Laptop Mag Verdict
The HP Elite x360 1040 G11 offers quality performance and an incredibly comfortable keyboard for a business laptop, but the display and battery life need work (pun intended).
Pros
- +
Svelte design
- +
Superb keyboard and touchpad experience
- +
Strong performance
- +
3-year warranty with 3 years of security features
Cons
- -
It has the business laptop tax
- -
Display comes with too many caveats
- -
Middling battery life
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Business laptops often offer the most premium features in terms of comfort and design, but they come with an eye-watering price. The HP Elite x360 1040 G11 is no different.
With the Elite x360, you get strong performance from its Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor packed into a svelte chassis with an excellent keyboard and touchpad experience. Now add three years of warranty coverage and security features.
That would be sweet if this laptop didn’t currently cost $2,299 for the regular consumer. Unfortunately, business laptops charge a high markup because they’re meant for, well, businesses (and large ones). If you’re not buying laptops in bulk and negotiating a discount, this likely isn’t the laptop for you. But that isn’t the only issue the Elite x360 has. Its battery life didn’t make it into the double digits, which is rough in an era where many laptops are getting closer to that 20-hour mark on a single charge. The display comes with a number of caveats as well, namely that the picture doesn’t look as good as the numbers suggest.
Despite that, if you can find the HP Elite x360 1040 G11 for 50% off somewhere, I’d highly recommend it for small businesses.
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Specs
| Price | $2,299 |
| CPU | Intel Core Ultra 7 165H |
| GPU | Intel Arc Graphics |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage | 512GB SSD |
| Display | 14-inch, 1920 x 1200, touch |
| Battery | 9:57 |
| Size | 12.36 x 8.66 x 0.41~0.58 inches |
| Weight | 3.3 pounds |
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Price and configurations
I reviewed the HP Elite x360 1040 G11 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch, 1920 x 1200, touch display. Unfortunately, that costs $2,299 at HP.
A laptop with those specs should be around the $1K mark, but the Elite finds itself at a ridiculous price because it’s classified as a business laptop. But what does that mean? Well, it’s meant for businesses, not small ones. Companies buy these notebooks in bulk and HP charges a nice markup to give companies access to security features like Intel vPro for remote management.
You can try cutting down the cost by going with the $1,499 model. It drops down to an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H CPU. That price is still high, but a simple CPU swap cuts the cost down significantly.
Otherwise, I recommend checking out the best laptops under $1,000.
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Design
The HP Elite x360 flashes a chassis that looks practically royal.
Coated in an almost-white silver, the HP Elite x360 flashes a chassis that looks practically royal in its soft paint. The black glossy slashes on the hood only amplify its premium presence. The edges are curved in the front and sharp in the back, while a carved-out section of the deck serves to provide leverage at the lip.
The interior’s deck features a more-silver-than-white paint that surrounds a dark gray keyboard; yes, not just the keys, but the depression that surrounds it as well. A pair of vents wall in the keyboard, and a large touchpad encompasses the bottom half. The bezels on the display are a bit chunky for my taste. Since this is a 2-in-1 laptop, it can fold into tent and tablet modes. Tablet mode feels solid; the hinge collapses the lid and underside together with the aid of a magnet.
At 3.3 pounds and 12.36 x 8.66 x 0.41~0.58 inches, the HP Elite x360 1040 G11 is shockingly thin, even for a 14-inch business laptop. It’s decently light overall, too. Here’s how it compared with other 14-inch notebooks:
- Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5: 3.3 pounds, 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
- Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 (Snapdragon X Plus): 3.17 pounds, 12.36 x 8.81 x 0.58~0.67 inches
- Acer TravelMate P6 14: 2.6 pounds, 12.3 x 8.9 x 0.8 inches
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Ports
Despite its thin stature, the HP Elite x360 offers more ports than other (ahem) Air-like laptops.
There’s one HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a headphone jack on the left, while the right features a security lock slot, one USB Type-A port, one USB Type-C port, and a SIM card slot.
Need more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Security and durability
With that overpriced figure, you’ll get access to Intel vPro technology, which allows businesses to take advantage of remote management. The Elite x360 also features a fingerprint reader, an IR webcam for Windows Hello, a webcam privacy shutter, and HP Sure Start, a self-healing BIOS. You also get a three-year license for HP Wolf Pro Security Edition, which provides an AI-based antivirus, additional security for your credentials, a safe browsing experience, and more security features.
The HP Elite x360 1040 G11 passed 18 MIL-STD-810 tests, which means it endured drops, shocks, vibrations, dust, humidity, extreme temperatures, and other trials. This machine packs a punch and can take a punch.
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Display
I wouldn’t watch my favorite content on this display.
With a 14-inch, 1920 x 1200, touch display, the Elite x360 provides decent brightness and rich colors, but there are one too many caveats.
The display has a dense matte coating to reduce glare, which lowers the vividness. Ironically, the level of matteness instead diffuses the light. It’s softer, but now the light is spread across the whole screen. It’s fine when the screen is displaying a bright picture, but darker images suffer. There’s also a minimal ghosting effect, which reduces the sharpness a bit. Then there’s the price. If you can get this laptop under $1K, the display is fine. If not, this display is masterfully outclassed by the 2K OLED laptops it’d compete against.
The teal dust that sparked off the door in the trailer for Secret Level was colorful. But it didn’t look as sharp as I’d hoped. When in the space pod, the panel was bright enough to capture the shadowed details on the console, but a direct glare washes out a chunk of the screen on the opposite side. If you’re using this laptop exclusively for work, these issues may not be bothersome, but I wouldn’t watch my favorite content on this thing.
