Review HP ProBook 6475b Notebook

The Dell Vostro, Fujitsu's S/E series, Lenovo's ThinkPad L series (L530), Asus' Pro B series and Acer's TravelMate P models as well as HP's ProBook have something in common: All of them are aimed at business customers or private users who look for a workhorse device, people who don't want to spend more than $800-1000, but at the same time don't want to miss out on essential business features such as - at least - a typing-friendly keyboard, a matte display, a multitude of ports and a stable, non-glossy case suitable for everyday use. ASUS N56 Battery

With its 14-inch ProBook 6475b (model C5A55EA) equipped with an AMD A6-4400M and a WXGA++ panel, HP complements its series of 13-inch (6360b), 14-inch (6470b), 15-inch (4540s, 4535s) and 17-inch (4740s) notebooks which we have already reviewed. The 6475b is a direct sibling of the Intel-based 6470b with which it shares the same barebone. Like all ProBooks, the 6475b is available in a variety (9) of configurations ranging from $800 to $1000. ASUS N56VJ Battery

We are comparing the 6475b with three of its competitors which are also aimed at business users and demanding consumers, namely the Dell Vostro 3460, Lenovo's ThinkPad L430 and Acer's TravelMate P643. Of course, these are but a small selection of all comparable laptops, as can be seen in the corresponding list below this review - which does not even include cheaper office devices with worse build quality, less ports or unsatisfying input devices. But first let's have a closer look at the 6475b. ASUS N56VM Battery

Case

 

As already mentioned, the 6475b shares a common barebone with its Intel sibling, the 6470b. Number and type of ports are the same, as are their locations. Even the interior of the device looks alike, which makes maintenance of its components a breeze.

However, the 6475b differs considerably from the larger 15-inch 6570b, which sports a completely different chassis with different port locations and an additional numpad which the 6475b does not have. Only color, material and general shape and design remain similar. ASUS N56VZ Battery

HP has chosen to simply reuse the case of the 14-inch predecessor ProBook 6465b (early 2012) - apparently, its stable, high-quality build didn't require any improvements. For a more detailed analysis of all ports, we refer to our reviews of the ProBook 6465b (AMD) and the 6470b (Intel).

Performance

 

In the case of its 6475b model, HP employs the AMD Trinity platform (Intel is used in the 6470b). ASUS N56V Battery Only one of the variants, the A3Z20AV, sports an A8-4500M quad-core processor (4 x 1.9 GHz, accompanied by a Radeon HD 7640G, but without a Windows 8 license), while the other variants - one of them being our test version - come equipped with a dual-core AMD A6-4400M processor (2 x 2.7 GHz).

Only one of the two memory banks is occupied by a single 4 GB RAM module. Since Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) came preinstalled, all tests have been performed under Windows 7, despite the 6475b being shipped with a Windows 8 DVD. The graphics board of our test device is an integrated HD 7520G which snaps off 512 MB RAM. ASUS Ultrabook S56 Battery

Cinebench 11.5 does not work in a 32-bit environment, which is why we had to use the 32-bit version of the R10 Multi benchmark. Typical business laptops are equipped with an Intel Core i3 (+ 80-90%) or an i5 (+ 160-190%), rendering them much more potent than AMD's dual-core processor. Even the A8-4500M variant cannot compete with Intel's Core i platform, outperforming the A6-4400M by only 30% (this being an average taken over five test devices). ASUS Ultrabook S56C Battery

According to its fact sheet, the CPU clock speed varies between 2.7 and 3.2 GHz due to its turbo core. However, even under full load we measure only a value swaying between 2.4 and 2.9 GHz - for both cores. The clock speed decreases whenever the GPU is needed, as can also be seen in our high-temperature stress test evaluation.

