An inexpensive Windows 7 laptop with a fingerprint reader
Windows 7 laptops are now hard to come by, let alone ones that are inexpensive and attractive, all of which makes the HP ProBook 450 G2 pretty compelling on paper. Although it’s aimed at businesses, it comes with a classy soft-touch rubber lid and metal wrist rest at a price that many people can afford.
The 450 G2’s classy appearance isn’t matched by its build quality, though, as the plastic casing bends and creaks under pressure more than we’d like. It’s also quite heavy, weighing 2.2kg, rising to 2.5kg with the charger - so it’s not ideal for use on the move. One reason it’s so heavy is its built-in DVD writer - an increasingly rare feature in modem laptops.
If you do need to use it while out and about then at least battery life is reasonably long at seven and a half hours, although we’ve seen other laptops at this kind of price that last even longer. We expected more from the battery because the 450 G2 has a power-efficient Core i3 4030U processor. This 1.9GHz dual core processor isn’t the fastest we’ve seen in a laptop at this price, but it’s fast enough for most everyday computing tasks.
Adding more memory or replacing the 500GB hard drive with a larger model or SSD is straightforward enough. The bottom panel is easily removed and gives quick access to the interior of the laptop, where you can add up to 16GB of memory.
Although the 15in screen has a relatively low resolution (1366x768 pixels), it’s bright with surprisingly good colour accuracy and contrast. It also has a matte finish, which minimises any reflections and distracting glare from overhead lighting.
The touchpad is large and accurate, but the buttons feel spongy. A bigger problem is that the touchpad often failed to register gestures, such as swiping two Angers to scroll up and down. Even when it did register, scrolling was far too fast - even after we tweaked the touchpad’s settings.
The expansive width of the laptop accommodates a number pad alongside the keyboard without HP having had to to reduce key size. However, the keys feel spongy and lack sufftcient travel, so typing isn’t as comfortable and accurate as we would like. One useful extra is the Angerprint reader, which lets you log into Windows using your Angertip rather than a password. It’s not as reliable and quick as the Angerprint readers built into recent iOS devices because you have to swipe your Anger slowly and Armly across the reader, but it’s still handy to have.
The HP ProBook 450 G2 is by no means a bad laptop, but there are Windows 7 laptops with better keyboards, touchpads, battery life and performance, such as the Toshiba Satellite Pro R50-B-12U, which costs a little more but is far better value.
VERDICT
Not bad, but the 450 G2 is simply outclassed by other similarly priced laptops.
SPECIFICATIONS
1.9GHz Intel Core i3 4030U dual-core processor • 4GB memory • 500GB hard drive • DVD writer • Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics chip • 15.6in 1366x768 -pixel screen • 802.11b/g/n • Windows 8.1 • 2.2kg (2.5kg with charger) • 25x375x263mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty