HP Elitebook 640 G10 review: Compact business notebook with 4G

Price at time of review

$2,110

Aktuell’s best product: HP Elitebook 640 G10

$2110

The HP Elitebook 640 is a classic work laptop for use at your desk or on the go. It’s a compact 14-inch format, but provides enough connectivity for office peripherals and an additional 4G modem. The Intel XMM 7560R supports LTE-Advanced Pro with Cat 16, which theoretically allows for up to 1 Gbit/s downloads. The business notebook also offers the latest standard fare from a technological perspective and comes with a 36-month long warranty as a bonus for professional users.

As is often the case with midrange business notebooks, the Elitebook 640 avoids visual standouts. The case is a regular silver aluminum case. At the top edge of the display is a slide switch that can be used to cover the camera. The laptop is also built to be sturdy, allowing you to open it comfortably with one hand, and the stable display hinge holds the screen securely at the angle you set it to. An SSD could be faster, but overall I liked this machine. Read on to learn more.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available today.

thomas lau

HP Elitebook 640 G10: Many connectivity options

The 14-inch format has the advantage of being able to fit more connections into the chassis as opposed to smaller notebooks, especially since HP hasn’t made the 640 particularly slim.

You can connect numerous peripherals at your desk via HDMI, two Type-C ports, and two Type-A ports, while Gigabit LAN connectivity ensures a stable connection. One Type-C port supports Thunderbolt 4 with USB data rates up to 40 Gbit/s, and the other Type-C port transfers suitable external storage at up to 10 Gbit/s. Both ports can be used to charge the notebook using the included 65-watt power adapter.

EliteBook also has a hollow plug for older power supply units. There is no slot for a memory card, but there is a slot for a smart card. The front camera resolution isn’t all that great either, with only 720p.

thomas lau

HP Elitebook 640 G10: Good enough for office work

The EliteBook 640’s screen isn’t the most advanced. It still uses a 16:9 aspect ratio, as HP reserves the more practical 16:10 for office use on its more expensive Elitebook 840 and 1040 series.

The image quality is sufficient for office use. However, the maximum brightness of just under 250 cd/sqm is too low to allow you to work ergonomically with the notebook in sunlight, despite the matte display surface. The 640 doesn’t offer outstanding contrast values ​​either, and the same goes for color reproduction, but it’s good enough for Word and Excel.

thomas lau

HP Elitebook 640 G10: Perfect for typists

A good keyboard is important for text, tables, and other office applications. The EliteBook 640 doesn’t have a numeric keypad due to its compact chassis, but it gets points here. You get very clear pressure feedback when typing, yet the sturdy keyboard remains silent.

The touchpad is also comfortable to use. No matter where you click on the large touchpad surface, you get very clear feedback for your mouse clicks. In our preference, the surface can have more grip to facilitate fast and precise movements of the mouse.

thomas lau

HP Elitebook 640 G10: SSD is a little slow

The EliteBook 640 G10 uses Intel’s 13th generation Raptor Lake Core i7. The Core i7-1355U runs on 10 cores (two of which are powerful P cores) and 12 threads. The RAM is 16 GB and consists of DDR4-3200 bars. The second DIMM slot is free so you can easily expand your RAM. Loosen the 5 Phillips screws and open the bottom.

In system tests like PCMark 10 and Crossmark, the EliteBook 640 achieves expected speeds with this configuration, but runs slower than other notebooks with the same processor. This is in part due to the compact enclosure, which has less space for the cooling system and less heat dissipation surface. This is why HP limits the power consumption of his CPU to 51 watts (maximum) or 24 watts (typical). So on a 16-inch notebook, Cinebench R23 and R24 will be about 10-15% faster with the same CPU.

On the other hand, HP does not select particularly fast SSDs with SSSTC CL4. It performs significantly worse than other 512 GB drives in the PCMark 10 storage test.

HP Elitebook 640 G10: The fan is quiet

What the EliteBook loses in speed, it gives back in ergonomics. The notebook always runs quietly and generates almost no heat. The fan operates at up to 38 dB(A) under load, but you will only notice this noise if the office is quiet. It also keeps the bottom temperature at a maximum of around 40 degrees at all times, allowing you to rest the notebook on your thigh.

HP Elitebook 640 G10: Decent battery life

The EliteBook weighs about 3.1 pounds, which is standard weight for a 14-inch laptop. In the battery test he achieved just under 13 hours, which is decent. However, HP only has a 51.3 watt-hour battery, which doesn’t allow for long runtime.

After an hour of plugging into the socket, the battery will charge up to 82%. HP limits charging capacity to 85% by default to extend service life.

HP Elitebook 640 G10: Test results and technical data

This review was translated from German to English and originally published on pcwelt.de.