"I had a bigger Probook, a 4525 that I lost, and I descided to try to find a smaller one. After getting talked into a Pavillion and sending it back, ( a little too lightweight for me), I found this 14 inch, lighter machine in the business section, AND I'm so glad I did. The previous 2 reviews have a lot of great technical info about the Sandy Bridge GPU etc, so I will just add some less techy notes. First; PROS:The touchpad is FANTASTIC... I haven't gotten around to unwrapping the mouse I bought 6 weeks ago. I simply don't need it (but see "Cons" at the end). The keyboard is comfortable and full size (without a seperate number pad..numbers are embedded AND across the top) , and it has a drain in case you spill your drink on it. LOVE IT! The machine is pretty thin and light. It's a good tradeoff for weight and size vs. comfort of use. and UNLIKE the Pavilions of similar price, it "feels solid". Graphics are GREAT, BATTERY LIFE is an INCREDIBLE improvement over the 15.4 inch models (4500 series) from what I saw. I think 4 hours is pretty easy to get with a little conservation, and basic surfing emailing etc. Processing is fast once it boots. All in all, for the money it seems to be a reallySOLID, and FAST little machine, and I'd get the very pricy "air fruit" before I'd spend any MORE. That might have been the idea here.. It is SILENT running and very COOL , too, and vents out the side, so it actually CAN be used on the lap, imagine THAT! This comes with "Quickweb" a sort of tablet on top of windows, kinda, that will let you jump on the web WITHOUT booting up WINDOWS...You can also check your mail, (via Windows Live - client, which will bring IN gmail and yahoo, but apparently ONLY THROUGH Hotmail! It seems fairly"marketing driven", showcasing partnerships (with Hotmail etc.), but it could be useful for jumping on and off the web and countering that long bootime (see CONS). It MIGHT also spare batteries, not sure yet. Would be a fun test. The Splash page is clean, with some actiually useful info, might be a great place to stash reminders ,calanders notes, maybe even a journal could fit etc. Perfect for the commute.
CAVEAT: I have a uxt model which has just been discontinued. The main difference between the machine I have and the various 4430s's now offered, appears to be a 500 gB hard drive instead of the 320 gB, drive I have. That should be good news. I did see a couple of different components, and slightly different ratings that may not even mean anything, like the wireless was a different brand (except only the top of the probook lineup has the same (atheros) as my mid line machine does now). A few other things like the touchpad and battery, I couldn't VERIFY , so hopefully it's the same build. Maybe someone will review the newer models. My Processor is the much reviewed i3 2310. The newer model numbers seem to have i3 2320, and are spec'd a TAD faster. Maybe someone can comment as to whether this means anything. CONS: Very few. Being a business model, I think this shipped VERY LEAN on bloatware which is good news for me. BUT it was also fairly out of date. Do it right and prepare to spend a day UPDATING THE BIOS, and all the drivers. I gave MS WINDOWS and HP pretty much free reign for a few days and then sorted through the updates and most of them were probably a "good thing". It's taken some time and patience to get this set up, and it's probabaly assumed that some IT guy will strip and tweek it anyway. You MAY even want to reinstall the OS....Ask for copies of the discs from tech service, they are free. This machine seems to take FOREVER to boot. I dunno why except it took 12 minutes to reinstall the touch pad and driver, maybe that's why it's so good! ( it may be glitchy in the touch pad on/off , and or keyboard, and other ways until updated. ((THOUROUGHLY!)). Sound is actullay better than most , and inputs are everywhere. If you are looking for a well built, easy to carry and use computer, and you just can't afford the fancy" air fruit", I'd say this is your machine. (and there may well be some resellers blowing out the UXT models right now)... I wouldn't hesitate, You can always add an external drive and probably will ANYWAY...Look for some bargains NOW.(Just read the previous reviews and DO get the Intel processor). I am a happy camper so far."
