HP has been earning a lot of attention from me lately, and it’s mostly been great. The company’s investments in the AI PC craze have helped HP stand out from the crowd, and its laptops have evolved to match. I recently reviewed the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (2024), and it’s one of the best laptops I’ve tested in recent memory. On the other hand, HP’s enterprise efforts have begun to draw me away from those consumer-focused devices.
Ahead of CES 2025, HP sent me a pre-production sample of the HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i), one of three professional laptops announced during the latest Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. All three devices, including the EliteBook Ultra 14, are powered by Intel Core Ultra (Series 2), making them potent work machines with some serious AI chops. My early hands-on time with the EliteBook Ultra has been extremely positive, and in some ways, I’m honestly more excited about EliteBook than OmniBook lately.
It’s a feeling I first had when HP sent me an early sample of its EliteBook X 14 (G1a) following HP Imagine 2024, but this laptop checks even more boxes for me.
This hands-on was made possible thanks to a pre-production sample provided by HP. HP had no input nor saw the contents of this review prior to publication.
An impressive hardware package
The HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i) is obviously premium, wrapped in a sleek, dark blue magnesium chassis. You won’t find the cut corners of HP’s high-end OmniBook devices here, with the EliteBook Ultra cleanly split between rounded edges and sharp corners.
HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i)
• Price: From $2,019 at HP
• Display: 14-inch OLED, 16:10 aspect ratio, 2.8K (2,880 x 1,800) resolution, 48-120Hz dynamic refresh rate, 400nits max brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, non-touch & multi-touch options
• CPU: Up to Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2)
• GPU: Intel Arc
• NPU: Intel AI Boost (up to 48 TOPS)
• RAM: Up to 32GB LPDDR5X
• Storage: Up to 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4×4 SSD
• Battery: 64Whr, 65W USB Type-C fast charging
• Dimensions: 313.7 x 217.3 x 9.1-14.9mm (12.4 x 8.6 x 0.36-0.59in)
• Weight: 1.2-1.22kg (2.63-2.68lbs)
Those subtle changes make this one of my favorite HP laptop designs, with excellent build quality and an obvious attention to detail. That polish continues when you open the lid, too, with HP’s new two-tone keyboard, a massive glass haptic touchpad, and a gorgeous OLED display with slim bezels all around. It’s slim all around, honestly, with a maximum thickness of 14.9mm, a weight of approximately 1.22kg with a touch panel, and an over 90% screen-to-body ratio.
The premium feeling doesn’t harm HP’s sustainability commitments, either, with 90% of the magnesium chassis being post-industrial recycled, 50% or more of the keycaps, bezel, and speaker enclosures being post-consumer recycled or ocean-bound plastic, and 100% of the packaging being fully recyclable.
On top of being premium, portable, and sustainable, the EliteBook Ultra 14’s design is practical. You get a combined three USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports with Power Delivery and DisplayPort capabilities, a drop-jaw USB Type-A port (which isn’t my favorite design, but it’s an extra port), a 3.5mm audio jack, and a Kensington Nano lock slot for added physical security.
On the inside, the EliteBook Ultra 14 is similar to the latest generation of flagship Windows laptops. You’re getting an Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) chipset, which means incredible gains in endurance and AI performance, but at the cost of some multi-core performance. That’s not a problem for this laptop, though, which feels buttery smooth (although I can’t share benchmarks for this pre-production sample).
Of course, the latest Intel silicon means a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with up to 48 TOPS , and that in turn means the HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i) is a Copilot+ PC. In addition to the growing list of AI features inside Windows 11, the EliteBook Ultra 14 benefits from HP’s AI investments, including the evolving AI Companion, improvements to background power and performance management, and huge efficiency improvements for HP’s trusted Wolf Security suite.
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As expected, HP’s full Wolf Security platform is here, too, giving enterprises enhanced multi-level security and additional management features. Wolf Security has begun to come to HP’s high-end consumer laptops, too (which is awesome), but EliteBooks are still the most secure. Of course, the EliteBook Ultra 14 will also come with Intel vPro and Windows 11 Pro configurations for even more remote management and security features.
Rounding out this premium experience is a 9MP front-facing webcam tuned by Poly Studio and supported by AI features, a quad-speaker system, dual noise-canceling microphones, and two Windows Hello biometric authentication options with facial recognition and a built-in fingerprint sensor. HP continues to impress me with its keyboards, too, and that haptic touchpad is glorious. You get the gist; I really like this laptop.
The HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i) is expected to drop sometime this month with a starting price of $2,019 at HP, which tracks for an enterprise PC with enhanced security features.
Making me a big fan of HP’s EliteBook offerings
I never thought the day would come when I was genuinely more excited by a company’s enterprise offerings than its mainstream consumer releases, but I’m beginning to lean more in that direction with HP’s EliteBook family. Everyone benefits from greater security, of course, but the last two HP EliteBooks I’ve gone hands-on with have also boasted some of the more attractive laptop designs I’ve encountered.
Of course, my complete thoughts on the EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i) are reserved for when I (hopefully) get to test the final device since I’ve only been using an early pre-production sample. Either way, HP is rapidly making me an EliteBook fan. The EliteBook Ultra 14 is especially up my alley with its slim design, OLED display, and haptic touchpad. Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) has also impressed me so far, even if its multi-core performance has actually taken a step back compared to the first-gen Core Ultra platform.
It’s still worth mentioning that AI PCs as a whole have failed to really captivate me, but out of all the companies pouring time and money into artificial intelligence for personal computers, HP seems to be on the best track to success. An all-in-one AI Companion that anyone can actually benefit from using, actually noticeable improvements to efficiency and security, and a growing platform for safe and trusted AI development make HP a promising player in the field.
The HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i) benefits from all of this and is future-proofed to take advantage of HP’s upcoming AI advancements. Of course, that’s also true of the other HP EliteBooks announced during CES 2025.
Two more Intel-powered EliteBooks to look out for
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In addition to the HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i), we’re also getting two new EliteBook X variants, the X 14 (G1i) and the X Flip 14 (G1i). As the model name indicates, both are still powered by Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) chipsets and share a lot of similarities with the EliteBook Ultra. There are some crucial differences, though.
For one, the EliteBook X devices here are slightly less premium than the Elitebook Ultra, with thicker and heavier designs, various LCD display options, and lower resolution 5MP front-facing cameras. The trade-off is a more diverse port selection and optional 4G LTE connectivity, an extremely valuable feature for some users. It’s hard to point out specific differences between the X 14 and the X Flip 14, apart from the Flip obviously boasting a 360-degree hinge and multi-touch support on all its displays.
I didn’t go hands-on with either of these devices before CES 2025, so I can’t comment much on how they feel to use, but their more practical designs and feature set will certainly appear to many. Of course, like the EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i), both these EliteBook X models benefit from being Copilot+ PCs in addition to all of HP’s AI enhancements. Wolf Security is also baked in by default.
Both HP Elite Book X models are expected to arrive in Feb. 2025, with the HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i) starting at $1,999 at HP and the HP EliteBook X Flip 14 (G1i) starting at $2,249 at HP.
