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Monday, December 21, 2009

Review ASUS K40IN

ASUS' K-series notebooks promise a blend of value and performance. The K40IN is a 14-inch notebook with Nvidia graphics and an $800 price tag. How did it hold up in our testing?

Our ASUS K40IN-B1 review unit has the following specifications:

  • 14-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting
  • Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
  • Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 (2.1GHz/2MB L2/800MHz FSB)
  • Nvidia GeForce G102M integrated graphics card w/ 512MB DDR2 memory
  • 4GB DDR2-667 RAM
  • 320GB 5400RPM hard drive (Seagate Momentus 5400.6/ST9320325AS)
  • 802.11n wireless (Atheros AR9285)
  • DVD Super Multi drive
  • Two-year warranty w/ one year accidental coverage
  • 6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1v, 4400mAh, 46Wh)
  • Weight: 5.3 lbs
  • Dimensions: 13.4” x 9.5” x 1.4-1.5”
  • MSRP: $799.99

Build and Design
The K40IN has a traditional notebook design and shape; it looks like an ordinary notebook and is visually uninspiring. Corners are rounded off to give the notebook a soft look. Nearly all surfaces of the K40IN save for the keyboard are glossy plastic, which is a dual-edged blade. On one hand the glossiness makes the notebook look more attractive, but on the other hand it reduces durability and makes it a real chore to keep clean.

The physical build quality of the K40IN is satisfactory. The quality is consistent; no particular area seems to be stronger or weaker than another. The base of the notebook resists twisting well and the palm rests barely flex under pressure. This lid is one of the better-reinforced lids I have seen on a value-oriented notebook; it is resistant to flexing and pushing in on the back of the lid does not yield any ripples on the screen. The hinges anchoring it to the base of the notebook are strong and display wobble is minimal.

Overall the build quality meets expectations; it is not outstanding and matches up to the competition at the very least. The design is rather plain though not unattractive. However, the glossy plastic will be a turn-off for some.

Screen and Speakers
The K40IN has a 14-inch diagonal display with LED backlighting and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The overall quality of the display is 'very good'. Brightness is excellent and contrast is reasonable. Pictures and movies are a pleasure to view on this display. The viewing angles are above average; side-to-side are nearly flawless, and while the colors wash out and darken from above and below respectively, the picture is fine for about thirty degrees vertically off center. The backlighting is not even with a significant amount of bleed at the bottom; fortunately it is not noticeable during normal use.

The display's 1366x768 resolution is a standard resolution for mainstream notebooks. The horizontal resolution is adequate, however only 768 pixels of vertical space means a good deal of scrolling while surfing the Internet and only enough space to view about one-half of a page in a Microsoft Word.

The K40IN has Altec Lansing speakers located underneath the palm rest. Simply put, the K40IN has two of the worst speakers I have heard on a notebook; my ears cringe every time a sound gets played. The speakers are muddy, tinny, and too quiet. Using the included SRS WOW software enhancer distorts the sound and put this odd pressure on my eardrums that I cannot stand. The headphone jack is fortunately static-free and the best way to get audio signals out of the notebook.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The K40IN's full-size keyboard is responsive and pleasing to use. The keys are large and flat and have a matte texture, which may wear over time. There is no noticeable flex unless a lot of pressure is used. A nice aspect of this keyboard is its quietness; it does not click or clack. It is also good to see the keyboard has a standard layout; all keys are more or less in their expected places.

The touchpad is a mixed bag. The glossy surface can be difficult to track on with moist fingers and the touchpad buttons are loud. Another complaint is the lack of a dedicated scroll zone.

The status lights on the K40 consist of three tiny circles below the touchpad buttons. From a functionality standpoint, they should be larger and brighter for better visibility.

Ports and Features
The K40IN suffers from a lack of ports relative to its competitors. HDMI is noticeably absent; the notebook's only video out option is VGA. Furthermore, there is no ExpressCard or PC Card slot for wireless broadband cards and other add-on devices. All picture descriptions are left to right.


Left side: DVD drive, 2x USB


Right side: headphone and microphone jacks, 2x USB, VGA out, 1000Mbps Ethernet, power jack


Front: Speakers, media card reader (SD/MMC/MS)


Back: Kensington Lock slots, exhaust vent

Performance and Benchmarks
The K40IN is a good performer thanks to its Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, and speedy 320GB hard drive. This machine is more than capable of handling everyday tasks and even more intensive applications like Adobe Photoshop.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Graphics performance from the integrated Nvidia G102M will only suffice for older games; newer games are out of its league. Despite having 512MB of its own memory the G102M simply lacks the processing power necessary to play modern games. I question ASUS' decision to use Nvidia graphics in this notebook versus Intel integrated graphics, which have lower power consumption. The extra power consumption of the Nvidia graphics versus Intel graphics is not justified since this machine cannot play modern games and its HD video acceleration capabilities will go unused since the K40IN lacks a Blu-ray drive.

Something to note about the Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor is its lack of VT (Virtualization Technology). This means that the K40IN will be unable to utilize the virtual Windows XP mode in Windows 7. For most users this should not be an issue.

Heat and Noise
The K40IN excelled in managing heat and noise. Even under stress the surface of the notebook never got warm and the palmrests remained completely cool – there is even a sticker on the palm rest showing this off stating "Feel the cool comfort – 25% cooler than body temperature." The bottom of the notebook also remained cool, only getting warm in a few areas.

The heat exhaust fan is located in the center of the back of the notebook. This is a convenient location since it keeps heat as far away from the user as possible. The fan is nearly silent even when under load, and is barely audible at idle in a silent room. Well done, ASUS.

Battery Life
In power saving mode with 25% screen brightness, the K40IN lasted for four hours, thirty-five minutes while surfing the Internet and using a word processor. This is a good number for a notebook that packs a six-cell battery, standard voltage processor, and Nvidia integrated graphics. If ASUS had used Intel integrated graphics instead of Nvidia, the battery life would likely have been a bit longer.

Operating System and Software
The K40IN comes with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit and a ton of pre-loaded utilities. There are at least ten utilities installed – managers for this, monitors for that, and so on. Many of them are startup items which increase log-on time. If ASUS could consolidate all of them into a central control panel then this would not be such an issue. The sheer number of them at present is unnecessary.

Conclusion
The K40IN has good build quality, a pleasing keyboard and screen, and gets over four and a half hours of battery life. Unfortunately the K40IN's value proposition is questionable. It lacks an HDMI port and is priced $100-$150 more than competitors with the same specifications minus the Nvidia graphics. The Nvidia graphics are a puzzling choice for the K40IN; they are not powerful enough to play modern games and consume more power than Intel graphics. The only advantage the K40IN has over its competitors is better warranty coverage. Overall we like the K40IN but are hard-pressed to recommend it for the stated reasons.

Pros:

  • Reasonable build quality
  • Great screen and keyboard
  • Four and a half hours of battery life
  • Good system performance
  • Runs very cool and quiet
  • Two year warranty and one year accidental damage coverage

Cons:

  • No HDMI port or ExpressCard slot
  • Weak graphics
  • Horrible speakers
  • Price point too high versus competitors
  • Glossy plastic difficult to keep clean
  • Loud touchpad buttons
  • Too many pre-installed utilities

Read rest of entry

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Review Dell Latitude E4300

The Dell Latitude E4300 is Dell's most powerful ultraportable machine released to date. This 13.3" notebook is powered by low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo processors and boasts an incredible battery life with no compromises in performance.

Dell Latitude E4300 Specifications:

  • Intel Core 2 Duo SP9600 (2.53GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP2, with downgrade rights for Windows XP SP3 and upgrade rights to Windows 7 Professional
  • 13.3" LED WXGA LCD Screen (1280x800)
  • 1GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM (upgraded to 4GB)
  • 80GB 7200RPM Western Digital 2.5" Hard Drive
  • Intel X4500MHD video card
  • Internal Fixed DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
  • Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Intel Gigabit Ethernet, WWAN Capable
  • Backlit Keyboard
  • 6-Cell 60WHr Battery, with 6-Cell 48WHr Battery Slice
  • 3-Year Warranty with On-Site Technical Support
  • Dell E-Port Docking Station, with Dell Flat Panel Monitor Stand
  • Dimensions: 12.2" x 8.6" x 1.1"
  • Measured Weight: ~ 3.7lbs

The Latitude E4300 starts at $1,349, which is fairly average for an ultraportable business machine. However, we all know that the extra options and features always cost more - this notebook as configured will set you back by a staggering $2,054 before taxes.


Build and Design
Our first impressions of the Dell Latitude E4300 were quite positive. The notebook itself has a small LCD bezel and a tightly integrated chassis design, so not only is the notebook rather thin it also presents the smallest footprint that is possible for a 13.3" notebook. Dell also adopted a much more modern looking design featuring sharp lines and a black finish with the new series. The back of the LCD housing has a brushed aluminum appearance to it, which adds a nice bit of flair to an otherwise safe professional design. While the finish is designed to impress, it is a fingerprint magnet. The black matte finish on the rest of the notebook looks equally sharp, but wears down on and around the edges of the notebook.

Build quality is above average, and quite frankly the construction feels ver solid. The base of the chassis is built from magnesium alloy and packed with parts, resulting in a design that protects its internals well. The right palmrest has a little bit too much flex, but there is little to no flex to be found anywhere else on the base of the chassis. Magnesium alloy is also used in the LCD housing, and the screen housing does a really good job of protecting the screen from impacts. We were never able to produce distortions on the LCD screen. The extra bulge at the top of the LCD lid is for the WWAN antenna. While it sticks out only a little bit, that top bulge had just a little bit of give to it.

The screen hinges are well built, as the display never wiggles yet provides a comfortable level of resistance to movement. When closing the notebook there is no latch for the LCD, it is held shut by magnetic force. The design provides enough resistance that the notebook is not going to open accidentally, but it is not difficult to open the computer up either.

The keyboard is well supported on the Latitude E4300, and there is very little flex to be found so even violent typers should find themselves at ease with how sturdy the keyboard feels. While other Dell Latitude notebooks have a modular bay design to accomodate an optical drive or hard drive or a weight saver module, Dell choose to build in a fixed optical drive so the E4300 will not support two hard drives. Because upgrading the optical drive is more difficult than it would be with other Latitude notebooks, the E4300 starts with a DVD+/-RW optical drive that is capable of everything a consumer needs except perhaps Blu-Ray capability. Fortunately, a fixed Blu-Ray optical drive is available for a not so low price when ordering the computer.

Perhaps the only shortcoming in the design of the Latitude E4300 is the battery. Dell appears to have dropped the 3-cell battery option from their ordering system, leaving only the 6-cell battery which sticks out from the back of the notebook by about half an inch. While I do not mind the extrusion, others may take issue with it. However, we have a difficult time imagining that the 3-cell battery could have provided adaquate battery life so we think the 6-cell is worth it.

The Latitude E4300 also has a wide range of expansion options, available via the docking connector at the bottom. If you need legacy ports not found on the computer, Dell has a legacy port extender for Latitude notebooks. The notebook can be docked to one of two different Latitude series docking stations, and each dock supports up to two external monitors. If the 6-cell battery does not provide enough longevity, a battery slice can also be purchased ($199) that will work in tandem with the standard battery to provide a much longer battery life. The hard drive can be upgraded easily by removing two screws and pulling the drive out, and by removing the middle access panel on the bottom of the notebook both the RAM and Latitude ON cards can be upgraded. WiFi cards and WWAN cards can be installed by removing the corner panel as well.

