HP Elite x360 1040 G11 2-in-1 Review

My biggest gripe is the AI or lack thereof. You’ve got Microsoft Copilot aboard, but there aren’t enough AI programs to warrant all this hoopla, no matter how much the industry tries to make it happen. Unfortunately, where the Elite lacks in AI features, it makes up in its bloated software offerings. There has to be a way to consolidate some of this, whether it is special business app software or not.

HP Elite x360 1040 G11 2-in-1 Design

A flexible silver fox with a port offering as slim as its frame

One thing’s for sure. This isn’t your daddy’s EliteBook. The HP EliteBook x360 is refined, sporting gently rounded edges on its pale silver anodized aluminum chassis. HP has taken a decidedly minimalist approach to its design. The only embellishments are the four glossy metal strips in the lid’s center. Most of the laptop’s interior has more of that light silver finish except the keyboard, which is made of dark gray plastic.

As the x360 in the laptop’s name suggests, the most important design features are the two 360-degree hinges. The hinges allow the laptop to seamlessly transform from its traditional clamshell form into a 14-inch tablet and tent mode for watching videos or collaborating. The hinges are sturdy, requiring a bit of elbow grease to move the screen out of its intended position.

Despite the Elite x360’s slim figure, HP didn’t skimp on the ports and slots. They’re even more important in business laptops, as most people will have a bunch of peripherals they’ll want to connect. For the Elite x360, you get a USB-A port, a USB-C port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, a nano-SIM slot, and a security lock slot.

At 3.1 pounds, the 12.4 x 8.7 x 0.41-inch convertible is in the middle of the ultraportable range. I had no problem stowing it into my backpack and a rather large purse. Even better, I didn’t feel any discomfort as I ran a bunch of errands throughout the city, making for an incredibly comfortable commute (or as comfortable as one can be on the NYC subway).

I really enjoyed typing on the Elite x360’s full-size, island-style keyboard. The keycaps are large with nice spacing. The keys are springy, and my fingers never bottomed out while typing the review. When I took the MonkeyType typing test, I easily hit my usual 70 words per minute with a 98% accuracy rate. 

If you’re prone to spilling drinks on your laptop, you’ll be happy to know that the keyboard is spill-proof and fairly easy to clean.

The laptop also has several other protections, including Intel vPro, which allows the IT team to wipe or lock laptops remotely. There’s also protection against phishing and ransomware attacks. You also have a physical shutter for the webcam.

The fans are mighty quiet, no matter your performance signature. After 20 minutes of playing Hades II, I measured specific spots around the laptop. The touchpad stayed at a cool 88 degrees Fahrenheit, while the center of the keyboard reached 93 degrees. The bottom vent’s left side was the laptop’s hottest part, measuring 109 degrees.

HP Elite x360 1040 G11 2-in-1 Display, Webcam, and Audio

An audiovisual trifecta

HP outfitted the Elite x360 with a 14-inch matte display, which is great for minimizing glare but not so great for color vibrancy. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of color when watching “The Deliverance” trailer. A painting in one of the scenes showed off a deep royal blue and rich reds and oranges. The detail was so sharp I saw the little nooks and crannies of the wall the picture was painted on. Since this is a horror movie, there were a lot of dark scenes, but the individual wisps of smoke that emerged from a person doused in holy water in one scene were plain to see.

When I measured for brightness, the Elite x360’s panel matched HP’s estimated 400 nits. Although I prefer at least 450 nits, 400 is still pretty good for a matte display.

It’s rare that you get a matte touch display; it’s been so long that I nearly forgot it existed until I saw the HP Pen in the box. The stylus lasts about a week on a charge and opens up even more avenues of versatility as I started using the laptop in tablet form to take notes and doodle. The pen glides smoothly over the display, reacting to every stroke, no matter how light or heavy. That was really handy when I started doodling and wanted to apply a light application of the airbrush tool in MS Paint.

The Elite x360’s 5-megapixel webcam is good—almost too good. It did a great job of capturing my skin tone and pointing out that it’s time for me to retouch my colorful dye job. The integrated shooter also did great with the details, capturing the sparkle from the metallic threads in my stuffed bull plushie.

