A sleek, sturdy business workhorse that won’t break the bank
Large IT departments need extensive remote management and security features, some of which (like vPro) are unique to Intel-powered laptops. If you’re in the market for a premium business laptop but don’t need these Intel-specific features, the HP EliteBook 845 G7 (starts at $999; $1,419 as tested) offers a sleek and sturdy chassis, excellent performance from its AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, and a significantly lower price than many of its Intel-powered competitors. It’s our new top pick among midpriced ultraportable business laptops. A Lightweight 14-Incher The EliteBook 800 series laptops with AMD processors come in two screen sizes: the 13.3-inch EliteBook 835 and the subject of this review, the 14-inch EliteBook 845. Our review unit is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U,16GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD. Both sizes of the EliteBook 800 series are also available with Intel CPUs and graphics processors; those versions are the EliteBook 830 and the recently-reviewed EliteBook 840. While business-laptop users frequently on the road might once have preferred the 13-inch EliteBook models to save a bit of weight, that’s no longer as much of a concern, not only because many businesspeople aren’t traveling these days, but also because 14-inch laptops have become much smaller. Case in point: The EliteBook 845 G7 model reviewed here weighs in at just 2.93 pounds, easily qualifying it as an ultraportable laptop. Our version, which lacks a touch screen, is lighter than the touch-screen model. The latter tips the scales at 3.22 pounds, with added heft brought on in part by the stronger materials and more complex construction used for the touch screen. Either version measures 0.7 by 12.74 by 8.45 inches (HWD). These dimensions render the EliteBook 845 plenty light enough to slip in and out of your handbag all day long, but note that you can get a smaller chassis in a machine with a 14-inch display. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, for instance, is slightly thinner at 0.59 inch. In addition to being easy on your shoulders, the EliteBook 845 is also easy on the eyes. Its tapered edges evoke the design of classic ultraportables like the Apple MacBook Air. The shape of the laptop’s front lip also makes the display lid easy to open with one hand. The light silver aluminum finish will look great in a conference room, and it’s decidedly more modern than the staid but iconic black carbon-fiber finish of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which frequently commands our Editors’ Choice pick for best business ultraportable. An Advanced, Attractive Design If you’re a business user or an IT manager with purchasing authority, you typically demand such advanced, attractive design features and are probably able to pay handsomely for them, but the EliteBook 845 shows that you needn’t always open your company’s wallet so wide. The laptop starts at just $1,000, and the sensible extra features of our review unit bring its total up to an equally reasonable $1,419. Compare that with two of the EliteBook 845’s closest competitors to see what a good deal it is: The Intel-powered EliteBook 840 rings up at more than $2,000 as tested (with comparable components), and so does the Dell Latitude 7410. The EliteBook 845’s base configuration includes 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U processor, and a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) screen rated for a maximum brightness level of 250 nits. We recommend the more capable configuration of our review unit, which doubles the memory and storage amounts, boosts the display brightness greatly (to a peak of 400 nits), and features an upgraded Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U with eight cores and a base clock speed of 1.7GHz. Whichever configuration you choose, you get a standard three-year warranty, up from the one year that is commonplace on consumer-focused laptops. Whichever EliteBook 845 configuration you choose, the relatively low prices make it a no-brainer to choose the AMD version unless your IT department requires Intel processors. In return for giving up vPro access and a few other Intel-specific management and security features, you’re getting nearly an identical laptop for hundreds of dollars less. As an added bonus, the EliteBook 845 even performs better in many cases than its Intel-powered EliteBook 840 sibling. Note that while the EliteBook 845 lacks the option for vPro, it does include many of HP’s own security and manageability protections, including an embedded security chip that protects the boot drive against BIOS-level hacking, and even the industry-standard DriveLock encryption that guards against physical tampering with the boot drive.
