Laptops made for business have traditionally been drab affairs, but HP has decided that the EliteBook 800 line doesn't need to be so... dull. With a bright aluminum case and sleek lines, the EliteBook 800 is bringing fashionable looks to the corporate crowd.
There's a lot to unpack with these laptops, so let's start with the specs. We're looking at a thoroughly modern laptop, with options for up to a 15.6-inch 4K display with 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8650 processor, AMD Radeon RX 540 graphics card, a monstrous 32GB of RAM, and up o a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD.
Or you can opt for a configuration that's a lot less speccy, all the way down to a 13.3-inch HD display with an 7th Gen Intel Core i7, Intel HD Graphics 620, 4GB of RAM, and a mere 128GB of storage. Instead of offering a dozen different models, HP's offering the EliteBook 800 with a wide range of selection choices so you can set it up exactly how your business demands.
| Category | HP EliteBook 800 |
|---|---|
| Display | 13.3 inches, 14 inches, or 15.6 inches FHD (1920 x 1080) or UHD (3840 x 2160) optional HP SureView privacy screen, optional touchscreen |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-7200U (dual core 3.1GHz) to Intel Core i7-8650U (quad core 1.9GHz) |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 620, Intel UHD Graphics 620, or AMD Radeon RX 540 (4GB GRDD5) |
| RAM | Up to 32GB DDR4-2400 |
| Storage | 128GB M.2 SATA SSD to 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, optional LTE-A |
| Ports | 1x USB-C Thunderbolt 3, 2x USB-A 3.1, HDMI 1.4b, Ethernet, HP dock connector, audio port, smart card reader |
| Power | 50Wh battery |
So that's all standard, if expansive, specs, what's the HP EliteBook 800 offer to make it a compelling business laptop? First up there are the ports:
- One USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port you can use for charging (though there's still a traditional barrel charger port)
- Two older USB-A ports (one of which is always on for charging other devices)
- HDMI and an audio jack
- An Ethernet port that folds down to accept ye olde RJ45 (thin laptop with tapered edges, thick plug with blocky edges)
- HP's old dock connector (so customers with the desktop dock purchased for older laptops won't have to trash them, though HP would prefer they eventually upgrade to a more capable Thunderbolt 3 dock)
- Smart Card reader (for those employees equipped with chipped ID cards needed for login)
Beyond all those ports, HP's added a few business-centric features. There's a handy sliding cover to block the camera, a pair of microphones on the top of the lid to either pick up whole-room audio (for better group conference calls) or to actively cancel out rest-of-the-room audio from the front-facing microphone, a second generation HP SureView privacy screen (but still only for the FHD screens and not the 4K models). In addition to the Smart Card authentication option, HP's included Windows Hello-compatible a face-scanning IR camera and a fingerprint sensor.
HP even included a Lenovo-style trackpoint nubbin in the middle of the keyboard, with a pair of physical mouse buttons above the trackpad.
The HP EliteBook 850 (the 15-inch version) is available today, starting at $919 and ranging up to over $2000, depending on how you've equipped it.
Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm, and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.