Screen and Speaker

The Dell Latitude E4300 comes with an LED backlit screen with a native resolution of 1280x800 (WXGA). The screen resolution is a perfect fit for a 13.3" notebook, and the panel looks nice when viewing documents, videos, and other content. The notebook has fifteen distinct levels of screen brightness adjustable by using the Fn+Up or Fn+Down key combinations. The dimmest screen levels are great for indoor viewing and low light conditions, and it was amazing to see that the screen was quite readable in bright outdoor environments when the screen was set to maximum brightness. It gets so bright, in fact, that colors start to wash out a bit on the highest settings.

We normally expect vertical viewing angles to be quite poor on notebook displays (because of the type of LCD technology they use). The E4300 defined a new level of poor. When viewing the screen from above colors quickly wash out and become unreadable, and when viewing the screen from below the screen fades away ever so quickly. Horizontal viewing angles were fortunately fairly good. Viewing the screen from almost any position to the left and right of the notebook still produced a very readable display even though colors would start to wash out.

This section was called "Screen and Speaker" for a reason. The Dell Latitude E4300 comes with one lowly speaker at the front of the notebook. It sounds tinny, there is absolutely no bass, and at the higher ends of the volume range it sounds muddled. It works for business use, it works for those to are listening to audio on the road, but do not expect premium sound out of this notebook.

Keyboard and Touchpad
While there are certainly a lot of reasons to praise the Dell Latitude E4300, the high quality keyboard one of the most prominent reasons. While the layout of the keyboard is slightly different than what can be found in the rest of the Latitude E series, the Dell Latitude E4300 offers the same high quality typing experience as any other Latitude E series notebook with a backlit keyboard. While some Latitude E series notebooks have an option for a non-backlit keyboard, after comparing the backlit versus non-backlit keyboards we can say with confidence that the backlit keyboard offers a superior typing experience. One of the unique features found on the keyboard is, of course, the LED backlights that serve to illuminate the keyboard in dark environments. This backlighting is user adjustable and it can be tied in with the Ambient Light Sensor for automatic backlight adjustments.

Like the previous generation of Latitude notebooks, the keyboard provides just the right amount of tactile feedback and firmness while never flexing under stress. The new keyboard design raises the quality bar - it looks and feels like each key has its own distinctive personal space to it and it is almost impossible to accidentally hit multiple keys. Over time, it actually felt like my typing accuracy and speed was improving.

Perhaps the only drawback of this keyboard is the layout of some of the keys. The half height function keys, and the location of the Home/End/Insert/Delete keys (upper half height row) and the Page Up/Down keys (next to the arrow keys) take a little getting used to. Once we got used to the locations of the Page Up/Down keys it was actually easier to navigate through webpages, documents, and tabbed interfaces.

When comparing this keyboard to the keyboard of other Latitude E series notebooks, they all provide about the same typing experience but it just feels like the E4300's keyboard is a little more firm. If it seems like we cannot stop praising the keyboard, you are right. Best. Keyboard. Ever.

While the touchpad is not bad, it does not provide as stellar as an experience as the keyboard does. The touchpad itself is quite smooth, but it felt like there was just a little input lag on the touchpad. When using the touchpad, occasionally the touchpad would randomly stop working for a moment or two. It does not happen often enough to be a serious issue, and the problem always corrects itself, but I have to be a tough grader on a machine with this high a cost.

The touchpad redeems itself with a few extra features. Having two sets of mouse buttons is a plus, as is the third mouse button found on the upper row of touchpad buttons. Dell also includs a pointer stick in the middle of the keyboard. Perhaps the best feature about the touchpad is what Dell calls 'circular scrolling.' When moving your finger up or down the scrolling area on the touchpad, if you keep moving your finger in a circular fashion the touchpad will continue to scroll through the active window on your desktop. The direction of the scroll can be changed just by alternating the direction of circular movement as well. The touchpad supports both horizontal and vertical scrolling, which means that in combination with circular scrolling any document is going to be easily navigable.

