I can remember the point, some years ago, when laptop sales began to over-take Desktop sales. At the time, it was largely because of price points that had reached a balance between features vs cost. You could get a pretty decent Laptop, able to fulfill your computing requirements without breaking the bank. Granted, it was still a little more pricy than a desktop, but it was a premium worth paying.

And so the onslaught on mobility began. Prices began falling, specs began climbing and we all clamoured to clear some desk space and put down a shiny new piece of laptopery, aimed at making the guy in the next cubicle, green with envy. We saw the screens improve from Passive matrix (if you remember those you’ve been around for a little too long) to Active Matrix. Stiffy drives were replaced by CD-Roms and later DVD-Ram-Dual-Layer-Multi-drives-with-Light-Scribe (whatever all that is). The innards of the laptop have also come a long way. From scaled down desktop hardware, to a new breed of processors made to run cooler and faster, use less power and save your pocket a few bucks, while saving the planet in one fell swoop.

But somewhere in the rush to make it better, we’ve mislaid the little details that make a laptop really functional. It doesn’t matter how big your hard drive is, or fast your processor is, or how crisp your screen is, or how many giga-thingys you have. What matters is how much you can accomplish with your laptop. Can you get your job done better?

After more than a decade in IT consulting, a question that has popped up too many times to count in business environments, has been that of having a keypad on a laptop. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But yet, no one has really gotten it right. Well, until now that is.

HP have launched their Probook 4520s. And, it HAS that beloved keypad. They’ve done it in a way that doesn’t compromise on the keyboard, or make the machine overly bulky. A normal sized 15.5″ laptop, with a full keyboard, AND a keypad.

I recently spent some time playing on one, and was very impressed with what HP have managed to conjure up with the 4520s. But that’s not all. This laptop packs a serious punch, and still takes your pocket into consideration.

You get a build in HSDPA device, Core i5 processor, 3GB of RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, and a stunning LED screen. Built into a really good looking machine, that manages to accommodate a full sized keyboard and keypad.

So if you’re in the market for a new laptop, and do any sort of number crunching, or even gaming, this laptop should be a serious consideration.