HP EliteBook 830 G8 review – will it live up to the expectations?

If you are an enterprise laptop user, you would be familiar with brands like ThinkPad, Latitude, and EliteBook. Today, we are going to review a notable member of the EliteBook family, called the EliteBook 830 G8. Ultimately it’s not very different from its predecessor from the G7 series.

However, this unit comes with Tiger Lake CPUs – a huge jump from the Comet Lake-U processors from last year. Actually, the performance was one of the main issues with yesteryear’s model. Despite that, it was extremely efficient and posted one of the best battery life we’ve ever tested here. We really hope that the extra performance won’t come at the expense of screen-on time.

In addition to the new generation of Intel CPUs, you can get this laptop equipped with the latest Sure View iteration. This is a hardware system that improves your privacy. It does so by limiting the viewing angles of your screen so that you are the only one seeing the contents.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-elitebook-830-g8/

Contents


Specs Sheet

HP EliteBook 830 G8 - Specs

  • IVO X133NVFF R0 (IVO8596)
  • Color accuracy  4.9  1.9
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro
  • Battery
  • 56Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 17.9 mm
  • Weight
  • 1.24 kg (2.7 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2 Speakers, Bang & Olufsen
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

What’s in the box?

You will receive the laptop with the mandatory paper manuals, and either a 45W power adapter or a 65W one with a USB Type-C connector.


Design and construction

As we said, the externals of this notebook are largely unchanged from last year. Its weight is 1.24 kg for the non-touch model and 1.35 kg for the touch-enabled one. Respectively, the device has a profile of 17.9mm. Its build comprises aluminum for most of the machine, and plastic for the frame around the matte display, and for the antenna on the top of the lid.

Speaking of the lid, it opens easily with one hand. Structurally, it is relatively sturdy, while the bezels around the display are very thin. And if you look closely at the top one, you will see the HD Webcam, the proximity sensor, and the IR sensors for Windows Hello.

Then, we can check out the base. It has a couple of stereo speakers flanking the keyboard on either side. As for the board – it has a backlight, spill-resistance, and is one of the best on the market. Its key travel is decent, while the feedback is clicky.

This is not all the base offers, though. In addition to the brilliant keyboard, you get a touchpad, that sports a glass cover. This provides very smooth gliding, as well as accurate tracking. Our unit also features a fingerprint reader and an NFC coil.

Since there are no speakers on the bottom panel, there you will only find the ventilation grill. As for the hot air exhaust, it happens through a cutout on the back (in between the lid and the base).

Ports

On the left side of the notebook, there are two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an audio jack, and a Smart Card reader. Then, on the right, you will find a proprietory power plug, an HDMI 2.0b connector, as well as two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, and a SIM card tray.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

Thankfully, there are only 5 Phillips-head screws holding the bottom panel in place. After you undo them, pry the panel with a plastic tool and lift it away.

Inside, you will find a 53Wh battery pack. Before you continue, unplug the battery connector from the motherboard.

To access the memory and the storage, you have to remove two metal brackets. They are hiding two SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of dual-channel RAM, as well as an M.2 PCIe x4 slot.

This notebook’s processor is cooled down by one heat pipe, and a medium-sized fan. Interestingly, there is a pattern on the heat spreader that should help with heat dissipation.


Display quality

HP EliteBook 830 G8 is equipped with a Full HD IPS touchscreen panel, IVO X133NVFF R0 (IVO8596). Its diagonal is 13.3-inch (33.78 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 166 ppi, their pitch – 0.15 х 0.15 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 50 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels). One important feature of this device is its Sure View technology. Its purpose is to block unwanted viewers from seeing the content of your screen. Interestingly, the microscope image reveals a difference between the additional layer on top of the display, compared to that of the HP EliteBook x360 1030 G8.

HP EliteBook 830 G8

HP EliteBook x360 1030 G8

We apply these photos to evaluate the viewing angles. The 45-degree photos are taken with a longer exposure than the front-facing one.