Ports and Features
Despite not having a lot of real estate to work with, Dell managed to include a surprisingly useful array of ports though we wished a third USB port could have been included. One USB port, one combination USB/eSATA port, VGA out, SmartCard reader, SD card reader, ExpressCard/34, audio in and out, Firewire-400, 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet LAN, and a Kensington lock slot are available on the machine. It would have been nice to have had a DisplayPort or DVI output instead of a VGA output, but we suppose VGA out is still an important feature for business notebooks.


Left: VGA, USB/eSATA, fan vent, and SmartCard Reader


Front: SD card reader


Right: ExpressCard/34, DVD+/-RW, audio out, audio in, Firewire-400, and USB


Back: Gigabit Ethernet, Battery, AC Power Input, Kensington Lock Slot

Dell also has two docking station solutions for the new Latitude E series notebooks, one of which is the E-Port Replicator that was included with our unit. With the docking station, the E4300 can be transformed into a full desktop workstation that supports up to two digitally connected monitors.


Left: 3x USB, audio in, audio out


Front: Dell Docking Connector


Right: Kensington Lock Slot, Laptop Locking Mechanism


Back: Connector for additional Dell docking products, eSATA/USB, Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB, VGA, DVI, DisplayPort, AC Power Input

Performance and Benchmarks
The Dell Latitude E4300 might be a small notebook, but it packs a big punch thanks to the 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and the Western Digital Caviar Black 80GB 7200RPM drive. While the laptop can only be configured with the Intel 4500MHD IGP, graphics performance with the laptop is certainly adaquate for any non-gaming application. Multimedia performance was certainly good even without a dedicated graphics card, as we had no issues displaying 720P content or 1080P content that was scaled down to the LCD's native resolution.

The 80GB 7200RPM hard drive was certainly fast (perhaps the fastest laptop drive I have personally tested to date), but the limited storage capacity could be a problem for users that need to use a lot of applications and store a lot of data on the drive. The E4300 by default comes with a 160GB 5400RPM drive for $10 less, and hard drive upgrades are reasonably priced. But if you want to abandon the traditional hard drive for a solid state drive, users should be advised to purchase an aftermarket SSD to save money and/or get a higher performing SSD than the (most likely under-performing Samsung) OEM SSD that Dell will include.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
The Dell Latitude E4300 is certainly a performer, but having this much power inside a small frame presents some design challenges. The notebook itself only has a single fan that vents out to the side and bottom of the notebook, and during normal use temperatures hovered in the mid 80's.

However, the single fan can only provide so much cooling power during our extreme stress test where parts of the E4300 soared into the triple digit temperatures. The images below show the external temperature readings in degrees Fahrenheit while stressing the CPU, GPU, and hard drive at the same time. It is hot enough that you do not want to place it on your lap, but fortunately the keyboard and touchpad remain at acceptable temperature levels. It might be a good idea to stay away from the fan vent if running intensive tasks on the computer, as the ambient air coming out of the vent topped 110F.

In an office or home setting, running your typical tasks, the laptop was as quiet as a mouse. The only time the fan was even noticably intrusive was during the extreme stress tests, when the fan was running at full tilt. Even then, it was not too loud nor was there any high pitched whine.

Battery Life
Dell built in a handy array of useful power saving features with the Latitude E series notebooks. The Dell Control Panel is your portal to extreme power management where it is possible to lower the refresh rate of the LCD screen, completely deactivate the power hungry optical drive, automatically turn on/off Windows Aero, and selectively turn off or power manage most of the ports on the notebook. It does not hurt that the Dell Latitude E4300 has an LED backlit screen either, which uses less power than CCFL backlighting found in most other notebooks.

Latitude notebooks have traditionally had support for running two batteries in tandem, and the Latitude E series continues this tradition with the "battery slice." It fits on the bottom of the notebook and adds about a quarter inch to the thickness of the laptop. It adds a significant amount of weight to the machine, but the extra battery life is worth it if longevity is essential.

Dell also includes a program called the Dell Control Panel with its Latitude E series notebooks. It is a very useful program that allows users to selectively shut down or reconfigure peripherals on the notebook, to enable users to get the most of of their battery. Even though it sometimes forgot one or two settings after resuming from standby, it clearly demonstrates its use during our battery tests.

