HP ProBook 470 G5 review – redefining the work environment

The manufacturer markets this computer as a professional’s best friend, whether it would be used in an office or on the go, providing the option of using a dock as well (it’s bought separately). HP also claims that the machine boasts a decent battery life from the 3-Cell 48 Wh unit, located under the bonnet of the laptop. Additionally, the fifth generation of HP ProBook 470 comes in several variants, featuring a Core i5/i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce 930MX GPU. The one that we are going to check out today is equipped with the Core i5-8250U low-voltage CPU from Intel.

The GPU built in the processor allows for a longer battery life, but for more performance-oriented tasks we have GeForce 930MX on-board. This graphics card is not exactly meant to supply a powerhouse, but it will definitely do the job for very light gaming and the day-to-day usage that this laptop is built for. Memory-wise, HP ProBook 470 comes with one 8 GB DDR4 module, running at a top speed of 2400 MHz. The storage device is a 1 TB Toshiba SATA HDD @7200 rpm, and lastly, we have a 17.3-inch HD+ (1600 x 900p) display with a TN panel.

The huge body of the 17.3-inch laptop looks fancy with its silver matte painted body and good choice of I/O ports.

You can find the prices and configurations in our Specs System: http://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-probook-470-g5/

Contents


Specs Sheet

The current specs sheet is for this particular model and configurations may differ depending on your region.

HP ProBook 470 G5 technical specifications table Also known as 2TT74UT#ABA

Acer
Not available
Display
17.3”, HD+ (1600 x 900), TN
HDD/SSD
500GB, 7200 rpm
M.2 Slot
1x 2280 PCIe M.2 slot (M key) See photo
RAM
8GB DDR4, 2400 MHz
Dimensions
413 x 276 x 22.5 mm (16.26" x 10.87" x 0.89")
Weight
2.50 kg (5.5 lbs)
Body material
Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort, HDMI
  • 2x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A 2.0, Sleep and Charge
  • HDMI
  • VGA
  • DVI
  • Card reader SD
  • Ethernet lan
  • Wi-Fi 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth 4.2
  • Audio jack headphone/microphone
Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

HP ProBook 470 G5 configurations


Retail package

HP hasn’t offered anything else other than the essentials. Inside the box, we found a set of well-packed manuals, as well as the power brick and power cord to connect the adapter to the wall. Of course the most interesting part – the silver giant – comes surrounded by blocks of foam (transportation matters).


Design and construction

Despite the large footprint, the HP ProBook 470 G5 is a rather slim and somehow light device. Its shell is made of the not so premium plastic, which we found to be actually pretty sturdy. Similarly to last year’s ProBook 470 G4 – the only metal part you’ll see is the area around the keyboard, which is made of brushed anodized aluminum. The overall weight of the device is 2.50 kg (5.5 lbs), which is kind of impressive for a 17-inch device, and the dimensions are 41.38 x 27.61 x 2.26 cm (16.29 x 10.87 x 0.89 in), giving the ProBook 470 G5 a thin 23 mm profile.

Speaking of the aluminum material on the ProBook 470 G5’s exterior – it attracts fingerprints as sugar attracts flies. Ever since the first time we laid our fingers on the device it felt like we’re in the police department. Other than that, the base has a good feel and is pretty comfortable in use. The keyboard, surrounded by it, also feels good to touch. HP has used a full-sized keyboard, but strangely they decided not to include proper arrow keys. Why HP?! There is enough space for a second keyboard there! Although it is not that much of a problem once you get used to it, we would love to see the arrow keys as they should be. Other than that, the keyboard is pretty good – with decent key travel and a clicky feedback, the device gives a good feeling and confidence when typing.

Above the keyboard, there is a huge grill for the speakers, and the matte touchpad is located at the front, which we find fairly adequate and well balanced. Last but not least, there is a feature that we can see on more and more new devices – a fingerprint reader, which is located on the right-hand side of the metal panel. At first, the system prompts you to slide your finger on top of the reader a couple of times for the sensor to remember your fingerprint. It is not exactly like the method, used on most smartphones and the majority of laptop sensors, but it gives a pleasant fluid feel when you slide a finger on top of it, and you are given access to the computer. Even though it’s not the fastest, it worked in 100% of the cases for us.

Things are a little bit busier on the right side, where we find two more USB Type-A connectors and one of Type-C, featuring Thunderbolt 3 support and Power Delivery. They are accompanied by video connectors – a single VGA and single full-sized HDMI port. Lastly, we have the Ethernet connector. Essentially, HP gives you the full treatment with this work-oriented device.

