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.