ASUS Ultrabook S56CA Battery Redeployment of resources is a fundamental principle of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), distributing and allotting energy input variably between the CPU and GPU. While the Intel Core platform is capable of exhausting the maximum performance levels of both units at the same time, this cannot be done with the A6 or the A8. Only while operating on battery can the AMD APU use both CPU and GPU to the fullest (When 'Maximize Power' is chosen in the PowerPlay Battery settings), yielding similar Cinebench and 3DMark 11 scores as before. ASUS Ultrabook S56CB Battery

PC Mark 7 yields a score of 1615 points. That's considerably less than the Core i5 competitors, the Vostro 3460, the ThinkPad L430 and the TravelMate P643. The Vostro 3460 fares best, both due to its fast GT 630M graphics board and its HDD cache, resulting in a high storage score. The P643's GT 640M GPU is even better, but it gets slowed down by its weak HDD performance. The HP ProBook 6475b's HDD scores in PCMark 7 and Vantage are actually quite okay for a 7200 rpm-HDD, but that is not enough to make up for its weaker CPU when compared to the Intel systems. ASUS Ultrabook S56CM Battery

Core i3 systems like the Fujitsu S752 (HD 3000) are approximately on par with and possibly slightly superior to the 6475b. An SSD would be capable of boosting both synthetic and real-life performance considerably, as had been shown with our ProBook 6465b test device in 2012 (PCMark 7: 2420 points, Samsung SSD 470). Without an SSD, system boot times are mediocre (70 seconds until everything has been loaded) and programs may take a few extra seconds to start. This suffices for simple office applications, but Intel might be a more future-proof alternative: The ProBook 6470b sibling (our test device had a Core i5) managed to achieve 7256 points in the PCMark Vantage benchmark (instead of 4194 for the 6475b). ASUS Ultrabook S56V Battery

Storage Devices
Data transfer rates are just average in both HD Tune and Crystal Disk Mark, with 87 MB/s and 100 MB/s read speed respectively. Nowadays, little difference is left between 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm HDDs. 4K-test results are far worse with 0.4 to 0.8 MB/s compared with up to 20 MB/s for SSDs, but HDDs are at a natural disadvantage when it comes to reading small scattered files as they have to move their reading heads into position first. Accordingly, the Vostro 3460 manages to achieve a 19 MB/s 4K read score due to its SSD cache, although this is a partially artificial result since it only takes into account accessing the small cache storage. Asus ZenBook UX32 Battery

Graphics Card
The HD 7520G branches off up to 512 MB of main memory and boasts higher clock speeds than the HD 7640G of the A8-4500M (the AMD quad-core alternative to the 6475b) while settling with only 192 shader core units (the HD 7640G comes with 256), thus having to content itself with slightly worse benchmark results. The HD 7520G profits from dual channel memory, however, only one memory bank is in use in the 6475b. Still, it was never meant to power PC games or to conduct demanding encoding tasks. Asus ZenBook UX32A Battery Its strengths lie with its low power consumption in idle mode (especially when the laptop is running on battery) and as an aide in decoding (Video Encoder) to the under-performing Piledriver core. More information can be found on the GPU data sheet.

The Radeon graphics card of the 6475b barely manages to squeeze ahead of the Intel HD 4000 in terms of processing power as our 3D Mark 11 figure shows. It doesn't stand a chance in both the brand-new 3DMark Cloud Gate (HD 4000: +59%; Vaio SV-E14 i3 3120M) and the Fire Strike benchmark (HD 4000: +36%) though. Asus ZenBook UX32VD Battery

Performance of the Radeon HD 7520G might increase by around 15% (empirical value) if a second RAM module was installed, making use of its dual channel mode. Even then, dedicated cards would still be uncatchable, as the 3DMark 11 performance of the GT 620M (S430), the NVS 5200M (B43V) and the GT 630M (Vostro 3460) can be up to twice as good. Of these three, only the Asus laptop sports an actual "business GPU". Still, the CAD/CAM-optimized drivers of the NVS 5200M will be probably be irrelevant for most users, making it a no better choice than its GeForce counterparts. ASUS A45 Battery