Laptop speakers are generally a hit or miss. In the case of the x360’s quad-speaker setup with its various amplifiers and Poly Studio software, it’s a hit. At max volume, the speakers filled my medium-sized living room. The soundstage was surprisingly spacious, making it easy to pinpoint every instrument, especially the horns in Maxwell’s “Bad Habits (uncut),” which were my favorite part of the song after the singer’s sultry tenor.

HP Elite x360 1040 G11 2-in-1 Software

A little heavy-handed

HP has loaded this bad boy with a lot of branded software, some more useful than others. The notebook has the usual suspects: myHP, HP Support Assistant, and HP PC Hardware Diagnostics. The trio of apps allows you to keep track of your system health, tweak a number of settings, including power, video, and performance modes, and contact tech support in case of trouble.

The company also added HP Privacy Settings, which lets you determine how much diagnostic info you share with HP. System information that gives you a quick view of the product and serial numbers, along with the current BIOS version. HP Easy Clean allows you to wipe the laptop down without accidentally typing on the keyboard or interacting with the touch screen. As I said, some software is better than others.

HP Wolf Security is more for your IT department as it deals with malware prevention and threat containment. It also has OR resiliency, which detects and stops attacks. Then, it recovers via a self-healing reboot. HP Sure Click is one of the best apps, letting users browse the web with a secure browser that protects against malware and phishing attacks.

HP Elite x360 1040 G11 2-in-1 Performance

A powerful workhorse

HP’s not pulling any punches with the Elite x360. The laptop comes out the gate swinging with a 1.4-GHz Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor with 16GB of MLPDDR5x-7500 MHz RAM, a 512GB PCIeGen4 NVMe TLC M.2 SSD, an integrated Intel Arc GPU, and an Intel AI Boost NPU. The processor is geared towards performance as an H-series chip, unlike U-Series chipsets tailored to efficiency. That means the notebook can handle all sorts of productivity tasks and some light content creation with a dash of gaming (within reason).

To start, I pitted the Elite x360 against my typical workload. That’s about 80 open tabs in Google Chrome (a mix of G-Suite apps, social media, videos, spec sheets, and news and entertainment sites with some light photo editing and batch resizing in Adobe Photoshop. I even managed to edit two videos. The HP didn’t falter even when I started editing content.

The laptop also stood firm when I ran some synthetic benchmarks. On Geekbench 6, for instance, the business laptop delivered a score of 2,358 on the single-thread test and 13,167 on the multi. Those scores are well within what I expect from this chipset. The Elite x 360 also did well on the Cinebench R23, Blender, and Handbrake benchmarks. On the latter test, the notebook only took 4 minutes and 57 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p.

With its integrated Arc Graphics, you’re not about to jump into a hot and heavy firefight in games like Cyberpunk 2077 or ripping around the beautiful vistas in Forza Horizon 5. Older titles or indie games like Hades II will play with great frame rates. When I ran the 3DMark Time Spy test, the Elite x360 hit 3,838, which is pretty good for integrated graphics.

HP Elite x360 1040 G11 2-in-1 Battery

Almost half a day of endurance

I put the Elite x360 and its 6-cell, 68Whr battery through their paces throughout the review period. With the brightness at 100%, I squeezed 11 hours and 27 minutes out of the HP Elite x360. During that time, I typed out this review, jumped in a few video conference meetings, watched far too many Brad Mondo videos, played a couple of run-throughs of Hades II, lurked on Facebook, X, and Threads, and read a bunch of articles in my RSS reader.

Verdict

The HP Elite x360 1040 G11 2-in-1 is a lean, mean, business-ready machine. It is crammed with software and hardware to help ward off all types of malware and ne’er-do-wells with bad intentions toward your sensitive data. It’s ideal for businesses with an IT department or mobile professionals whose top priority is security.

But beyond security, the Elite x360 is equally equipped to put in a hard day’s work and then some with its endurance, which lasts almost 12 hours on a charge. The laptop has an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and can handle most productivity and light content creation tasks. And depending on the game, you can play with decent frame rates. Plus, you have a bright, responsive touch panel, potent speakers, and a comfortable, spill-proof keyboard.

But $2,300 is a bit pricey. If you can deal with a slight downgrade in performance, I’d recommend checking out the configurations of the x360 with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processors, as you can get savings between $450 – $700 depending on other specs. However, if you’re in the market for a sophisticated, durable laptop with great performance, nearly 12 hours of battery life with a lovely display, and powerful audio to boot, the HP Elite x360 040 G11 2-in-1 should sit at the top of your list.