HP ProBook 5330m Review

The HP ProBook 5330m a 13.3-inch has a metal body and a Beats audio a first on HP business machine, but staple across its consumer stable. The companys wooing with its matte display, optional prepaid mobile broadband, Intel vPro technology, and TPM circuitry. The device is priced at $799.

Hardware

Its got a two-tone keyboard deck, beige track pad, and boxy shape is somewhat youthful. We had said about the materials used in it, with the exception of the bottom, the chassis and the hinge are both fashioned out of sturdy aluminium. Its made of magnesium and like some other high-end notebooks and it has a soft, rubbery finish. The bottom is also clean with a pop-out door housing the removable battery. The laptop that tries so hard to be hip still manages to look dated. You can find the logos painted on the upper-right hand corner of the bezel, and on the front edge of the notebook both stinging annoyances since you cant do anything to remove them. The stickers may be frustrating for the users, but if HP has some contractual obligation to promote the hell out of the partnership with Dr. Dre, at least use a medium people can dispose of once they unbox the laptop.

The 0.99-inch thick profile we will not blame you if you guessed this thing felt heavy. At 3.99 pounds it weighs more than 3.7-pound ThinkPad X1, though the wedge-shaped X1 is considerably thicker at its chunkiest point. It is narrower and easy to grip with one hand. It includes three USB 2.0 ports, includes one that doubles as an eSATA connector. It has also a fingerprint reader, HDMI and VGA-out, an Ethernet Jack, a Kensington lock slot, an SD/MMC memory card slot, and a headphone/mic port. The USB 3.0 feature HP says it is reserving for its EliteBook Series. The laptop also has a 720p webcam, delivers bright picture quality with balanced colors, and the images taken from them look grainy, even with ample lighting.

The 5330ms island keyboard should look familiar. The keys have a soft finish and a flat surface. The keys felt sticky and often failed to register letters. The spacing between the key are ideal, HP did have to squish the arrow keys to ensure the letters, and shift keys had ample room. It comes standard with a backlit keyboard. It got some flaky touchpads, and it gets it right. It was smooth, low-friction surface, and two-fingered scrolling works well. The pads taupe color is not good and not matching the system. The two buttons are responsive, feels a bit mushy.

The 13.3-inch display with 1366*768 resolution with a matte finish makes easy to view from side angles. But you cant watch a movie from that position anyways and a picture too. It is the first business laptop with Beats Audio, the bass-heavy technology becoming ubiquitous in the HPs consumer PCs. We got a good immersive listening experience with Dolby-equipped X1, speakers.

Performance

The system includes a 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB with 7,200 RPM drive, integrated Intel HD graphics, and a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional. The machine is capable of handling whatever we do email, blog, streams music, YouTube videos, and downloading and playing a 720p and 1080p videos. it got some 40 seconds boot time, somewhat fast for a Windows machine. The integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics is really worth, it scores a benchmark of 3,389 on 3DMark06 manages well.

It got a small four-cell battery lasted three hours and 25 minutes in our battery rundown test, it involves movie playing and streaming through WiFi. It doesnt got a good battery life if you are using too much of graphics options and brightness settings. The pre-configured $899 device, you get a Gobi Mobile broadband supports both EVDO and HSPA, it also compatible with HP datapass. For $100 less, there is another one pre-built configuration with same specs, except it has a 2.1GHz Core i3-2310M CPU.

The 5330m comes with HP-branded utilities, includes security package, HP Protect tools. It includes Drive encryption, with tools to configure TPM and your finger print reader. It is loaded with Quickweb, and instant on browser that can launch using a dedicated button next to the power key. It got some new widgets; you can view CNN and BBC headlines, Stocks, Weather Reports, and Twitter when you are not using the browser.

For:

Good Performance, Security Specs, Good Build quality, 3G radio

Against:

Battery doesnt lasts long, No extended battery, stiff keyboard

Conclusion

The ProBook 5330m is a good laptop for the pay, you can get an encrypted HDD, 3G radio, and a fingerprint reader. It got a good design, and lightweight enough to travel and built with high quality. The bad thing we had found in this battery option, and absence of additional battery option. It does make sense for a lightweight machine like this and it is good for business trips.