HP EliteBook Ultra G1i review: a business laptop for everyone, at a price

The perfect enterprise laptops are very well-made and strong, conservatively engaging, quick, and have nice battery life. These are characteristic that customers search for, too, however producers like HP add a ton of options that make enterprise laptops extra engaging to enterprises that require nice administration and safety.

That makes them dearer, which generally pushes them out of the vary of many shopper patrons. That’s a disgrace with the HP EliteBook Extremely G1i, as a result of it’s an excellent 14-inch laptop computer that each one sorts of customers would love — if solely its value was a bit extra palatable. However for companies customers, it’s one of many higher decisions.

Specs and configuration

As a enterprise laptop computer, the EliteBook Extremely G1i is extra more likely to be bought on a gaggle contract. So, its costs listed in its internet retailer (that are closely discounted from checklist already) aren’t essentially as indicative of what the goal enterprise buyer can pay. Nevertheless, proper now, the EliteBook begins at $1,849 for an Intel Core Extremely 5 226V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 14.0-inch 2.8K OLED show (the one choice). For $2,432, you get a Core Extremely 7 268V, 32GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. That’s the affirmation I reviewed. There are different configurations out there inside that vary.

So, that makes the EliteBook Extremely G1i a really premium enterprise laptop computer. The equally configured HP OmniBook Extremely Flip 14, which is geared toward shoppers, is kind of a bit cheaper beginning at $1,100 on sale and maxing out at $1,730 (additionally on sale). The Apple MacBook Air 13 (M4) can also be cheaper, beginning at $1,000 and maxing out at simply over $2,000.

Design

I just lately wrote an editorial about how Apple’s consideration to element has resulted in a few of the finest {hardware} round. However Apple isn’t the one firm that manages to make a laptop computer that feels actually nice in hand. The EliteBook Extremely G1i is one other. It’s a kind of laptops that offers me a right away impression of high quality the second I pull it out of the field.

First, it’s properly sized. Its show bezels aren’t the smallest I’ve seen, however they’re sufficiently small that the EliteBook Extremely G1i is kind of compact with its 14-inch show. It’s additionally very skinny, coming in at a most of 0.48 inches within the rear that’s virtually as skinny because the insanely skinny Apple MacBook Air 13’s 0.45 inches (and the HP is even thinner up entrance at 0.36 inches). The EliteBook can also be virtually the identical weight because the MacBook, so it has that form of density that avoids a very mild laptop computer feeling flimsy. And a couple of.63 kilos is a lot mild sufficient to make it eminently moveable.

The load can also be very well-balanced, so it’s comfy to hold round, open or closed. The rounded edges additionally really feel nice — higher than the MacBook’s edges that border on being just a little sharp. The EliteBook’s hinge isn’t fairly as easy, although, and requires two fingers to open the lid. Total, the all-aluminum building is stable with no bending, flexing, or twisting within the chassis, keyboard deck, or lid. This can be a actually well-designed and well-built laptop computer.

Aesthetically, the design is kind of elegant with the same old up to date minimalism however sufficient identification that it’s not mundane. The rounded edges assist right here, too, and HP has carried out an excellent job with the darkish blue colour method. My solely criticism is the lighter blue colour assigned to the operate keys, after which the ability button (with embedded fingerprint reader) that has a fairly shiny LED and one more mild blue colour. That is likely to be good for accessibility, one thing that HP has paid a whole lot of consideration to of their current designs. However I do suppose it takes away from the look a bit.

Past the EliteBook Extremely G1i’s bodily design, it’s additionally a enterprise laptop computer with a number of options that make it an excellent alternative for companies. Primarily, that facilities round numerous utilities that may plug into enterprise administration methods to supply enhanced fleet administration capabilities and safety. HP’s Wolf Safety serves the latter operate, providing up a number of capabilities that lock the EliteBook down on each a software program and {hardware} stage. I received’t go into the main points right here, however suffice it to say that for those who’re searching for a laptop computer that’s simple to handle and extremely safe, then the EliteBook Extremely G1i supplies what you’re searching for.

Keyboard and touchpad

HP has been making nice keyboards for some time now, beginning with their Spectre laptops that had been a few of my favorites. That’s carried that over to its OmniBook and EliteBook lineups, and HP has perhaps even made them just a little higher given the eye to accessibility I discussed above. That’s mirrored within the daring lettering and cautious colour scheme that may assist the visually impaired. However much more so, the EliteBook Extremely G1i’s keyboard is nearly good for me, equally pretty much as good as Apple’s Magic Keyboard that’s been my total favourite. The keycaps are massive and but there’s loads of key spacing with a really comfy structure. And the switches are precisely as I like them — mild and snappy but with a exact bottoming motion. I may kind on this keyboard at full velocity for hours (as in penning this overview) with out getting fatigued. One other easy keyboard check for me is whether or not I can kind passwords from muscle-memory on the primary attempt, and the EliteBook’s keyboard handed with flying colours.

The touchpad is equally pretty much as good. It’s a big haptic model that takes up all of the out there house on the palm relaxation, similar to with Apple’s MacBooks. And it’s glorious, with responsive and constant “clicks.” Home windows 11 affords a ton of customization with haptic touchpads, and it’s all right here. Apple’s Pressure Contact haptic touchpad has lengthy been the business commonplace for excellence, and it advantages from the Pressure Click on characteristic the place urgent just a little “tougher” kicks off extra performance. However in any other case, the EliteBook’s touchpad is simply pretty much as good.

