HP EliteBook 745 G6 review – showing off AMD’s GuardMI technology

HP’s EliteBook series offer full-fledged business notebooks. Ultimately, all of them offer security features and dock-connectivity support. Today’s laptop is a true member of this family. It is the EliteBook 745 G6 and it comes with a particularly interesting processor choice.

HP has chosen the Red company for this device’s hardware. Thus, the customers receive the up to the AMD Ryzen 7 3700U. However, there is a tiny little caveat – we are talking about the PRO version of the processor. Essentially, it is the same CPU as the non-PRO model, but it offers quite a security boost. Thanks to the proprietory AMD GuardMI technology, which features a “co-processor) inside every PRO-labeled AMD CPU. It encrypts (and decrypts) your memory, to defend against cold boot attacks, gives the laptop an AMD variation of the Secure Boot option, as well as some essential OS security enhancements.

In addition to that, you get a 14-inch Full HD IPS monitor, optional LTE connectivity and an aluminum chassis. Come with us to check what else does this notebook offer.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-elitebook-745-g6/

Contents


Specs Sheet

HP EliteBook 745 G6 - Espec

  • LG LP140WFA-SPD3 (LGD060F)
  • Precisión del color  6.2  4.2
  • HDD/SSD
  • hasta 512GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • Batería
  • 50Wh, 3-cell
  • Dimensiones
  • 326 x 234.3 x 17.9 mm (12.83" x 9.22" x 0.70")
  • Peso
  • 1.53 kg (3.4 lbs)
  • Puertos y conectividad
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Conector de audio
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Docking Connector
  • SIM Card Slot
  • Smartcard Slot
  • Features
  • Lector de huellas dactilares
  • optional
  • Cámara web
  • HD
  • Teclado retroiluminado
  • optional
  • Micrófono
  • 3 Multi Array Microphones
  • Altavoces
  • 2 Speakers, Bang & Olufsen
  • Unidad óptica
  • Ranura de bloqueo de seguridad

What’s in the box?

Inside the box, we found a 65Wh power adapter with a barrel-style connector. Additionally, there are the mandatory paper manuals, alongside the laptop, itself.


Design and construction

As we mentioned, this device is built mostly out of aluminum. Thankfully, the build quality is superb, which gives the notebook enough rigidity both when bent and twisted. In terms of measurements, we are talking about a 17.9mm profile and a weight of 1.53 kg. Relatively tight package, even for a 14-incher.

If you try to open the lid with just one hand, you would be pleasantly surprised. The hinges are just tight enough, to provide you with stability, and not be in the way of one-handed operation. While the side bezels are very thin, we think that the top and bottom ones are a bit too fat. Thankfully, HP has made use of the top one by putting an IR face recognition system. It works pretty fast and even in low-lit environments.

Next, we have the keyboard. It is a backlit unit, which is also spill-resistant. It features a dedicated “nipple” above the “B” key, that works in conjunction with the dedicated buttons above the touchpad. The surface of the keycaps is smooth, and while the key travel is a bit short, the feedback is clicky and quiet, making it extremely comfortable for long typing sessions, even in libraries and offices.

As of the touchpad, it has a glass top, which provides good gliding capabilities. All in all, the experience is good, and you also get a fingerprint reader, placed on the right side of the base. By the way, the speakers of the EliteBook 745 G6 are placed above the keyboard. Ultimately, facing the user should result in a crispier sound.

So, if you turn the laptop upside down, you will see only the ventilation grill. By the way, there are three indicator lights on the front side of the machine which show if the laptop is powered on, if there is an active wireless connection and when the device is loading.

Ports

In addition to the exhaust grill on the left, there is a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, which can be used for charging when the device is sleeping. Next, there is a Smartcard reader, although it is optional. Then, on the right, there is the charging plug, followed by a USB Type-C with DisplayPort output support, a dock connector, an RJ-45 port, an HDMI 2.0 connector, a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1), a headphone jack, and a MicroSD card reader. Honestly, this is a pretty decent setup.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

There are 8 Phillips-head screws separating you from the insides of this machine. Thankfully, they stay attached to the bottom panel after you unscrew them, so the chance to lose them is minimal. After that, you need to pry the panel with a plastic tool, or preferably a guitar pick. Keep in mind we found it easier if you start prying around the hinges.

This notebook features an AMD CPU inside, which is cooled by a single – relatively bulky heat pipe.

As far as the upgradability goes, the notebook offers you two RAM SODIMM slots (running in dual-channel mode), which support up to 32GB of DDR4 memory at 2400 MHz. Then, there is the M.2 slot, capable of running both SATA and PCIe x4 drives.

When you’re away from the plug, the EliteBook 745 G6 will be powered by a 50Wh unit.


Display quality

HP EliteBook 745 G6’s display has a Full HD IPS panel, model number LG LP140WFA-SPD3 (LGD060F). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

It has comfortable viewing angles. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 270 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 269 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 12%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6470K (average) – basically matching the 6500K optimum for sRGB.

In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 72% Brightness (White level = 139 cd/m2, Black level = 0.15 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 acceptable – 950:1.

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 in 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 745 G6’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers a narrow 50% 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 745 G6 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 = 23 ms.


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.

Our instruments didn’t detect any usage of PWM across all brightness levels of the display. This means it is comfortable for long periods of usage, without being harmful to your eyes 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.

Conclusions

HP EliteBook 745 G6’s display has an IPS panel with a Full HD resolution, decent contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. Furthermore, the backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level, making it comfortable for long working periods. Unfortunately, it covers only 50% of sRGB.

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 745 G6 configurations with 14.0″ LG LP140WFA-SPD3 (LGD060F) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.

*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.

