HP Laptop 250 G5: At First Glance
Over the years, the HP 250 series has become quite popular in the business laptop market. This is because the laptops in the series come equipped with adequate features and specs that offer excellent performance.
Interestingly, despite their powerful specifications and features, most of the laptops come at a fair price. For example, the HP Laptop 250 G5 had a starting price of $549.99 when I wrote this review in March 2022.
Despite its reasonable price tag, this laptop offers a powerful Intel Core i7 processor and multiple storage options. However, does the HP Laptop 250 G5 have enough power and performance to compete with other business laptops in its category?
There’s only one way to find out which is to read this review all the way through.
HP Laptop 250 G5: Design, Dimension, and Weight
First and foremost, it is worth mentioning that the HP Laptop 250 G5 does not offer much in terms of looks. Nevertheless, this laptop features a decent design.
Moreover, none of that really matters if all you need is a business laptop that can deliver the performance you desire.
That said, the HP Laptop 250 G5 features a plastic chassis that has a matte-black finish. This chassis has a rubberized pattern that gives off a thrilling feel when you run your hands through.
Impressively, despite being entirely made of plastic, this laptop does not feel delicate or cheap. As a matter of fact, the HP Laptop 250 G5 is so sturdy that you will hardly notice any creaking sound or flex.
Moving on, the lid of the HP Laptop 250 G5 and base are firmly secured together by a solid plastic hinge. Focusing more on the lid, you will find an “HP” logo finely placed at the center of the lid.
However, this “HP” logo is the only thing you will find on the lid’s plain surface. Nevertheless, the glossy-black highlight around the logo adds a little bit of radiance to the lid when rays of light shorn on it.
Moving on to the interior, the HP Laptop 250 G5 features a 15.6-inch display with HD (1366 x 768) resolution. Also, a model of this laptop that features an FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution is also available for those who desire a more vivid image quality.
Luckily, this review is based on the HP Laptop 250 G5 that comes with a 15.6-inch FHD resolution display. This 15.6-inch FHD display delivers great picture quality and color accuracy for video streaming, web browsing, and other graphics-related tasks.
Furthermore, the display comes with an anti-glare coating on its surface. Basically, what the anti-glare coating does is reduce reflection when the laptop is used in a bright environment.
As a result, you should be able to use the HP Laptop 250 G5 near an open window or outdoors without issues. Besides, the laptop’s display offers a peak brightness of 220 nits, which also makes the laptop suitable for outdoor usage.
However, the 15.6-inch display is surrounded by thick bezels that may cause a bit of distraction. Moreover, at the center of the top bezel, you’ll find an HD webcam.
Sadly, this laptop’s webcam doesn’t seem ideal for taking pictures as it delivers blurry images. Nonetheless, the webcam is quite adequate for regular skyping and video calls.
Moving on, the HP Laptop 250 G5 features a standard keyboard. Impressively, this keyboard offers a full number pad to the right side of its letter keys.
As a result, accounting operation should be very easy on the laptop. Besides, the keys on this keyboard are moderately spaced in a manner that is comfortable for typing.
However, the keys are a bit shallow and feedback is slightly soft. Nevertheless, the laptop’s keyboard should offer an overall decent typing experience.
Having said that, the HP Laptop 250 G5 comes with a wide touchpad at the bottom of its keyboard. Furthermore, this touchpad offers a set of dedicated click buttons.
Unfortunately, the touchpad doesn’t feature a smooth surface, making navigation a bit uncomfortable. On a positive note, the touchpad supports multitouch gestures like two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom.
Port-wise, the HP Laptop 250 G5 offers a decent amount of ports. Specifically, on the left side, there are two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI 1.4b port, and an Ethernet port.
Meanwhile, on the right side of the laptop, you will find a USB 3.0 port, a DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL, and a headphone/microphone combo jack.
Considering the dimension and weight, the HP Laptop 250 G5 measures 384.3 x 254.6 x 24.3 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 1960 g. With this amount of weight, it is quite obvious that this HP laptop is not lightweight.
However, when compared with some of its close competitors, the HP Laptop 250 G5 weighs less. For example, the Lenovo Thinkpad T430 measures 340.5 x 232 x 29.9 mm (W x D x H) and weighs a massive 2358.6 g.
Thus, to end this design review section, I will rate the HP Laptop 250 G5 an eight out of ten.
HP Laptop 250 G5: Processor (CPU) Performance
For the processor, the HP Laptop 250 G5 is powered by a dual-core Intel Core i7-6500U processor. In case you are wondering, a dual-core processor is a CPU that has two cores on its chip.
Thus, this processor assures a better performance than a single-core processor. In addition to its dual-core, the HP Laptop 250 G5’s processor offers 4 MB cache memory.
