For the previous few weeks, I’ve been utilizing an HP Elite X360 1040G11 as my major laptop computer, and I’ve been impressed. It gives robust efficiency and battery life, in addition to a premium design with numerous extra options.Because the identify implies, that is the eleventh era of HP’s premium enterprise 2-in-1 convertible. You need to use it as a conventional laptop computer, however it incorporates a hinge that allows you to rotate the display screen utterly flat on the again of the unit, so you may as well use it as a pill. It additionally comes with a pen for drawing or notetaking.
(Credit score: HP)
Whereas I usually discover 2-in-1s to be too huge as tablets, I do recognize the flexibleness such machines provide with regards to giving displays or watching media. And the pen labored very properly. For people preferring a conventional “clamshell” laptop computer, HP makes the EliteBook 1040, which is basically the identical machine minus the hinge and the pen. I word that though the official identify of the machine I examined is the Elite X360, the machine itself says EliteBook slightly below the keyboard.Measuring 12.36 by 8.6 by 0.41 to 0.58 inches (entrance to rear), with the model I examined weighing 3.28 kilos (3.91 kilos with the included 65-watt charger and three.95 kilos in the event you embody the HP Pen), the Elite 1040 is a bit thinner and heavier than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 I examined earlier. It has an aluminum body and canopy, this yr with a brand new “Glacier Silver” colour that may be a few shades lighter than the silver or grey colours I’ve seen on many machines. In contrast with earlier machines within the mannequin, it has a barely bigger touchpad and bigger keycaps, and it felt very strong.
(Credit score: HP)
Different new options embody an built-in energy button and fingerprint sensor on the higher right-hand nook of the keyboard, and the now-standard Home windows Copilot key.The mannequin I used had a 14-inch IPS contact display screen with 1,920-by-1,200 decision and 400 nits of brightness, which is fairly commonplace for this class of machine; a 2,880-by-1,800 OLED show can be accessible, as are two choices for privateness screens. I did not check these, although up to now I have been impressed by HP’s privateness screens. The included show regarded good, although I am certain the OLED would have been higher.
(Credit score: HP)
I used to be significantly impressed by the quantity and format of the ports. The left facet of the machine has an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB-C/Thunderbolt, and a 3.5mm audio jack, whereas the appropriate facet has a locking slot, 5Gbps USB-A, a 10Gbps USB-C, and an optionally available SIM card reader. (My mannequin included the optionally available WWAN 5G modem.) I like having each USB-A and HDMI, which some enterprise laptops miss, whereas nonetheless having USB-C on either side, which makes for simpler charging.For video conferencing, the Elite X360 comes with a 5MP IR digital camera that appeared okay—removed from the very best I’ve seen, but additionally removed from the worst—and had a really giant discipline of view. It supposedly had dynamic colour tuning to right your picture, however I nonetheless did not suppose it was almost nearly as good because the digital camera on HP’s EliteBook Extremely G1q.
(Credit score: HP)
As with a lot of the present Home windows techniques, it helps Studio Results for issues like background blur. There’s additionally a separate Poly Digital camera Professional app (that you could obtain from the Microsoft Retailer through the myHP app) that gives many extra choices for framing and zooming, in addition to extra scenes and watermarks—if you wish to all the time show your identify, for instance. The digital camera itself labored high quality with options comparable to turning off the show once you depart and waking once you method; and labored properly with Home windows Howdy. As I desire, the Elite 1040 features a bodily webcam shutter. For audio, it has two prime and two bottom-firing audio system with discrete amplifiers and dual-array microphones. It had superb sound for a enterprise laptop computer.The myHP utility additionally consists of methods to handle the programmable key, get to help, and a Sensible Sense utility that balances efficiency, fan noise, and cooling. This appeared to work fairly properly. Different functions embody a separate HP Audio Controls app, which labored high quality, though I am nonetheless unsure why this could not be mixed into the primary myHP app.It additionally comes with three years of HP’s Wolf Professional Safety, which incorporates malware prevention, risk containment, and HP’s Certain Run expertise to isolate particular functions.The mannequin I had included an Intel Core Extremely 7 165H processor, a barely higher-end model of the “Meteor Lake” processors I’ve seen on different related laptops, together with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. This can be a 28-watt processor with six efficiency cores (every of which might do multithreading), eight environment friendly cores, and two low-power environment friendly cores, for a complete of 16 cores and 22 threads. The efficiency cores have a base frequency of 1.4GHz, with a most turbo pace of 5.0GHz. It has Intel Graphics with 8 Xe cores at a most of two.3GHz. The processor is vPro succesful.Most likely in consequence, I received increased scores on most of my benchmark checks than I noticed with the X1 2-in-1 (which ran a 15-watt Core Extremely 7 155U) or the X1 Carbon Gen 12 (which ran a 28-watt Core Extremely 7 155H) however considerably decrease than I noticed with the Lenovo Yoga Professional 9i 16 (a bigger machine that ran a 45-watt Core Extremely 7 185H). And, after all, the latter machine with its discrete graphics was considerably higher at graphics.
Really useful by Our Editors
On my hardest checks, it transcoded a big video in Handbrake in 1 hour and 19 minutes, in contrast with 1 hour and 36 minutes on the X1 2-in-1 and 1:16 on the X1 Carbon Gen 12. Equally, it ran a portfolio simulation in MATLAB in just below 32 minutes in contrast with a bit of over 34 minutes on the X1 2-in-1, however inferior to the half-hour on the X1 Carbon Gen 12. Working a big Excel information desk mannequin took 45 minutes in contrast with 47 for the X1 2-in-1 and 46 for the X1 Carbon Gen 12. However word that none of those numbers are anyplace nearly as good as what I noticed on final yr’s Core i7 (Raptor Lake)-based system, which might end in as little as 35 minutes.On AI checks, scores have been much like the opposite Meteor Lake techniques with built-in graphics I’ve examined. Machines with discrete graphics nonetheless appear to do significantly better, and whereas Meteor Lake has an NPU it does not appear robust sufficient to run most AI fashions properly.Battery life was very robust. On PCMark 10’s Trendy Workplace battery check, I received 17 hours and 38 minutes at 100 nits, and 19 hours and 46 minutes at 40 nits, the very best I’ve seen on an Intel-based laptop computer. It has a 68-watt-hour battery.At present, on HP’s website, a system much like the one I examined sells for $2,299 together with the Core Extremely 7 165H, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, commonplace show, and a 5G modem. A system with a Core Extremely 5 125 H processor and with out the WWAN modem begins at $1,499. Such techniques aren’t low cost, however they do appear aggressive. General, the Elite x360 1040 G11 is a strong 2-in-1 with nice efficiency and some extras.
Get Our Finest Tales!
Join What’s New Now to get our prime tales delivered to your inbox each morning.
This text might comprise promoting, offers, or affiliate hyperlinks. Subscribing to a e-newsletter signifies your consent to our Phrases of Use and Privateness Coverage. You could unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
About Michael J. Miller
Former Editor in Chief
Michael J. Miller is chief data officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a non-public funding agency. From 1991 to 2005, Miller was editor-in-chief of PC Journal,accountable for the editorial route, high quality, and presentation of the world’s largest laptop publication. No funding recommendation is obtainable on this column. All duties are disclaimed. Miller works individually for a non-public funding agency which can at any time spend money on firms whose merchandise are mentioned, and no disclosure of securities transactions might be made.
Learn Michael J.’s full bio
Learn the most recent from Michael J. Miller
