Pro Book 4310 Views

• Electronics

HP continues to flesh out its business-oriented ProBook line with its 13.3-inch ProBook 4310s, which joins the 15.6-inch ProBook 4510s and 17.3-inch ProBook 4710s. Like the others, the ProBook 4310s delivers good performance for business chores and a pleasing design at an attractive price: just $779 for the starter model. (Our tested configuration rang up at $799.) Though it's certainly not the thinnest thin-and-light laptop we've tested, it delivers very good value for business users who need a totable, capable machine.

The burgundy paint (HP calls it “Merlot”) on the lid and the area surrounding the keyboard give the squared-off chassis a distinct look, while, mercifully, the satin finish hides fingerprints better than the glossy shells on the other ProBooks we’ve tested. Our only complaint about the chassis is that it feels a bit chunky for a 13.3-inch thin-and-light laptop. At 4.3 pounds, its weight is appropriate for this class of laptop, but as with the Toshiba Satellite U505-S2930, we found the ProBook a bit thick (1.1 inches at the front but 1.5 inches at the rear). Granted, we’ve been spoiled lately by the likes of the inch-thick Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch), but the ProBook 4310s seems chunkier even than previous-generation 13.3-inch portables like the classic white MacBook and the Dell XPS M1330.

Flip the lid, and you’ll find a full-size keyboard with well-spaced flat-top keys emerging from a glossy black backplane. The burgundy color from the lid carries over onto the trim above and below the keyboard and spills onto the touch pad. The keyboard is very comfortable—and spill-resistant—but the touch pad (as on so many notebooks) is smaller than it ought to be. That perception is compounded by narrow mouse buttons that are hinged at the top, so you have to hit them toward the bottom to get your clicks to register. On the plus side, the ProBook 4310s includes the slick volume and mute controls found on the Pavilion line; a swipe of the finger raises or lowers the volume, and you can tap an LED mute icon to kill the sound. The machine’s assortment of aqua and orange LEDs add to the modern, upscale feel.

The ProBook 4310s features an LED-backlit screen with a native resolution of 1,366x768. At that resolution, text looks crisp (if a bit small at default font sizes), and colors really pop. The panel has a good viewing angle in Windows applications, but a very small sweet spot for viewing video: Move slightly off-center when watching a DVD or playing a game, and colors shift. The machine’s stereo speakers are fine for business audio, but crank the music and you’ll be greeted by strident sound that lacks bass. Also, the 2-megapixel Webcam delivers good image quality under medium and bright lighting conditions, but it can’t contend with low-light conditions.

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