HP Elitebook x360 1040 G5 (i7-8650U, FHD) Convertible Review

[Redaktion]

The latest EliteBook carries almost every you want from an Ultrabook: tablet mode, super-bright display, 4G LTE, Thunderbolt 3, NFC, crisp keyboard, narrow bezels, long battery life... the list goes on and on. Just be ready to pay a hefty price when fully configured.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Elitebook-x360-1040-G5-i7-8650U-FHD-Convertible-Review.406241.0.html

[123]

No laptop with 16:9 screen should be allowed to score over 70%.

[Vozie]

I have the 700 nits matte screen with the privacy option. It is basically unreadable mostly due to very uneven brightness across the screen, and a high granularity. Anybody else have this problem with this particular screen?

[sticky]

Too bad RAM is soldered again. Otherwise x360 1040 would've been excellent, better than most other flagship convertibles and rivaling Thinkpad X1Y3 HDR.

Apparently EliteBook x360 830 (G5, 13.3") will have 2x SODIMM slots upto 64GB DDR4-2666. Very much hope you could get your hands on the privacy screen option (1000-nit, 120Hz FHD matte) with its review unit.

Also am curious about the 500-nit UHD glossy screen on recent EliteBooks. Unless I'm mistaken, it's yet to be tested on the site.

[gre]

I have the 700 nits matte screen with the privacy option. It is basically unreadable mostly due to very uneven brightness across the screen, and a high granularity. Anybody else have this problem with this particular screen?

I had the same on a x360 1030 with an antiglare, sure view 700nits display. As soon as you didn't look straight at the screen, but at a slight angle (independent of up/down or left/right), parts of the screen got pretty dim. I could send it back and bought a x1 yoga

[AA]

I'd love to use a 15" convertible ultrabook with centered keyboard. Currently using x360 1030, and the screen is too small for doing basically anything from doing art work to watching videos.

I also really wanted to know how this compares against Thinkpad X1 Yoga and Latitude 7390 2-in-1, as well as other consumer convertibles. Sad that NBC pays little attention to comparing similar groups of products.

[dave343]

I also have the matte 700nit display and can confirm it's dim once you look anywhere but center.  The AG coating is also very thick making the screen look grainy as in the review. It's unfortunate because they take a 700nit, 100% sRGB panel and ruin it with the AG coating that was applied overzealously.  I could probably live with the AG coating if it wasn't for the off center dimness that occurs, it's really annoying, and I can't understand how HP thought this was ok on a $2k laptop.  Really regret getting this laptop now, if HP would let me swap the screen for a gloss I'd say this laptop is a 10/10, but as it is the AG screen is terrible.

[AA]

Does anyone have a 700 nit glossy screen for comparison? Thinking about exchanging my x360 1030 matte with glossy as well.

Maybe NBC can review the Sure View  glossy model in the future.

[inst]

Hi,

I hope NoteBookCheck Team will have a chance to read previous comments, then check the problem, and if necessary EDIT this review (and rating?) with some intro warning.. :-)

As far as I understand previous comments, the problem is: "Sure View" + Matte Screen gives a very poor result for reading.

I was about to buy this laptop: NBC gives this laptop one of the best rating ever, and puts it at the top of some its top10 lists (like Allen Ngo says at the beginning of this review: "EliteBook models consistently top our lists of best premium office laptops, Ultrabooks, and subnotebooks"; as I am writing this is true for this laptop in the two first lists).

But it looks like NBC didn't see the problem mentioned in comments some months ago, and didn't edit the review yet... I guess it would have changed the place of this laptop on the podium (and who knows, some buying decisions).

Till then I often trusted notebookcheck as a good source to choose a new laptop. I like your precise reviews and I wanted to encourage you to keep going on!

[inst]

Note for French readers:

HP France does not offer customisation like in US. As it is hard to understand anything within HP models, I give some tips:

As I am writting there are only 5 models available in France:

"5DF58EA#ABF" => i5 | 256go | no sure view
"5DF66EA#ABF" => i5 | 256go | has sure view
"5DG26EA#ABF" => i7 | 256go | no sure view
"5DG27EA#ABF" => i7 | 512go | has sure view
"5DF88EA#ABF" => i5 | 256go | has sure view | the only one with LTE (4G, sim slot) | the only one with NO anti-glare screen

Those ref will help you to find what you need.

To avoid the problem mentioned in comments, I guess you should choose a model without sure view, but I'm not sure.

And according to the NBC review, the i7 under performs on this laptop, then I guess an i5 will be enough.

[Allen.Ngo]

Hi guys,

It's unfortunately true that Sure View impacts viewing angles and apparent brightness even when the feature is disabled. Ideally, you wouldn't be able to notice Sure View until you manually enable it but HP has not developed the technology to that point yet. The unit we had did not have Sure View, so our comments apply only to this particular SKU.

I wouldn't recommend Sure View especially if you plan on using the system in tablet mode or portrait mode frequently. HP unveiled Sure View Gen 3 at CES that alleviates the issues you have mentioned, but not elimiate them completely. That is the current trade off with the privacy technology.

[paolo]

very useful review and very interesting discussion about hp sure view.

hp elitebook x360 1040 g6 (generation six) features 700 and 950 nits displays with anti glare surface and sure view gen 3: any one knows how they perform in terms of viewing angle and uneven brightness?

[Piote]

hp elitebook x360 1040 g6 (generation six) features 700 and 950 nits displays with anti glare surface and sure view gen 3: any one knows how they perform in terms of viewing angle and uneven brightness?

Any news on how the matte screens in hp elitebook x360 1040 g6 are doing? Do the brightness and graininess problem still occur?

[Giorgio Cencetti]

Anibody here have the Elitebook 1040 G6  with a 400 nits antiglare display? How is it? The same of G5 or as it improved?
Thanks

[Piote]

Anybody knows how the Elitebook x360 1040 G6 performs - especially the antiglare display? Have you seen any reviews on the net? Maybe notebookcheck could do one, please?