HP ProBook 5310m review

To keep the 5310m light and simple, HP has ditched the optical drive, and kept ports, inputs and outputs to a minimum. The company's also used a wide, but thin, four-cell battery. On the left side are the AC power jack, a USB 2.0 port, a DisplayPort output and an Ethernet jack. The right side has two more USB 2.0 ports, a combo stereo headphone/mic jack, and an SD/SDHC card slot. For the most part, all of them are well positioned, although we'd prefer the left-side ports to be more towards the back. Again, there's no optical drive, which is fine by us, but you'll need to factor in the cost of an external drive, should you need one. An ExpressCard slot for expansion would have been welcome, but it's not a deal-breaker for us.

Strong performer
Our review sample featured a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SP9300 CPU, 2GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB 7,200rpm hard drive, and Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics. It also included 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a mobile-broadband module.

The configuration we tested turned in excellent results both in our lab tests and real-life testing. Simultaneously handling basic office tasks, light photo-editing, Web browsing, and running email and instant-messaging clients didn't prove a problem for this laptop. That's not to say you can't overtax the system (we wouldn't try anything more than casual gaming, for example), but it shouldn't have a problem keeping up with typical office duties.

Our configuration of the 5310m ran for 3 hours and 24 minutes in our video-playback battery-drain test, using the included four-cell battery. Since this test has the hard drive constantly spinning, it's particularly draining on battery life, especially given this system's 7,200rpm drive speed. With normal use, you can expect to average around 4.5 to 5 hours. 

Conclusion
The configuration of the HP ProBook 5310m that we reviewed was something we've been longing to see: an adequately powerful, ultra-portable laptop with a 13-inch screen and long battery life at a decent price.

Additional editing by Charles Kloet