HP ProBook 14" BY2K7AT#ABA Pike Silver 2025

The HP ProBook 4 G1a scores 61/100 for compactness and 17.6/100 for gaming, which tells you exactly what this machine is and isn't. Port selection is the highlight at the 74th percentile, with Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, and dual USB-C. The Ryzen 5 220 and 16GB of DDR5 handle office work fine, but the 62.5% sRGB display and weak integrated graphics make this a one-trick pony.

The Ryzen 5 220 is a six-core part clocked at 3.5GHz, and it lands in the 63rd percentile for CPU performance. That's above average, but not by much. Paired with 16GB of 5600 MT/s DDR5, you'll breeze through browser tabs, Office apps, and light multitasking. The 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD sits at the 52nd percentile for storage, which is about average. Apps launch fine, but you're not setting any records.

The integrated AMD Radeon 740M is where things get real. It ranks in the 58th percentile for GPU, which sounds okay until you look at the gaming score: 17.6 out of 100. That's one of the worst we've seen for gaming. This is not a machine for anything beyond casual 2D titles or very old games at low settings. The 14-inch 1920x1200 IPS panel runs at 60Hz with 300 nits and only 62.5% sRGB coverage. It's fine for documents and spreadsheets, but colors will look washed out if you do any photo or video work. The screen ranks in the 68th percentile, which is decent for a business laptop, but the color gamut is a real limitation.

Against the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro, this HP gets absolutely demolished on performance, display quality, and battery life. The MacBook's screen and GPU are in a different universe. But the HP costs a fraction of the price, so that's not a fair fight. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and Lenovo Legion 5i both crush the ProBook on gaming and GPU performance, but they're heavier and pricier. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro has a far better display and is lighter, but you'll pay more and lose the Ethernet port. The MSI Prestige is probably the closest competitor in spirit, a thin business machine with similar trade-offs. Where the HP stands out is port selection, that 74th percentile ranking beats most of these competitors, and the Ryzen 5 220 holds its own for office workloads.

Pricing is all over the place depending on where you shop. In Canada, the spread is CAD 468, from CAD 950 up to CAD 1,418 across three listings. That's a huge gap for the same machine. If you're buying in Canada, the CAD 950 listing is the obvious choice, and you should avoid the CAD 1,418 one unless it includes something extra. In the US, it's listed at USD 1,017. For that money, you're getting a business laptop with solid ports and a decent CPU, but the weak display and terrible gaming performance make it hard to call this a great value. The compact score of 61/100 and entertainment score of 57.3/100 suggest this is a purpose-built office machine, not an all-rounder.

The HP ProBook 4 G1a lands in a weird spot. Its best score is a 61/100 for compactness, and its weakest is gaming at 17.6/100. That spread tells you most of the story before you even open the lid. This is a work laptop with a 14-inch 1920x1200 display, a Ryzen 5 220 six-core chip, 16GB of DDR5, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. Nothing flashy, but the bones are there for office duty.

What stands out is the port selection. It ranks in the 74th percentile for ports, which means you get real connectivity: two USB-C, two USB-A, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 6E. That's more than most thin-and-light machines offer these days. The screen sits at the 68th percentile, which is solid but not exciting. The CPU is at the 63rd percentile, RAM at 61st, GPU at 58th, and storage at 52nd. Basically, this is a middle-of-the-pack machine with a couple of bright spots and one glaring weakness.

Skip this if you care about gaming, color accuracy, or portability. The gaming score of 17.6/100 is a real letdown, and the 62.5% sRGB display will frustrate anyone doing creative work. At 2.15kg, it's also heavy for a 14-inch machine, and the reliability ranking in the 33rd percentile is a weak spot. If you need a laptop for anything beyond office productivity, look elsewhere. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 or Lenovo Legion 5i will handle gaming far better, and the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro has a much nicer screen if you can live without Ethernet.

The HP ProBook 4 G1a is a competent office laptop with a few real strengths and one glaring weakness. The port selection is genuinely good, the CPU and RAM are above average, and Windows 11 Pro makes it easy to deploy in a business environment. But the gaming score of 17.6/100 is brutal, and the 62.5% sRGB display is a letdown for anything beyond basic productivity. If you need a reliable workhorse for spreadsheets, email, and web apps, and you can find it at the lower end of the price range, it's worth a look. Just don't expect it to do anything fun after hours.