Full review
At first glance, it would be easy to label the HP ProBook 5310m laptop a knockoff of a late 2007 MacBook. The all-black casing, made from aluminium and magnesium alloy, and the chiclet-style keyboard certainly support that judgement. But the ProBook is primarily aimed at business users, not consumers. The 5310m is available in a number of configurations. Here we review the high-end VQ470EA version, which is available for about £810.
Stately charmer
The 5310m looks very stately. The brushed-aluminium lid is marked with a simple, silver HP logo with 'ProBook' barely visible below it. On the other side of the lid is a 13.3-inch, LED-backlit, widescreen display with a typical resolution for its size of 1,366x768 pixels. It's available with a matte anti-glare coating or HP's glassy HD BrightView finish. The screen is adequately bright for working outdoors, text and graphics are sharply rendered, and colours are very good. Viewing angles aren't the best, though.
The system weighs less than 1.8kg, and the power adaptor adds just less than 455g to the travel weight. This is borderline ultra-portable, but, unless you absolutely need the lightest machine possible, the 5310m is light enough for normal travel.
The brushed aluminium used on the lid continues inside, with a strip above the keyboard and for the palm rest. The wide, flat, matte-black keys are surrounded by glossy black plastic, which is used for the screen bezel and the touchpad as well. The touchpad has no texture to it, so fingers don't slide easily. That's a shame, since there's support for multi-finger gestures, a feature that's easily activated via the touchpad software.
The keyboard is extremely comfortable to use, with good response and no flex while typing. It's also spill-resistant. There are no multimedia controls -- it's a business laptop, after all -- but you do get a wireless on/off button and two quick-launch buttons for email and Web applications. The buttons work when the system is completely shut down by opening HP's QuickLook 3, for reading email and contact information from Outlook, and QuickWeb, for simple Web surfing. We're still not sure anyone uses these pre-boot environments -- especially with Windows 7 booting reasonably quickly -- but it's there if you want to give it a try. If you're not the type to carry a smart phone but want fast access to all your messages, appointments and contacts -- past and present -- it's a valuable addition.
Above the display is a 2-megapixel webcam, flanked by microphones on each side. The set-up worked well in our informal Skype tests, with good voice and video clarity. Down-firing speakers are positioned under the front edge of the laptop, and, although they don't get very loud, they sound good with both voices and music.
Because the 5310m is made for professional use and frequent travel, HP has loaded this ProBook up with security and shock-protection features. HP ProtectTools has options for complete data-shredding for files, folders and storage drives, drive encryption and setting up pre-boot security. Should you forget your password, its SpareKey feature lets you answer three personal questions to identify yourself. To protect against bumps and drops, the 3D DriveGuard uses a three-axis digital accelerometer that parks the hard drive to minimise damage to your data.
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.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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