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Gaming Performance
The integrated GPU has not been designed with modern games in mind, which may even become apparent for office users during occasional gaming sessions. The only exceptions are undemanding games such as FIFA 13, which actually runs smoothly in HD. The data sheet of the HD 7520G provides an elaborate list of games and their performance. Obviously, modern PC games are a no-go. This holds true not only in the case of 3D shooter games like Crysis 3 and MoH: Warfighter, but also for Sim City (2013 version). Performance of an HD 4000 in combination with a Core i3 (ProBook 4340s) is marginally better, sometimes even worse (FIFA 13). Similar considerations apply in case of the HD 3000. ASUS A45A Battery

Temperature
When idle, the underbelly of the 6475b remains fairly cool with an average of 34 °C, although some parts of the bottom panel can get as warm as 38 °C (most likely because of the deactivated fan, since these parts actually get cooler under full load when the fan spins up). Palm rest temperatures are more pleasant still, reaching approximately 30 °C. ASUS A45D Battery

We appreciate that both the palm rest and the keys themselves remain rather cool, with the latter becoming lukewarm at best, while the former remain cool (up to 32 °C) even under full load. Temperatures underneath the laptop don't exceed 41 °C (this maximum value is reached above the fan during our stress test) while their average only increases by 1 °C when compared to the idle state. When no demanding tasks are active, all the waste heat gets distributed rather evenly across the case, but during the stress test, the 6475b's heatpipe (recuperator) concentrates all of it at one point, which is exactly where we measure this maximum of 41 °C. ASUS A45DE Battery

As we have mentioned in the Performance section, the stress test - where both Furmark and Prime95 are active at the same time - leads to a redistribution of computational power between the CPU and the GPU, with the graphics card running at full power (685 MHz, maximum turbo), while the CPU is throttled down to 910 MHz on a single core.

Speakers
Both speakers are located beneath the laptop, in a box made out of plastic which has been integrated close to the user in the front. Basses are unconvincing and the chassis vibrates considerably, but at least distortions at full volume turn out to be minimal. Plus, the 6475b is as loud as office laptops go. It shouldn't be hard to fill an entire conference room with its sound. ASUS A45DR Battery

Mids and highs were unbalanced. As with most laptops without a dedicated subwoofer or more powerful speakers in general, emphasis is put on the mids. Still, external speakers and microphones can always be plugged in via not one but two separate 3.5 mm ports, one for Line In, the other for Line Out. This could lead to a better audio quality than with the combined Line In/Out ports which are much more common in consumer notebooks. Unfortunately, the connections have not been reinforced with metal, making them more susceptible to breaking when used intensively. ASUS A45N Battery

Power Consumption
The HP ProBook 6475b is a rather power-hungry machine, as evidenced by a minimum power consumption of 10.5 watts (while idle, with an active energy saver profile and minimal luminance) which foreshadows no more than average battery life. Power consumption during idle mode tops out at 16.5 watts (high performance profile). The 6475b's Intel competitors prove to be more economical: 9 to 15 watts (Vostro 3460), 7 to 12.5 watts (ThinkPad L430) and 8 to 11 watts (TravelMate P643) respectively. Asus A31-1015 Battery

This situation reverses under full load. Power consumption increases when both CPU and GPU are working together (39 to 40 watts, 3DMark 06 & stress test), but still ends up being exceeded by its competitors, which require 64 to 66 watts (Vostro 3460), 36 to 48 watts (ThinkPad L430) and 58 to 60 watts (TravelMate P643) respectively. The difference stems from their dedicated GPUs.