You may also go for a touch-enabled show. An amazing haptic touchpad makes that much less engaging for me, personally, but it surely’s out there if you would like it.

Connectivity and webcam

Connectivity is fairly good, with three USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 assist and a USB-A port for legacy units. I say that’s simply fairly good as a result of some 14-inch laptops have extra connectivity, with an HDMI connection being pretty widespread. There’s additionally no SD card assist, which I’d wish to see. Wi-fi connectivity is totally up-to-date with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

The webcam is HP’s normal 9MP model, so it supplies glorious picture high quality. It’s backed up by a quick Lunar Lake Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that runs at a really quick 48 tera operations per second (TOPS), simply exceeding the 40 TOPS requirement for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative. Meaning it’ll energy on-device AI processing extra effectively than counting on the slower CPU or GPU elements. HP partnered with Poly Studio to supply the Poly Digital camera Professional suite of videoconferencing options with improve background, highlight, auto-framing, and different performance, a lot of it AI-powered utilizing the NPU. There’s most likely not one other laptop computer out there with fairly the identical breadth and depth of AI-powered options along with what’s supplied through Copilot+.

Efficiency

You’ll be able to select from a number of Intel Lunar Lake (Core Extremely Collection 2) choices with the EliteBook Extremely G1i, all of them 8-core/8-thread chipsets out there working at 17 watts.  Lunar Lake is focuses extra on effectivity than pure efficiency, with speeds falling between the previous-generation 15-watt U-series and 28-watt H-series Meteor Lake chipsets. As a enterprise laptop computer, Intel vPro is a pure choice that permits the EliteBook’s glorious manageability and safety.

All Lunar Lake variations give related efficiency in CPU-intensive duties, as a result of they solely range by clock velocity. And, they’re significantly slower than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chipsets, the opposite Home windows effectivity choice. AMD;s Ryzen AI 9 and Apple’s M4 chipsets are additionally significantly quicker. The Core Extremely 5 226V has a slower Intel Arc 130V built-in graphics, however the quicker Intel Arc 140V within the Core Extremely 7 268V isn’t a lot quicker.

Total, the EliteBook Extremely G1i is a quick laptop computer for demanding productiveness customers, together with enterprise customers, however players and creators will need to look elsewhere.

Battery life

As I discussed above, Lunar Lake is aimed extra at battery life than pure efficiency. And customarily talking, that’s been the case within the laptops I’ve examined. Some are impacted by power-hungry high-res OLED shows, whereas these with extra environment friendly IPS shows compete higher with Apple’s extremely environment friendly Apple Silicon chipsets that stay probably the most environment friendly total.

The EliteBook Extremely G1i has a comparatively small 64 watt-hour battery to go along with a 2.8K OLED show. That shouldn’t be a recipe for the most effective battery life, even with Lunar Lake. However, the EliteBook does fairly effectively. Its ends in our video looping check was excellent at over 15 hours, and it was aggressive at virtually 2.5 hours within the demanding Cinebench R24 check. It didn’t do as effectively in our internet looking check, however I needed to change the software we use for testing on account of our earlier software being deprecated by Google. Utilizing our older software, the EliteBook would possible have scored nearer to the HP OmniBook Extremely Flip 14 with mainly the identical chipset, show, and battery capability and that managed two hours longer.

These are very robust outcomes for a laptop computer with such a stunning show. You’ll get a full day’s work, which isn’t fairly pretty much as good as Apple MacBook Air (M4), however nonetheless significantly better than earlier Home windows laptops.

Show and audio

There’s only one show choice for the EliteBook Extremely G1i, and it’s a 14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED show working at as much as 120Hz. Like virtually each OLED show, it’s spectacular out of the field, with shiny, dynamic colours and inky blacks. As I discussed above, there’s a penalty in battery life, however the EliteBook nonetheless manages excellent longevity.

My colorimeter preferred this show fairly a bit. It’s not absolutely the brightest at 397 nits (most shows I’ve examined currently are better than 400 nits), but it surely’s until quite a bit brighter than shows had been a number of years in the past. It has good blacks with extraordinarily excessive distinction at 27,780:1. And its colours are very huge at 100% of sRGB, 97% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, with glorious colour accuracy with a DeltaE of 0.58 (lower than 1.0 is indistinguishable to the human eye).

It’s an excellent show it doesn’t matter what you’re utilizing it for. It’s not quick sufficient for demanding creativity work, but it surely supplies an excellent media expertise to go.

Audio is supplied by a quad-speaker setup, and it sounds fairly good. There’s good quantity and clear mids and highs, whereas bass is somwhat missing as is typical with laptops. I’d charge the MacBook Air’s audio to be higher, but it surely’s not an evening and day distinction.

A superb laptop computer for companies, however just a little costly for many shoppers

If you happen to’re a enterprise person searching for a well-built laptop computer that feels nice in hand and appears simply pretty much as good, with first rate productiveness efficiency and nice battery life, the EliteBook Extremely G1i is a superb alternative. Toss in a spectacular OLED show for good measure.

Actually, these are qualities that many shoppers are searching for. Nevertheless, the EliteBook comes with a number of enterprise options that almost all shoppers don’t want, which pumps up the value. So, when you have cash to burn, then it’s an excellent laptop computer for shoppers — however I think most patrons will probably be companies.