The following set of images are taken with the same exposure (manual shooting mode) in a dark room.

The maximum measured brightness is excellent – 775 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 805 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 22% (944 nits (cd/m2) in the top left corner). The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6400K – slightly warmer than the standard 6500K temperature for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 19% Brightness (White level = 143 cd/m2, Black level = 0.06 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 2270:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows HP EliteBook 830 G8’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 89% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of HP EliteBook 830 G8 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 27 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

HP EliteBook 830 G8’s backlight does not use PWM for brightness adjustment. This makes it comfortable and safe for use in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP EliteBook 830 G8 configurations with 13.3″ IVO X133NVFF R0 (IVO8596) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

HP EliteBook 830 G8’s Bang & Olufsen speakers produce a sound with very good quality and high maximum volume. Additionally, the low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be downloaded from here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-elitebook-830-g8-notebook-pc/38216726

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 53Wh battery pack lasts for 13 hours and 45 minutes of Web browsing, and 8 hours and 53 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This notebook can be bought with a Core i5-1135G7, Core i5-1145G7, Core i7-1165G7, or Core i7-1185G7 CPU. All of them are quad-core Tiger Lake chips, as the former pair comes with 8MB of cache, while the latter two feature 12MB of cache.

HP EliteBook 830 G8 CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the HP EliteBook 830 G8 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP EliteBook 830 G8 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.

Results are from the Cinebench R23 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)

Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)


GPU options

Here, you don’t get a dedicated GPU choice. This means you get the Iris Xe Graphics G7 with either 80EUs or 96EUs.

HP EliteBook 830 G8 GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the HP EliteBook 830 G8 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP EliteBook 830 G8 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.

Results are from the 3DMark: Time Spy (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)

Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)

Results are from the 3DMark: Wild Life (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS75 fps58 fps27 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS89 fps54 fps34 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-1165G7 (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP EliteBook 830 G83.04 GHz (B+9%) @ 98°C @ 32W2.60 GHz @ 90°C @ 25W2.11 GHz @ 75°C @ 17W
HP EliteBook 850 G82.71 GHz @ 54°C @ 30W1.98 GHz @ 56°C @ 15W2.06 GHz @ 52°C @ 15W
ASUS VivoBook S14 S4353.06 GHz (B+9%) @ 83°C @ 35W2.80 GHz @ 91°C @ 30W2.10 GHz @ 91°C @ 21W
Dell Latitude 14 54203.80 GHz (B+36%) @ 98°C @ 51W3.27 GHz (B+17%) @ 98°C @ 35W2.78 GHz @ 96°C @ 26W
HP EliteBook x360 1030 G83.08 GHz (B+10%) @ 98°C @ 31W2.77 GHz @ 98°C @ 26W2.35 GHz @ 85°C @ 19W
HP EliteBook x360 1040 G83.43 GHz (B+23%) @ 98°C @ 40W2.84 GHz (B+1%) @ 88°C @ 27W2.43 GHz @ 69°C @ 17W
HP Elite Dragonfly G23.17 GHz (B+13%) @ 98°C @ 34W2.34 GHz @ 76°C @ 18W2.14 GHz @ 73°C @ 16W
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro (14)3.90 GHz (B+39%) @ 85°C @ 61W2.57 GHz @ 69°C @ 26W2.37 GHz @ 57°C @ 20W
HP Pavilion 14 (14-dv0000)3.08 GHz (B+10%) @ 91°C @ 40W2.79 GHz @ 89°C @ 29W2.13 GHz @ 71°C @ 18W
Acer TravelMate P4 (TMP414-51)2.99 GHz (B+7%) @ 94°C @ 33W2.66 GHz @ 93°C @ 27W1.86 GHz @ 68°C @ 16W
Dell Inspiron 13 7306 2-in-13.12 GHz (B+11%) @ 99°C @ 33W2.68 GHz @ 99°C @ 25W2.04 GHz @ 83°C @ 16W
ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX3713.48 GHz (B+24%) @ 90°C @ 43W2.79 GHz @ 90°C @ 27W1.95 GHz @ 69°C @ 14W
Acer Swift 3X (SF314-510G)3.74 GHz (B+34%) @ 95°C @ 45W3.45 GHz (B+23%) @ 95°C @ 37W3.09 GHz (B+10%) @ 85°C @ 28W
Acer Swift 3 (SF313-53)3.55 GHz (B+27%) @ 95°C @ 44W3.17 GHz (B+13%) @ 95°C @ 34W2.32 GHz @ 64°C @ 17W

