HP EliteBook 840 G11 review – Long Battery Life, Versatile Ports, Quiet Cooling

Despite being a 14-inch machine, the EliteBook 840 G11 offers almost identical features to its bigger 860 G11 sibling. When we opened the device, we found the same cooling system and upgrade options. The port selection looks unchanged which is actually great news since you get four USB ports in such a small notebook. The keyboard also provides a similar typing experience but of course, it lacks a NumPad because of the reduced main body size.

You can choose from a plethora of IPS display variants including two 1200p touchscreens and three more non-touch models with the same resolution. If your wallet is wide enough, you can get a device with a 120Hz 1600p screen. Some of the panels bring to the table the HP Sure View 5 technology which makes the onscreen info hard to read when viewed from the sides.

If the base security features like a privacy shutter and a dTPM2.0 chip aren’t enough for you, there are tons of optional goodies such as a fingerprint reader, IR Web camera, etc. For better battery life, look for an Intel Evo-certified machine (option).

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-elitebook-840-g11/

Contents

Specs, Drivers, What’s in the box

Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/hp-elitebook-840-14-inch-g11-notebook-pc/2102057916

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found the mandatory paperwork and a 65W Type-C adapter.

Design and construction

The EliteBook 840 G11 looks almost like a smaller 860 G11. The metal chassis is super solid which is impressive given the 1.418 kg starting weight and the thin 9.04 – 16.35 mm profile.

The lid is rigid, it opens with one hand, and its hinges feel as smooth as butter.

Overall, the bezels that surround the small screen are thin despite the top and bottom one being slightly more thick compared to the other two.

The Web camera above the panel is a 5MP unit with a privacy shutter. You can opt for an IR model if facial recognition is important for you.

The lid has a lever design. It lifts the rear of the device which is beneficial for cooling. Still, you can take advantage of this feature only when you push the lid too far back which doesn’t look optimal for normal usage.

HP claims a maximum opening angle of 172°.

The spill-resistant keyboard with a Copilot shortcut is great thanks to the rubberized-like big keycaps with impressively long feedback and superb feedback. As always, we dislike the small Arrows. Keep in mind that the backlight isn’t standard.

The glass touchpad is big, smooth, and has accurate tracking.

The bottom panel is business as usual – a large ventilation grill, two long rubber feet, and a pair of speaker cutouts. The heat is being exhausted through a vent on the back that points at the lower display bezel. Expectedly, a bit of heat reaches the panel when the processor is doing the heavy lifting.

Ports

On the left side, there is an HDMI 2.1, a 5 Gbps USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port that supports charging, two 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 ports with USB Power Delivery and DisplayPort 2.1 functionality, and a Smart Card Reader (option). The right side offers an Audio combo jack, another 5 Gbps USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port which supports charging, a Lock slot, and an optional Nano SIM card slot.

Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Gen 5

Display and Sound Quality, Get our Profiles

Viewing Angles

Viewing angles are good. We take photos from different angles to evaluate the quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

Color Coverage

The whole “sail-shaped” map below (Fig. 1) consists of all the colors we can see, while the black crooked line shows all the colors from real-world scenes and nature around us.

Then, we’ve drawn some of the most important and interesting color spaces, compared to the colors the panel of HP EliteBook 840 G11 can show:

Standard/For Web: sRGB – widely used color space for most consumer devices, ideal for Web design and development
For Print: AdobeRGB – used in professional photo editing, graphic design, and print
For Photographers/Video Editors: DCI-P3 – used in high-end film production, post-production, and digital cinema
Premium HDR: Rec.2020 – the widest consumer ITU color standard, covering a massive 75.8% of the visible spectrum, a benchmark for premium HDR content

HP EliteBook 840 G11: the yellow dashed triangle (– – – – – –) represents the range of colors this monitor can display.

In our tests, we calculated the total color coverage of the monitor at 53% of the sRGB color gamut and 42% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

(Fig.1) HP EliteBook 840 G11 covers 53% of the sRGB gamut

Brightness and Contrast

The maximum brightness in SDR mode is 332 cd/m² in the center of the screen and 324 cd/m² averaged across the surface with a maximum deviation of 4%.

The Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) on a white screen at maximum brightness is 6540K.

The contrast ratio is 1330:1.