ProBook 470 G5’s 17.3-inch HD+ screen is surrounded by medium-sized plastic bezels, from which the top one houses the web camera, some mics, and an ambient light sensor. The hinges of the device feel stable, but it impresses us with the ability to open the “hood” single-handedly. The bottom part of the laptop has a few vents, located in the middle of the device. It is also here that we found а service panel which lets you upgrade the RAM and storage.


Disassembly and maintenance

As previously seen in older models, HP has provided ProBook 470 G5 users with easy access to the internals of the device via a couple of service covers which are held by a screw and some clips. After you open the service panel, you can see every upgradeable part of the laptop.

Looking at the image on the left below, there are the RAM slots, one of which is currently free, while the other one is occupied by an 8 GB DDR4 2400 MHz module. On their left, you can see the Wi-Fi card, and beneath it, there are the heatpipes, where they connect to the CPU. A little to the right we can see where they make contact with the GPU, and finally, in the image on the right, you can see the fancy little turbine (despite the big housing the turbine is small) that draws the hot air from the heatsink out into the wild.

In the next two pictures, you can see the storage upgrade capabilities of HP ProBook 470 G5. The HDD can be changed super easily by unscrewing two screws that hold it in place, and then pulling the strap. Props to HP for giving instructions how to remove the HDD on its plastic cover. On its left, we find the M.2 PCIe slot for super fast SSD drives, which is currently empty but would definitely love to have some company in the future.


Display quality

The display unit of HP ProBook 470 G5 has an HD+ TN panel with a model number BOE BOE0660. The footprint is 17.3 inches, and 1600 x 900 resolution (with an aspect ratio of 16:9). All this contributes to the pixel density of 109 ppi, with a 0.239 x 0.239 mm pitch. The screen can be considered as “Retina” when viewed from a distance beyond 80 cm.

HP ProBook 470 G5 has uncomfortable viewing angles. Here are some images for quality check.

The maximum brightness we measured is 216 nits in the center of the screen and 210 nits average for the whole surface, and a maximum deviation of just 6%. The color temperature of the display is 7060K (white screen and maximum brightness), which is a little bit colder than the sRGB standard of 6500K. The average color temperature, measured on the grey scale before calibration is above 15000K (cold, bluish light, fixed by our profiles).
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs around 140 cd/m2, which translates into 83% brightness with this panel. The dE2000 values should not pass the 4.0 mark, and if the color accuracy is of a big importance to you (multimedia creator), this is the first thing you should check before you buy a device.
The contrast we measured is mediocre – 255:1 (230:1 after calibration).

Color reproduction

The next image shows the sRGB coverage of HP ProBook 470 G5’s display. The color reproduction of the human eye is shown via the “CIE 1976 Unifom Chromaticity Diagram”. In the middle of the dark-grey triangle are located the standard colors used by Internet and digital TV – rec.709/sRGB.

Being used by million people around the world the colors from the sRGB gamut are the most common and their accurate reproduction is of key importance for the quality of the screen.

In addition to the Adobe RGB color space, used in the professional photography, we’ve included the color gamut, used by world-known movie studios – DCI-P3, and UHD-digital television (Rec.2020), which is very hard to achieve by modern display units.

We have drawn the Pointer’s Gamut with a black line. This color space covers all the colors we can see around us.

The HP ProBook 470 G5 coverage is shown by the yellow pointed line. It’s display has 68% of sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Gaming and Web design” profile is designed to show optimal color temperature (6500K) when the luminance is at 140 cd/m2 and sRGB gamma.

In order to test the display, we used 24 color samples, consisting of common founded and easy distinguishable ones like light and dark human skin, blue sky, grassy green and orange.
Beneath you can compare the results of HP ProBook 470 G5 with the default settings, and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile.

The next chart shows us the capabilities of comfortable gaming experience in terms of the darkest parts of the image.

The left side tells us the default settings results of the screen, and the right one shows us the results with “Gaming and Web design” profile installed. The horizontal gives us the levels of grey, and the vertical one – the screen brightness.

You can check how your device displays the first five levels of grey – 1% – 5% White – via the graphics below the charts. The image you see depends on several factors such as the panel of the display you’re currently reading this article on, it’s calibration, your vision, ambient light, viewing angle and more.

