HP EliteBook 840 Aero G8 Review: Superlight, Superexpensive

HP EliteBook 840 Aero G8 review: Superlight and superexpensive

MSRP $2,679.00

“The HP EliteBook 840 Aero G8 is a superlight enterprise laptop with a extreme worth.”

Execs

• Steady assemble top quality, however lightweight
• Good, color-accurate present
• Good productiveness effectivity
• Superior battery life
• Class-leading suite of enterprise devices

Cons

• Very expensive
• 16:9 present is old school

How obligatory is a half-pound in designing a laptop? Properly, for HP, it’s enough to justify a model new mannequin typically referred to as “Aero” in its line of laptops.

There’s the budget-oriented Pavilion Aero 13, which packs a bunch of vitality proper right into a 2.18-pound chassis. A lighter laptop may probably be rather more helpful for enterprise people, and that’s why HP has an Aero for you, too. The EliteBook 840 Aero G8 hits that objective of being a half-pound lighter than its non-Aero mannequin.

I reviewed the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 with a Core i7-1185G7 and a 14-inch 1080p present. Sadly, it comes inside the old-school 16:9 facet ratio and directions an particularly extreme worth of $2,679. But it surely absolutely’s light and extremely efficient, and is loaded with enterprise choices that your IT staff will admire.

Design

For individuals who study the Aero mannequin of the EliteBook 840 G8 with its non-Aero sibling, you’ll uncover a laptop that’s nearly equal in measurement, inside a few fractions of an inch in width and depth, and exactly as thick at 0.70 inches. Nonetheless HP crafted the EliteBook Aero 840 G8 out of magnesium reasonably than aluminum and managed to shave off nearly half a pound, bringing it from 2.92 kilos to 2.5 kilos. That’s light for a 14-inch business-class laptop and noticeably easier to carry spherical.

Whereas there are 14-inch shopper laptops within the an identical weight fluctuate, identical to the Acer Swift 5 that weighs 2.31 kilos and is 0.59 inches thick, there aren’t many enterprise machines which will match it. The Dell Latitude 7420, for example, is 2.7 kilos with carbon fiber in its constructing and a pair of.89 kilos with an all-aluminum chassis whereas being 0.68 inches thick.

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One laptop that matches the EliteBook is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 at 2.49 kilos and a thinner 0.59 inches, which moreover makes use of magnesium in its chassis and is additional versatile. Lastly, the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 achieves its objective of being terribly light even as a result of it’s not the thinnest laptop spherical.

The EliteBook 840 Aero G8 moreover manages to stay away from a typical pitfall of magnesium chassis, which is that they’re usually a lot much less rigid than aluminum. The EliteBook is robust all through, with a lid that solely bends for those who occur to use inappropriate pressure, a keyboard deck that reveals zero flex, and a chassis bottom that has no give. Enterprise laptops are usually additional solidly constructed than some shopper laptops, such as a result of the MSI Standing 14 Evo, which is aluminum nonetheless nonetheless has a barely bendable lid, so this isn’t one thing new. Nonetheless being so light and so robust is an effective combination and by no means one that you simply simply uncover all that normally. The laptop’s hinge is a bit tight and it requires two arms to open the lid, nonetheless it’s tapered all one of the simplest ways spherical to make it easy to open and it reclines to 170 ranges for collaborative viewing.

Aesthetically, the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 fits HP’s frequent EliteBook feel and appear. It’s all silver with little in one of the simplest ways of adornments. There’s a chrome HP model on the lid and a refined EliteBook model on the keyboard deck, and the speaker grilles on both facet of the keyboard have a laser-cut pattern, nonetheless in another case, we’re talking a minimalist design. The Dell Latitude 7420 is comparable in its simplicity, which will be true of various enterprise laptops.

Enterprise laptops wish to connect, and the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 delivers.

Producers are inclined to go conservative of their designs for this class of pocket guide — you don’t want a laptop that grabs consideration in a conference room. Nonetheless, that doesn’t make the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 a bad-looking laptop the least bit. It’s pretty attractive and has merely enough angles, plus rounded rear and lid edges, to current it pretty a recent look. I’ll phrase that the massive excessive and bottom present bezels detract from that notion a bit — the EliteBook has an 85% screen-to-body ratio, which is low for a recent laptop.

Enterprise laptops wish to connect, and the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 delivers. On the left-hand side, you’ll uncover a nano security lock, two USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, and an non-obligatory wise card reader. On the right-hand side are a proprietary vitality connection (my review unit bought right here with a USB-C charger), a full-size HDMI 2.0 port, two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4, and a nano-SIM slot for 4G LTE or 5G help. Aside from WWAN help, there’s WI-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 on board.

Security and privateness

You’re not going to spend so much money on the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 just for its conservative, lightweight chassis and relatively regular elements. Considerably, you — or additional seemingly what you’re selling — goes to make the funding to realize entry to the massive collection of security and manageability devices constructed into HP’s enterprise machines.

It’s this stage of security and manageability that helps to justify the laptop’s very extreme worth.