The power adapter supplies 65 watts, which is adequate for the 6475b. Recharging the battery takes 1:50 h, an acceptable charging time. Asus A32-1015 Battery

Battery Life
The 14-inch laptop sports a comparatively small 48 Wh battery. Its Intel competitors, the Vostro 3460 (48 Wh, 3:52 h during our Wi-Fi test), the ThinkPad L430 (57 Wh, 3:30 h) and the TravelMate P643 (66 Wh, 6:05 h) tend to boast higher capacities, which in combination with their low power consumption leads to better battery life when idle. During our Wi-Fi benchmark, our test device (which comes equipped with a 55 Wh battery) achieves 4:15 hours at 150 cd/m² brightness (actually, 136 cd/m²). Asus AL31-1015 Battery

The Battery Eater Reader's Test (CPU and GPU are idle, all radio modems are deactivated and brightness is set as low as it gets) yields 9:01 hours. DVD playback lasts 3:54 hours, which is almost as good as during the Wi-Fi test because the DVD video test demands full display brightness, while the 6475b is incapable of going beyond 136 cd/m² as long as it is on battery. Our test device manages to squeeze 2:01 hours out of its battery under full load. Only one of its competitors surpasses the two-hour mark as well, the P643 (2:03 h due to its 66 Wh battery). A comparable 48 Wh battery in an Intel laptop only manages to reach 1:15 h (Vostro 3460). Asus PL32-1015 Battery

Verdict

 

HP (mostly) made the right choices with the ProBook 6475b, delivering a more or less balanced package of time-proven office features. We appreciate the excellent feedback its input devices (keys, touchpad) provide. Its conically curved keys come particularly close to the level of much more expensive laptops including the Dell Latitude, Lenovo ThinkPad (T and L) and HP EliteBook series. Asus 90-OA001B2300Q Battery

Its understated look works very well with the matte aluminum touch to its surfaces. But the 6475b is not just all show and no substance. Connectivity is important to the ProBook, with options ranging from external docking stations, DisplayPort and VGA ports (for high-resolution as well as legacy displays) to an ExpressCard54 slot for old extension cards which are still being used for measuring devices by craftspeople and engineers. Traditionalists can rejoice: HP has chosen to install Windows 7 Pro (32 bit), although the 6475b ships with a Windows 8 DVD as well. Asus 90-OA001B2500Q Battery

The HP ProBook is also very maintenance-friendly. Plus, there are many variants to choose from, including some with UMTS and/or an HD panel (if a lower resolution than HD+ is desired). There is no SSD option though - this has to be installed by the user. asus a42-g75 Charger

 

Ergonomics in idle mode or under half load could have been better and although the fan can be deactivated through an option in the BIOS (turn "Fan always on when AC" off), the background noise the HDD produces can be heard at all times. Then again, excess heat is no issue - neither while idle nor under full load. asus A42-G55 Battery

Despite of our praise for its well-balanced color rendition, the TN panel only manages to secure a score of 76%, since a typical user of the ProBook 6475b will most likely not be a professional digital artist or graphics designer so that an exact reproduction of real-life colors is not as crucial as it could be. The weaknesses of the display lie with its low contrast and terrible brightness, especially so when it is running on battery power: Maximum brightness gets throttled down to 137 cd/m². Outdoor usage becomes a pain. Hardly any screen contents at all can be read under direct sunlight. Asus A32-K93 Battery

Other laptops offer more in terms of processor, graphics card and memory for the same price point as our test device ($900), namely Core i5 CPUs with dedicated GPUs for an improved gaming performance. Great input devices, an optional docking station, a matte WXGA++ display and a superbly stable, well-built chassis are harder to find for less than $1000. Only variants of the Vostro 3460 or the ThinkPad L430 offer such amenities. The TravelMate P643, equipped with a gaming-friendly GT 640M, tempts with its great value-for-money ratio, while the best input devices and highest build quality can be found in one of the cheaper (HD panel) Latitude E5430 configurations. Asus A41-K93 Battery

We have written reviews of all of the following competitors to the 6475b and we recommend having a look at them before a purchase decision is made. If this takes too much time, it is also possible to just focus on the four models which are highlighted in bold.

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