Quick look at HP ProBook 470 G3 – HP’s take on 17-inch affordable business solutions

It’s only logical that we do a review of the 17-inch ProBook this year after the 14-inch 440 G3 and 15-inch 450 G3 have been thoroughly tested in our labs. We hope the ProBook 470 G3 will hold up to our expectations but we don’t really see why not – it’s just a bigger version of the standard ProBooks.

You can find some of the notebook’s price and configurations here: http://amzn.to/2cbFLNa

Design

As we already mentioned, the ProBook 470 G3 offers the same design language as the 450 G3 and 440 G3 laptops. Matte plastic finish on the lid, hard plastic bottom and brushed aluminum interior around the keyboard and touchpad. The matte plastic is a fingerprint magnet but helps for a better grip while the bottom still offers the service lid for easy hardware upgrades. The usual 2.5-inch HDD, M.2 SATA SSD, and RAM slots are available for easy swap/upgrade.

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Input devices remain the same and that’s definitely a good thing since both provide excellent typing and working experience. The keyboard has a long key travel and comfortable tactile feedback whereas the touchpad is stable with delightfully “mushy” dedicated mouse buttons.


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Portability, however, isn’t on the main dish and it’s kind of expected given the form factor of the laptop. The weight reaches 2.61 kg, which isn’t as much compared even to some 15 inchers and the height of the machine is just below 26 mm. Both digits are considerably higher than the 15-inch 450 G3 so unless the working space isn’t on the top of your priority list – and by working space we mean screen size – you are better off sticking with the 15-inch or 14-inch variant.

Hardware

Just like on the design front, spec-wise the 470 G3 isn’t much different compared to its smaller counterparts, although there a few notable changes. The CPU configurations include only the Intel Core i5-6200U and Core i7-6500U paired with either Intel HD Graphics 520 or AMD’s discrete GPU – the Radeon R7 M340 with 1 or 2 GB of DDR3 memory. RAM configurations can go up to 16GB of DDR4-2133, which is a slight bump over the last two models with DDR3 memory. Storage configurations remain unchanged as well – from 500 GB HDD up to 2TB HDD along with up to 256GB M.2 SATA SSD stick.

Display options include 1600 x 900 HD+ and Full HD 1920 x 1080 variants so it’s only logical to miss out on the standard for this class HD (1366×768) due to the lowered pixel density on the 17.3-inch diagonal. Unfortunately, the battery pack is still 44Wh for the standard version but you can order yours with an extended 6-cell 55Wh unit, which we suggest you do if that’s of great importance to you. The bigger screen and higher resolution will take a toll on the battery for sure.

Specs sheet

Configurations may differ depending on your region.

CPUIntel Core i5-6200U (2-core, 2.30 – 2.80 GHz, 3MB cache) / Intel Core i7-6500U (2-core, 2.50 – 3.10 GHz, 4MB cache)
RAMup to 16GB (2x 8192MB) – DDR4-2133
GPUIntel HD Graphics 520 / AMD Radeon R7 M340 (2GB DDR3)
HDD/SSD500GB HDD (7200 rpm) / 1TB HDD (5400 rpm) / 2TB HDD (5400 rpm) + 128GB or 256GB M.2 SATA SSD
Display15.6-inch (39.62 cm) – 1600×900, TN panel, matte / 15.6-inch (39.62 cm) – 1920×1080, TN panel, matte
Optical DriveDVD burner
ConnectivityLAN 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0
Other features
  • 2x USB 3.0
  • 2x USB 2.0
  • webcam
  • microphone
  • 3.5 mm combo audio
  • HDMI
  • RJ-45
  • VGA
  • card reader(SD, SDHC, SDXC)
  • fingerprint scanner
Battery4-cell, 44Wh / 6-cell, 55Wh
Thickness25.98 mm (1.02″)
Weight2.6 kg (5.75 lbs)

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J
J
7 years ago

This is a wonderful computer (W0S58UT#ABA). I have the 1080p (ultra wide viewing angle) monitor, i7, 8GB ram; but with the slow 5400 1TB drive. Once it gets going it does great. Mine has the Intel 8260 AC card in it and the wifi is rock solid. I am however having some bluetooth driver issues that I can’t figure out, so I’ve got to take it in to hopefully resolve that. It also comes defaulted to search internally for drivers, instead of looking online, making simple plug-in USB3 4-port hub fail, until I found the setting to look online for… Read more »