The EliteBook makes use of HP’s Wolf Security for Enterprise, which provides many choices that make the laptop meet primarily essentially the most demanding group’s security needs. The guidelines is exhaustive, starting with HP’s Administration Integration Bundle (MIK) that makes it easier to mix the laptop into Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Supervisor for enhanced manageability. The EliteBook 840 Aero G8 offers Intel vPro as an alternative, extra rising how successfully it could be built-in into enterprise IT methods.

HP’s Endpoint Security Controller (ESC) runs on the laptop’s lowest stage, providing hardware-enforced technology that offers a {{Hardware}} Root of Perception by the use of HP Sure Start that’s bodily isolated and protects the laptop’s vital firmware. The protection works all through runtime as successfully, repeatedly monitoring the security system, and makes use of Wolf Security cryptographic {{hardware}} options. HP Sure Get properly minimizes downtime by providing embedded restoration devices, network-based restoration, and the pliability to help firm pictures. HP Tamperlock protects in opposition to bodily case intrusions and DMA, flash different, side channel, and TPM probing assaults.

We’ll stop there, nonetheless suffice it to say that the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 could be very secure and simple to deal with, providing prospects and enterprises with a ton of confidence that their machines and information will keep secure. It’s this stage of security and manageability that helps to justify the laptop’s very extreme worth.

Effectivity

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My review unit was equipped with the Eleventh-gen Intel Core i7-1185G7 with vPro. This top-of-the-line U-series GPU in Intel’s lineup is aimed towards skinny and light-weight laptops, and it offers a theoretical effectivity carry over the additional frequent Core i7-1165G7.

In our benchmarks, the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 was aggressive with plenty of the equally equipped laptops in our comparability group. It was third-highest in Geekbench 5, with the HP Elite Dragonfly Max coming in first place on this verify. In our Handbrake verify that converts a 420MB video to H.265, the EliteBook scored successfully for the CPU, coming in fourth, with solely the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo being significantly earlier than the Intel pack.

I included the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED to current a mode of AMD Ryzen 5000-series effectivity, and as you’ll see, it’s significantly sooner at CPU-intensive duties. The EliteBook moreover fell within the midst of the pack inside the Cinebench R23 benchmark, one different verify that taxes the CPU. In PCMark 10, the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 saved up its middling effectivity, and that extended all through every the Full ranking listed inside the desk and the Requirements, Productiveness, and Content material materials Creation elements of the benchmark.

Basic, the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 is a robust productiveness performer that doesn’t lead the pack nonetheless manages to take care of up. You’ll uncover it useful for sustaining alongside together with your demanding productiveness workflow, nonetheless you acquired’t want to make use of it for ingenious features. Nonetheless, that’s no knock in opposition to the EliteBook, as a result of it applies to all current Intel U-series laptops. You’ll should look to AMD for greater ingenious effectivity.

The EliteBook 840 Aero G8’s gaming effectivity was in step with completely different laptops equipped with Intel’s built-in Iris Xe graphics. That is, it wasn’t good. You’ll get spherical 29 frames per second (fps) in Fortnite at 1080p Extreme graphics and 22 fps at Epic graphics.

That’s enough for older titles, or newer titles with determination and graphics turned method down. Nonetheless this is usually a enterprise laptop and makes no pretense of being a gaming machine.

Present

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I’m not a fan of Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) exhibits, even on 14-inch exhibits. I like bigger resolutions. That talked about, I most well-liked the low-power present on the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 better than commonplace — outdoor of its old-school 16:9 facet ratio. The present was vibrant, colors have been dynamic with out being overblown, and black textual content material popped on a white background. Subjectively, it’s certainly one of many greater 1080p exhibits I’ve used on a laptop that’s not notably meant for creators.

My colorimeter backed me up. First, the present was actually vibrant at 479 nits, method above our 300-nit threshold and successfully above the premium frequent. It’s a present you’ll most likely use in daylight. The excellence was moreover superb for an IPS present at 1,740:1, as soon as extra successfully above our hottest threshold, on this case 1000:1. It’s greater than the present on many various enterprise laptops, along with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 that put out merely 306 nits and had a so much lower distinction ratio of 970:1.

Colors have been moreover good for a non-creators present, coming in at 77% of AdobeRGB and 99% of sRGB. That’s a few share components above the premium present frequent and as soon as extra beats out the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9’s 76% and 96%. The EliteBook 840 Aero G8’s present was moreover right, at a Delta-E of 1.11 (1.0 or a lot much less is great), as compared with the ThinkPad at 0.99.

All in all, I found the present a pleasure to utilize for productiveness work and bingeing Netflix. As soon as extra, I might need hottest a higher-resolution present, nonetheless many people will uncover a Full HD present to provide a sharp enough image on a 14-inch present. Nonetheless, I do need the present had been touch-enabled, and that’s an alternative for people who actually really feel the an identical method.

