HP ProBook 440 G4 (Core i7, Full-HD) Notebook Review

The case of the ProBook 440 G4 basically only differs from its siblings in terms of the size. HP uses a silver plastic chassis, which has been reinforced with aluminum on the top of the base unit. There are still black elements such as the keyboard or the display frame, but the lid is now silver as well, while the predecessor had a black lid.

The stability is very decent and only slightly worse compared to the more compact 430 G4. Pressure is not a big problem for the base and we can only notice minimal bouncing in the center of the keyboard area when you type with a lot of force. We only noticed quiet creaking sounds when we used the laptop in practice. The weak spot is still the thin display cover, where pressure will quickly result in ripples on the screen. We liked the hinge much better. The fourth generation now uses a drop-down mechanism, which is well-adjusted and can be opened with just one hand, but the maximum opening angle is not that generous at around 130 degrees. At the bottom are two maintenance hatches secured by a Philips screw and some plastic clips. The battery cannot be removed easily.

Both the build quality and the stability of the case are very decent in general. However, more expensive business notebooks as well as premium consumer notebooks with unibody constructions are even better in this respect.

All four devices are quite similar in our size comparison, only the Acer TravelMate X3 is noticeably slimmer and lighter. However, the ProBook 440 G4 is still slightly lighter than the other two rivals at 1.7 kg (~3.75 lb) and the laptop is a good compromise between size and mobility.

The port equipment does not differ from the smaller ProBook 430 G4 and HP has changed only one port compared to the predecessor ProBook 440 G3: One standard USB 3.0 port (Type-A) has been replaced by a Type-C jack (USB 3.1 Gen.1). However, the latter supports only the USB protocol, but not any additional features such as USB power delivery or Thunderbolt 3. TB3 in particular would have been a very comfortable and future-proof solution, especially considering the missing docking port. This makes it harder to integrate the device in work environments, because you will still have to attach at least the power adapter as well as port replicators. The USB ports are also at the center of the sides, which is not a perfect solution for permanently attached peripherals.

Otherwise, the ports are rather outdated, because a USB 2.0 port and a VGA output are no longer common. High-resolution 4K screens can only be driven at 30 Hz via HDMI. At least the performance of the USB ports does not cause any criticism. We determined transfer rates of up to 380 MB/s in combination with our external Samsung SSD T3.

The SD card reader is located at the left front and manages average transfer rates in our tests. We can determine up to 90 MB/s in combination with our reference card from Toshiba (Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II, up to 260 MB/s). The card could reach higher results, but the ProBook 440 G4 is still on the usual level. Only the rival from Dell performs much better.

The wireless module provided by Intel has the designation Dual-Band Wireless-AC 7265. This module has been available for a while and has already got a successor (Wireless-AC 8265), but it supports the fast 802.11ac standard (2.4 & 5 GHz) and reaches a maximum transfer rate of 866 Mbps. The test model performs better than the recently reviewed ProBook 430 G4 in our standardized WLAN test with the router Linksys EA8500. Around 540 Mbps receive and 450 Mbps send are decent results and we did not experience any issues during our review period. Connections with other devices can also be established via Bluetooth 4.2. There is also a Gigabit Ethernet port for wired networks and HP offers an optional LTE module (HP lt4132 LTE 4G).

A 720p webcam as well as two microphones are located above the display. The webcam does its job, but you should not expect too much. The microphones on the other hand, work very well.

Business devices obviously have a bigger focus on the security. The ProBook 440 G4 is equipped with a Trusted Platform Module 2.0, a vibration sensor for the hard drive, a slot for a security lock, and a fingerprint scanner. The finger has to be swiped across the scanner. This works well as long as you do not swipe your finger too quickly, but modern touch sensors are more comfortable.

As far as software is concerned, HP has installed its Security Manager, which combines all security settings in one simple interface. You can, for instance, set up passwords or register fingerprints. The only thing we miss is a SmartCard reader, which is not available as an option either.

More settings are available in the comprehensive BIOS, which can be controlled via the touchpad. We have added some screenshots below for an overview.

HP ships the ProBook 440 G4 with only a 65-watt power adapter (45 watts for the model without dedicated GPU) and some service leaflets. The manufacturer offers some generic accessories such as USB docking stations, bags or power adapters.

That we are dealing with an entry-level business device is also reflected by the warranty. Unlike the more expensive premium products, where the warranty period is usually 36 months, HP offers only a 12-month coverage for the ProBook 440 G4. However, this period can be extended by CarePacks from HP. A three-year on-site service (UK703E), for example, is available for a fair price of 104 Euros (~$112).

