HP 255R G10 15.6", Ryzen 5 7535U, 16GB, 256GB SSD

The HP 255R G10 is a budget business laptop with a decent Ryzen 5 CPU and 16GB of RAM, but a dim 250-nit screen and tiny 256GB SSD hold it back. At $839 USD, it's overpriced for what you get. Only buy it if you need Windows 11 Pro on a tight budget and don't care about display quality or storage.

The Ryzen 5 7535U is a solid mid-pack CPU, landing around the 52nd percentile in our database. Six cores and 16GB of DDR5 handle office work, browser tabs, and light multitasking without breaking a sweat. But the integrated Radeon 660 graphics sit at the 14th percentile, which means gaming is basically off the table. The 256GB NVMe SSD is the real bottleneck, sitting at the 25th percentile. You'll fill that up fast with Windows 11, a few apps, and some files. The 45Wh battery is rated for 8.5 hours, but real-world use with that dim screen will likely land lower.

Stacked against the competition, the HP 255R G10 gets lapped. The Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro and ASUS ROG Zephyrus are in a completely different league, but even the MSI Prestige and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition offer better screens, faster storage, and more premium builds for not much more money. The Lenovo Legion 5i is a gaming machine, so it's not a fair fight, but it shows what you can get if you stretch your budget. The HP's only real advantage is Windows 11 Pro and a business-friendly price, but even that feels shaky given the specs.

At $839 USD, this is a tough sell. You're paying for the Ryzen 5 and 16GB of RAM, but the 256GB SSD and mediocre screen drag the overall package down. For the same money, you can often find laptops with brighter IPS displays and double the storage. The HP 255R G10 feels like a $600 laptop wearing an $839 price tag. If you can find it on sale, it becomes more interesting, but at full price it's hard to recommend.

The HP 255R G10 is a budget business laptop that gets the basics right and not much else. You get a Ryzen 5 7535U, 16GB of DDR5, and Windows 11 Pro for around $839 USD, which sounds decent until you look at the screen and storage. HP markets this as a thin and light workhorse, but the 256GB SSD and 250-nit VA panel tell a different story. It's built for spreadsheets and email, not Netflix or photo editing.

Skip this if you care about screen quality, storage space, or any kind of graphics performance. The 250-nit VA panel is rough for media consumption, the 256GB SSD is cramped, and the integrated GPU is a dead end for gaming or creative work. If you need a brighter display, more storage, or better port selection, look at the MSI Prestige or Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition instead.

This laptop is for one specific person: someone who needs a cheap Windows 11 Pro machine for basic office work and doesn't care about screen quality or storage space. If that's you, the HP 255R G10 will get the job done. Everyone else should keep looking. The Ryzen 5 is capable, but the rest of the package feels like an afterthought.