That’s not all, this processor also has a base frequency of 2.50 GHz and a maximum frequency of 3.10 GHz. Hence, with this CPU, the HP Laptop 250 G5 should be able to handle office-related tasks and demanding applications efficiently.
In order to further prove this laptop’s processor capability, I will briefly share its Geekbench 3 test result. To clarify, Geekbench 3 is a benchmark test that measures the processor’s performance of a computer by running a series of office-related tasks.
Furthermore, the higher the score on this test, the better the processor performance of the computer. Thus, based on the test result, the HP Laptop 250 G5 scored 6472 points.
When compared with the Lenovo ThinkPad E560, this HP laptop has a better processor performance. Specifically, on the Geekbench 3 test, the Lenovo ThinkPad E560 scored 6092 points.
To emphasize, this Lenovo laptop also features an Intel Core i7-8665U processor
In summary, the HP Laptop 250 G5 comes with an adequate CPU that is capable of handling most computing tasks. Furthermore, with the processor, this HP laptop outmatched one of its competitors on a processor benchmark test.
Hence, I will rate the HP Laptop 250 G5 a nine out of ten in this processor review section.
HP Laptop 250 G5: Memory (RAM) Performance
The HP Laptop 250 G5 features a single memory slot and a 1600 MHz DDR3L memory type. Furthermore, the laptop offers a standard memory size of 4 GB and supports a maximum memory of 8 GB.
Hence, to upgrade the laptop to the maximum memory, you have to remove the standard 4 GB RAM stick on its single slot. After that, you then replace it with an 8 GB RAM stick.
This may sound bothersome, but there is another model of the HP Laptop 250 G5 that comes with two memory slots. Also, this model offers a DDR4-2133 MHz SODIMM memory type and a standard memory size of 4 GB.
Besides, unlike the model with one memory slot, this laptop model supports a maximum memory of 16 GB. Hence, with the help of the second slot, you will be able to upgrade the laptop up to 16 GB.
Moreover, this review is based on the HP Laptop 250 G5 model that comes with two memory slots and a DDR4-2133 MHz SODIMM memory type. Furthermore, this review model features 8 GB RAM – 4 GB memory on each slot.
With this amount of memory, the HP Laptop 250 G5 should be able to multitask easily and efficiently. Particularly, this laptop will be able to run a dozen Chrome tabs and two YouTube videos simultaneously without lagging.
Also, switching between Chrome tabs and videos should be as fluid as possible for this laptop. For more insights on the performance of the laptop with 8 GB RAM, we will now discuss its PCMark 8 test results.
PCMark 8 is an application-based benchmark test that evaluates the memory performance of a computer by simulating everyday productivity tasks. These productivity tasks include video streaming, web browsing, emailing, and so on.
Furthermore, a high score on this app-based benchmark test signifies great memory performance. Thus, based on the test results, the HP Laptop 250 G5 scored 3317 points, leaving most of its competitors behind.
For example, the Lenovo ThinkPad E560 scored 2886 points on the PCMark 8 test. As a result, the HP Laptop 250 G5 deserves a rating of nine out of ten in this memory review section.
HP Laptop 250 G5: Storage Options and Performance
In terms of storage, the HP Laptop 250 G5 offers numerous storage options that buyers can choose from. Precisely, you can purchase this laptop with either a 7200 RPM SATA HDD or 5400 RPM SATA HDD storage.
Moreover, you can also purchase the laptop with a SATA-3 TLC SSD or a 5400 RPM SSHD storage. The 7200 RPM SATA HDD and SATA-3 TLC SSD storage options support a maximum storage capacity of 500 GB and 256 GB respectively.
Meanwhile, the 5400 RPM SATA HDD and 5400 RPM SSHD support a maximum storage capacity of 1 TB each. Thus, with these available options, I believe it should be easy for buyers to identify the one that best suits their storage needs.
However, this review is based on the HP Laptop 250 G5 that comes with a 256 GB SATA-3 TLC SSD. Frankly speaking, a storage space of 256 GB might not be enough for most users.
Nevertheless, as mentioned above, there are various storage options and capacities to choose from. Besides, this HP laptop also comes with a multi-format media card reader for storage expansion.
Moreover, the advantage of purchasing the HP Laptop 250 G5 with the SATA-3 TLC SSD storage option is speed. To be more specific, SSDs are the fastest storage drives available, they are way faster than HDDs or SSHDs.
Therefore, with the SATA-3 TLC SSD storage option, this HP laptop should deliver a fast transfer speed and rapid boot time. In addition to that, the laptop should offer a fast read and write speed.
To prove this, we will now be discussing the performance of the HP Laptop 250 G5 with SATA-3 TLC SSD on a CrystalDiskMark 3.0 test. CrystalDiskMark 3.0 is an app-based benchmark test that estimates the performance of a computer’s storage drive by evaluating its read and write speed.
