Thanks to its glossy, piano-black lid and square edges, the ProBook 4510s looks both smart and businesslike.

HP has also opted to preinstall Vista Business, which means you can upgrade to Windows 7 Professional, the middle version of Microsoft's new OS.

The 15.6in display has a native resolution of 1,366x768 and is one of only two screens on test without a glossy coating. This means it doesn't look as vivid as the other displays, but it also doesn't suffer as much from reflections.

With the keyboard stretching right to the edges of the chassis, HP has made best use of the space available and, despite the inclusion of a numerical keypad, all the keys are of a decent size. Much like on Apple laptops, each key pokes out of an individual hole in the chassis. The only downside is that there's noticeable flexing to the keyboard. The touchpad is responsive and sits just to the left of centre, placing it directly under the space bar.

HP has fitted the ProBook 4510s with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T5870 processor. It's slightly disappointing that there's only 2GB of RAM, especially when other laptops at this price have at least 3GB, if not 4GB, of memory. Despite this drawback, however, the ProBook 4510s still managed to return a solid set of scores in our 2D benchmarks, with an overall score of 56. The use of Intel's GMA X4500HD integrated graphics means the ProBook 4510s isn't one for games, though, managing just 5.1fps in our Call of Duty 4 benchmark.

The ProBook 4510 is one of just two laptops here to lack 802.11n wireless support. HP has also been stingy with the storage, supplying just a 250GB hard disk.

Considering the reasonably powerful processor and large display, the ProBook's battery life is very impressive. At just under four-and-a-half-hours, it's a good choice for anyone looking to use it on long journeys.

There's nothing particularly wrong with HP's ProBook 4510s, aside from its price. For this much money we'd expect more memory and a larger hard disk. Asus's cheaper K50IJ has better specifications and is a better choice.