13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
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Overall:
4out of5
Mapper
Location: Pacific NW
I like mine
Date:April 22, 2011
"This 4430s (Core i3-2310M, 4GB) performs as expected, considering the suite of hardware and software it has. The i3 is just now becoming available after Intel had some time to market the more expensive i7 and i5 processors. The Core i3-2310M performance turns out to be pretty impressive, and some tech-lab reviewers might report on the benchmark numbers for this configuration. From my subjective point of view, it is very fast, even for video editing and reformatting of full 1080 HD content. Photo editing is fast for my 10MP RAW files with only a couple of seconds of time lag for extensive resampling and image modification. CAD runs fine with the new on-board Core i3 Intel graphics, but of course a small laptop display is not appropriate for serious CAD productivity. It can do CAD in a pinch though, and that’s good for my type of use in engineering mapping and surveying. The standard office applications can all be run simultaneously with no perceptible time lag or slowdown. Web performance is as fast as your network connection will allow. I don’t do gaming and that’s not what this machine is for anyway. I think the (2nd Gen "Sandy Bridge") Core i3 is going to turn out to be a high-value "sleeper" offering more performance per buck than the higher priced processors. Ask yourself what you really need before you buy more expensive processing power that you may not ever use! The 4430s is physically well built. The metal cladding is nice and the user interface tools (keys, screen, touchpad, etc.) all work well and have a good quality look and feel. The battery life is amazingly improved. I'm getting at least twice the time compared to my previous HP Pavillion "Intel core-duo" machine with the same capacity battery! The benchmark websites may give quantified comparisons if they test this machine. It has a USB 3.0 port which is a must for the future - don't buy any computer that lacks it from now on. The 320GB HDD may seem a bit small but the faster 7200 spin is more that worth the trade-off. Outboard storage is cheap, compact, and really fast now that USB 3.0 is here, so if you need to carry around more than fits easily on the internal HDD, just get a slim little USB3.0 Terabyte external. Gotta have one anyway for backup!
The HP QuickWeb app that allows quick, pre-boot internet access is handy, although it does not come up as fast as a tablet device running iOS or Android and it's not like a regular web browser. About the best you can say for it is that it saves a minute waiting for a full boot of Win7. The HP fingerprint reader doesn't work consistently for me so far. I haven't tried the face recognition software yet, and I may not. It would be a pain to be locked out of my own PC because it wouldn't recongnize my fingerprint or face.
Time will tell how durable this "business-class" machine turns out to be. No way to know that for a first review.
Overall, the 4430S basic model is well worth its "discounted" introductory price, which I doubt will ever increase, and may actually decline as similarly configured competitive units arrive on the market. The machine should be good for a couple of years of small business use, or even longer for a student or home use. It's worth mentioning that this unit had NO bloatware at all on it! I'm guessing that HP figures it's a waste of time to put it on since most businesses will just wipe the hard drive and put their own software image on it anyway.
A final topic ---- I ordered this base unit as an "test sample" to see if I should get more of them. I did not specify any customization, but just ordered the stock base model. It took much too long (over a month) to ship this item. When HP introduces a new line, it would be helpful for them to have a stock of preconfigured base models on-hand in the US for immediate shipment as soon they start to accept orders. Because of the long delay, I have less time to evaluate this unit, and HP has the item on its website for a long time without any posted user reviews! However, when I contacted HP about the delay they did offer substitute units and free overnight. That's nice, but it doesn't solve the actual problem of not getting the unit I really wanted in a timely manner. The HP service rep I contacted (Rose) was very responsive though, and kept tabs on my order daily, plus giving me a couple of goodies to help ease my impatience."
41 out of 45 people found this review helpful.
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Overall:
5out of5
beavdog
Location: Corsica, PA
HP 4430s
Date:April 21, 2011
"the chipset drivers from intel have problems detecting hard drives through browsers, say you go to change your download folder location, so i just didn't install them, i don't use the security stuff, the finger print scanner, disable all that in bios, to install ram it's simple, take yer battery off, keep the tabs slid and push the bottom plastic cover off, there is where you put the ram in, 1333, i recommend corsair, i don't use the standard install from hp, so i set mine up clean install, downloaded 64 drivers, set up hard drive partitions etc. total 8gb ram, this laptop is very well built, very solid and HP did a great job on the laptop, couldn't be happier with it, keyboard and mouse are fiine, i don't install their drivers for that, i use a mouse anyway instead of touch pad, the videos on hp site don't match the new sandy models, so they'll update them soon i'm sure, this is new so ya know, with an external drive, set as scratch disc, i run adobe master collection cs5, this isn't a gamer system and i edit small chunks, but intel got sandy right, and hp got the 4430s right, a great job on both, for 630 shipped to yer door average, spend another 30 bucks get corsair ram, hp memory is expensive, but if you want someone else put ram in get it from them, puts the laptop in dual channel, it's not a big laptop, but doesn't feel small, and the keyboard is great, spill proof also, i didn't even let the hp boot up, i don't like the customer service stuff and all that, that's me though, if yer looken for a solid built laptop with good support, great build, any sandy probook will do, very happy, and thank you to hp for express delivery, they did that on the house and i didn't even ask, very happy, thanks hp"