Please see our Guarantees, Return Policies & Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.

The HP ProBook 440 G4 is a business notebook and can be adjusted to your requirements with different components. All the processors are based on the Kaby Lake architecture, but you can choose from the entire range of ULV products (no vPro) starting with the Pentium 4415 all the way up to the Core i7-7500U. The latter is also running inside our test model, so the laptop is suitable for all common office applications. You also get 8 GB DDR4 RAM (1 free slot) as well as a fast SSD for responsive handling. Even more storage capacity is provided by a conventional hard drive.

Besides the integrated graphics adapter of the processor (Intel HD Graphics 610 or 620 depending on the CPU), the ProBook 440 G4 is also available with the dedicated graphics card Nvidia GeForce 930MX. This model with 2 GB DDR3 VRAM (64-bit interface) is still based on the Maxwell generation and should be around 30 to 40% faster than the iGPU.

The processor of the HP ProBook 440 G4 has the designation Intel Core i7-7500U, which is one of the fastest ULV chips (15-watt TDP) from the current Kaby Lake lineup. The processor has two cores and can execute up to four threads simultaneously, thanks to Hyperthreading. The clocks are now up to 400 MHz higher compared to the Skylake predecessor Core i7-6500U, thanks to the improved 14nm manufacturing process. The i7-7500U can reach up to 3.5 GHz, which is also the case for two active cores.

We really liked the smooth operation of the ProBook 440 G4 during our review period. The system boots quickly and applications are launched without delays, which is not surprising considering the combination of SSD and powerful processor. Our subjective impression is supported by the very good PCMark 8 scores, where the test model is actually just at the top of the comparison group. However, all comparing laptops are very fast and there are no significant differences. It is even possible to increase the performance a bit with a secondary RAM module (dual-channel).

HP uses an M.2-SSD with a capacity of 256 GB. You can use around 200 GB for your own files and applications; the rest is reserved for the operating system and the recovery partition. The drive from SanDisk is attached via SATA-III interface, so the transfer rates are limited at around 500 MB/s. This is also confirmed by our benchmarks, where the performance of the drive is inconspicuous. Obviously, it falls behind faster PCIe-NVMe models in the tests, but the differences are small in practice.

There is also an additional conventional 1 TB hard drive from Western Digital. It manages an average transfer rate of 89 MB/s, which is an average result of a 54 RPM drive. More benchmarks for many storage drives are available in our comprehensive SSD/HDD list.

In addition to the integrated HD Graphics 620 of the processor, our test model of the ProBook 440 G4 is also equipped with a dedicated graphics card from Nvidia. Thanks to the Optimus technology, the system will automatically switch between the adapters depending on the scenario, although manual adjustments are also possible.

The Nvidia GeForce 930MX is a lower mainstream GPU, which is still based on the old Maxwell architecture (28 nm). The Pascal architecture is not available in this performance class as yet. Unfortunately, this is only the version with 2 GB DDR3 RAM, even though the 930MX also supports GDDR5.

The GeForce 930MX is about 30 to 50% faster than the integrated HD Graphics 620 (single-channel) depending on the benchmark. It is even twice as fast in the demanding Fire Strike test (GPU sub-scores), but we can still talk about the purpose of the dedicated GPU in this case. The integrated graphics card is powerful enough for standard office tasks and,  thanks to the integrated video decoder as well as QuickSync, even video playback and editing is not a problem. The 930MX is also an ordinary consumer GPU, which does not offer significant advantages in professional scenarios (such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks etc.). You should therefore get a configuration without a dedicated GPU if you do not plan on playing games.

More benchmarks for the two graphics cards are available in our Tech section.

The additional performance of the dedicated graphics cards is mainly noticeable when you play games, but the Nvidia GeForce 930MX does not transform the ProBook 440 G4 into a gaming notebook. Only older or less demanding games such as “Tomb Raider” from 2013 can be played at high settings in the native Full HD resolution, but modern games are restricted to medium or low settings. More benchmarks are available in our gaming list.

The integrated stereo speakers located above the keyboard are actually not that bad in our measurements thanks to pretty linear mids and high tones, and the maximum volume (~84 dB(A)) is also sufficient for presentations. However, the subjective impression is still very tinny due to the missing bass. The performance is sufficient for some YouTube videos or some background music during lunch break, but you should use external speakers or headphones for better quality.

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