Although this notebook is working at higher frequencies than its bigger brother, the temperatures were more than 40°C higher in the first checkpoint, and 23°C higher in the last (where the clock speed was pretty much identical).

Comfort during full load

There is a weird sound coming from the fan in low RPM. While in higher revs, the sound eases out to the natural humming noise of the fan blades, the surface of the keyboard warms up to more than 44°C.


Verdict

Before we started we were really hoping that HP wouldn’t take away arguably the best feature of this device. Yes, we are talking about the battery life. Last year’s EliteBook 830 G7 was able to last for more than two days on one charge. Not that we got bad results – the same 53Wh pack lasted got us through 13 hours and 45 minutes of Web browsing, and almost 9 hours of video playback.

This means that you can surely finish work with some juice left in the battery. However, if you work from home, and you want to watch an episode or two of your favorite series, you will need to reach for a charger before working on the next day.

Interestingly, using the Sure View mode disables brightness adjustment. The slider still shows up, but the overall brightness seems to have a preset value, which is below the minimum of 80 nits for this panel. By the way, 80 nits are pretty high value for a minimum, which makes it a bit of a strain in a very dark condition. Thankfully, the panel doesn’t use PWM whatsoever. Additionally, HP EliteBook 830 G8’s display (IVO X133NVFF R0 (IVO8596)) has a very high maximum brightness, very good contrast ratio, and relatively wide color coverage (89% of sRGB).

Thankfully, our Gaming and Web design profile brings the color accuracy to a standard-matching Average dE of 1.6. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean you can use the laptop for professional work, due to the high nonuniformity of the luminance.

Unsurprisingly, the build quality on this laptop is great, with a nearly all-aluminum body, and super comfortable input devices. Also, you have the option to get 5G support, IR, and a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello authentication, and more.

Of course, there are some downsides. For example, the performance is not that great, to be honest. The only thing which you can do, and will surely help, is to use the device with two identical memory modules, so you get dual-channel support. And yes, there are two SODIMM slots for RAM upgrades.

Also, we noticed something weird with the cooling fan. It was making a blipping sound while it’s spinning at low RPM. This fades away as it starts spinning faster, though.

So, as a conclusion, is the EliteBook 830 G8 worth your time and money. Well, if you value your privacy, then yes, for sure. However, if you want your device to last for two days on a single charge, and you don’t really need the improved performance, we suggest going for the previous generation.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-elitebook-830-g8/

Pros

  • Decent battery life
  • PCIe x4 support + 64GB of DDR4 memory in dual-channel
  • Two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, Wi-Fi 6, and optional 5G support
  • 89% of sRGB coverage and great color accuracy with our Gaming and Web design profile (IVO X133NVFF R0 (IVO8596))
  • No PWM for brightness adjustment (IVO X133NVFF R0 (IVO8596)9)
  • Spill-resistant keyboard
  • IR face recognition and fingerprint reader


Cons

  • Weird fan noise at low RPM
  • High deviation in luminance in the top left corner (IVO X133NVFF R0 (IVO8596))
  • Minimum brightness is too high for use in the dark (IVO X133NVFF R0 (IVO8596))

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Thank you for the beneficial details.