Since we're still waiting on WorldBench 6 test results, I can't give you hard numbers just yet. The same goes for battery life (though HP spokespeople say to expect between 6 and 7 hours on a single charge). Going by my gut and some initial subjective tests, the 5310m seems made to adhere to that fine line between a computing status symbol (like, say, the or the ) and a reasonably powerful PC that actually lets you get your job done. To be honest, I'm curious to see how the ProBook 5310m compares to Dell's fashionable business alternative, the .

Under the hood is Intel's Core 2 Duo SP9300 2.26GHz CPU, backed by 2GB of RAM and an integrated graphics processor. That's no scorcher, mind you, but it does run Windows 7 Professional and a few core programs (Office applications, photo editing software, and Web browsing, for instance) without balking.

The keyboard is, in a word, great. Well-sized--and well-spaced--cut-out keys reach toward the edges of the laptop without dripping off the sides. While the top-row buttons are a little small, they are easy enough to manipulate. The arrow keys, while annoyingly smallish, are pulled out, and thus a little more manageable. Fair warning to anyone with long fingernails: You run a slight risk of accidentally popping off a key (though it would take some intentional effort on your part). Situated to the right of the keyboard are three unassuming little (and by that I mean "practically microsopic") buttons for toggling the 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, QuickLaunch 3, and QuickWeb--I'll get to the last two in a second.

I'm a big fan of the touchpad, which feels nice while still standing apart from the wrist-rest area. The unit's support of multitouch gestures is another appealing feature, but it's turned off by default--I guess HP thinks that not every business user wants to zoom in and out of images on-the-fly. The mouse buttons have a satisfying amount of give. What I'm not crazy about, though, is their size, which feels--to me, at least--a little too thin to hit. More often than not, I found myself tapping just below the buttons, expecting them to be placed somewhere they weren't. But that is a highly subjective, very personal experience. And I have big fingers, so for me, size matters.

The screen looks great and crisp at its 1366-by-768-pixel resolution. Sample video footage running off the 320GB, 7200-rpm hard drive came across smooth and stutter-free. A shuttle-launch sequence popped on the screen, with fiery plumes rising against the morning sky. Still pictures looked equally sharp, exhibiting deep blues and rich greens. And the display offers the added bonus of being backlit, so it's viewable indoors and out without the screen's glossy sheen being too jarring. In fact, the shine of the plastic interior frame surrounding the panel was more distracting.