Shopping CartHP ProBook 4525s XT950UT 15.6″ LED Notebook (2.2 GHz AMD Athlon II Dual-Core Processor P340, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL LightScribe, Windows 7 Professional 32-bit)
date : September 17th, 2011Hp
Review : 3 Reviews
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List Price : $ 599.00
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Tags : 15.6, 32bit, 4525s, 7200, Athlon, Drive, DualCore, DVD+/RW, Hard, LightScribe, Notebook, P340, ProBook, Processor, Professional, SuperMulti, Windows, XT950UT
- HP ProBook 4525s XT950UT Notebook AMD Athlon II P340 2.2GHz
- 15.6″ LED WXGA Display 1366 x 768 – ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4250
- RAM: 2 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 (8GB Max) – HDD: 320 GB 7200 rpm SATA II – DVD-RAM/±R/±RW DL w/LightScribe
- Wi-Fi: Yes – Bluetooth 2.1+EDR Combo – HDMI: Yes – Webcam: 2MP – Microphone: Yes – USB: 3 x 2.0
- 6-Cell battery 4 Hours Run Time – Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
HP ProBook 4525s XT950UT Notebook – Athlon II P340 2.2GHz – 15.6″ XT950UT#ABA 41
the best budget laptop,
If you’re looking for a inexpensive laptop of this size then this is a perfect choice.
Initial Impressions:
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I’ve only had the laptop for a few days, but am quite happy with it. The number pad is great, island keys look nice and feel good. The track pad has a ton of settings and options so with a little fiddling you should be able to find the settings that work for you. The display is definitely widescreen but looks great. There wasn’t too much bloatware installed – mainly just a bunch of HP programs, but they were easily disabled/removed. Comes with McAffe 60 day trial which I uninstalled. Also comes with Office 2010 starter which provides Word & Excel limited versions. I love that this has a 7200 RPM harddrive as most laptops skimp with slower 5400 RPM options. Webcam works great and has a built-in light/flash. HP & Windows 7 even have face recognition for logging in, although that doesn’t always work. The top has a matte finish with what I can best describe as a fine wood grain look that’s somewhat grey/brown.
Update: one of the main reasons I bought this laptop was for the HDMI output so I could connect to my receiver and HD TV then play videos, Hulu, etc. from the laptop to the TV. After a little tweaking of the audio playback device both audio and video worked great over HDMI! I should note that the audio signal is not surround, but ‘just’ digital stereo.
Regarding Memory:
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I ordered another 2GB of RAM and after removing 7 screws I got to the memory location under the keyboard and the additional memory looked to be exactly the same as what I ordered. You can google to find the instructions for removing the keyboard on HP’s website. However, I don’t know that 4GB is absolutely necessary for this laptop. It depends on how many programs you’ll have open at a time and how you plan to use it. Many people probably don’t know that 4GB is the maximum amount that a 32 bit Operating System can reference.
Overall:
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Circuit City (owned by the same company as Tiger Direct) via Amazon had the best price for this laptop (400), even better than Newegg (420). I was surprised that shipping took only 3 days!
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|A very fine business machine,
This is a surprisingly good laptop for the money! Although I purchase nearly everything from Amazon, I caught a 24 hour special on another site that I just couldn’t pass up.
After returning two other laptops from another company that did not meet my graphics expectations, I was a little concerned about this one – you usually see these kinds of specs in much higher priced machines. Although the Microsoft Windows Experience Index is not a techie’s dream, it does give a standard measurement that indicates how well the computer performs using Windows 7 (scale of 1 to 7.9).
After the first start-up, I ran the Index with the installed 2GB memory. Then I installed 4gigs and updated the Graphics and bios. Here’s how the numbers came out:
Processor: 5.2, 5.3
Memory (RAM): 5.5, 5.5
Graphics: 3.3, 4.1
Gaming Graphics: 5.1, 5.2
Primary Hard Disk: 5.9, 5.9
These are very decent numbers.
x32 and x64 OPERATING SYSTEMS: I wanted x64. I called HP Customer Service and ordered the x64 at no cost. Within less than two days I received the disks via FedEx Express (good, responsive, customer service). Not one disk, but three Windows 7 disks arrived (x32, x64, and a recovery disk).
GRAPHICS: Although this is a business-field computer, I need good graphics nevertheless. If I lift this laptop up and put it next to my 24″ desktop monitor (with an ATI Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD5770 video card that gives me an Index of 7.4), I can hardly tell the difference except the colors appear richer on the HP laptop!
KEYBOARD: Excellent. Generous sized keys. Nice border between the main keys and the ten-key area. Keys have a nice touch.
TRACK PAD: I find no fault with it.
ENCLOSEURE: A stylish black case and keyboard that looks very business professional. The finish shows finger prints easily, but I find that a Meguiar’s Supreme Shine microfiber towel remove finger prints without a trace. I also use it on my black keyboard and tower.
PROBLEMS: Installing the memory modules was a bit of a chore, but I knew about it before I ever purchased this machine. Be aware that the screw threads are not small – they’re tiny. And the two rubber caps at the back are nothing more than two thin rubber caps with sticky on the backs. An Exacto blade makes them easy to remove.
I’m delighted with this laptop.
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|Loooveee iiitt!!!,
My reference point is from the use of Thinkpads for 10 years (t-20, t-40, t-60) and the Dell Latitude series for another 3 (both brands are premium business laptops).
This is my take on this deal: This is a fantastic buy for $399! And stand-alone, not a bad computer!
The outstanding:
– Great built in camera (2Mp – most others have 1.3 or just 0.3)
– Faster HDD than most other laptops (7200 rpm, most others have 5500)
– Fantastic connectivity for this price class; HDMI, eSATA
– Durable design using polished metal
The good:
– Quite good speakers for this price
– Processor is reasonably fast, graphic processing also
– Keyboard is water proof, HDD has shock absorber function
The bad:
– The touchpad buttons are part of the touchpad, making them difficult to use as the cursor will typically move when you click. I use an external mouse, so it is not really a problem.
– I find myself mistyping more often when using the keyboard than on my Lenovo Thinkpad or Dell Latitude – and my fingers are not particularly fat
The ugly:
– Adding more ram was NOT a cakewalk – dissembling the keyboard and top panel was easy – putting it back together again was a nightmare, eventually had me using a kitchen knife to modify the plastic panels (if you do this be very gentle not to bend anything, so you don’t have to bend it back like I had to…).
Would I buy it again? Definitely! I love this thing!
—— Additional observations added on August 1st, 2011 ——
– The wireless antenna is awesome. In locations where my two-year-old Thinkpad achieves just one or two bars from the wireless network (or sometimes none), the HP achieves four.
– The web-cam works extremely well in dim light, better than that of my Thinkpad and on par with that of my Latitude 4300.
– I’ve had no issues whatsoever concerning stability after nearly 3 months of usage. No hang-ups, crashes or freezes! I think this is the most stable computer I’ve ever owned.
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