Response Time (Gaming capabilities)

The chart below illustrates the response time of the pixels going from Black to White and around for levels of 10% to 90% and vice versa. We measured Fall Time + Rise Time = 15 ms


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

The screen brightness of HP ProBook 470 G5 is not PW-modulated throughout all of the levels, giving comfort to the eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing of our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

HP ProBook 470 G5’s screen has a large diagonal, fairly fast panel, and it’s brightness isn’t PW-modulated. The resolution of the screen is acceptable for a workhorse computer, and the sRGB coverage is not bad. Additionally, the panel has its disadvantages though – poor viewing angles which are typical for the TN panel.

Buy our display profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package is meant for HP ProBook 470 G5 configurations with 17.3″ BOE BOE0660 (HD+, 1600 × 900) TN screen: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

HP ProBook 470 G5 pumps clear sound with a very good quality. Tones are clear for the low, mid and high frequency ranges.


Software

HP ProBook 470 G5 comes with a 64-bit Windows 10 OS on board, so all the drivers you need will be pre-installed. Just in case you need to reinstall/change OS here is the official driver download page: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-probook-470-g5-notebook-pc/17047161

Battery

As always, the battery tests were run with Windows power saving setting turned and Wi-Fi turned on, and the screen brightness adjusted to 120 cd/m2.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.

Dell Inspiron 17 7779 56Wh, Li-Ion, 4-cell
HP ProBook 470 G3 44Wh, Li-Po, 4-cell

We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.

Dell Inspiron 17 7779 56Wh, Li-Ion, 4-cell
HP ProBook 470 G3 44Wh, Li-Po, 4-cell

HP ProBook 470 G5’s battery life is not the best out there, but is satisfactory, giving us around 6 hours of Web surfing/Video playback. Once we go into gaming territories you wouldn’t want to roam alone there without a charger.

CPU – Intel Core i5-8250U

The Core i5-8250U is one of the first (along with the Core i7-8550U from the same generation) ULV (ultra-low voltage) processors from Intel to feature not two but four cores. It’s part of the 8th Generation (Kaby Lake Refresh) and on contrary to the previous generations, the Turbo Boost range is pretty wide now.

The base frequency is 1.6 GHz and can go up to 3.4 GHz for a short period of time before stabilizing somewhere in between during continues loads. This also means that the single-core performance is really good. The rest of the features and specs, however, remain mostly the same with support for dual-channel DDR4-2400/LPDDR3-2133 memory, 14nm FinFET manufacturing process and the same integrated graphics chip, although re-branded now as Intel UHD Graphics 620.

The whole SoC along with the dual-channel memory is rated at 15W TDP but depending on the usage scenario, cooling capabilities and the configured TDP from the OEM, the TDP can vary from 7.5W up to 25W.

You can browse through our top CPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-cpu-ranking/


GPU – NVIDIA GeForce 930MX

The NVIDIA GeForce 930MX chip is based on the same 28nm process as the whole Maxwell family and uses the GM108 chip as the previous GeForce 930M GPU. However, some alterations have allowed for the GeForce 930MX to perform better than its predecessor.

Now the 930MX GPU supports GDDR5 memory, although not every OEM will use it and the most commonly found versions are with DDR3 VRAM. Furthermore, the GeForce 930MX is clocked higher (1019 – 1176 MHz) and this alone will bring the performance closer to the GeForce 940M. But most of the specs remain the same – 384 CUDA cores, 24 TMUs, 16 ROPs and 64-bit memory interface.

You can browse through our top GPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-graphics-ranking/


Gaming tests

The GeForce 930MX found in this machine gives a perfectly playable experience in GTA V, although you have to lower the resolution and details. Anyhow, this GPU will be more than enough for playing not so demanding titles. We found no problems to achieve 60 fps on MAX settings and 768p resolution on the CS:GO.

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 768p, Low (Check settings)HD 768p, Medium (Check settings)HD 768p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS133 fps86 fps63 fps
Min FPS17 fps14 fps14 fps

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)HD 768p, Low (Check settings)HD 768p, Medium (Check settings)HD 768p, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS60 fps24 fps
Min FPS34 fps16 fps

Temperatures

The temperature tests go this way. We use Prime95 and FurMark to torture the CPU and the GPU respectively. This won’t give real-life representation but with our methodology, we are trying to give you the most optimal results.

The first values from the test are from the 30th second of running the Prime95 stress test, which simulates a heavy task run on your computer (usually lighter tasks take from a part of the second up to a couple of seconds). Next, we take the ones from the 2nd-minute mark, which imitates a very heavy task, run on the CPU. The last values we give you are the ones at the end of the test, which is 15 minutes, simulating the CPU load when it renders a video, for example.