Of course, our colorimeter tells a different story, as the Elite x360 covered 80% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, falling shortly behind the average premium laptop (86.9%) and the TravelMate P6 (86.7%). However, it crushed the ThinkPad E14 (46.3%) and Inspiron 14 (69.1%).
At 342 nits of brightness, the Elite x360 is decent enough, but it can’t compete with the category average (410 nits), the ThinkPad E14 (366 nits), the Inspiron 14 (470 nits), and the TravelMate P6 (395 nits).
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Keyboard and touchpad
My fingers got into a boxing match with the Elite x360’s punchy set of keys. It was a fierce exchange of blows that carved out a pleasant typing experience.
I typed out 82 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which comes just over my 81-wpm average. My fingertips feel a slight click and bounce off with a decent force, which lets my fingers fall into a rhythmic pattern.
With a 3.4 x 4.9-inch glass touchpad, your fingers will be coaxed into a soft bed where they get to snuggle up while micromanaging spreadsheets in Excel. Seriously though, this touchpad is smooth.
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Audio
The Elite x360’s front-firing speakers are loud, and not in the best way.
I listened to “Claw Machine” by Sloppy Jane and Phoebe Bridgers, and the opening piano took me off guard because of how it blasted through the speakers. The sound itself was soft, if a little grainy. The following vocals were a bit sharp, and when the double vocals kicked in toward the end of the track, it sounded shrill. The percussion also didn’t get the bass it deserved at the finale.
You can adjust the audio with HP Audio Control, but there isn’t a lot it can do to create a fuller, bassier sound.
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Performance
Packed with an Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor and 16GB of RAM, the Elite x360 offers some serious horsepower. However, I did notice some instances where some apps and even Windows ran a little slow, but overall it managed multiple tabs and videos just fine.
On the Geekbench 6.3 overall performance test, the Elite x360 scored 12,857, beating the average premium laptop (10,061). That crushed the ThinkPad E14’s Intel Core i7-1355U (8,000) and the TravelMate P6’s Intel Core i5-1335U (9,121). However, the Inspiron 14’s Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 (13,281) knocked them out.
Despite that, the Elite x360 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in just 4 minutes and 54 seconds on the HandBrake benchmark, which is nearly two minutes faster than the category average (6:43). It also sped past the ThinkPad E14 (10:57), TravelMate P6 (9:00), and Inspiron 14 (6:23).
HP’s 512GB SSD sports a transfer rate of 1,330 megabytes per second, which is short of the category average (1,436 MBps). It soared over the ThinkPad E14 (1,258 MBps) but couldn’t fly faster than the Inspiron 14 (1,510 MBps), TravelMate P6 (1,739 MBps).
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Graphics
You’re not going to be playing AAA games at the highest settings, but the Elite x360’s Intel Arc Graphics is serviceable for lighter tasks.
On the 3DMark Fire Strike synthetic graphics test, the Elite x360 scored 8,225, surpassing the average premium laptop (7,952). That also powers through the Intel Iris Xe Graphics in the ThinkPad E14 (3,644) and TravelMate P6 (4,167), and the Qualcomm Adreno GPU in the Inspiron 14 (5,965).
The Elite x360 also did well in a real-world test, averaging 45 frames per second on the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (Medium, 1080p) benchmark. That surpasses the category average (41 fps), the ThinkPad E14 (20 fps), the Inspiron 14 Plus 7 (21 fps), and the TravelMate P6 (22 fps).
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Battery life
While the Elite x360 gets the job done in terms of working an 8-hour work day, it’s not as long-lasting as it should be.
On the Laptop Mag battery test, the HP Elite x360 1040 G11 survived 9 hours and 57 minutes, which is a few hours shorter than the average premium laptop (12:20). It lasts longer than the ThinkPad E14 (7:48), but it doesn’t come closer to the Inspiron 14 Plus (18:20) and TravelMate P6 (13:03).
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Webcam
This 1440p webcam is a bit of a hit and miss.
The test shot I took sharpened the curls around my hair and detailed the strands of my beard. The pink and black florals in my shirt and the rainbow of colors in the My Hero Academia poster behind me came off rather well.
However, the contrast overexposed the window and light behind him; a huge chunk of my ceiling looked like it was smeared by whiteout. As long as you’re not in harsh lighting, you’ll be fine; otherwise, check out the best webcams.
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Heat
You can keep the HP Elite x360 1040 G11 in your lap, for the most part.
After streaming a 15-minute video, the underside climbed up to 103 degrees, which is just above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad hit 92 degrees and 80 degrees, respectively. Meanwhile, the hottest temp was 103 degrees, clocked on the underside above the vent, approximately 1.5 inches in from the left.
HP Elite x360 1040 G11: Software and warranty
Like most HP laptops, the Elite x360 1040 G11 is outfitted with a slew of branded apps. There’s HP Support Assistant, which offers information on the warranty and health of your device, and tools for repairs and diagnostics. myHP features settings for the HP Rechargeable Pen, video controls, programmable keys, battery manager, and system controls. HP Wolf Security provides a space where you can see an overview of files scanned and threats isolated on your device.
The Elite x360 comes with a three-year limited warranty. See how HP performed on our Tech Support Showdown ranking.
Bottom line
The HP Elite x360 1040 G11 is a solid business laptop. It’s got the high performance, the sleek design, and the comfortable keyboard I’d want out of a laptop for work. However, the display and battery life aren’t cutting it. Not to mention that it costs over $2K. Better to be a security risk than flat broke.
Try something like the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, which offers double the battery life as well as a brighter and sharper display.
Despite that, if you want all of those unique security features, the HP Elite x360 1040 G11 is a solid choice. (Just wait for a sale.)
