HP Elitebook 840 G5: a solid ultraportable PC for professionals

Aprox. 1452€

It is a PC intended for professionals that we are testing today: the Elitebook 840 G5, an ultraportable signed HP which promises the perfect alliance between power and mobility. Promise kept for the laptop of the Californian brand?

Our review

Presentation

The HP EliteBook 840 G5 is a laptop designed for professionals, both in its use and in its integrated software. But this ultraportable is much more than a simple office PC intended for companies: HP delivers here a solid and well finished computer.

The American manufacturer highlights several advantages here to attract businesses. Safety first. In addition to Windows Hello, which offers to unlock your PC by recognizing your face or fingerprint, HP integrates several solutions to encrypt personal and professional data, as well as the HP Sure View filter that can be activated with a simple button to remove the lateral visibility of the screen, when viewed at an angle of 35º or more.

In addition to these solutions, HP delivers the best of its know-how by offering a solid working PC, which keeps all its promises, without however adorning it with an attractive design.

Construction

For its design, HP has chosen to go very simple, even if it means delivering an extremely bland-looking computer. With an aluminum chassis, the EliteBook 840 G5 is more functional than beautiful, with its very present grids and its keyboard at first sight basic.

However, this uninviting aspect is done for the benefit of engineering. Indeed, the PC, very well designed, showed no weakness during our lab tests. Freeing itself from the constraint of making a beautiful PC to attract a wider audience, HP was able to focus on the essentials. Last important point to note on the general design of the machine, the (touch) screen opens on 160 °. Flexibility welcome in the professional world, even if the PC is not a convertible.

Connectivity side, the EliteBook 840 G5 is complete with a USB Type-C port, 2 USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI port, an RJ45 port, a SIM card reader and a proprietary connector for docking station in addition to the headphone jack. No SD card reader, however.

Regarding the keyboard and touchpad, HP went to the simplest and most effective. If visually the keyboard (backlit) seems austere and unattractive, it is actually very pleasant under the fingers, offering a relatively long stroke and a welcome resistance when pressed. The touchpad is classic and effective despite the implantation of two clicks in its upper part. But the real interest of this set lies in the trackpoint, which we are more used to seeing on ThinkPads. This rubber button can replace a mouse and is very practical in conditions of extreme mobility, when you have to use the standing PC, for example; responsive, it remains discreet enough not to annoy users who are not followers.

In front of our thermal camera, the HP EliteBook 840 G5 reveals very impressive results. During our usual protocol (1 hour on the Unigine Heaven benchmark), the heating proved to be extremely controlled, the PC never exceeding 35 ° C. A beautiful freshness especially due to the famous grids which show all their effectiveness in this area. The icing on the cake, the PC is rather silent: we measured 39 dB (A), an almost inaudible noise and in the average of ultraportables.

The HP EliteBook 840 G5 is an extremely well designed laptop in short. If the visual aspect is left out (this is a secondary consideration for a professional PC), it is in favor of an almost perfect engineering work, as pleasant as it is appreciable.

Screen

The HP EliteBook 840 G5 is equipped with a 14-inch (35.6 cm diagonal) IPS touch screen with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 px. Its screen / front ratio is 75.20%, which is in the average of current ultraportables which do not bet on edges of ultra-thin screens.

The results delivered at the end of our laboratory tests are very satisfactory. The very impressive brightness thus rises to 627 cd / m² - the highest score in our comparison -, which ensures a clear vision of the screen in any conditions. The contrast ratio is 1130: 1, which translates into good visibility of details and shades of gray. The color temperature, at 5,990 K, is below the reference temperature at 6,500 K - a sign that the screen draws very slightly towards red (almost imperceptibly), unlike other screens on the market which draw towards blue - but it remains balanced and satisfactory. Delta E has an excellent average of 1.9. This result is confirmed in the distribution by colors, which attests to a generally very balanced screen, with the exception of deep blue and indigo less faithful. Lastly, the remanence is 16 ms, a classic score for this type of PC.

Performances

The HP EliteBook 840 G5 has an Intel Core i7-8550U processor supported by 16 GB of RAM. With such a processor, a good result in our tests was beyond doubt and the PC did not disappoint.

The EliteBook 840 G5 thus reaches 148 on our index, which places it among the best ultraportables on the market. It is placed just behind the best laptop in this area: the Microsoft Surface Book 2 15. An excellent performance befitting its professional use. Thus, within the framework of his activities, the user will be able to work without the slightest difficulty with software very greedy in computation.

Mobility / Autonomy

With its 14 inch (35.6 cm) screen, the HP EliteBook 840 G5 weighs 1.61 kg (1.48 kg in non-touch version) and is therefore relatively heavy for an ultraportable. However, its 13 inch PC size (326 x 234 x 17 mm) still makes it easily transportable in a bag.

On the autonomy side, the EliteBook 840 G5 disappoints a little. Indeed, during our usual protocol (Netflix in Chrome, backlight off, brightness set to 200 cd / m²), it went out after 6 hours and 27 min only, which is quite limited for an ultraportable. Pity.

Audio

In terms of sound, the Elitebook 840 G5 borders on disaster, because (among other things) of curious and incomprehensible choices on the part of the manufacturer. Indeed, HP has chosen to include Bang & Olufsen software in its PC which it is simply impossible to uninstall and even deactivate. The software combines with poor quality speakers to deliver a sound barely worthy of a telephone, not even making it possible to clearly distinguish two timbres of voice. In addition, non-disengageable dynamic compression results in a very unpleasant pumping effect, even for an untrained ear, to which is added an unpleasant box effect (resonance of the sound in the chassis) due to uncontrolled power.

As the processing software was impossible to deactivate, we were unable to finalize our measurements which were distorted. To the ear, the sound is not better.

The crosstalk of the headphone jack is also very bad, with a particularly weak stereo separation - the fault comes down, we suppose, to an artificial spatialization effect applied by default, and again impossible to deactivate.

A big failure on this point for a professional PC which, we imagine, could be used for video conferences. If it is not unusable, it is not really convincing in this segment.

Conclusion

Designed for professionals, the HP EliteBook 840 G5 does not disappoint, except in audio. With its efficient construction and a high quality screen, it also surprises with its power which will prove to be useful when using software that is very greedy in computing. Unfortunately, if autonomy far from being at the party is not strictly shameful, it is however the case of the audio part, unworthy of the machine.

Specifications