HP ProBook 4410s

Full Review

The HP ProBook 4410s is a business notebook unlike any other we've seen from HP. Not quite an EliteBook, it marries stylish design with adequate business features without burning a big hole through your pocket. Weighing 2.2-kg, it's lighter than most 14-inch laptops we've reviewed.

Our review model had a polished matte maroon shell and looked very elegant. The ProBook 4410s has a 14-inch non-glossy screen—perfect for prolonged reading without reflected distractions, a constant menace on glossy screens. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio, is evenly lit and offers good viewing angles. The ProBook has a chiclet-styled keyboard similar to the Acer Aspire 5738. Only it's a little more cut-out and there's ample space between the keys, making it comfortable to type on. The touchpad is nice, smooth, and very responsive. Even the twin mouse buttons are springy and better than most we've seen.

It's very well looked after in terms of internal hardware: an Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 2.1-GHz processor, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. It has onboard graphics but HP offers optional ATI dedicated graphics if you're interested in some casual gaming. There's a 2MP webcam for video conferencing, and a slew of security features to protect your data from unauthorized access. It deploys HP ProtectTools Security Manager 4.0, allowing businesses and users greater flexibility to pick and choose their level of security.

The HP ProBook 4410s comes with 64-bit Windows Vista Business operating system. Not only does it have good business features, but we benchmarked it against some of our mainstream laptop recommendations and it fared well in terms of multimedia usage. Its WorldBench 6 score of 88 is pretty good. Sound from the ProBook's onboard speakers was low in volume, but clear. Connect a pair of headphones and they're as good as any other. It played both 720p and 1080p high-def videos without a hitch, and despite its matte screen waching movies was fun. The ProBook 4410s also has an HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet, Draft-N Wi-Fi, and an ExpressCard slot, apart from regular connectivity ports.

The only disappointment on the HP ProBook 4410s is its average battery life of 1 hour 20 minutes in BatteryEater's benchmarks. That's little under three hours while browsing the Web over Wi-Fi. As long as you aren't fussed over plugging in the ProBook's power adapter, you should be fine.

Bottom Line

At Rs. 45,600, the HP ProBook 4410s is recommended for professionals interested in a stylish 14-inch business notebook with good business features. It is relatively light at 2.2-kg and has some multimedia potential as well.