HP EliteBook 840 Aero G8 review: Possibly the quietest Intel EVO laptop we've ever seen

[Redaktion]

Aside from the predictable Intel Tiger Lake update, the EliteBook 840 G8 has surpassed our expectations when it comes to keeping fan noise to a minimum. Its quiet demeanor doesn't come free, however.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-EliteBook-840-Aero-G8-review-Possibly-the-quietest-Intel-EVO-laptop-we-ve-ever-seen.552866.0.html

[Alex_B]

Good review, thanks.

Zero mention of the webcam quality. Any feedback please? It's pretty important in this new remote working world we live in.

Also, you should add this laptop to your article:
"The Best Ultra-Portable Notebooks - July 2021 update"

Even though it's now August, it clearly deserves to be in there.

[halfciga]

I love your reviews so much! Can you review the new thinkpad X1E and P1?

[LL]

Thanks
That 1000nit panel would be nice to have it reviewed.

[duzenko]

typo "hiogher"

[Ish]

So... you guys are removing comments now pointing out that HP business laptops come with spyware that is force installed into your browser even if you use a clean Windows ISO? Please quit using the word "journalism". This is something you guys should be investigating and reporting on especially how easy it is to determine if your laptop has it instead of trying to cover it up for HP. People deserve to know about it before making this purchase. Some people are fine with Windows and Google spying on them, so they rationalize it as, "They already are, so who cares if HP is?" Others actually care about their privacy and refuse to use Windows and Google, and now HP products.

[lapnerd]

We all know the 3DMark numbers do not hold up for Iris Xe in games consistently. Based on your own game benchmarks and productive apps the Ryzen 5 5500U or a Ryzen 7 Pro 4750 are competitive against the Tiger Lake i7 in this model.

Video games are a wash, Ryzen wins some and Iris Xe wins some. Still I am glad HP is trying to keep up with the times and make various laptops for different roles. A non-distracting laptop for in-person meetings is always welcome. That's why the g14 running in Silent is so impressive too. But it doesn't have Thunderbolt.

[Strump]

The G14 has a very gamer aesthetic... it says "Republic of Gamers" right on the cover. I would never take one into a meeting and expect to be taken seriously. Silent mode is absolute trash... unless you don't mind a nearly 60% reduction in performance just to get the fans to a reasonable level, while other laptops don't have this kind of throttling and have near silent fans. The 5900HS runs hot with very little benefit over a 5800U. And you have to use Silent Mode, which is unfortunate... the fans on the G14 are constantly on and audible even when idle.

[lapnerd]

Either you have a defective cooler or you are using the Displayport with a high bandwidth monitor/keeping the RTX 3060 active? Not to mention for purposes of a meeting or lecture you would switch to iGPU-mode operation. In Silent mode a lightly threaded load can still boost over 4GHz and not trip the fans if it does not run continuously, it runs much like a Ryzen-U just with a much better cooler. You also see this in the battery life of 10-15 hours if used properly. The HS is not the H or HX, it is efficient and adaptable.

You need to actually have a 2021 model and use the included features. If I got a Ryzen-U model and kept it in the higher performance profile, you would see fan noise and heating too. The point of this HP model is that they limit power, performance and thermals by default for people who don't have the attention span to do it themselves. It's a note-taking laptop with a high price tag.

[Daniel R]

So... you guys are removing comments now pointing out that HP business laptops come with spyware that is force installed into your browser even if you use a clean Windows ISO? Please quit using the word "journalism". This is something you guys should be investigating and reporting on especially how easy it is to determine if your laptop has it instead of trying to cover it up for HP. People deserve to know about it before making this purchase. Some people are fine with Windows and Google spying on them, so they rationalize it as, "They already are, so who cares if HP is?" Others actually care about their privacy and refuse to use Windows and Google, and now HP products.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm very interested in these "features". It's always on my list when deciding what device to buy. It's becoming increasingly harder to find clean devices but most can be disabled or blocked.

I love this review site and they do a good job of analyzing specs but leaving out default software settings that are intrusive should not be ignored. It won't stop me from buying an HP if I can disable it or block it from my router but if not it's usually a hard pass for me. Manufactures have a big in with users and you can't help but let them gather data about their products but as soon as they start expanding that footprint it's in my forever "NO" category, Cheers...

[Petko Gruev]

The battery life is much shorter than stated in reviews. I have been using my for almost a year and I heve never made more than 3 hours on battery.
My previous laptop ThinkPad T440p lasted for at least 5 to 6 hours at the end