After four really long battery tests, it is clear to us that the Dell Latitude E4300 is a winner in this department. The results are almost unbelieveable for a notebook of this size.

Standard Battery, All Power Savings 6 hours 31 minutes
Standard Battery and Battery Slice, All Power Savings 12 hours 23 minutes
Standard Battery, No Power Savings 3 hours 10 minutes
Standard Battery and Battery Slice, No Power Savings 5 hours 45 minutes

During the tests with power savings enabled, the screen was at 33% brightness, wireless was on, Windows 7 was set to the 'Power Savings' power profile, and all the power savings features in Dell Control Panel were enabled (except the one where the LCD screen automatically reduces the backlight level during periods of inactivity) while we casually browsed the internet and worked on general office tasks like writing this review. With a maximum battery life of 12 hours and 23 minutes, all day computing is certainly an option with the E4300.

Tests with no power savings were more intense for the notebook. No power savings features were enabled, Windows 7 Aero was running and the power profile was set to 'High Performance,' the LCD backlight was set to 100%, and we watced the DVD movies the entire time to keep the machine actively processing while we edited documents. Flash games were also playing in the background to further stress the processor. Despite the heavier workload, the E4300 is more than capable of lasting through several feature films during long distance travels.

Conclusion
The Dell Latitude E4300 is a power house of a notebook that is as small as can be. Designed for business use, built with quality in mind, and can handle any office or media related task thrown at it. It has an incredible battery life, great power saving capabilities, and the wide range of display brightnesses and keyboard brightnesses are great features not found in most notebooks. The speaker is a bit below average, the touchpad slightly above average at best, and the chassis has one or two flex points that should not be there in a notebook at this price range. Even with those flaws in the design, there is a lot to love about the Dell Latitude E4300 should you need the power, portability, or longevity of one of the smallest Latitude notebooks released to date.

Pros:

  • Above average build quality, lightweight
  • Best keyboard and useful touchpad features
  • Extremely long battery life

Cons:

  • Subpar speaker
  • Twitchy touchpad
  • High priced upgrades

Read rest of entry

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Review HP ProBook 5310m

HP promises that the new ProBook 5310m is a "stylish" business notebook that packs performance, battery life, and value inside a thin-and-light 13-inch notebook. Is the ProBook 5310m truly a lust-worthy business laptop, or is it just another black box? Continue reading to find out.

Our review unit of the HP ProBook 5310m features the following configuration:

  • Intel Core 2 Duo P9300 Processor (2.26GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB)
  • Microsoft Genuine Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)
  • 13.3-inch LED-backlit anti-glare HD display (1366 x 768)
  • Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
  • 2GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM
  • 320GB 7200RPM HDD
  • WiFi (802.11a/b/g/draft-n), Ethernet, Modem, and Bluetooth Connectivity
  • 4-Cell 41WHr Battery (14.8V)
  • Limited 1-year standard parts and labor warranty
  • Dimensions: 12.9 x 8.7 x 0.93 inches
  • Weight: 3.81lbs
  • Price as configured: $899



Build and Design

For those people who aren't already familiar with HP's ProBook laptops, the formula is very simple: Take HP's popular EliteBook line of durable business-grade notebooks and make them more affordable so small and medium businesses can buy them. This is where the new ProBook 5310m comes to the table ... and it's why this is the first laptop with the "ProBook" name on it that we really, really like.


The previous generation of ProBooks all tried to deliver a good balance of features and security at a low price. Unfortunately, those notebooks sacrificed build quality and design (two of the hallmarks of HP's EliteBooks) in order to create a low-cost business laptop. The new ProBook 5310m is the first ProBook that lets you have your cake and eat it too. The 5310m succeeds where previous ProBooks failed by offering a thin-yet-solid magnesium alloy chassis with durable rubberized paint, aluminum display enclosure and a design that looks like a premium business notebook rather than a budget laptop. Sure, like the rest of the ProBook line, the 5310m has a square, industrial-looking exterior, but that's part of the "all business" look that made the EliteBook line such a success.

