HP EliteBook 865 G9 Review

With some laptop vendors, you have to check the spec sheet to see whether a machine contains an Intel or AMD processor. Others have secret codes—Lenovo, for instance, designates some systems with the letter “i” for Intel, as with the Slim 7 versus Slim 7i. HP's business laptops give the game away with model numbers ending in “0” for Intel or “5” for AMD, so you know the EliteBook 865 G9 (starts at $1,554; $2,189 as tested) has an AMD CPU. What you may not know is that this 16-inch desktop replacement is a thoroughly successful system with attractions ranging from LTE mobile broadband to a ritzy 5-megapixel webcam. We wish it offered a high-resolution or OLED screen option, which would've made it a shoo-in for our Editors' Choice award. As is, it still comes pretty close.

Large and in Charge 

The $1,554 baseline EliteBook 865 G9 has a six-core AMD Ryzen 5 6600U processor, a dim, 250-nit non-touch display, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB NVMe solid-state drive, and Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth radios. Windows 11 Pro is standard.

Our $2,189 review unit raises the stakes with an eight-core, 2.7GHz (4.7GHz turbo) Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U chip, a 512GB SSD, a brighter 400-nit, low-blue-light screen, a backlit keyboard, a larger battery, and Wi-Fi 6E, plus 4G LTE connectivity.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Memory and storage can be expanded to 64GB and 2TB, respectively. There's another display option with HP's Sure View Reflect built-in privacy filter, but all three panels share the same 16:10 aspect ratio, IPS technology, and 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution. If you want an 865 with a sharper 4K or brilliant OLED screen, you're out of luck. 

Replacing the 15.6-inch EliteBook 855 G8, the 865 G9 features aluminum and magnesium construction that's passed MIL-STD 810H torture tests against road hazards like shock, vibration, and temperature extremes. It's no ultraportable at 0.76 by 14.1 by 9.9 inches (HWD), but a bit trimmer than the Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED (0.77 by 14.3 by 10.4 inches) and noticeably lighter (3.9 versus 5.3 pounds). 

There's a bit of flex if you grasp the screen corners, but none if you press the keyboard deck. Display bezels are thin—HP claims an 89% screen-to-body ratio—and the lid opens almost completely 180 degrees, though its size makes it tricky to open with one hand. A face recognition webcam and fingerprint reader give you two ways to skip typing passwords with Windows Hello.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The EliteBook has a good array of ports, although we might ask for wired Ethernet and an SD or microSD card reader. The laptop's left side holds an HDMI video output, a USB 3.1 Type-A port, a SmartCard slot, and two USB4 Type-C ports (either accommodates the AC adapter). Another USB-A port joins a 3.5mm headphone jack, the nano SIM slot, and a nano security lock slot on the right.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Tiny Joystick Takes a Hike 

The EliteBook 855 had dual cursor controllers, with both a pointing stick embedded in the keyboard and a touchpad below it, but the 865 is no Lenovo ThinkPad wanna-be. This EliteBook version has just a good-sized, buttonless touchpad, which glides smoothly and takes gentle pressure for an almost silent click. 

On the backlit keyboard there's a numeric keypad and real Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys rather than shifted cursor arrow keys, which is good because the arrows are in HP's trademark awkward row instead of the proper inverted T. The typing feel is shallow but snappy, with comfortable feedback.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The camera has a sliding privacy shutter, and it can capture 16:9 images up to 2,560 by 1,440 pixels or 4:3 shots up to 2,560 by 1,920, with good color, sharp detail, and almost no noise or static.

Side-firing speakers with amplifiers produce more than enough sound to fill a room, perhaps a tad hollow but not harsh or tinny even at top volume. There's not a lot of bass but highs and mid tones are clear, and it's easy to make out overlapping tracks.

Helpful Software

HP includes a bevvy of apps that rise above bloatware status through their sheer utility. First up is HP Presence, a set of options in the supplied myHP utility that enhances webcam images with low-light and backlight adjustment and an auto-frame feature that lets you move around a little during video calls.

