The EliteBook 840 took 15 minutes and 50 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p on our Handbrake test, which completely destroys its competitors' results. The average premium laptop takes 22:05; the MateBook X slugged behind at 27:18; the Latitude 7490 beat the average, with 21:35, and the ThinkPad X1 took 19:00.

As for the keyboard, a quibble first: I continue to hold a beef with HP's placement of the cursor-arrow directional keys in a row rather than a more intuitive inverted T. Here, it's the usual HP arrangement, with half-height up and down arrows placed between full-height left and right ones... This is easily one of the best displays we’ve seen on an Ultrabook, enabling a clear view in any lighting conditions. And, the 1080p resolution works well in a 14-inch format without needing any radical interface scaling in Windows 10. With its Core i7-8650U processor (a 1.9GHz quad-core) and fast Samsung SSD, the EliteBook 840 G5 turned in an admirable score of 3,517 points in our PCMark 8 office productivity benchmark (we consider anything over 3,000 excellent). And while the 830 G5 with the same CPU was a trifle off in our Handbrake video editing and Adobe Photoshop image-manipulation tests, the 840 G5 posted thoroughly competitive times of 1 minute 18 seconds (1:18) and 2:57, respectively. Our only reservation about the EliteBook is that HP still insists on using a proprietary power connector when this machine has a Type-C Thunderbolt port that could be made dual-purpose. While listening to 'Stressed Out' by Twenty One Pilots, I heard every single entracing beat from the percussion to the keyboard as they creatively intertwined with Tyler Joseph's vocals.The standout parts in this variant are the Intel Core i7-8550U quad-core processor that can Turbo Boost to 4GHz, and a lightning-fast 512GB NVMe SSD.

It was a different story in our 3DMark graphics tests and Heaven and Valley gaming simulations, where the EliteBook (and other laptops with integrated graphics) got schooled by the Huawei and its Nvidia GeForce MX150 discrete graphics. Upscale configurations of the 840 G5, however, can be fitted with dedicated graphics, too, in the form of AMD's Radeon RX 540, which won't be enough to satisfy hardcore gamers but should bring noticeably perkier graphics performance. Copying 4.97GB of data was a breeze for the EliteBook 840's 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, taking only 10 seconds (for 509 megabytes per second). The category average is nearly half that speed (286 MBps).Along with all of those apps, comes a decent amount of bloatware, starring Candy Crush Saga, Cooking Fever, March of Empires: War of Lords and so much more. The EliteBook 840 can run a little warm, but nothing too extreme. After I ran an HD video for 15 minutes, the HP's undercarriage measured 99 degrees Fahrenheit. That's slightly above our 95-degree comfort threshold. Meanwhile, the touchpad and center of the keyboard hit a cooler 87 and 98 degrees, respectively. The hottest temp was 101 degrees, which came from the lower left side of the undercarriage. HP EliteBook 840 G5 software and warranty With its sleek and sturdy construction, pleasing performance, and variety of configuration choices, the EliteBook 840 G5 is a very likable business laptop, though not quite likable enough to undo our Editors' Choice vote for the lighter X1 Carbon. The variances beyond resolution are grouped by the inclusion of touch, the camera spec (i.e. if it supports IR mode for Windows Hello) and an optional ambient light sensor. Port placement is exclusively on the sides, with the vast majority being on the right. With the majority of users being right handed, that makes plugging in things easy, although those who insist on using a mouse might find this less helpful.

As with the EliteBook 830 G5, HP chose to send its 840 G5 test unit with the lowest-common-denominator screen for review. The good news is that the full HD display is an in-plane switching (IPS) rather than twisted nematic (TN) panel, so details and colors are fairly sharp, and the off-center viewing angles are wide. The Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers, meanwhile, are arrayed in a strip between the keyboard and the screen. Their output can easily fill a room—with some boom and echo when volume is cranked all the way up—with crisp highs and well-defined lows. Both MP3s and videos sound great. The EliteBook's Bang & Olufsen speakers are a blessing to my ears. While listening to "Stressed Out" by Twenty One Pilots, I heard every single entracing beat from the percussion to the keyboard as they creatively intertwined with Tyler Joseph's vocals. These echoed loud enough to fill a medium-size conference room. The EliteBook 840 will last an average workday. While web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the laptop lasted for 8 hours and 31 minutes. It narrowly beat the 8:20 average but fell behind the Latitude 7490 (8:55) and MateBook X (9:55), and it didn't come close to the ThinkPad X1 (11:01). It's important to note that the EliteBook 840 lasted only 6:17 while Sure View was turned on. HP EliteBook 840 G5 webcam and mic The keys have somewhat short travel (1.4 millimeters) but require strong actuation force (77 grams). We usually look for travel between 1.5 and 2 mm and actuation force above 60 grams. The keyboard is incredibly comfortable, allowing me to sail past my 60-words-per-minute average with 68 wpm on the 10fastfingers typing test.This 8th-generation Intel CPU is easily comparable with a good desktop processor and offers four cores and eight thread processing. The storage provided is a Samsung PM981 that we’ll talk about in more detail in the benchmarks. In summary, the EliteBook 840 G5 is classy from the outside, but can the internal hardware live up to the billing of the outside? Specifications The balance of bass and treble allows each instrument to shine, creating a surprisingly intense experience. Bang & Olufsen provides its own equalizer app, so you can customize the sound to your specific needs. Options are tailored for voice, movies or music, but if that doesn't satisfy, you can perform a full manual equalizer setup. HP EliteBook 840 G5 performance