HP Probook 4545s, powered by AMD

HP has just released this Probook 4545s laptop which is designed for the enterprise market. As such, the computer was envisioned with a few key points: durability, multimedia capability, performance and full array of ports. The durability is quite obvious: people who are on the go often tend to put their laptops through harsh use, transport and possibly environment.

To ensure rigidity of the chassis, HP uses aluminum which has been treated to be smudge and scratch resistant. The keyboard is also spill-resistant, which is apparently a must-have feature for business laptops. And if the laptop is dropped, a sensor will park the HDD heads to avoid a fatal disk crash (err… they still have HDDs?).

In terms of multimedia capabilities, HP wanted to ensure that playing video files (for leisure or work) would work fine and that the webcam was good enough for travelers to connect with their family. We did not have a chance to test the webcam, but the Desktop version of the HD webcam performed well so let’s hope that this laptop one can deliver too. There is a discrete GPU, which means that the system should be “gaming capable” within reasonable limits.

The only obvious “must improve” point is the display. At 15.6″, a resolution of 1366×768 seems kind of low. This is something that *may* be upgraded at order time, but the order page was not available at the time of publishing. There is also a 4445s model that is a slight variant.

Specifications highlights

Up to AMD quad-core A8-4500M 2.8GHz + Radeon HD 7640 GPU
2GB to 8GB DDR3 13333
Optical drive (DVD or B-Ray)
15.6″ 1366×768 LED display
2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, VGA (for projectors)
14.76 x 10.09 x 1.13″, 5.45lbs
47Whr or 93Whr battery