Quick look at HP ProBook 450 G4 – still one of the best budget business 15-inchers

HP finally updated its excellent ProBook lineup and we now have the ProBook 450 G4 here with us – the direct successor to the 450 G3. Aside from the visual changes, the ProBook 450 G4 offers entirely new hardware as well so here are our first impressions of the model so far.

Design

The changes in the design are apparent, although, they have not affected the overall build quality. Plastic is still the main material used for the build but aluminum is still present in the interior. The most noticeable tweak would be the lid. Last year’s G3 offered a soft-touch matte plastic finish while this year’s G4 goes with a metallic silver plastic top. While this helps eliminate the fingerprint problem, it loses the somehow distinctive look and grip when carrying it around.

The best thing about the ProBook remains the same – the keyboard. The layout is identical to the previous generation and also retaining the pleasant feedback and long key travel. What was really surprising is the touchpad. Instead of the usual dedicated mouse buttons and small trackpad area, the new ProBook 450 G4 offers more room for gestures and swipes by replacing it with a single trackpad plate without dedicated mouse keys. And fortunately, HP has used more than decent touchpad in contrast to its Pavilion laptops.

Now let’s talk some numbers. The new ProBook 450 G4 now weighs around 2.04 kg and offers a relatively thin profile – 24.4 mm. That’s a small decline in both aspects and barely noticeable in practice. For the record, the ProBook 450 G3 tipped the scale at 2.270 kg and measures 24.8 mm thick.

Hardware

Here’s where the big changes come. Moving forward with the lineup, HP uses the brand new Intel Core i3-7100U, Core i5-7200U and Core i7-7500U Kaby Lake processors. There are also variants with Pentium 4415U and Celeron 3865U making the new clamshell even more affordable. There’s also a significant update in the memory department as the motherboard supports up to 16GB of DDR4-2133 RAM. The best part is that the new model leaves behind the lackluster AMD Radeon R7 M340 and replaces it with the refreshed NVIDIA GeForce 930MX GPU. We can expect better overall performance from this year’s ProBook 450 G4 for sure.

Keeping the lights on is a 48Wh battery unit – insignificant upgrade from the 44Wh unit. Unfortunately, the new generation still ships with an HD TN panel as a standard, offering upgrades only up to FHD again TN. And finally, the storage options remain the same – M.2 SATA SSD up to 256GB and 2.5-inch HDD up to 2TB. There are also some variants with 500GB SSHD as well.

Specs sheet


ProcessorIntel Core i3-7100U (2-core, 2.40 GHz, 3MB cache) / Intel Core i5-7200U (2-core, 2.50 – 3.10 GHz, 3MB cache) / Intel Core i7-7500U (2-core, 2.70 – 3.50 GHz, 4MB cache)
RAMup to 16GB (2x 8192MB) – DDR4, 2133 MHz
Graphics cardNVIDIA GeForce 930MX (2GB DDR3)
HDD/SSD256GB M.2 SATA SSD + 1TB HDD (5400 rpm)
Display15.6-inch HD (1366×768) TN panel, matte / 15.6-inch Full HD (1920×1080) TN panel, matte / 15.6-inch HD (1366×768) TN touch panel, matte
Optical driveYes
ConnectivityLAN 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2×2), Bluetooth 4.0
Other features
  • 1x USB 3.0
  • 2x USB 2.0
  • 1x USB-C 3.0
  • webcam
  • 3.5 mm combo audio jack
  • SD card reader
  • HDMI
  • VGA
  • RJ-45 (LAN)
Battery3-cell, 48Wh
Thickness24.4 mm (0.96″)
Weight2.04 kg (4.5 lbs)

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