HP ProBook 15.6" 450 G3 2016, Core i5-6200U, 16GB, 512GB SSD, Silver

The HP ProBook 450 G3 is a refurbished 15.6 inch business laptop with a slow 6th gen i5, but generous 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD upgrades. At $300 USD it's a decent cheap machine for basic office work and browsing. At $1,062 CAD it's a rip-off. The 1080p IPS display is nice, but the CPU is in the 14th percentile and gaming is basically out of the question.

Let's talk about that i5-6200U. It's a 2-core, 4-thread chip with a base clock of 2.3GHz and a boost up to 2.8GHz. In our database, it lands in the 14th percentile for CPUs. That means 86% of laptops we've tested have a faster processor. For everyday tasks like Word, Excel, and a dozen Chrome tabs, it'll get the job done. But you'll feel it. Apps take a beat to open. Heavy web pages chug. And if you try to do anything creative like photo editing or video work, you're going to be waiting a lot.

The 16GB of RAM is the saving grace here. That's double what most laptops in this class shipped with, and it means you can actually multitask without the system grinding to a halt. The 512GB SSD is also a huge upgrade over the spinning hard drives these ProBooks originally came with. Boot times will be snappy, and apps will launch quickly once the CPU catches up. The RAM and storage both sit in the 37th percentile, which is about average for modern laptops. Not exciting, but perfectly serviceable.

Stacked against the competition, the ProBook 450 G3 is in a weird spot. The Apple MacBook Pro Core i7 2.6GHz, Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, ASUS Zenbook UX3405CA, Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, and Microsoft Surface Laptop 165H are all modern machines with vastly better CPUs, GPUs, and battery life. But they also cost several times more. This isn't a fair fight.

The real comparison is against other refurbished or budget laptops in the $300 range. Against those, the ProBook holds up okay thanks to the RAM and SSD upgrades. But a used ThinkPad T480 or Dell Latitude 7490 from the same era would give you a similar experience with better build quality and reliability. The ProBook's 33rd percentile reliability score is a concern. HP's consumer and budget business lines from this era had their share of hinge and keyboard issues.

At $300 USD for a refurbished unit, this is a tough call. On one hand, you're getting 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1080p IPS display. That's a solid set of specs for the money. On the other hand, the CPU is a decade old and the reliability score is below average. You're essentially paying for the upgrades someone made to an aging chassis.

The CAD listing at $1,062 is a different story entirely. That's a lot of money for a laptop with a 6th gen i5. At that price, you could get a brand new budget laptop with a modern Ryzen or 12th gen Intel chip that would absolutely smoke this thing. The USD price makes sense as a cheap secondary machine. The CAD price does not.

The HP ProBook 450 G3 is a refurbished business laptop that's been given a bit of a second life with some meaningful upgrades. The original machine shipped with a 6th gen Intel Core i5-6200U, which is a dual-core chip from 2015. That's ancient in laptop years. But someone's gone and stuffed 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD in here, which is a lot more than this thing had any right to expect. The result is a weird mix of old bones and newer guts.

Who's this for? Honestly, it's for someone who needs a cheap Windows machine for basic office work, web browsing, or maybe a kid's school laptop. The 15.6 inch 1080p IPS display is a nice touch at this price point, and Windows 10 Pro means it'll slot into a business environment without too much fuss. But let's be clear: this is not a performance machine. The CPU sits in the 14th percentile of all laptops we've tested. That's rough.

The interesting thing here is the GPU percentile. Intel HD Graphics 520 ranks in the 97th percentile, which sounds impressive until you realize that's because integrated graphics from 2015 are being compared against other integrated graphics from 2015. It's the best of a bad bunch. The gaming score of 18.2 out of 100 tells the real story. This thing will struggle with anything beyond Solitaire or maybe some light 2D indie games.

Skip this if you need any kind of real performance. The CPU is one of the slowest we've tested, and it will frustrate you if you're doing anything beyond basic tasks. Video editing, programming with heavy IDEs, running virtual machines, or even having 50 browser tabs open will all bring this machine to its knees. Look for something with at least an 8th gen Intel chip or a Ryzen 3000 series or newer.

Also skip it if you're looking at the CAD listing. Over a thousand Canadian dollars for a 6th gen i5 is a bad deal no matter how you slice it. For that money, you can get a brand new laptop with a modern processor, better screen, longer battery life, and an actual warranty. The ProBook 450 G3 only makes sense as a cheap USD beater for light use.

If you need a cheap Windows laptop for basic tasks and you're looking at the $300 USD listing, the ProBook 450 G3 is a reasonable buy. The 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD mean it'll handle web browsing, document editing, and video calls without too much pain. Just don't expect it to be fast. The CPU will remind you of its age every time you open a heavy application.

For anyone considering the CAD listing at over a grand, walk away. That's a terrible deal for a decade-old processor. Put that money toward a modern budget laptop with a current-gen chip. You'll get better performance, better battery life, and a warranty that isn't a gamble. The ProBook 450 G3 is a fine $300 beater, but it's not a $1,000 laptop.