Say what you want If you want to learn more about the creative power of AI on the new Microsoft Copilot+ PCs, including the new EliteBook Ultra G1q, HP says, “Why not bring it into the office?”
This is a laptop that’s all about activity: a 14-inch, atmospheric blue (not black) shell, devoid of any design flourishes save for a silver HP logo on top and a row of half-height function keys that are a little lighter. Oh, and it has a sky-blue power button! Never accuse Hewlett-Packard of not knowing how to have a little fun, even in the office.
The feature list on display here is standard fare for the Copilot+ PC market, though the specs on this machine are surprisingly entry-level. The slower Snapdragon X Elite X1E78100 serves as the CPU, backed by 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid-state drive. The 14-inch touchscreen’s resolution sits at an odd 2240 x 1400 pixels, a step down from the 2880 x 1800 resolution that’s become the prevailing standard for machines with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The port selection isn’t impressive either, with two USB-C ports (one specced at 40Gbps Thunderbolt-class, the other at 10Gbps) and a single USB-A port. Compare that to the Asus Vivobook S 15, which has two fast USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI, and a microSD card reader.
Photography: Christopher Null
At 18 millimeters thick, the machine cuts a svelte profile, but its 1.4kg weight is steep for 14-inch laptops. This is surely partly due to the sturdy aluminum chassis (50 percent recycled, and the keys are made from 50 percent plastic), and it’s also clear that the laptop has been designed to take a bit of a beating: tossed into a shoulder bag, roughed up on an airplane tray table. At the very least, the EliteBook certainly feels sturdy enough to travel with you without worrying about damage.
Sadly, the low-end specs packed inside the device make for disappointing performance, and overall the EliteBook turned in the lowest benchmark scores among the Copilot+ PCs I’ve tested to date. The difference isn’t huge (2% slower than the Microsoft Surface Pro in CPU-focused workloads and up to 10% slower in most graphics tests), but it’s measurable and sometimes noticeable in tasks like Live Captions, which struggled to keep up with faster-moving speech. Unsurprisingly, the EliteBook suffers from the same lingering compatibility issues as other Qualcomm Snapdragon-based laptops using ARM architecture, which I explain in more detail here.