Además de recibir perfiles eficientes y respetuosos con la salud, al comprar los productos de LaptopMedia también apoyas el desarrollo de nuestros laboratorios, donde probamos los dispositivos para elaborar las reseñas más objetivas posibles.

Trabajo de oficina

El perfil Trabajo de Oficina debería ser utilizado sobre todo por usuarios que pasan la mayor parte del tiempo mirando trozos de texto, tablas o simplemente navegando. Este perfil pretende ofrecer una mayor nitidez y claridad manteniendo una curva de gamma plana (2,20), una temperatura de color nativa y colores perceptualmente precisos.

Diseño y juego

Este perfil está dirigido a los diseñadores que trabajan con los colores de forma profesional, y también para juegos y películas. Design and Gaming lleva a los paneles de visualización a sus límites, haciéndolos tan precisos como sea posible en el estándar sRGB IEC61966-2-1 para Web y HDTV, en el punto blanco D65.

Salud-Guardia

Salud-Guardia elimina la perjudicial Modulación de Ancho de Pulso (PWM) y reduce la luz azul negativa que afecta a nuestros ojos y a nuestro cuerpo. Al estar adaptado a cada panel, consigue mantener los colores perceptivamente precisos. Salud-Guardia simula el papel, por lo que la presión sobre los ojos se reduce considerablemente.

Consigue los 3 perfiles con un 33% de descuento


Sound

HP EliteBook 745 G6’s speakers are tuned by Bang & Olufsen. They produce a loud, clear sound with decent quality, and its entire frequency range is clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-elitebook-745-g6-notebook-pc/27690689

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 device’s 50Wh unit is capable of providing around 12 hours of Web browsing and more than 11 hours of video playback.

Para simular las condiciones de la vida real, utilizamos nuestro propio script de navegación automática por más de 70 sitios web.


CPU options

This device comes in a choice of three processor options. They are the dual-core Ryzen 3 PRO 3300U, and the quad-core Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U and Ryzen 7 PRO 3700U.


GPU options

No dedicated graphics here. This means you will receive the respective integrated solution – either the Radeon RX Vega 6, Vega 8, or Vega 10.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
AMD Radeon RX Vega 1050 fps37 fps26 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
AMD Radeon RX Vega 1070 fps39 fps23 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.

AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 3700U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP EliteBook 745 G63.20 GHz (B+39%) @ 65°C3.11 GHz (B+35%) @ 75°C2.67 GHz (B+16%) @ 67°C
AMD Ryzen 7 3700U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
ASUS VivoBook 15 F512 (X512)3.10 GHz (B+35%) @ 65°C3.09 GHz (B+34%) @ 80°C2.39 GHz (B+4%) @ 68°C

Indeed, the clock speeds and the temperatures of this unit are very well balanced. In comparison to the VivoBook 15 F512 (X512), which was equipped with the non-Pro version, we see a better cooling capacity. However, when you consider the 4.00 GHz maximum Boost speed, things don’t look too good, as it never reached it under the stress of Prime95.

Comfort during full load

While the cooling fan was clearly audible, you have to keep in mind that this was achieved in an unnaturally high load scenario. Most of the time – for example, if you are browsing the Web or transferring files, the laptop is very quiet, if not silent.


Verdict

When it comes to business devices, there is a lot of expectations that need to be covered. First, security is king. This is where the PRO moniker of the processor, combined with the GuardMi technology kick in. They aim to offer enhancement and encryption both on hardware and on a software level. Additionally, there are multiple biometric identification methods. They consist of a fingerprint reader and an IR face recognition system.

In terms of speed, the notebook performs decently well. It is rather cool, even under excessively heavy load (like Prime95), where the maximum temperature we got was 75C. Indeed, the fan was being pushed quite hard, but for the majority of usage scenarios, the laptop will be quiet enough.

Then there comes the battery life. We got around 12 hours of Web browsing and 11 hours of video playback, ensuring an entire workday on a single charge. So, what if you don’t care about autonomous time, but you need fast storage and a lot of memory. Well, the EliteBook 745 G6 supports up to 32GB of DDR4 memory, working at 2400 MHz, and when it comes to the storage, there is a single M.2 SATA/PCIe x4 slot.

HP EliteBook 745 G6’s display has an IPS panel with a Full HD resolution, decent contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. Furthermore, the backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level, making it comfortable for long working periods. Unfortunately, it covers only 50% of sRGB.

On the bright side, the speakers are quite good, and the keyboard is great for typing. Its clicky, but yet quiet feedback makes it perfect for libraries or other places that value tranquility.

Not on the last place there is the MicroSD card slot, optional LTE connectivity, USB Type-C Port with a DisplayPort output, as well as the docking station and Smart card reader. Honestly, we would certainly recommend this device.

Pros

  • Cool performance under heavy load
  • Comfortable and quiet keyboard paired with a great touchpad
  • Rich I/O with dock support, and optional LTE and Smart card connectivity
  • Good battery life
  • Its Full HD IPS panel has comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio (LG LP140WFA-SPD3)
  • Lacks PWM for brightness adjustment (LG LP140WFA-SPD3)
  • Supports 32GB of DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode and M.2 SATA/PCIe x4 drives


Cons

  • No Thunderbolt port
  • Covers only 50% of sRGB (LG LP140WFA-SPD3)

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-elitebook-745-g6/

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3 años hace

If you’re improving your spending habits, you may never have to use a service like this. But it’s good to know it’s there.

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3 años hace

I am really happy with articles quality and presentation. Thanks a lot for keeping great stuff. I am very much thankful for this site.

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Ano
2 años hace

the screen on this laptop is terrible
the audiojack has weird wobbling in it
keyboard pisses me off due to the trackpoint
fan is loud and annoying

would not buy