HP EliteBook 845 G7 (AMD)

The HP EliteBook 845 G7 is a business laptop that many users favor today. It pairs an elegant, refined design and stable performance with battery life long enough for all your work needs. So what sets it apart from rivals in the same segment? Read on as Hung Phat Laptop reviews it below.

Elegant, Refined HP EliteBook 845 G7 Design

The HP 845 G7 is a typical EliteBook design, from one of the most elegant, modern lines of office laptops. The G7's silver aluminum chassis is slim, with distinctively rounded curves and corners. The sleek, stylized HP logo adds to the elegance. The single hinge is sturdy and smooth, so you can open the lid with one hand.

Built from this material, the HP Elitebook 845 G7 laptop has passed 12 MIL-STD 810H tests, plus 120,000 hours of reliability testing through HP's Total Test Process. At 1.34kg and 12.74 x 8.45 x 0.7 inches, the 845 G7 slips easily into a backpack or handbag, ready for school or work.

A Display With Vivid Picture Quality

The 14-inch full HD (1920x1080 pixel) IPS display produces crystal-clear images with softly saturated, very bright colors. Measured brightness is 250 nits with the integrated HP Sure View privacy screen. Black levels and contrast are generally good, and the high brightness makes it perfect for outdoor use on the matte display.

HP Sure View protects sensitive information shown on your computer screen by making it hard for others to see from the sides. The trade-off is narrower viewing angles than a regular IPS display panel.

Ports on the HP Elitebook 845 G7

The Elitebook 845 G7 offers a fairly wide range of ports. On the left edge, you will find a nano security lock slot, two USB Type-A 3.1 Gen 1 ports (one with charging), a headphone/microphone combo jack and a smart card reader. On the right side are a power connector, an HDMI 2.0 port, two USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 2 ports and an optional nano SIM card slot.

Wireless connectivity is handled by an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2x2 and Bluetooth 5 combo card. Wi-Fi 6 speeds were excellent in our testing with a UniFi WiFi 6 wireless access point. The Bluetooth connection to a mouse or keyboard was reliable.

Keyboard & Touchpad

The black rubber chiclet-style keys on the HP EliteBook are very responsive, with good bounce. Key travel is relatively deep, and the layout is sensible. The keys are soft and quiet as you type. The keyboard is also spill-resistant, with a drain hole beneath the vent cover to protect your computer if an accident happens. The keys have a two-level backlight, which is convenient when you have to work at night.

The ClickPad has a large, smooth glass surface with multi-touch gestures enabled. Two buttons are built into the touchpad and worked well during testing. Microsoft Precision drivers deliver accurate finger gestures. The EliteBook also includes a Trackpoint above the ClickPad with two physical buttons. The Trackpoint takes a little getting used to at first, but you will soon switch naturally between the Trackpoint and the ClickPad, depending on your habits. The two physical buttons are smooth and quiet.

Audio & Webcam

The EliteBook 845 G7 is equipped with Bang & Olufsen speakers along the sides of the keyboard. Audio is good for video calls, helped by 3 multi-array microphones. Sound quality is above average but lacks bass, and volume is moderate. The EliteBook 845 G7 also includes HP Audio Control software, which helps a lot: you can adjust the equalizer to get closer to your ideal sound profile.

The 720p HD webcam is flanked by an ambient light sensor and an infrared camera for facial authentication with Windows Hello. The webcam is nothing special, with below-average video quality and washed-out colors.

HP EliteBook 845 G7 Delivers Stable Performance

Our review unit today has an AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U APU powering the EliteBook 845 G7. It runs at a base clock of 2.1 GHz and boosts up to 4.0 GHz, with 6 cores, 12 threads, and a TDP of 15 to 25 watts.

The PRO in the processor name adds a range of business features such as hardware security (for example, AMD Memory Guard), plus manageability, longer availability, and software stability.

Backed by 16GB of DDR4 memory and a 256GB PCIe NVme M.2 SSD, the EliteBook can open 30 Chrome tabs and 5 YouTube videos without stuttering or lag.

The Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U APU also has integrated AMD Radeon™ Vega Graphics, which runs very stably and handles some light photo and video editing. It can also run light games at low 1080P settings: for example, Fortnite, LoL, and CS: Go play at low to medium settings.

See more models in the HP EliteBook category, or broaden your options with HP laptops. If you are comparing, you can also check out the HP EliteBook 845 G8 (AMD) and the HP EliteBook 840 G7.

Battery Life

According to HP, this laptop comes with a 3-cell, 53Whr Li-ion battery. With brightness lowered to 50% and only light office applications running, the Elitebook 845 G7 delivers 7-9 hours of battery life. The EliteBook also supports HP Fast Charge, which charges up to 50% in 30 minutes with the slim 65W AC adapter.