HP ProBook 470 G4 Notebook Review

The aluminum-colored casing of HP's ProBook 470 G4 makes a high-quality and restrained impression. Only the working area around the keyboard presents a brushed metal surface. The casing's tray and display lid are made of plastic. Thanks to the matching colors, the transition of the different materials is seamless, ensuring a uniform, consistent look.

The overall stability is good, and should be more than satisfactory for most application scenarios. However, the review sample's rigidity cannot match the stability of a unibody aluminum casing or that of premium business devices.

The determined weight of 2.77 kg (~6.1 lb) is quite moderate for a 17-inch laptop, and is thus still quite portable. Thanks to the good battery life, the 350-gram (~12 oz) power supply can often be left at home.

HP's ProBook 470 G4 features good connectivity, and covers a wide range of possible application scenarios. Two of the four USB ports support the USB 3.0 standard, one of which is implemented as a Type-C port. However, a Thunderbolt port or USB 3.1 Gen.2 is not present.

Although the ProBook is equipped with two video outs and the graphics chips actually support high resolutions at a frame rate of 60 Hz, the laptop cannot utilize this. It does not have the necessary interface, such as DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 2.0. The review sample at most reached 2048x1536 pixels at 60 Hz via analog VGA, and 4096x2160 pixels at 24 Hz via HDMI.

Otherwise, contrary to the current trend, an optical drive and LAN port are installed.

The interface distribution is rather inconsistent: While the ports on the right are situated far back and thus will hardly interfere with connected peripherals, the ports on the left are far front and much too close to each other.

Intel's Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 (a/b/g/h/n/ac), and Bluetooth 4.2 provide the communications equipment. Gigabit-LAN and an HD webcam are also installed. An internal broadband module cannot be ordered or retrofitted. The Wi-Fi connection speed and stability made a good impression in the test. At a distance of 17 meters (~56 ft) in line of view, the Bluetooth module maintained a stable connection to an external UE Boom 2.

HP's ProBook provides a good basic security configuration in the form of a Trusted Platform 2.0 module and a fingerprint scanner as well as the usual BIOS and system password authentication. On the other hand, a SmartCard reader is not offered, even as an option.

Among other things, HP lists its HP Elite USB-C docking station as a compatible model. It facilitates integrating the laptop into a stationary work environment and thus contributes a welcome addition for convenience. Since it is connected via USB 3.0 speed, higher performance interfaces are not available. Currently, the prices start at around 220 Euros (~$235). As a rule, HP's ProBooks do not appear on the compatibility list of HP's Elite Thunderbolt 3 docking stations.

Independent of the legal warranty, the manufacturer's warranty is 12 months. Various extensions and upgrades are available during configuration in HP's online store. For example, a 3-year on-site service can be added starting at 136 Euros (~$145) depending on services, and HP demands 174 Euros (~$186) for a 5-year bring-in service.

As in many new releases, processors of Intel's latest Kaby Lake generation are used in HP's ProBook 470 G4. All three versions starting with Intel's Core i3-7100U over Intel's Core i5-7200U up to Intel's Core i7-7500U are found on the configuration list. Our review sample is equipped with the currently slightly stronger descendant of the series. Nvidia's dedicated GeForce 930MX graphics card from the lower mid-range, 8 GB of RAM and an M.2 solid-state drive as the system drive, are also part of the package.

The system performance benefits from the review sample's overall balanced composition of components. In addition to the processor, primarily the installed storage devices have a major impact on the subjective work speed. HP combines a fast solid-state drive as the system storage and a high-capacity hard drive as the data container. This is complemented by an 8 GB RAM module and Nvidia's GeForce 930MX graphics unit. The working memory is a minor bottleneck as it only operates in single-channel mode. A second module would enable the faster dual-channel mode, which would increase the storage performance by roughly 20%. Installing a second module would quickly and easily remedy this.

Basically, the components achieve a very good speed in routine use. Office, Internet, image editing or casual gaming is not a challenge for the system. Intel's efficient Quick-Sync video technology is best used for converting (providing that the software is supported).

In the PCMark 8 System benchmark, the review sample achieved very good 4823 points in the work test and good 3626 points in the home test.

Although SanDisk's Z400s solid-state drive installed in the review sample is made in the more modern and compact M.2 form factor, it still operates with the SATA interface. Furthermore, this NAND solution's maximum write speed of 323 MB/s lags far behind some rivals. This primarily affects the speed at which programs are installed or data is transferred to the system partition.

Compared with conventional hard drives, this storage device still writes twice as fast and does not give the impression of a slow storage system. This is also the case with the additionally installed, Toshiba hard drive. However, this concept  is not intended to shine with the highest possible transfer rates, but rather, to provide as much and as cheap a storage capacity as possible. A capacity of 1 TB should be enough for photos, videos and other files for some time. Replacing either drive is no problem thanks to the dedicated maintenance hatch.

Extensive comparisons can be made using our storage device benchmark list.

HP's ProBook 470 G4 is equipped with an Nvidia Optimus solution in the form of Intel's HD Graphics 620 and Nvidia's GeForce 930MX. The ideal graphics unit is selected automatically or according to personal preferences. Intel's integrated graphics unit is used for low demands or converting via Intel's Quick Sync, while Nvidia's dedicated graphics unit is enabled when as much 3D performance as possible is needed. This is usually the case when playing games or creating 3D-designs. Intel's HD Graphics 620 is easily enough for all other tasks, especially since the review sample is hardly suitable for outputting high-resolution 4K material due to the absence of the required interfaces.

As expected, Nvidia's GeForce 930MX is situated slightly below Nvidia's GeForce 940MX in the benchmark test. Compared with Intel's HD Graphics 620, it achieves a few more frame rates per second, but cannot really be called suitable for gaming. For example, it achieves 7050 points in 3DMark Cloud Gate and is enough for a tight 48 FPS in Cinebench R15 OpenGL.

The graphics performance drops by roughly 10% in battery mode. For example, 37 FPS rather than 40 FPS are reached in Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL Shading.

Nvidia's graphics unit maintains its full performance without clock fluctuations during full load. The clock rate remains stable at just over 1 GHz.

More comparisons can be made with our GPU benchmark list.

As mentioned in the Graphics Card section, the gaming performance is not enough to call the laptop suitable for gaming. Many games can only be played using low or medium settings. Demanding games such as the "Witcher 3" are no fun with this in the long run. The graphics' power is simply too weak for these intentions. More comparisons can be made using our gaming benchmark list.

System Noise

Despite the moderate temperature development, the review sample's cooling system is very restrained. If it was not for the engine noise of the 1 TB hard drive, the laptop would be silent during little load. However, most users are unlikely to perceive our measured noise level of 31.7 dB(A). It first gets louder when medium processing load is demanded for more than a few seconds. The fan then speeds up and produces a noise of 37.82 dB(A). The measured rate gradually climbs from initial 40.2 dB(A) to around 43 dB(A) after about 15 minutes and then almost 46 dB(A) in the stress test. The fan produces a restrained noise characteristic with slowly fluctuating speeds. We did not observe sporadic speed variations or high-pitched noises in the review sample.

The casing of the big 17-inch device remains cool even after one hour of our stress test as well as during little load. A maximum of 40 °C (~104 °F) is recorded in the work area and 46 °C (~115 °F) on the underside. A bit of caution is only needed in the vent's area since the grilles could get unpleasantly hot at 63.7 °C (~147 °F). However, this is true for almost all laptops and is not a real restriction.