HP ProBook 14" 640 G5 Silver 2019

A RAM and storage monster trapped in a 2019 business laptop body. It's the ultimate budget multitasking machine, as long as you don't need a bright screen or fast CPU.

The 32GB of RAM is the real star here, letting this machine chew through multitasking that would bring a brand new $600 laptop to its knees. The 1TB SSD is also a standout, landing in the 82nd percentile for storage, which means you won't be juggling external drives. But that i5-8365U processor is a letdown, sitting in the 10th percentile. It's fine for basic tasks, but you'll feel the wait on anything demanding. The integrated graphics are predictably weak, so don't even think about gaming.

Stacked against a new MacBook Air M4 or a Surface Laptop, the ProBook gets obliterated on screen quality, battery life, and raw CPU power. But those machines cost three to four times as much. The real competition is other refurbished business laptops like a Lenovo ThinkPad T490. The HP wins on sheer RAM and storage capacity at this price point, but a ThinkPad often has a better keyboard and a brighter screen. If you can find a T-series ThinkPad with similar specs for the same money, it's a tougher call, but this HP's spec sheet is hard to beat for the dollar.

At $429, this is a steal for the right person. You're essentially paying for the RAM and storage and getting a functional laptop built around them. If you need a desktop replacement for office work and don't care about having the latest chip, this is a no-brainer. Just know that the low price comes with a short warranty and older internals.

The HP ProBook 640 G5 is a refurbished workhorse that makes a lot of sense if you ignore the spec sheet's weakest link. You're getting a massive 32GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD for under $450, which is frankly absurd for a laptop that still looks and feels professional. The catch is the 8th-gen Intel CPU, which is definitely showing its age. This isn't a speed demon, but for office work, spreadsheets, and having fifty browser tabs open without a stutter, it's a killer value.

If you're looking for a laptop with a gorgeous screen or all-day battery life you can use in a coffee shop, this isn't it. Go get a used M1 MacBook Air instead. The ProBook is a desk-bound warrior, not a portable showpiece.

Buy this if you live in Excel, Chrome, and Outlook and want to do it all at once without spending real money. The 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD are a future-proof combo for office multitasking that you simply won't find elsewhere at this price. Just plug it into a decent external monitor and forget about the dim built-in screen.