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amazon HP PROBOOK 445 G7 reviews
The HP ProBook 445 G7 accents an elegant, durable design and powerful processing performance. Targeted at business users with Client Security Suite Gen 3, but basically, almost anyone will be satisfied with this laptop.
Continuing to put their faith in AMD’s processors, in April, HP officially launched the ProBook 445 G7 and 455 G7 laptop duo equipped with Ryzen 4000 series (Renoir) chips. Manufacturing on the 7nm process, Ryzen 4000 promises to compete fairly with Intel’s Ice Lake generation, giving consumers more options.
Regarding the ProBook 445 G7 model, this is a 14-inch laptop, differentiated from the 455 G7 with a 15.6-inch screen. We believe that the HP ProBook 445 G7 is affordable, well competitive in the segment, less especially in terms of configuration.
In this detailed review, BiaReview selected the most advanced version of HP ProBook 445 G7 to experience, with Ryzen 7-4700U chip, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and 512GB SSD.
Elegant design, durable metal military standard
In terms of appearance, the HP ProBook 445 G7 is no different from the ProBook 445 G6, which was launched in early 2019, when the successor was more focused on enhancing internal hardware.
At first glance, we can see that ProBook 445 G7 still inherits the traditional beauty of HP business laptops. The shell and chassis are made of silver-white monolithic aluminum, creating an elegant, simple but sophisticated look, and at the same time, very good resistance to sweat and fingerprints. The middle of the lid is only the HP logo, the square edges, slightly curved at the point of contact with the chassis.
ProBook 445 G7 is relatively compact, 18mm thick, and 1.6 kg in weight, flexible enough for you to take it back and forth between meetings or work at the coffee shop without cumbersome for backpacks or bags. Holding the camera with one hand is simple, but opening it with one hand is a bit more difficult due to the hinge holding it tight.
With a special hinge design, users can tilt the screen of the ProBook 445 G7 at a 180-degree angle, convenient for multi-person processing tasks at the same time. The bottom part of the hinge has the ProBook logo imprinted quite subtly, the joints are well completed, seamlessly. According to HP, ProBook 445 G7 has passed 19 MIL-STD-810G tests, so users can be quite assured about the durability of the product.
The bezel surrounding the screen of the ProBook 445 G7 is quite thick, especially the two upper and lower bezels, and this is also the only part of the machine made of plastic. Notably, on the top edge, HP has also integrated a slider to shield the webcam when not in use – a necessary feature in an era where privacy is at the forefront, especially important for business laptops like the ProBook 445 G7.
To quickly check the parameters, ProBook 445 G7 uses an LP140WFA-SPD3 screen panel manufactured by LG Display. This is an IPS LCD panel with Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution, 50% sRGB, and 45% NTSC color coverage. With these parameters, ProBook 445 G7 is good for basic office tasks, web surfing, entertainment (watching movies, games), and for professional photo and video editing, users should consider the monitors discrete more dedicated graphics. ProBook 445 G7 comes in a version with a maximum brightness of 1000 nits, with 72% NTSC color coverage.
Practical experience, thanks to the IPS LCD panel, ProBook 445 G7 has a wide viewing angle, almost no color distortion when viewed at a sharp angle, bright colors. The device supports HDR stream through the Windows HD option, is coated with anti-glare to display content outdoors better.
ProBook 445 G7 has a rich number of ports. On the left side, we have a Kensington lock, a USB 2.0 port, and an SD card slot. The other side respectively power connector, one USB-C 3.1 Gen1 port, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, two USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports, and a mixed headphone/mic port. In terms of wireless connectivity, HP’s laptop supports the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard for improved connection quality, along with Bluetooth 5.
Fingerprint keyboard, spill-resistant rare on the market
With a 14-inch screen, it is understandable when HP decided to remove the numpad number pad. In return, the distance between the keys is very clear, limiting the situation of mistyping. When typing, the keys on the ProBook 445 G7 are responsive, compact, and have moderate key travel, and clear touchpoints like a ‘click’ on the Brown Switch mechanical keyboard.
ProBook 445 G7 is also one of the rare laptops on the market equipped with a splash-proof keyboard, so you do not need to worry too much if you accidentally spill water or coffee while working. The keyboard also features a monochrome white backlight with two brightness levels, making night work more efficient.