Uniformity: Luminance, Contrast, and Color Deviation

The figure below shows the results from our uniformity test across different sections of the screen. It’s measured at 185 nits (Windows slider = 77%) — a brightness level we consider typical for standard working conditions.

DeltaE values below 4.0 are acceptable for regular users. For those working with colors, screens with DeltaE values no higher than 2.0 are recommended.

Color Accuracy

Let’s check the difference between real colors and those you’ll see on the HP EliteBook 840 G11. We measure that distance in DeltaE – the higher the number, the more different they look.

Values below 4.0 are acceptable for regular users, while values below 2.0 are suitable for color-sensitive work. A value below 1.0 means the difference is indistinguishable to the naked eye.

For the next graph, we’ve selected 24 common colors, including dark/light skin, blue sky, green grass, etc.

Before our calibration of the HP EliteBook 840 G11, the Average color accuracy was 5.8 dE (Fig. 2), and with our Design and Gaming profile, it lowered to 4.0 dE (Fig. 3).

Comparison in the sRGB color space (primaries and D65 white point specified in ITU-R BT.709, sRGB encoding curve).

Here’s an illustration of what the Design and Gaming profile aims to deliver:

Left: No Profile | Drag the slider to see the difference | Right: Design & Gaming Profile

Visibility in dark scenes

Have you ever watched a movie with dark scenes where you could barely see anything? This often happens because many display panels struggle to differentiate the darkest nuances, making them appear the same.

The next figure illustrates how well the display reproduces these dark nuances. The left side of the image shows the display with stock settings, and the right side shows it with our Design and Gaming profile activated.

On the horizontal axis are the grayscale levels, and on the vertical axis – the corresponding display brightness.

You can also check how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display 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 = 18.0 ms. Short pixel response time is a prerequisite for a smooth picture in dynamic scenes.

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 (Screen flickering)

Some use PWM to regulate their brightness, which means that instead of reducing the light intensity, they pulse or flicker. Our brain merges the image, so it appears darker, but this strains both it and our vision, especially when the frequency of the pulses is low. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

In the graph below, you see the intensity of light at different brightness levels—on the vertical axis is the brightness of the emitted light, and on the horizontal axis—time.

The light from the backlight of the HP EliteBook 840 G11 display is not pulse-width modulated, providing visual comfort in the discussed aspect.

Health Impact: Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates harmful PWM when the laptop uses it to control brightness but also reduces 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.

Health Impact: Screen Reflectance

Glossy-coated displays can cause eye fatigue in high ambient light conditions due to reflections. We measure the level of screen reflection with the display turned off, at a 60° angle.

The reflectance of the HP EliteBook 840 G11’s screen is 50.9 GU.

High Gloss: >70 GU
Medium Gloss: 30 – 70 GU
Low Gloss: <30 GU

Get our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP EliteBook 840 G11 configurations with LGD0791, 1920 х 1200, 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.

Sound

The sound quality of the HP EliteBook 840 G11 is good. Low, mid and high frequencies are clear.

Performance: CPU, GPU, Storage

All benchmarks and tests were conducted with the “Performance” profile activated in the MyHP app. The “Best performance” preset is applied in the Windows “Power & Battery” menu and the “Fan always on while on AC Power” function is enabled in the BIOS.

CPU options

The notebook is offered with the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U, Core Ultra 5 135U, Core Ultra 7 155U, Core Ultra 7 165U, Core Ultra 5 125H, Core Ultra 5 135H, Core Ultra 7 155H, or Core Ultra 7 165H.

Our device has a 155H chip.

GPU options

Depending on the CPU, you get an Intel Graphics (4-Cores), Intel Arc (7-Cores), or Intel Arc (8-Cores) for graphics loads.

In our case, the 8-Core model operates as UHD Graphics since the memory works in a single-channel mode.

Gaming tests

Counter-Strike 2	HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS	128 FPS	75 FPS	28 FPS

Gears 5	Full HD, Low (Check settings)	Full HD, Medium (Check settings)	Full HD, High (Check settings)	Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Average FPS	51 FPS	35 FPS	28 FPS	22 FPS

Storage performance

Our notebook a 1TB SAMSUNG PM9B1 MZVL41T0HBLB-00BH1. This NVMe drive is fast and well-cooled.

[eBook Guide + Tools] How to MAX OUT Your Laptop