The Core i5-8250U found on HP ProBook 470 G5 run idle at around 39.5°C. After 30 seconds passed, the average CPU frequency was a little bit over 2.7 GHz, and the temperature average was around 62°C.

0-15 min. CPU torture test

Cores frequency (0 – 00:30 sec.)
CPU Temperature (0 – 00:30 sec.)

The average frequency of the Core i5 for the period of two minutes was a little bit under 2.5 GHz, and the temperatures fluctuated around the 62°C, which is perfectly fine for now.

Cores frequency (0 – 2:00 min.)
CPU Temperature (0 – 2:00 sec.)

Lastly, after 15 minutes of pain for the HP ProBook 470 G5, we had mercy and stopped torture test. We found out that the frequency of the CPU cores fluctuated between 2.3 GHz and 2.4 GHz contributing to an average for the whole test of a little bit under 2.4 GHz. Temperature-wise, the CPU went up to 72°C and averaged around 68°C, which is not bad for the tiny fan the device is equipped with.

Cores frequency (0 – 15:00 min.)
CPU Temperature (0 – 15:00 min.)

The next graph shows us the clock speeds and temperatures of GeForce 930MX when we made it do some heavy lifting – FurMark. We ran the program for the period of 30 minutes. The idle temperature of the GPU before the test was 39°C, and the average temperature we got at the end of it was 56°C! This speaks really well of the cooling capabilities of the HP ProBook 470 G5. Also, it’s worth mentioning, that the clock and the memory speeds didn’t fluctuate at all – they remained at 1020 MHz and 1001 MHz respectively, during the whole period of the test.

30 min. GPU torture test

33.7°C
34.2°C
30.4°C
31.1°C
35.1°C
32.0°C
25.0°C
23.0°C
24.3°C

Verdict

HP has succeeded in making a good all-rounder. Most of the people looking for a 17-inch portable computer need a fast and reliable companion, which won’t let them down. ProBook 470 G5 utilizes the Core i5-8250U well, and we noticed no stutter in everyday use whatsoever. The NVIDIA GeForce 930MX on-board provides decent gaming experience, and you can play games like GTA V with a decent picture, although you should keep the details low.

Aspects we found very pleasant to work with are the keyboard and the touchpad. The first one being clicky and responsive, but the lack of backlight would be a problem in late hours. The latter is satisfactory and its size is good enough – not being too small nor too big, so you won’t press it accidentally while using the keyboard. As we said earlier this device is equipped with a fingerprint scanner, which is of top-notch quality.

The battery life of the HP ProBook 470 G5 is not bad until you put the discrete GPU into the equation. Being able to give you around 6 hours of Web surfing and Video playback, it seriously drains the battery when you start gaming, although we doubt that you’re going to do that away from the socket.

One of the drawbacks of this device is the contrast ratio of its screen. The 255:1 is low even for a TN panel. Also, the display also has poor color accuracy, but that is fixed by our display profiles. The other thing that may be considered a drawback is that almost the whole shell of the device is made of plastic, but in HP’s defense the plastic is of pretty high quality, and the paint job gives the impression of a more premium material being present.

Pros

  • Slim form factor for a 17-inch laptop
  • Fast and reliable
  • The lid is easily opened with one hand
  • Top notch fingerprint reader
  • Excellent keyboard and touchpad


Cons

  • Plastic design
  • Poor contrast and color accuracy (the latter is fixed by our profiles)
  • Lack of a keyboard backlight

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4ygak
4ygak
6 years ago

Why you didn’t review 470 G5 with IPS?

4ygak
4ygak
6 years ago
Reply to  Alex Iliev

Thanks for you job! But 17.3-inch HD+?… Who will buy it?)

In this – https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-ProBook-470-G5-i5-8250U-930MX-SSD-FHD-Laptop-Review.277330.0.html article FHD display has a very good display.

niro
niro
4 years ago

I own the 470 G5 for about 2 years and is a great laptop .This review is not entirely correct ..The display is great and has 400 nits !! ..not 216 ..and the contrast is 600:1 not 255:1 ..NO, the lid is not easily opened with one hand !!..Everyone knows that….its a joke from you..So, its not a “Pros” ..
I wonder if you even had this laptop in your hand ..Otherwise how do you not know it is NOT easily opened with one hand !!!

kevev
kevev
4 years ago
Reply to  niro

I use a 470 G5 for my work as a controls engineer. Mine has been upgraded with a 1TB SSD and 1TB HDD and it is very fast and performs excellently. Not sure if you have some kind of disability but I find mine very easy to open with one hand. have owned and used it professionally for over a year now.