HP ProBook 430 G8 review – a really good business laptop

If you are in the search for a business notebook, then the ProBook 400 series should sound pretty familiar to you. Today, we are going to acquaintance you with the 13-inch ProBook 430 G8. It is offered with some security features like a hardware TPM 2.0 module, as well as the HP Client Security Manager.

This laptop is powered by Intel’s Tiger Lake-U processors, which are not only power efficient, but also pretty powerful. Especially for the porpuses of business computing. And if you happen to need more graphics power, you can configure it with the GeForce MX450.

When it comes to displays, there are two options – a 768p TN panel, and a 1080p IPS panel. In our view, TN panels should be abolished for good, and the first of the two options should never be chosen.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-probook-430-g8/

Contents


Specs Sheet

HP ProBook 430 G8 - Specs

  • AUOCB8F
  • Color accuracy  4.2  3.3
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Home, No OS
  • Battery
  • 45Wh, 3-cell, 41Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 306.8 x 208.3 x 17.5 mm (12.08" x 8.20" x 0.69")
  • Weight
  • 1.28 kg (2.8 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • Optical drive

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found some paper manuals and a 45W power adapter.


Design and construction

This business device is pretty compact. It weighs 1.28 kg, while the profile sits at 17.5mm. It is built out of aluminum and plastic. We think it feels pretty well built, although there is some flex in both the lid and the base.

Surprisingly, the lid opens easily with a single hand. Its hinges are smooth, and allow the display to lay all the way flat. Here, you can see the thin bezels around the matte screen. This laptop is offered with an HD Web camera, which is essential for meetings. In addition to that, there is a privacy shutter on top of it, as well as an optional IR face recognition scanner.

Then comes the keyboard. It is one of the good units out there, and we find it extremely comfortable for typing. Its key travel is long enough, while the feedback is both clicky, and quiet for office use. Obviously, there is no NumPad here, but the speakers are placed on either side of the keyboard.

Beneath it, there is the touchpad. It offers a smooth gliding experience and relatively good tracking. To its right, you get an optional fingerprint reader.

Turn the laptop upside down, and you will find a ventilation grill. Hot air, respectively, is exhausted from a vent on the back.

Ports

On the left side, there is a security slot, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an audio jack, and a MicroSD card reader. Then, on the right, there is the charging plug, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort 1.2 support, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and an HDMI 1.4b connector.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

This device is pretty easy to take apart. First, you need to undo 5 captive Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel, starting from the back.

Inside, we see a rather small 45Wh battery. To remove it, you have to undo 6 Phillips-head screws. Then, unplug the battery connector, and take it away from the chassis.

When it comes to upgradability, there are two SODIMM slots. They allow for memory expansion up to 32GB in total. Storage-wise, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot.

Looking at the cooling, we see a single heat pipe, a rather small heat sink, and a fan of average size.


Display quality

HP ProBook 430 G8 is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel, AUO AUOCB8F. Its diagonal is 13.3-inch (33.78 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 166 ppi, their pitch – 0.153 х 0.153 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 53 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are excellent on this screen. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is 285 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 278 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 6%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6930K – colder than the 6500K standard temperature for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 73% Brightness (White level = 142 cd/m2, Black level = 0.1 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1470:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows HP ProBook 430 G8’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 56% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of HP ProBook 430 G8 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 29 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

HP ProBook 430 G8’s display doesn’t use PWM at all. This makes it comfortable for long periods of use, without presenting any harm to your eyes and brain in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP ProBook 430 G8 configurations with 13.3″ AUO AUOCB8F (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

HP ProBook 430 G8’s speakers produce a sound of good quality. However, we found deviations across the entire frequency spectrum.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-probook-430-g8-notebook-pc/37973139

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. Here, you get a 45Wh battery that will last you for 10 hours and 44 minutes of Web browsing, or 8 hours and 20 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This device can be paired with a Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1135G7, or Core i7-1165G7.

HP ProBook 430 G8 CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the HP ProBook 430 G8 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP ProBook 430 G8 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

As for the graphics, you get one of the following – Xe Graphics G4, Xe Graphics G7 (80EU), and Xe Graphics G7 (96EU). And some configurations may be equipped with a GeForce MX450.

