microphone is actually really good, I can pick up a lecture crisp and clear even if I'm typing on the laptop and in the back or middle of the room.
Upgradeability: 5/5 I upgraded the ram with a couple of clicks. It is very easy to get into the hard drive bay if you were to ever want to swap out a SSD in the laptop. Windows 8 installed and runs just fine on this laptop.
Hardware: 5/5 The processor is a good processor for mobile computing. The wireless works really great and can pick up a signal within a pretty large range. Sound is great through on board speakers. Screen is bold and bright. Everything seems really well built. The ram is speedy. The hard drive is roomy and quick. There is a SD slot and plenty of USB ports. The disk drive is solid and has a pretty high read/write rate.
Overall, I would recommend this laptop to anyone who's budget it would fit in. Sure there are better laptops, but they are more expensive. But if you can afford this, I would say this is the best in the price rage.
Well for one its nice to see that as i sit here and type this review on the computer itself, Lenovo have ditched the old looking IBM thinkpad method and made the modern mac book look stylish and great. This computer is great, oddly enough i got it at office depot, the regular price was 679$ and they are running a special on it now for 499$, yep you heard right. This will only last till 1/15/11 though, get it. I purchased a Toshiba(which i like) but it had the cruddy old AMD turion(which i hate) processor and was slow as a 80 year old woman climbing out of the bath tub. I didnt even realize they had the Toshiba(let alone this) until i actually saw it on the website. So after being disappointed with the Toshiba and its lack luster performance, i saw this on there as well. So i ran back and said hey you don't even have this out yet, so for the price i want it instead, no problem. Also the Toshiba was 549$ with tax! So see it pays to shop around.