As for sound inputs and outputs, HP Audio Control software offers AI-based speaker and microphone noise reduction and music, movie, voice, and automatic presets plus an equalizer.

Another software extra is the HP Wolf Security suite, which includes Sure Click execution of apps and webpages in virtual-machine containers, malware protection with hardware-enforced containment, deep learning to combat new threats, and BIOS and operating system recovery to help IT departments.

You also get HP Quick Drop to share files with your smartphone, HP Easy Clean to freeze inputs for a minute or two while you apply a cleaning wipe, and HP Power Manager to optimize battery charging and lifespan.

A Somewhat Disappointing Display

About the only thing I wasn't thoroughly satisfied with while using the EliteBook is its display. The upgraded, 400-nit screen is more than bright enough and offers broad viewing angles and clean white backgrounds. Contrast is good; colors don't quite pop like poster paints but are rich and well saturated.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

But 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution is low for a panel this big; fine details are mediocre and the edges of letters looked a bit pixelated. There's still plenty of room for IPS as well as OLED screens in the laptop arena, but what's attractive on a 14-inch display will leave you wishing for higher resolution at 16 inches. Here's to hoping buyers don't have to wait for a G10 model to see an upgrade option.

Testing the EliteBook 865 G9: Office Systems Meet Creatives

Most of the business laptops we review are 13- or 14-inch ultraportables and convertibles, so we cast a broader net when comparing the 865 G9's performance to that of other desktop replacements. The Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED is a high-end content creation station and the Gigabyte Aero 16 an even higher-end example at twice the EliteBook's price. HP's own Envy 16 is an under-$2,000 consumer model that recently earned an Editors' Choice award. Finally, the Dell XPS 17 is a big-screened powerhouse and the only laptop here that joins the EliteBook in having an IPS rather than snazzy OLED display.

Productivity Tests 

The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop's storage. 

Three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. 

Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better). Unfortunately, the 865 G9 was one of several recent systems to balk at our remaining productivity benchmark, the automated PugetBench for Photoshop, though it ran Adobe's image editor with no problems.

The EliteBook landed at the back of the pack in these events, but its scores were perfectly respectable (nearly 1.5 times the 4,000 points that indicate excellent everyday productivity in PCMark 10, for instance). It's not a CGI rendering or video editing workstation, but this EliteBook is up for virtually any office job. 

Graphics Tests 

We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). 

We also run two tests from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses both low-level routines, like texturing, and high-level, game-like image rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase tests, rendered offscreen to accommodate different display resolutions, exercise graphics and compute shaders using the OpenGL programming interface and hardware tessellation respectively. The more frames per second (fps), the better.

This EliteBook's AMD integrated graphics aren't remotely in the same league as the discrete Nvidia GPUs in the other systems (especially the flagship GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in the Gigabyte), so HP's laptop predictably eats their dust in these tests. It's up for a little casual gaming or video streaming, but makes no pretense of being an entertainment rather than workday PC. 

Battery and Display Tests 

We test laptops' battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel(Opens in a new window)) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off. 

We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

It's too large for an airline tray table, but the EliteBook's battery life is sensational, putting all but a few ultraportables—let alone desktop replacements—to shame.

Unfortunately, the laptop's screen is a little less sensational but still sufficient for an IPS rather than OLED panel. Despite lacking OLED tech, the screen puts out superb brightness and impressive color considering it's meant more for office work than creative apps.

Verdict: Nice Work If You Can Get It 

The AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and integrated graphics inside the HP EliteBook 865 G9 won't blow you away, but this business laptop delivers solid value for office productivity and occasional content creation work. It's a terrific video conferencing system and, though bulky, offers above-average portability with LTE connectivity and a battery that won't quit. Our only real gripe is its relatively low-resolution IPS screen, which will dismay image or video editors, but isn't a deal breaker for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Here's to hoping HP releases a version with upgraded screen tech before the inevitable G10—a move like that might earn it even higher marks.