So how did HP go from an all-plastic ProBook to this new-and-improved design and still make it thinner and lighter than previous models? The answer will probably get a mixed reception among our readers: HP got rid of the optical drive. That's right. There's no built-in DVD or Blu-ray drive with this laptop. Honestly, as someone who frequently travels for business, I can tell you I never use my notebook's optical drive. However, there are still plenty of business travelers who like to watch DVDs during flights, so the lack of a DVD drive might bother some business buyers.

The outer shell of the screen casing, as previously mentioned, is made of aluminum. This is significantly more solid than the plastic-covered screen on older ProBooks, and along with the magnesium alloy bottom chassis the 5310m should survive anything a typical business traveler will throw at it. While I wouldn't recommend standing on this notebook, you could easily stack a dozen or so heavy books on top of the 5310m without any concern for the safety of the laptop.



Tthe 5310m also features the now standard hard drive shock protection in the form of HP 3D DriveGuard which will help to protect your hard drive in the event the laptop gets dropped or violently bumped. HP also includes HP ProtectTools with drive encryption, Device Access Manager, HP Spare Key (a program that helps employees access their computer in case they forget their password), HP Disk Sanitizer, File Sanitizer, and McAfee Security Solution for those small businesses that need reliability and ease of use but don't have the resources of a dedicated IT department.


One of our primary criticisms about the older ProBook 4510s and 4710s was the fact that it was too difficult to make upgrades to those notebooks. Thankfully, HP engineers made it quite easy to access the RAM, hard drive, and wireless cards inside the 5310m. RAM and the hard drive are located on the bottom of the notebook beneath the palmrest area and the WWAN card is easily accessed after removing the battery. Speaking of the complexity of making upgrades, it's also worth mentioning that buying a pre-configured model is still the only way we can recommend purchasing the 5310m (or any ProBook) at a reasonable price. This configuration of the ProBook 5310m is available for only $899 on the HP website as a pre-configured system, but if you attempted to customize a 5310m with identical specs it would cost you more than $1,100! That's a painfully overpriced premium to charge for custom orders.


Screen and Speakers

The ProBook 5310m comes equipped with a 13.3" anti-glare display with a 16:9 widescreen ratio. At 1366 x 768 pixels, this 720p high-definition display is perfectly usable and features good color and contrast. The LED-backlit panel offers excellent brightness and we typically left the brightness set to between 50% and 70% when using the notebook indoors. We know many people are concerned about the transition from 16:10 to 16:9 ratio screens (because this means less vertical resolution) but the difference between 1366 x 768 and 1280 x 800 is pretty minimal.

Horizontal viewing angles are pretty good and you only start to notice some color shift after you get 75 degrees off center. Vertical viewing angles are only average as the screen begins to wash out from above and colors begin to invert from below after about 45 degrees in either direction.

HP generally impresses our editorial staff with the quality of the speakers used in their notebooks. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with the ProBook line. The speakers in the 5310m are good enough for watching a webcast or hearing system sounds, but the built-in speakers sound tinny and lack a good range of highs, middles, and lows. The highest volume settings are loud enough to fill an office with sound for a presentation, but the audio sounds distorted at the highest volumes.

The combo headphone/microphone jack on the 5310m works well with the two different brands of earphones I used during the test. No static or other noise was noticed through the jack besides imperfections in the audio source itself.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The full-size keyboard on the 5310m is a chiclet style design and provides fantastic spacing between keys for typing. Each key is relatively flat with a nice matte texture and the keys sit above a glossy black support frame. The support frame surrounding the keys is quite firm thanks to the design of the chassis which adds additional support for the keyboard. On the larger ProBook 4510s and 4710s we noticed some flex in the keyboard above the optical drive, but the keyboard on the 5310m is quite firm and a joy to use.

