The HP ProBook 4510s is the latest business notebook to provide solid performance and good looks at a price right for this un-business-friendly environment in which we currently find ourselves. In the past, HP’s line of business notebooks carried a price that suggested that they were made of unobtainium, but the 4510s comes with a much more palatable price.

The look
The 4510s looks the part and you need feel no shame for its lower price tag. The others in the boardroom will definitely not be able to tell that you’re on a budget. We like the refined, clean looks of the 4510s. On the downside it does feel much too flexible; its build quality alluding to the lower production price of the notebook.

Keyboard
The keyboard is nicely spaced and there’s enough room to fit in a full number-pad, always a big plus. We are somewhat baffled though as to why HP decided to put the touchpad so far to the left of the keyboard. Sure, it’s great if you’re left-handed, but why not just put it in the middle? We are also less than impressed with the touchpad buttons; it’s very much a case of hit and miss here, as they don’t click with direct downward pressures, you actually need to put your finger towards the bottom edge of the buttons for them to move.

The ProBook 4510s has a very nice looking 15.6\" anti-glare display, with a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. At 1366 x 768 pixel, this 720p screen isn’t full HD, but it’s really good for budget business notebook.

Onboard
The model we tested has a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 processor with 2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM. This combination will deliver very good performance for most business users, even those running resource intensive applications like CAD software. With storage being so cheap these days we would definitely recommend going for a 250GB or 500GB hard drive, as opposed to the 138GB drive that was in ours.

Ports
The 4510s comes with all the right ports including: GigE EthernetVGA out, HDMI, an ExpressCard/34 slot, and four USB ports (two on the left and two on the right). There’s also a media card reader on the front of the unit.

If the credit crunch has put you out of the R20000 notebook range then you should certainly consider the HP 4510s. It is available from www.hpshop.co.za for R 7999 incl. VAT.