The audio is obtainable by two upward-firing audio system on both facet of the keyboard. HP touts the quantity and bass supplied by the audio system, and I found the claims to be true. There was a great deal of sound when turned up all one of the simplest ways and no distortion. Mids and highs have been good and clear, and, positive, there was a contact of bass. The EliteBook 840 Aero G8 can’t dwell as a lot as Dell XPS 15 or MacBook’s audio necessities, nonetheless it’s enough for watching Netflix and listening to the occasional tune.

Keyboard and touchpad

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HP’s EliteBooks all have good keyboards. The one on the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 was redesigned to be even greater, notably to provide a continuing actually really feel all through your entire keys. The redesign consists of together with in a programmable hot-key, and transferring the flexibility button to the keyboard and requiring a bit extra pressure and an prolonged keep to activate it. The keyboard’s mechanism is deep, with a fast bottoming movement, and it’s very quiet. I’d value it up there with the HP Spectre keyboards, which have prolonged been my favorite Residence home windows 10 keyboards, and better than the keyboards on Dell’s XPS line. Solely the MacBook’s Magic Keyboard is finest.

The touchpad in all fairness sized, with a simple glass flooring and Microsoft Precision Touchpad help. I found it serviceable, with reliable effectivity when using Residence home windows 10’s suite of multitouch gestures. It’s smaller than it may probably be, though, to accommodate buttons for the Lenovo TrackPoint-like cursor nubbin within the midst of the keyboard. That works successfully for those who occur to’re into that form of administration, and it offers a textured flooring to help maintain administration.

Residence home windows 10 Hiya help is obtainable by every a fingerprint reader inside the upper-right nook of the palm leisure and an infrared camera for facial recognition. Every labored quickly and with out fuss, making it easy to log into the EliteBook 840 Aero G8.

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Battery life

The EliteBook 840 Aero G8 packs in 53 watt-hours of battery, which is frequent for a 14-inch laptop. With a 1080p present, I’d anticipate good nonetheless not good battery life, most likely enough to make it by a workday nonetheless not enough to take care of working by the night time.

As a result of it appears, battery life was a bit greater than I anticipated. I observed roughly 11 hours on our web-browsing verify, which is a sturdy final result. The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo with the an identical CPU, a Full HD+ (1,920 x 1,200) present, and a 70 watt-hour battery bought right here in at solely a minute longer. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9, a additional direct competitor, lasted for about one different hour. In our video-looping verify that performs an space 1080p movie trailer, the EliteBook made it to 14 hours and quarter-hour, as soon as extra time. One thing over 12 hours is right in step with what we anticipate from a premium laptop. I’ll phrase that the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 lasted for a spectacular 21 hours, so the EliteBook doesn’t pretty dominate the enterprise class.

Inside the PCMark 10 Functions battery verify, which is the right indication of productiveness battery life, the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 achieved a strong 13.75 hours, inserting it inside the greater end of our database. The ThinkPad as soon as extra dominated, though, at 17.25 hours. I moreover ran the PCMark 10 Gaming battery verify, the place the EliteBook hit merely over 5 hours — the longest we’ve seen. This verify, though, seems to point how onerous a laptop works whereas on battery reasonably than completely the battery life, so you’ll anticipate decreased effectivity when unplugged.

Basic, the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 was a sturdy performer by the use of its battery life. It exceeded my expectations, and it will keep you working successfully into the night time in case you could have the need. You will not get the quickest effectivity whereas on battery life, nonetheless it will keep you going when you’re away from a charger.

Our take

HP took the EliteBook 840 G8 and made it lighter with the Aero mannequin, giving enterprise prospects a robust numerous that leverages HP’s sturdy suite of business-oriented security and manageability devices. The EliteBook 840 Aero G8 is well-built however very light, performs successfully, and provides good battery life.

It’s expensive, though. You’re undoubtedly paying for the enterprise choices, and most positively, it acquired’t be the buyer footing the bill. Nonetheless organizations looking for an vital enterprise laptop ought to take care of the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 on their shortlist.

Are there any alternate choices?

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 is a sturdy competitor by the use of its effectivity and battery life, and it’s moreover cheap when configured the an identical ($2,260 on sale), nonetheless it solely has a one-year assure, Lenovo moreover packs in quite a lot of enterprise choices, nonetheless they’re not pretty as intensive as HP’s alternative.

Dell offers the Latitude 7420, one different robust numerous that’s moreover cheap at $2,020 (with a three-year assure). Dell has its private suite of enterprise devices, and the Latitude could even serve organizations successfully within the occasion that they need security measures which is perhaps easy to deal with.

For individuals who don’t need a business-class laptop, then there are a variety of purchaser alternate choices. Nonetheless in that case, the EliteBook 840 Aero G8 shouldn’t even be into consideration.

How prolonged will it ultimate?

The EliteBook 840 Aero G8 is well-built and can give confidence that it may ultimate for years of typical enterprise use. The elements are up to date, which means it will maintain with Residence home windows requirements for years as successfully. You’ll admire the three-year assure, which should be anticipated for business-class machines nonetheless isn’t on a regular basis supplied with out a further value.

Should you buy it?

Positive. It’s expensive nonetheless value it for those who occur to need a laptop that what you’re selling can perception.

Editors’ Solutions