The surface of the ProBook 445 G7 is also made of aluminum, in a click-pad format, and receives both touch and physical click through the two sink buttons below. Support Windows Precision driver, users can set off gestures such as switching tabs, zooming images, …
Do not expect too much, but the ProBook 445 G7’s external speakers are better than I expected. The bass band is an inherent weakness on laptop speakers in general, this time is no exception, but the volume of ProBook 445 G7 is large, not shy, mid-range is bright, meeting listening needs. Simple music on Spotify or Youtube.
where can you get a HP PROBOOK 445 G7 online
HP ProBook 445 G7 14in Laptop, AMD Ryzen 7 4700U Octa-Core (8 Core), 8GB DDR4, 256GB NVMe SSD, 1920 x 1080 Display, Webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth, Win 10 Pro: Buy it now
HP ProBook 445 G7 14″ Notebook – Ryzen 5 4500U – 8 GB RAM – 256 GB SSD – AMD Radeon Graphics – English Keyboard; Buy it now
Smart Buy PROBOOK 445 G7 R7-4700U 14IN 16GB 512GB: Buy it now
Smart Buy PROBOOK 445 G7 R5-4500U 14IN 16GB 256GB: Buy it now
Many built-in security features
Referring to a business laptop, it is impossible not to mention the security features that come with the machine. With the ProBook 445 G7, it is equipped with Synaptics FS7604 fingerprint sensor, for fast and accurate opening speed. In some versions, ProBook 445 G7 is also equipped with an infrared sensor next to the webcam to unlock the face through Windows Hello.
On the software side, to focus on security mechanisms for small businesses that don’t have a dedicated IT department, the ProBook 445 G7 comes pre-installed with Client Security Suite Gen 3. These are basic security features includes support for the options available for Windows, plus some proprietary solutions such as Power-on Authentication, which requires users to enter a password or fingerprint as soon as they power on, have not yet booted into Windows, or One Step Logon allows users to only need to authenticate once in the Power-On step and will go straight to the desktop, without going through the Windows login step.
In addition, the ProBook 445 G7 is equipped with SureStart technology that protects and restores the BIOS to its original state in the event of an attack. As HP explains, every time the computer is turned on, Sure Start will automatically check the BIOS source code to look for any unauthorized changes and restore to factory settings if necessary. While the user is using the machine, Sure Start continuously monitors the memory, in the event of an attack will create a copy of the BIOS and separate from the system in less than 1 minute.
Strong performance
With 8 cores and 8 threads, base clock 2GHz to a maximum of 4.1GHz, the Ryzen 7-4700U processor is one of the most powerful 15W TDP chips at the moment, just inferior to Ryzen 7- The 4800U has 8 cores / 16 threads and competes fairly with Intel’s Core i7 Gen 10 chip. The experience version of BiaReview has 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 512GB SSD, users can expand up to 16GB of RAM and add 1TB of a traditional hard drive.
But even with its default configuration, ProBook 445 G7 can do almost anything, from simple tasks like Office, surfing the web with more than 10 Chrome tabs to playing League of Legends gaming. photo editing through Lightroom, Photoshop. The addition of an additional RAM slot for upgrades is a plus, for users with high multitasking needs, but unfortunately, the ProBook is limited to a maximum of 16GB of RAM, instead of 32GB.
With the PCMark 10 overall benchmark tool, the ProBook 445 G7 scored 5045 points in Express, on par with the Core i7-10510U that I experienced (5131 points).
To the CineBench R20 rendering performance evaluation engine, ProBook 445 G7 achieved 473 single-core and 2805 multi-core points – according to Cinebench R20’s statistics, Ryzen 7-4700U is more powerful than Core i7-7700K desktop chip.
On GeekBench 4, the Ryzen 7-4700U chip has a single-core score that is slightly inferior to the Core i7-10510U (4647 points vs. 4988) but outperforms the multi-core score (20342 points vs. 15868). At GPU performance, Radeon RX Vega 6’s integrated graphics are even better than AMD’s own Radeon 625 discrete graphics, 2308 points versus 28177.
Storage, the ProBook 445 G7 equips Western Digital’s SN520 SSD with a capacity of 512GB. Measured quickly with Crystal Disk Mark, this SSD reaches a sequential read/write speed of about 1700/1400 MB / s, which is enough for tasks such as starting Windows, opening heavy applications Photoshop, Lightroom … to be completed quickly.
Despite having only a 15W TDP, the Ryzen 7-4700U still emits a lot of heat when under load, and sometimes the ProBook 445 G7’s cooling system doesn’t keep up. When rendering with CineBench R20, the Ryzen 7-4700U maintained a 3.5GHz all-core clock for a short time, before dropping to 3.1-3.2GHz. The maximum temperature that this CPU records when rendering is 88 degrees Celsius, feeling warm from the keyboard, but when the benchmark stops, the temperature also drops very quickly.
Light one-day battery, 65W fast charge included
Comes with the machine is a 65W charger for fast charging speed. Charging the phone in an hour gets 78% of the battery, and is fully charged in 1 hour and 36 minutes. If you have a Power Delivery charger, you can also charge the ProBook 445 G7 via the USB-C port on the device.
Summary
With that in mind, the HP ProBook 445 G7 is a portable choice for business users. The brightest point, undisputedly, is the powerful performance from the Ryzen 7-4700U chip, but the sturdy monolithic aluminum design, water-proof keyboard, and security features are what ProBook does. The 445 G7 is superior to other products in its price range.
The only point that HP needs to improve on this ProBook 445 G7 is that the bezels still belong to 2019. Narrow bezels will not only reduce the size of the laptop but also give a spacious viewing experience. Even if the price is pushed up a bit, it’s still a trade-off that I think a lot of users are willing to agree to.