If you’re wondering, the read speed is how fast it takes a storage drive to open a file. On the contrary, write speed is how fast it takes the storage drive to save a file.
Moreover, a high “MBps” value on the CrystalDiskMark 3.0 test implies a fast read and write speed. So, based on the test results, the HP Laptop 250 G5 delivered a sequential read and write speed of 508.9 MBps and 322.1 MBps respectively.
When compared with the Lenovo ThinkPad E560 that also uses SSD, this HP laptop performed better. Specifically, the Lenovo ThinkPad E560 delivered a sequential read speed of 462 MBps and a sequential write speed of 174.5 MBps.
In conclusion, the HP Laptop 250 G5 offers four impressive storage options and a multi-format media card reader for storage expansion. Hence, to conclude this storage review section, I will rate the HP Laptop 250 G5 a nine out of ten.
HP Laptop 250 G5: Graphics Card Performance
To start off, the HP Laptop 250 G5 provides two graphics card options. Firstly, this laptop is available with an Intel HD Graphics 520 GPU.
This Intel graphics card offers a base frequency of 300 MHz and a maximum frequency of 1050 MHz. Sadly, the GPU is an integrated graphics card.
Hence, it is embedded into the laptop’s CPU and shares the system memory with the processor to perform graphics-related tasks. For this reason, with the Intel HD Graphics 520 GPU, the HP Laptop 250 G5 might not be able to run graphics-intensive tasks effectively.
The second graphics card option that this HP laptop offers is an AMD Radeon R5 GPU. In terms of speed, this GPU has a base frequency of 955 MHz and a maximum frequency of 1030 MHz.
Unlike the first GPU option, this graphics card is a dedicated graphics card with 2 GB DDR3 VRAM. Thus, with this GPU, the HP Laptop 250 G5 will be able to carry out graphics-intensive tasks and applications smoothly.
However, because the GPU’s dedicated VRAM is limited to 2 GB, the laptop won’t be able to smoothly run modern games. Nevertheless, the laptop should be capable of running most outdated games with ease.
For example, when playing FIFA 2014, the laptop achieved an impressive frame rate of 72 fps (frame per second). To further prove the performance of the HP Laptop 250 G5 with its dedicated GPU option, we will now examine its 3DMark 11 test result.
3DMark 11 is a GPU benchmark test that assesses the 2D and 3D rendering abilities of a computer. Moreover, a high score on this test indicates a good GPU performance.
Thus, based on the result from the test, the HP Laptop 250 G5 scored 1794 points. In comparison, this laptop performed better than the Lenovo B50-80 Notebook which scored 1723 points on the same test.
It is important to mention that the Lenovo B50-80 Notebook also features a dedicated AMD Radeon R5 GPU. Hence, I will rate the HP Laptop 250 G5 an eight out of ten in this graphics review section.
HP Laptop 250 G5: Battery Life and Performance
Similar to the graphics card, the HP Laptop 250 G5 offers two battery options. These battery options are a 3-cell 31 Whr battery and a 4-cell 41 Whr battery.
This review is based on the HP Laptop 250 G5 with a 4-cell 41 Whr battery. According to HP, with this battery, this laptop should last up to 8 hours.
However, we cannot always trust a manufacturer’s claim. Hence, to verify the battery life of the laptop, I will now highlight its performance on a web browsing battery rundown test.
As the name implies, this web browsing battery test involves surfing the web continuously until the laptop dies. Hence, at the end of the test, the HP Laptop 250 G5 delivered a battery life of 5 hours and 47 minutes.
Sadly, this battery life is nowhere near the 8 hours that HP claimed. In fact, when compared with some of its rivals, the HP Laptop 250 G5 offers a poor battery life.
For example, on the same battery test, the Lenovo ThinkPad L560 delivered a battery life of 6 hours and 46 minutes.
Hence, the HP Laptop 250 G5 deserves a rating of seven out of ten in this battery review section.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, the HP Laptop 250 G5 does not feature a backlit keyboard.
The HP Laptop 250 G5 had a starting price of $549.99 in March 2022 when I published this article.
No, the HP Laptop 250 G5 doesn’t have a touchscreen display.
Yes, the HP Laptop 250 G5 comes with Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless connectivity.
The HP Laptop 250 G5 weighs 1960 g.
Conclusion
The HP Laptop 250 G5 is a business laptop that offers adequate performance at a reasonable price. To give more details, this laptop boasts a powerful CPU and multiple graphics card options.
That’s not all, the laptop also offers an excellent FHD display and a wide variety of storage options to choose from. However, this HP laptop does not feature a backlit keyboard and its battery life is kind of average.
Regardless, the laptop has an overall performance that is worth more than its price tag. Thus, if you need a business laptop with adequate performance at a fair price, you should consider the HP Laptop 250 G5.
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