HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 review: Expensive but worth the asking price

|
, ,

Techaeris Rated 9.1/10

HP has been in the PC game for a very long time, yet, they don’t always get the bulk of the spotlight. The company is looking to change that by making some of the best laptops and PCs on the market. The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 is a take on the “work from home” laptop that is suitable for working from home or when you’re out and about.

The EliteBook x360 1040 G7 is one heck of a long name, and it comes with some decent specification options. Outfitted with a 14″ IPS FHD (1920×1080) display and Intel’s latest UHD graphics, it can be configured with up to an Intel Core i7-10810U vPro CPU, up to 2TB of storage, and up to 32GB of RAM. That out of the way, read on to see how it performs!

Specifications

The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 laptop we tested had the following features and specifications:

Display14″ diagonal BrightView IPS FHD (1920×1080) Touchscreen with Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5, 400 nits
ProcessorIntel® Core i7-10810U vPro (1.1 GHz base frequency, up to 4.9 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology, 12 MB L3 cache, 6 cores) (other options available)
GraphicsIntel UHD
Storage512GB PCIe NVMe SSD (Up to 2TB available)
MemoryUp to 32GB @2933MHz
KeyboardHP Quiet Keyboard, spill-resistant, Backlit, Clickpad
Camera720p HD webcam with Sure Shutter
Sure Recover with Embedded
Reimaging
Wireless ConnectivityIntel® AX201 Wi-Fi 6 (2×2), Bluetooth 5
HP Mobile BroadbandIntel® XMM 7360 LTE-Advanced (Cat 9)
SecurityIntegrated Fingerprint Sensor
Ports2x USB 3.1 Type-C (both can be used for charging) w/ Thunderbolt support
1x HDMI
2x USB 3.1
1x Headphone/mic combo
1x External nano-SIM slot
Battery4-cell, 78-WHr Long Life Battery
Power Supply65 W USB Type-C adapter
AudioAudio by Bang & Olufsen, 4 Premium stereo speakers, 2 user-facing multi-array microphones, and two world-facing microphones
OS Windows 10 Pro
Dimensions12.57 x 7.98 x 0.65 in
WeightStarting at 2.9 lb

What’s in the box

  • HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7
  • HP 65-watt USB-C AC Adapter with US Power Cord
  • Wacom pen (optional purchase)
  • Warranty card

Design

HP did an excellent job making the EliteBook x360 1040 G7 look clean and minimal. While it may look like most other laptops, the premium build and aluminum body mixed with the design appeals to the touch and the eye.

The laptop’s lid has HP’s new logo dead center, making it hard to miss what brand the laptop is. There’s also a gray line going across the top of the lid. This is the antenna band for WLAN use. The edges are chamfered, allowing you to easily lift the screen while the rest of the laptop sits on a desk or table.

HP-EliteBook-1040-G7-Back
HP logo on back of EliteBook x360 1040 G7.

When opened, you’ll see the 14″ display with barely any top and side bezels. There’s still some bezel on the display’s chin, but not enough to where it became annoying to see. The keyboard is the usual six-row configuration, giving travel time between keys minimal. The trackpad is a decent size, along with the wrist resting area. On either side of the keyboard are speaker grills for sound to pass through. There are four small nubs, two above and two below the keyboard, for the display to lay on so the screen doesn’t get dirty or damaged over time.

As for the laptop’s sides, the left is home to a USB-A 3.1 gen 1 charging port, audio combo jack, WWAN SIM, and a standard security lock slot. The right side has two USB Type-C with Thunderbolt ports with support for Power Delivery 3.0, an HDMI 1.4b port, and a second USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 charging port.

Flipping the 1040 G7 over to view the bottom, you’ll see two more speaker grills along with feet for flat surfaces and a vent for air to disperse under loads.

Frankly, I like the design HP has done with the EliteBook x360 1040 G7. It’s sleek, slim, clean, and overall looks really nice.

Display

The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 has a 14″ BrightView IPS panel with a resolution of 1920×1080. The screen to body ratio is 89% offering more display for a better viewing experience.

Since this is an IPS display, you’re getting close to true colors as possible. Reds look red, blacks are deep and don’t look gray, whites are bright but not too overbearing, and so on. Viewing angles are great and brightness is fine, sitting at 400 nits.

HP-EliteBook-1040-G7-Full-Screen-and-Keyboard
The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 has a vibrant 1080p display with minimum bezels.

Indoor and outdoor usage was decent when it came to the viewing experience. Thanks to an ambient light sensor, the screen brightness will adjust to the type of lighting you’re in. It will adjust appropriately at night, giving you enough brightness while not blinding you. There is enough brightness under normal lighting, so you don’t have to crank it up. Using the laptop in direct sunlight was much better than expected. Not once did I have to manually adjust the brightness to see what was on the screen.

Software

Like most Windows laptops these days, this system comes with Windows 10 Pro. It also came pre-installed with loads of HP software.

On the HP software side, some can help users, such as HP Support Assistant, which helps keep your laptop up-to-date outside the normal Windows updates. HP Workwell is for those who are constantly at their PC that might need a reminder to stand up, exercise, or step away for some time. HP Sure Sense is a security-based program that runs similar to Windows Defender. On the other hand, some bloatware on here really isn’t needed, such as HP Jumpstart and HP Documentation.

There is one handy software feature that HP added into the x360 1040 G7. HP Presence Aware lets the PC know to lock when you leave its field of view or wake up when you’re in from of the camera. The great thing about this is you can have the privacy shutter turned on, and it’ll still wake up once you come back.

