HP EliteBook 645 G9 laptop review: A compact and robust office laptop with (unused) potential

[Redaktion]

Compact and light at 14 inches and around 1.4 kg, no reliance on fast WLAN thanks to its LTE connectivity, and solid performance in everyday use: These are all things the HP EliteBook 645 G9 boasts. Our review will show which strengths the laptop has and where there is still room to improve.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-EliteBook-645-G9-laptop-review-A-compact-and-robust-office-laptop-with-unused-potential.717944.0.html

[Neenyah]

Seems like a pretty damn fine device (no trash screen is a big win!) and 16 GB soldered + one empty slot is perfect in my book - it's way better than 8 soldered + 8 stick.

Older gen CPU and iGPU but who cares. There is work to do outside of benchmarks and pointless numbers and this one is apparently a nice workhorse.

[LL]

Indeed, It seems an okay device for office in which don't seem to have any big drawback.

[sam48]

reviewing this laptop with single channel memory is stupid. the scores dont reflect what customers will get. why the hell were you sent a crippled laptop for review? and why the hell you didnt add the 2nd memory? 

[LL]

What do you mean sam48? if the laptop is sold with 1 memory stick then this performance is representative and it is the worst case scenario. So i don't see any issue with review.

[moa5505]

Does it really have an USB 4 port ?
Barcelo doesn't support it natively.

[Neenyah]

What do you mean sam48? if the laptop is sold with 1 memory stick then this performance is representative and it is the worst case scenario. So i don't see any issue with review.

Exactly this, well said. NBC test devices as-being-sold, initially at least. Sure they sometimes do a bonus testings with some modifications (undervolting, another RAM module, faster SSD and do on) but that doesn't negate the initial review.

[A]

Seems like a pretty damn fine device (no trash screen is a big win!) and 16 GB soldered + one empty slot is perfect in my book - it's way better than 8 soldered + 8 stick.

Older gen CPU and iGPU but who cares. There is work to do outside of benchmarks and pointless numbers and this one is apparently a nice workhorse.

It's pretty terrible considering how good elitebooks were in the past. And be aware elitebooks have a big premium, I paid double for my elitebook back in the day for the specs because at the time the package was good and it was the best laptop I have ever owned. I am actually typing on it right now, and it still works well almost 10 years later. But it is junk like this why I will never purchase another elitebook ever again

[NikoB]

I see clear number manipulation in NB reviews. The purpose and why it is done I leave to the reader.

This review and the LG UltraPC 14 review can be disqualified and retracted, to the disgrace of its authors.

This review unprofessional, dishonest and slyly does not indicate the levels of PL1/PL2 set by the manufacturer. Although they were well known to the authors (they showed are in AIDA64).

The review of LG UltraPC 14 shows clearly fake performance data in PL1, allegedly equal to 10W(!). The 5850U will NEVER achieve 1500+ performance at 10W PL1.

In Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 review(notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Yoga-Pro-7-14-review-The-almost-perfect-ultrabook-with-AMD-Zen-3.708599.0.html), PL1(54W) in almost 5.5(!) times  more than LG UltraPC. The Yoga Pro 7 is almost 2x louder than the G9 645 in "Load Average" and almost 4x louder at peak performance, but only 30% faster!

The falseness of the LG UltraPC 14 review is proven by the CBR15 performance figures from the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G3 AMD review (notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14s-G3-AMD-laptop-review-Quiet-and-efficient-workhorse-with-Ryzen-power. 682906.0.html) which, with PL1 equal to 24W, has about the performance as almost the same for the HP G9 645:
Sustained CBR15 in PL1:
LG UltraPC 14 (PL1 supposedly 10W): 1590-1600
Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G3 AMD (PL1=24W): 1590-1600:
HP G9 645 (PL1 deliberately omitted): 1550.
and separately:
Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 (PL1=54W with 6800HS aka 7735HS): 2000

There is practically no difference between the first 3 models in PL1 mode (which proves the falsity of the figures for LG UltraPC 14), but what do we see when comparing the noise?
LG UltraPC 14 peaks at 45dB, which is almost 5(!) times louder to the ear than in the HP G9 645 with a peak of 31dB - every +6dB to the ear - 2 times louder.

And only the ThinkPad T14s G3 AMD is really quieter by almost 2 (-5dB) times at peak performance, slightly better than the G9 645 in PL1 mode.

As a result, the noise hierarchy (with the almost same performance in fact for all 3 models with 5850U) looks like this from best to worst:
1. ThinkPad T14s G3 AMD
2. HP G9 645
3. Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 (7735HS/6800HS on 54W PL1 - it for consumption is 2 times higher vs 23-25W for 5850U models!)
4. LG UltraPC 14 (with real PL1 very possible 23-25W, so that the authors of his review do lie 100% there about PL1 level).

But further, having chosen a model for noise comfort, you can proceed to other nuances.

[Neenyah]

It's pretty terrible considering how good elitebooks were in the past. And be aware elitebooks have a big premium, I paid double for my elitebook back in the day for the specs because at the time the package was good and it was the best laptop I have ever owned. I am actually typing on it right now, and it still works well almost 10 years later. But it is junk like this why I will never purchase another elitebook ever again

I mean ok, those are valid points, but the EliteBook line then was a totally different beast to the current lineup. Back then it used to be top of the line (among HPs) and now it clearly isn't when it's a "budget-friendly" ZBook basically but nerfed considerably. EliteBook now is comparable to Acer TravelMate, for example, so basically solid midrange devices oriented to business users.

[Benjamin Herzig]

I should be noted that this is an EliteBook 600, not an EliteBook 800. EliteBook 600 used to be branded ProBook 600, so it is clear these are more "budget friendly" business laptops, similar to the Dell Latitude 5000 or Lenovo ThinkPad L series.

HP has more high end EliteBook series - the EliteBook 800 (comparable to ThinkPad T/Latitude 7000) and EliteBook 1000 (comparable to ThinkPad X1/Latitude 9000).

[TzortzisG]

 As moa5505 indicated above, this laptop doesn't have USB4 because it's impossible with this CPU. Marcus Schwarten - Senior Tech Writer apparently just copied stuff from the original HP datasheet, which unfortunately was copy-paste the spec sheet of the Alder Lake 6xxG9 sibling. HP has removed the original (misleading) datasheet and uploaded a corrected revision stating that it has "1 USB Type-C® 10Gbps signaling rate (USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort™ 1.4)": h20195 www2 hp com/v2/GetPDF aspx/c08015307 pdf
 Hopefully, Marcus Schwarten - Senior Tech Writer will correct this false information.