The individual key presses are quiet without loud clicking sounds as you type. The depth of each key press is excellent, though some people may dislike the flat, chiclet-style keys. Overall the keyboard layout is extremely nice for a budget 13-inch laptop.

The touchpad is very responsive to my touch with a scroll zone on the right side that works exactly as it should. The glossy touchpad texture is okay, but the low-cost material used is sure to develop wear over time and use. The plastic touchpad buttons are about the right size and have the correct amount of depth or throw when pressed. We would have also liked to see a dedicated touchpad disable button (like the ones HP uses on their consumer notebooks) so that you can disable the touchpad if you're using an external mouse ... but that's a minor complaint for what is otherwise a great keyboard and touchpad.

Ports and Features
The 5310m features a good number of ports on all sides, despite the lack of an optical drive, so let us take a brief tour ...


Left side: Here we see the power jack, heat vent, one USB 2.0 port, DisplayPort and Ethernet jack.


Right side: Heat vent, memory card reader, combo audio jack, two USB 2.0 ports, and Kensington Lock slot.


Rear side: The battery and hinges.


Front side: Nothing here but a status light and more heat vents.


Performance and Benchmarks
Our ProBook 5310m came with the Intel Core 2 Duo P9300 processor, clocking in at 2.26GHz, and Intel integrated graphics. This gives the ProBook a fanstic level of performance without losing too much in the way of battery life. If battery life is a concern, you can also purchase the ProBook 5310m with the Intel Celeron CULV Processor SU2300 which will give you more tie on battery at the expense of speed thanks to the 1.2GHz low-voltage processor. A 320GB 7200RPM hard drive was also included, which helped applications load without much lag. This notebook didn't really exceed our expectations in terms of performance, but the 5310m sits near the top of the pack in its class and has more than enough power to handle Microsoft Office or even very basic video work.

The obvious bottleneck in terms of performance here is the use of Intel graphics, but considering the small and medium business buyers interested in this notebook don't care about the ability to play video games or edit HD video, this isn't a major concern.

With that said, let's jump into the performance benchmarks.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
During normal use (browsing the web or working on a text document) the ProBook 5310m remained quite cool and very quiet. The exhaust fan wasn't audible even when running performance benchmarks or stressing the CPU and graphics. You won't have to worry about bothering coworkers or clients with unwanted noise coming from your laptop in a quiet office.

Finally, we recorded the following external temperatures using an IR thermometer after running two consecutive PCMark05 benchmarks. This should serve as an indicator of how hot the notebook will get after about 30 minutes of serious use. All temperatures are listed in degrees Fahrenheit. It's obvious that the bottom of the notebook near the wireless card and RAM are the hottest parts of the notebook.

Battery
HP offers the ProBook 4310s with a 4-cell 41WHr Lithium-Ion battery. The battery life of the standard 4-cell battery is quite a bit better than the previous generation of ProBooks. During our timed tests, with the laptop set to "balanced" mode, wireless active, and 70% screen brightness, the 4310s lasted for 5 hours and 51 minutes. Battery life can also be extended using the "power saver" power profile in Windows 7 ... or you can purchase the 5310m with the Intel Celeron CULV processor.

Conclusion
From the first moment I picked up the HP ProBook 5310m to the last minute while writing this review I kept thinking, "Why didn't HP release this ProBook sooner?" Honestly, if HP had released this notebook at the beginning of 2009 then every other SMB notebook manufacturer would be running scared by now. Unfortunately, HP released several less-than-spectacular ProBooks before this one, and that will probably make some potential buyers overlook this excellent business laptop. The ProBook 5310m finally delivers on HP's original goal to create a more affordable EliteBook. Sure, you have to buy the pre-configured models if you want that lower price, but if you can live without an optical drive then the ProBook 5310m makes a fantastic choice for small and medium businesses.

Pros:

  • Excellent build quality and design
  • A good price (when pre-configured)
  • Nice keyboard and touchpad

Cons:

  • No optical drive
  • Custom configurations are overpriced
  • Limited configuration options

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