HP EliteBook 845 G7 review

The one thing small business owners love more than anything is all-in-one solutions for their day-to-day needs. The HP EliteBook 845 G7 achieves that at a fair price, offering a stylish form factor, solid specs, and a few extras you didn’t realize you needed. 

Whether you’re navigating your way around the office, home workspace, or are constantly traveling, the HP Elitebook 845 G7 is the near-perfect partner you’ve been looking for, which is why it earns an honorable mention on our best business laptops rankings. 

HP EliteBook 845 G7 pricing and configurations

Our review model costs $1,419 and comes with a 1.7-GHz AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, an integrated AMD Radeon GPU and a 14-inch 1920 x 1080 display.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 design 

There is a smooth yet tactile feel to the HP EliteBook 845 G7; its design is best described as taut, feeling like a perfectly pressed silvery slab of potential waiting to be unleashed. Basically, it is like a young me, before the kids, the divorce, when hope still glowed in my eyes and I oozed endless confidence and potential. The G7’s silver aluminum chassis is slender with nicely rounded curves and edges. Its weight is so evenly distributed it feels less than its listed 3 pounds.

Upon opening the lid, your eyes are met by the centered touchpad and a black spill-resistant, backlit Chiclet keyboard. In the center of the keyboard between the G and H keys is a responsive soft rubber pointer. A pair of speaker grilles sandwich the keyboard and, directly beneath and to the right, sits the fingerprint reader. 

Save for the thicker areas at the top and bottom, the FHD display is nearly bezel-less at its sides. Above the display is a 720p IR webcam with a security shutter and proximity sensor to provide more security via facial recognition. The unit also comes with NFC (Near field communication) and an optional smartcard reader, which you can use to take payment from a client if need be.

Measuring just 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches and weighing 3 pounds, the HP EliteBook 845 G7 is slightly heavier than its top competitor, the 2.8-pound, 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.7-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 5. The Asus ExpertBook B9450 comes in at a minuscule 2.2 pounds and 12.6 x 8 x 0.6 inches, proving to be the lightweight champion of our premium laptop group.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 security

Security is a top priority with the EliteBook as it comes with a wedge lock slot, fingerprint scanner, and IR webcam with proximity sensors that determine whether you’re not in front of the laptop then lock the screen and place the system into sleep mode until you return. When you get back, the sensors alert the system, scan your face, and back to the grind you go. The IR camera also functioned well in dark conditions, starting the unit back up upon your return. If you want to guard against cyber Peeping Toms, you have a physical security shutter for the webcam for when you’re done with your Zoom or Google meetings. 

To further secure your files, the G7 comes with DriveLock, a security feature that provides advanced protection against unauthorized access to valuable data on their internal hard drives. DriveLock is a two password system that you can set up within minutes.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 ports

The EliteBook 845 G7 comes with all the right ports to get you connected to your prized peripherals. On the right side, we find a NanoSim card slot, two USB Type-C ports, an HDMI, and a power port. 

On the left is the Smartcard Reader, a 3.5 mm audio jack, two USB Type-A ports, and a wedge lock slot.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 display

The EliteBooks 14-inch, 1080p anti-glare display produces crystal clear images, balmy saturated colors and gets very bright. 

When I sat down to watch the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer, the red, blue and gold in the superhero’s costume were beautifully saturated against accurate skin tones. 

We measured the color reproduction of the EliteBook 845 G7 and it scored 77.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is below the 85.3% premium laptop average. The B9450 scored 82.6% to lead our group.    

The HP EliteBook 845 G7 display averages 399 nits of brightness, which is brighter than the 388-nit average. It surpassed the ExpertBook’s 302 nits by a great deal, but fell slightly below the Yoga’s 404 nits.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 audio

The EliteBook 845 G7 comes equipped with Bang & Olufsen speakers located along the sides of the keyboard. During my tests, the audio was crisp and clear, with enough depth so that you can enjoy the different bass and treble tones.

During the holidays, I tend to honor my parents by listening to more Latin-inspired music, and this time, I went all-in with Celia Cruz’s greatest hits starting with “La Negra Tiene Tumbao.” Celia’s sultry, throaty voice came through the speakers with power and grace, filling my tiny studio apartment. When the spicy Latin bass drums and timbales kicked in, the Bang & Olufsen speakers held their own, producing clear bass lines but lacked in oomph. 

The EliteBook 845 G7 has HP Audio Control software, which is a huge help as it allows you to adjust its equalizer to bring you closer to your optimal sound profile. It also comes with three preset sound profiles for music, movie, or voice. 

There are 3 multi-array microphones on the EliteBook 845 G7 and they perform beautifully, allowing for worry-free Zoom and Google Meet. The HP Audio control software also provides noise canceling with a conference profile and a personal profile to choose from. Both profiles work very well and do a solid job muting out background noises, such as my misses typing on her computer or moving around in the background.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 keyboard and touchpad

The black rubber Chiclet-style keys on the HP EliteBook 845 G7 are very responsive with a nice bounce. Better yet, they are nearly silent.  The other thing I appreciate about the keyboard is the healthy amount of space for a wrist-rest, which made typing on it a pleasure. 

