HP has refreshed its ProBook 400 range of laptops aimed at small businesses, with the new G4 models being built around Intel's Kaby Lake processors, offering some very impressive levels of battery longevity.
HP notes that while features are obviously paramount when it comes to a business notebook, style – and thus appeal to staff members – should not be neglected. And to that end, the ProBook 400 boasts a new thinner slim-line 'wedge' design, and a tasty-looking 'asteroid silver' colour scheme and finish which doesn't show up any smudges or fingerprints.
In terms of the specs, the new machines include the ProBook 430 (13.3-inch display), 440 (14-inch), 450, 455 (both 15.6-inch) and the top-end ProBook 470 (17.3-inch). They all run with Intel's Kaby Lake CPUs in Core i3, i5 or i7 flavours, except for the ProBook 455 which instead goes for a choice of AMD APUs (AMD A6-9210, A9-9410 or A10-9600P).
And all offer an anti-glare LED-backlit display with a resolution of up to full HD (1920 x 1080), and optional touchscreen save for the 455 and 470 – although if you go for the touchscreen route, you'll get a display resolution of 1366 x 768, not full HD.
The ProBook 430 comes with just integrated graphics, but with the other models there's the option of a discrete GeForce 930 MX with 2GB of video RAM on board.
Security central
You get USB Type-C ports with these machines as well, and a larger clickpad than the previous generation, along with security features including TPM 2.0, HP BIOSphere and an optional fingerprint sensor. These laptops have passed MIL-STD 810G testing, too.
There's a choice of Windows 10 Pro or Home for the operating system, and HP has made big improvements on the battery life front, with gains of around 40% to 55% on these various models compared to their predecessors. HP notes that you'll now get up to 16 hours of battery longevity when on the go.
These notebooks are being launched in the US now with the price of the HP ProBook 430 G4 starting at $599 (around £450, AU$800), and the top-end HP ProBook 470 G4 starting at $749 (around £570, AU$1,000).
