The ProBook 6540b is a business laptop. In an HP product, this means that it's chunkier, has more legacy ports and has a matt screen, rather than the glossy displays found on the company's consumer notebooks.
It also comes installed with Windows 7 Professional, which has all the features of Home Premium, along with a Remote Desktop server, Windows XP Mode and several other enterprise-oriented features. HP has also seen fit to supply Windows XP SP3 discs in case your company is still running the older operating system. Although the laptop has 4GB of RAM, upgradeable to 8GB, it comes installed with a 32-bit version of Windows, so you can only use around 3.5GB of it.
Although it only has a 15.6in widescreen display, the ProBook's thick base makes it seem as large as some 17in desktop replacement laptops. At 2.75kg, it weighs almost as much, too. It's plain-looking, but not entirely unattractive, with a consistent silver-grey finish across the entire chassis. The keyboard is comfortable and the touchpad is well positioned, with plenty of space on either side of it.
We love the matt 15.6in screen. Its colours are accurate and the display itself is both bright and comfortable to look at over long periods. The display has a resolution of 1,600x900 but you can output in HD if you connect an external display to the laptop's DisplayPort output (this can be converted to HDMI or DVI with an adaptor). The built-in speakers are surprisingly clear, if not particularly loud, but have poorly defined bass tones.