HP EliteBook 650 G9 – Top 5 Pros and Cons
Everyone wants to be Elite, going as far as to buy EliteBooks. To play off the popularity of its brand, HP is making some more affordable EliteBook laptops.
We’ve already reviewed the EliteBook 640 G9, but today we have its bigger brother, the 650 G9. Can it be as successful? We certainly believe so, as it got the same U-series and P-series hardware, but can be paired with a slightly more powerful MX 570 graphics card.
Today we present you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the HP EliteBook 650 G9.
HP EliteBook 650 G9: Full Specs / In-depth Review
3 reasons to BUY the HP EliteBook 650 G9
1. Upgradeability
The laptop comes with two SODIMM slots, which fit up to 64GB DDR4 memory. For storage, there’s one M.2 slot for both Gen 3 and Gen 4 SSDs, while a second M.2 slot can be used for either s WWAN card or a second SSD.
Here is our teardown video, which shows how to access the inside of the HP EliteBook 650 G9.
2. I/O
The port selection includes a total of three USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, one Thunderbolt 4 port, an HDMI 2.0 port, a LAN port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack. You can further get an optional SIM card slot and a SmartCard reader.
3. Cooling
The cooling solution is kept very simple, 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 650 G9 | 3.26 GHz @ 2.80 GHz @ 89°C @ 45W | 2.63 GHz @ 2.39 GHz @ 91°C @ 32W | 2.25 GHz @ 2.15 GHz @ 79°C @ 24W |
It’s impressive that the CPU maintains 45W even for a few seconds. From there, the wattage and clock speeds drop, but even at the 15-minute mark, we’re happy with the results.
Temperatures and comfort
The device is extremely quiet under full load, while the base doesn’t heat up at all, with a hotspot of just 35°C.
2 reasons NOT to buy the HP EliteBook 650 G9
1. Display quality
The FHD IPS panel that we have is generally okay for most types of work, but with only 51% sRGB coverage, it’s not suitable for Creator work. It also doesn’t get as bright as we would want, with a peak brightness of 259 nits. What it has going for itself is the comfortable viewing angles, so you can share what you’re working on with your team.
There’s also 0 PWM usage, so the laptop is safe to use for prolonged periods of time.
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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 650 G9 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS LG LGD071E.
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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.
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2. Battery life
The battery pack here has a capacity of 42.75Wh, which is a bit small considering that the chassis should be able to accommodate more. It lasts for 9 hours and 15 minutes of Web browsing, or 7 hours and 17 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, so if you plan on multitasking or ramping up the brightness, you should expect worse results, in which case you should bring a charger.