HP EliteBook 640 G9 – Top 5 Pros and Cons
All of a sudden, there’s an EliteBook 600 series, which slides right between the ProBook 400 and the EliteBook 800 series. One theory going around the office is that HP is purposefully making some knockdown models for when corporations order notebooks in bulk, with standardized parts and security features. This way, they can definitely save a decent chunk of change, while HP makes a profit as well.
Let’s check out what the HP EliteBook 640 G9 has to offer, as we present you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about it.
HP EliteBook 640 G9: Full Specs / In-depth Review
4 reasons to BUY the HP EliteBook 640 G9
1. Design and build quality
The laptop features an aluminum build for the lid and base, with a single plastic strip on the top portion of the lid for the antenna. Durability is good, as there’s the tiniest amount of flex from the chassis. The keyboard deck is solid as a rock, while the lid is a bit more flexible. For a 14-inch device, it’s lightweight, weighing only 1.37 kg and having a profile of 19.9 mm.
The lid opens up with one hand, showing us the base, with a long horizontal grill on top, and a keyboard, touchpad, and fingerprint reader below. The keyboard is fantastic, with spill resistance, long key travel, and clicky feedback. A Numpad is missing, but what can you do (unless you’re ASUS and have access to the NumberPad)? The touchpad isn’t as impressive, as the surface isn’t that smooth. At least the tracking is accurate.
2. Battery life
With a 51.3Wh battery pack, the EliteBook 640 G9 lasts for 13 hours and 20 minutes of web browsing and 10 hours and 18 minutes of video playback. Now, we conduct the battery tests with the 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.
3. Display quality
The display on the EliteBook, while lacking the 16:10 aspect ratio of its more expensive relative, is still great, with an FHD resolution and an IPS panel. The display gets quite bright, reaching 429 nits, while the contrast ratio is high as well, at 1590:1. The panel shows 95% sRGB coverage.
The color coverage isn’t that bad with the stock settings (left), but with our Design and Gaming profile really lowers the dE value to a professional level (right). Here are the results of our test.
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Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP EliteBook 640 G9 configurations with 14.0″ CMN141D (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.
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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
4. Cooling
The laptop uses a simple cooling solution with one heat pipe and one fan.
Max CPU load
Intel Core i5-1235U (15W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
---|---|---|---|
HP EliteBook 640 G9 | 3.27 GHz @ 2.77 GHz @ 90°C @ 45W | 2.53 GHz @ 2.32 GHz @ 90°C @ 30W | 2.32 GHz @ 2.17 GHz @ 74°C @ 24W |
HP EliteBook 840 G9 | 3.09 GHz @ 2.75 GHz @ 83°C @ 46W | 2.73 GHz @ 2.46 GHz @ 89°C @ 37W | 1.58 GHz @ 1.67 GHz @ 61°C @ 17W |
As Michael Scott would say “How the turn tables”. All jokes aside, the Core i5-1235U does much better inside the more affordable 600-series EliteBook, running at higher wattage and clock speeds.
Comfort during full load
Despite the more performance, the laptop still runs cool and remains quiet, with a hotspot of just 37.5°C.
1 reason NOT to buy the HP EliteBook 640 G9
1. I/O
The laptop has decent I/O coverage but forgets the SD card reader, which can be important for a lot of people. If you can swallow that, the device is still full of other ports, with a total of three USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, one Thunderbolt 4 port, an HDMI 2.0b port, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.