HP ProBook 430 G8 GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the HP ProBook 430 G8 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP ProBook 430 G8 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS165 fps121 fps64 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS139 fps90 fps58 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-1135G7 (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP ProBook 430 G83.32 GHz (B+38%) @ 97°C @ 35W2.74 GHz (B+14%) @ 89°C @ 24W2.29 GHz (B-5%) @ 75°C @ 17W
Acer Swift 3 (SF314-511)3.15 GHz (B+31%) @ 91°C @ 34W2.89 GHz (B+20%) @ 91°C @ 28W2.69 GHz (B+12%) @ 91°C @ 25W
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (13.5)3.80 GHz (B+58%) @ 80°C @ 46W3.62 GHz (B+51%) @ 89°C @ 43W1.99 GHz (B-17%) @ 60°C @ 13W
ASUS VivoBook 15 OLED K5133.39 GHz (B+41%) @ 83°C @ 40W3.28 GHz (B+34%) @ 91°C @ 37W2.96 GHz (B+23%) @ 85°C @ 28W
MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo3.65 GHz (B+52%) @ 96°C @ 45W3.31 GHz (B+38%) @ 96°C @ 47W3.03 GHz (B+25%) @ 96°C @ 29W
Dell XPS 13 9310 (2-in-1)3.36 GHz (B+40%) @ 99°C @ 41W3.16 GHz (B+32%) @ 99°C @ 37W1.92 GHz @ 72°C @ 16W
Dell XPS 13 93103.15 GHz (B+31%) @ 100°C @ 40W2.73 GHz (B+14%) @ 100°C @ 30W1.65 GHz @ 73°C @ 15W
Dell Vostro 14 54023.02 GHz (B+26%) @ 99°C @ 29W2.61 GHz (B+9%) @ 99°C @ 25W2.00 GHz @ 76°C @ 15W
MSI Modern 15 (A11X)3.59 GHz (B+50%) @ 94°C @ 44W3.45 GHz (B+44%) @ 95°C @ 40W3.18 GHz (B+33%) @ 91°C @ 34W
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga3.52 GHz (B+47%) @ 94°C3.24 GHz (B+35%) @ 94°C2.63 GHz (B+10%) @ 75°C
Lenovo Yoga 7 (14)3.34 GHz (B+39%) @ 94°C2.97 GHz (B+24%) @ 94°C2.39 GHz @ 75°C
Acer Aspire 5 (A514-54)3.54 GHz (B+48%) @ 87°C2.01 GHz @ 66°C2.03 GHz @ 67°C

Even though it is a 13-incher, the ProBook 430 G8 performs pretty well. Of course, it is out of the league of the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo but comfortably beats the XPS 13.

Comfort during full load

As expected for a business device, an extreme workload won’t bring the vacuum cleaner out of the laptop. Instead, it is pretty quiet, while the warmest spot on the keyboard is pretty similar to that of the human body.


Verdict

Business notebooks are famous for their simplicity, good looks, and stability. Ultimately, this is a fitting description for the ProBook 430 G8. We were really impressed by its input devices, which are on point for a laptop in this category.

In addition to that, there are features like the privacy shutter, fingerprint reader, and optional IR face recognition scanner, which will improve your security. Plus, you get a hardware TPM 2.0 module.

HP ProBook 430 G8’s IPS panel (AUO AUOCB8F) has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a very good contrast ratio. Thankfully, its backlight doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. On the other hand, the color coverage is pretty limited at 56% of sRGB. To be frank, this is actually a decent panel for business computing.

What is even more than decent, considering the 13-inch screen size, is the presence of memory upgrade options. You get two SODIMM slots for up to 32GB of DDR4, according to the manufacturer. In addition, there is a single M.2 PCIe x4 slot for fast storage.

Of course, there are some things we didn’t particularly like. But the list is definitely not long. In addition to the narrow color coverage, the speakers are not exactly stellar. Even though they are front-facing.

On the bright side, the port selection is great with two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an HDMI 1.4b connector, and a MicroSD card slot. Indeed, there is no Thunderbolt connection, but the USB Type-C port runs at 3.2 (Gen. 2) speeds and supports DisplayPort 1.2 output.

At the end of the day, we think that the ProBook 430 G8 does exactly what it’s intended to do. It is plenty fast, and the battery life of up to 11 hours means it should last you through the entire workday on a single charge.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-probook-430-g8/

Pros

  • Adequate price
  • Compact design with decent quality
  • Great input devices
  • No PWM (AUO AUOCB8F)
  • Feature-packed I/O (includes a MicroSD card slot)
  • Good battery life


Cons

  • Lacks Thunderbolt connectivity
  • Covers 56% of sRGB (AUO AUOCB8F)

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AP47
AP47
2 years ago

How can any computer with a 1366×768 screen be considered a good business laptop – I have this machine and the screen is terrible – it’s washed out and in todays day and age Fulld HD, 4k and even 8k the resolution is just horrid.
That and HP’s woeful support with faulty ports and lack of USB power delivery mean this is by far the worst laptop I have ever owned and it has really put me off HP products