I leaped into the 10fastfingers typing test and even my massive walnut crushers did well, scoring 89 words per minute with 97% accuracy, which probably has my high school typing teacher spinning in her grave. 

The 4.3 x 2.8-inch touchpad is smooth, responsive and accurate when navigating websites or documents. It seamlessly performed Windows 10 gestures, such as two-finger swipes and three-finger taps. The bottom corners give very firm feedback when using either right or left clicks. 

There are also right and left buttons above the trackpad that work in conjunction with the soft rubber pointer on the keyboard between the G and H keys.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 performance

With a 1.7-GHz AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4759U processor, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD and an integrated AMD Radeon GPU, the HP EliteBook 845 G7 has some solid specs that served up snappy performance. 

The G7 handled everything I threw at it, including photo editing in Capture One, editing video with DaVinci Resolve 16.  And when I had 50 tabs opened in Google Chrome, with one playing the last episode of The Mandalorian, the unit ran smoothly and never got hot. It honestly felt like nothing I could do would slow it down.

The G7 mostly blew the competition away during our synthetic tests, starting with Geekbench 5.0, an overall performance benchmark. The G7 scored 6,457, shoving the ExpertBook (2,830, Core i7-10510U CPU) and the Yoga (3,567, Core i5-10310U CPU) out of the way and easily surpassed the 4,162 average.  

During the Handbrake video-editing test, the EliteBook once again took the crown, taking only 8 minutes and 24 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. It left the Yoga (20:28) and the ExpertBook (28:24) eating its dust as it flew past the category average (17:18) yelling out “see ya later slowpokes!” 

On the File Transfer test, the G7 delivered a transfer rate of 554.2 megabytes per second when duplicating 4.97GB of mixed-media files. It’s a respectable score, but not enough to match the 803.9 MBps premium laptop average. The Yoga followed with a score of 727 MBps (256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD). The ExpertBook (771.1 MBps, 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD) was crowned champion of the file transfer competition while tossing the EliteBook a salty side-eye.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 graphics

The EliteBook 845 G7 comes with an integrated AMD Radeon graphics which perform very solidly and handled some light video and photo editing work. 

Playing Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Gathering Storm in 1080p, our unit scored an average of 25 frames per second, which is just below its category laptop average (29 fps). The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 scored 9 fps, which is awful. During the 3D Mark Fire Strike test, our unit scored 3,160 which is below the 4,324 average for its genre. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 scored a not-so-good 1,227, followed by the Asus ExpertBook which rounds out with a paltry score of 734.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 battery life 

The HP EliteBook 845 G7s 3-Cell 54 Wh battery is fully capable of burning the midnight oil, lasting 13 hours and 4 minutes. It easily outlasted the 9:56 premium laptop average.  That’s better than the Yoga (11:30) but behind the Asus ExpertBook, which lasted a tremendous 16 hours and 16 minutes. 

The battery also has fast charging capabilities, allowing it to charge to 50% capacity within 30 minutes which is a huge help when you’re out and about.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 heat

The EliteBook 845 G7 is a very cool customer. Our lab ran a fullscreen HD video for 15 minutes and measured specific spots on the laptop once the time elapsed. The touchpad measured 75 degrees Fahrenheit while the space between the G and H keys measured 85 degrees. The bottom of the laptop reached 88 degrees, which is well below the 95-degree comfort threshold.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 webcam

The G7’s 720p IR webcam delivers solid sharp images with color-accurate video, especially with the way it reproduces skin tone. The autofocus was accurate and quick, finding my face and following it when I moved around the frame. Like most webcams, lighting is important, however, the IR webcams like the one in our review unit tend to provide better low light performance.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 software and warranty

The 845 G7 comes with HP’s suite of system management software, including HP PC Diagnostic, Power Manager, Privacy Manager, Support Assistant, Sure Sense, Work Well, and the previously mentioned Audio Control, all meant to enhance your experience. It also comes with my favorite HP software, Quickdrop, which quickly allows you to send files back and forth between your computer and cell phone. Like every computer using the Windows 10 OS, you will find Skype, Office 360, Microsoft Solitaire suite, and Xbox console. That’s it for bloatware on the EliteBook and I’m thrilled about that.

The HP 845 G7 comes with a 3-year limited hardware warranty with a service offering that includes 3 years of parts and labor. See how HP fared on our annual special reports: Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands.

Bottom line

The HP EliteBook 845 G7 is a lightweight, slender 14-inch powerhouse with a lovely FHD display. At $1,419, it’s a bargain due to its speedy performance and ability to handle anything you throw at it. Whether you’re working from home, returning to the office, or traveling the world, the HP EliteBook will win you over. 

As a small business owner, I love products that perform better than expected and give me the highest return for my hard-earned dollars, and that’s what the EliteBook 845 G7 does. You look at it wondering can I play some games and it says sure. You ask the Elitebook 845 G7 if it can balance your books, handle orders, push out documents and it smiles and says ‘of course’. You say ‘Hey, EliteBook, I need to edit some photos and some videos from the recent office gathering or family party’ and it responds ‘Let’s do this.” Sure, it’s all in my head but not once did this unit disappoint. 

The EliteBook 845 G7 was released without much fanfare but its snappy performance, picturesque display, and well distributed lightweight chassis make this a great buy. I’d snatch one up while it’s still flying under the radar.