HP EliteBook 845 G9 laptop review: Also convincing with Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U

[Redaktion]

With the EliteBook 845 G9, HP proves that currently AMD need not hide behind Intel anymore at all, but on the contrary: Despite using an efficient Ryzen U or HS CPU, the 14-inch laptop delivers a high performance.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-EliteBook-845-G9-laptop-review-Also-convincing-with-Ryzen-5-PRO-6650U.668868.0.html

[NikoB]

What can say about the "update" of the series? With a review late for more than six months?

I see a dramatic improvement in AMD's port set. It progress.
Good colorspace screen. BUT, I know that in retail in all countries, more than 90% of laptops this series sold (especially in the most popular and working size 15.6") come with screens that are lousy in terms of colorspace panels with only 45-46% NTSC. And again, the question is for HP, why is the screen at least not 144Hz with fast response on G2G/B2W? And why not 2.5K+?

To add that this "office" device now also has lost reliable and stable 1Gb/s vie RJ45 has also been removed. Although on the contrary, it was necessary to increase its speed to 5Gbps! Just a "super" solution from crazy HP marketers!

After looking at the performance of the 6650U in the CBR15, I was quietly happy with +33% performance compared to the 5600U in the 2021 model, but when I saw the noise levels, I was immediately extremely disappointed. The laptop has become noisy, i.e. there is no real progress - the speed was given by a increase in tdp. Alas and ah...

And apparently, in order to finally hammer the aspen stake into this series, HP removed a reliable and not protruding angled power plug from the right edge. Now to break the usb-c power plug on the left, for a right-handed person, lying on a sofa or bed, with such a laptop (to have normal performance and not depend on the battery) and having legs on the left (obviously) is simply elementary. Bravo marketers and HP engineers!

So, if you want a relatively quiet machine, you're again better off with the 2021 model, but there won't be any USB40 ports. Otherwise, you won't really lose much, except for a slightly lower processor speed.

We go further. The author diligently tests the laptop in single-channel mode, which again is meaningless without dual-channel mode. Today, no person, except for alternatively gifted individuals, will use this model in single-channel mode. Everyone I know who bought this series immediately change ram to 32 or 64GB. Even for the 2021 series with 8Gb from factory. And here, with 1 bar with 16GB, as say, God himself ordered to immediately put another 16Gb.

Yes, and here the 6650U is clearly stifled, as usual with HP, by about 15-20%, if it becomes possible to compare it with similar solutions from Lenovo.

It's been 2 years since HP (they simply have to) introduce normal screens from 2.5(and 4k@120Hz much better) because no one is going to play on this series for work and business. For a high-quality picture in text/photo and surfing without "porridge" in front of your eyes at the time of scrolling.

And to make the keyboard better in terms of tactile response, as well as to make the Esc, F1..F12 keys of full height. And what kind of idiots came up with the idea to insert the power button directly into the keyboard layout on a business model ?! With such a crazy price, HP did not have money for a separate one on the case? It's a shame!

Do I really want too much? Or is the price of this garbage clearly inadequate compared to the $1200 Legion 7 2021? Legion 5 Pro price 1100$...the red price for this HP product is $600-650 against the backdrop of what Lenovo offers today. HP simply has no chance, and Lenovo's share of market will continue to grow until it apparently suffers the fate of Huawei through anti-market practices..

[Pavol]

What about the version with Ryzen 7 processor? Do you guys plan for reviewing that model?

[undecided]

What can say about the "update" of the series? With a review late for more than six months?

I see a dramatic improvement in AMD's port set. It progress.
Good colorspace screen. BUT, I know that in retail in all countries, more than 90% of laptops this series sold (especially in the most popular and working size 15.6") come with screens that are lousy in terms of colorspace panels with only 45-46% NTSC. And again, the question is for HP, why is the screen at least not 144Hz with fast response on G2G/B2W? And why not 2.5K+?

To add that this "office" device now also has lost reliable and stable 1Gb/s vie RJ45 has also been removed. Although on the contrary, it was necessary to increase its speed to 5Gbps! Just a "super" solution from crazy HP marketers!

After looking at the performance of the 6650U in the CBR15, I was quietly happy with +33% performance compared to the 5600U in the 2021 model, but when I saw the noise levels, I was immediately extremely disappointed. The laptop has become noisy, i.e. there is no real progress - the speed was given by a increase in tdp. Alas and ah...

And apparently, in order to finally hammer the aspen stake into this series, HP removed a reliable and not protruding angled power plug from the right edge. Now to break the usb-c power plug on the left, for a right-handed person, lying on a sofa or bed, with such a laptop (to have normal performance and not depend on the battery) and having legs on the left (obviously) is simply elementary. Bravo marketers and HP engineers!

So, if you want a relatively quiet machine, you're again better off with the 2021 model, but there won't be any USB40 ports. Otherwise, you won't really lose much, except for a slightly lower processor speed.

We go further. The author diligently tests the laptop in single-channel mode, which again is meaningless without dual-channel mode. Today, no person, except for alternatively gifted individuals, will use this model in single-channel mode. Everyone I know who bought this series immediately change ram to 32 or 64GB. Even for the 2021 series with 8Gb from factory. And here, with 1 bar with 16GB, as say, God himself ordered to immediately put another 16Gb.

Yes, and here the 6650U is clearly stifled, as usual with HP, by about 15-20%, if it becomes possible to compare it with similar solutions from Lenovo.

It's been 2 years since HP (they simply have to) introduce normal screens from 2.5(and 4k@120Hz much better) because no one is going to play on this series for work and business. For a high-quality picture in text/photo and surfing without "porridge" in front of your eyes at the time of scrolling.

And to make the keyboard better in terms of tactile response, as well as to make the Esc, F1..F12 keys of full height. And what kind of idiots came up with the idea to insert the power button directly into the keyboard layout on a business model ?! With such a crazy price, HP did not have money for a separate one on the case? It's a shame!

Do I really want too much? Or is the price of this garbage clearly inadequate compared to the $1200 Legion 7 2021? Legion 5 Pro price 1100$...the red price for this HP product is $600-650 against the backdrop of what Lenovo offers today. HP simply has no chance, and Lenovo's share of market will continue to grow until it apparently suffers the fate of Huawei through anti-market practices..

Do you think it's the lack of dual channel that's causing the stifling of 15-20% in gfx?

[NikoB]

Do you think it's the lack of dual channel that's causing the stifling of 15-20% in gfx?

I don't just think, I know it as an expert. Losses when playing games on the built-in and in Photoshop in single-channel mode reaches 50% or more. The same thing when connecting 4k monitors - problems with lags begin in single-channel mode. As with 8k decoders.

Losses during photo processing in Photoshop can reach almost 80% - it and archivers, decoders, encoder are most dependent on mem throughput (and also on its minimum latency). Therefore, testing in single-channel mode is simply meaningless and unprofessional, especially since the second memory bar is added in 5 minutes even by a housewife.

I don't know a no one person who, given a free slot, would not immediately add a second of the same bar or replace the factory one with 2 large ones.

Only a technically completely illiterate person will use a PC/laptop in single-channel mode, when it is fixed for a penny and in 5 minutes of manual work.