Something else new that HP added is AI Noise Reduction. This reduces ambient noises in the background, such as a dog barking or a child crying. This helps out with those on conference calls or trying to chat with someone. When testing it out with Google Duo, it did a well enough job to block out other background noises such as music playing, muffling people’s voices, and water running. It’s great to know that if you have music playing from a phone that’s right next to the laptop will be either somewhat or fully drowned out by the AI software.

It’s great to see that HP didn’t add in too much bloatware in this laptop compared to some of the competition.

Performance

On the performance side of things, the unit HP sent to us came with an Intel 10th Gen i7-10810U vPro running at a base of 1.10GHz with 16GB of RAM. It also comes with a 512GB NVMe SSD for fast read and write speeds.

Over the course of this review, I put the 1040 G7 to the test by streaming and some video editing. While it ran perfectly fine during a streaming session without any issues, it struggled with video editing. Both are heavy loads on the CPU, especially with rendering, but I feel like it should have performed well given the specs. Take this how you like, but it still did decently regardless of being taxed. An extra 16GB of RAM will likely help if you’re planning on doing a lot of video editing as well. Still, without an external GPU, you will be pushing the system to its limits here.

I didn’t play any triple-A or esports titles, but I did play the Amnesia series and Among Us for testing. They all ran fine at 720 and 1080p settings (low to medium graphics) without any issue at all. Those aren’t the most demanding games, so the performance was expected. Anything more will most likely stutter or lag.

HP-EliteBook-1040-G7-Fingerprint-Scanner
The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 has a dedicated fingerprint scanner key for security.

With the 1040 G7 having 16GB of RAM, it handled multitasking very well. Running multiple tabs in two different browsers and switching between programs was seamless.

Depending on where you set the performance slider can determine the performance. “Better Battery” will make the fan quieter and last longer on battery. “Better Performance” is the default option and is balanced for offering good performance and acoustics. Lastly, using “Best Performance” will give you a faster performance experience than the other two options. Do keep in mind that these options work best when the 1040 G7 is plugged in. HP did make some tweaks to these Windows battery options, and it shows in the battery life, which I’ll discuss below.

Honestly, the 1040 G7 was outstanding in the performance department, for what it’s worth. This unit will easily be a work or school laptop that will get you through several years.

Sound Quality

HP has been partnering with Bang and Olufsen for a while now, so right off the bat, you know the audio is going to at least be good. Because of this, you’re getting much louder audio and more bass.

Listening to videos on YouTube, Netflix, or Hulu, or music in general, the audio came in clear without any distortion or sounding muffled. Using other laptops in the past, the audio quality on the EliteBook x360 1040 G7 is better than those. It definitely sounds louder and I can tell you that and there is slightly more bass than the average laptop out there.

HP-EliteBook-1040-G7-Intel-Logo
Intel logo for 10th gen Core i7 vPro.

I wouldn’t call this an issue with the sound quality, but it does get extremely loud — which is rare for a laptop. I found myself turning down the volume at times because something was too loud. The volume around 14-20 was the sweet spot for me, with the laptop still being loud, but not overly so. Some may think it’s not loud enough, but it does show how loud it can get at a lower frequency.

Camera

HP includes a 720p webcam for Zoom calls or Google Meetings for work on the camera side of things. It does the job, but I still believe that manufacturers should add in a 1080p webcam in this day and age.

Battery Life

While testing the battery life of the 1040 G7, I can confidently tell you that it lasted longer than any other laptop I’ve reviewed before. After charging it through the first time, I watched a 2-hour stream while having multiple tabs open in Edge working on this review and having the battery percentage drop to about 85-90%. Granted, that may not seem all that great, but watching a stream and working simultaneously seems pretty good to me. There were other times where I would use the laptop for hours during the day, and by the time I was done, there would be at least 50% left.

Just in video playback alone, you’re able to get up to 19 hours and 15 minutes. While I didn’t run movies for 19 hours, just based on the things I’ve been doing, I don’t see any issue where someone couldn’t get close to 19 hours.

A 65W charger comes with the laptop for both the 54 Whr and the 78 Whr battery model. HP Fast Charge will give you 50% battery life in 30 minutes but is only for the 54 Whr version. I’m not sure why HP didn’t add it for the 78 Whr laptop model to keep it universal.

Recharging the laptop to a full charge did take about two hours. Of course, that also depends on how much percentage is left.

Price/Value

Now, as far as pricing goes, the configuration I have for review costs US$2499, but the base configuration price starts off at $1649.

I don’t know why PC manufacturers have a large price tag with low specs, but just for the base price of US$1649, you’re getting an Intel 10th gen 95-10210U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1080p display, and a 54Wh battery. Sure, it may look good on paper, but 256GB of storage can be used up pretty quickly depending on what you’re doing.

The higher-end models do offer a bit more value for the price. That said, if HP drops the price by a couple of hundred dollars, I’d say, by all means, buy a beefier model like the one we reviewed. It’s worth getting.

Wrap Up

HP did a really great job with the EliteBook x360 1040 G7. The design is superb, vibrant display, decent performance, and more. If you can get past the high price tag, I believe you’ll like this laptop as much as I did.

In some of our articles and especially in our reviews, you will find Amazon or other affiliate links. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. Any other purchases you make through these links often result in a small amount being earned for the site and/or our writers. Techaeris often covers brand press releases. Doing this does not constitute an endorsement of any product or service by Techaeris. We provide the press release information for our audience to be informed and make their own decision on a purchase or not. Only our reviews are an endorsement or lack thereof. For more information, you can read our full disclaimer.

Last Updated on February 3, 2021.

Previous

Razer Naga X review: Same great performance, lighter than ever…

Verizon Home LTE hits its first issues with users, including me :-(

Next

Latest Articles

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap