HP is really crushing it right now. With the exception of the EliteBook Ultra G1q, everything that crosses my desk from the company is a clear winner. The same goes for the EliteBook X G1a. It's phenomenal in every way.

It's got the same powerful AMD Ryzen processor that's in the OmniBook Ultra, but it doesn't have the same shortcomings. It has proper display options, including OLED, and it's got one of the best keyboards you'll ever find on a laptop, something that's true of most EliteBooks.

The main downside is that, like the OmniBook Ultra, it's heavier than most laptops in its class, and that comes along with the power afforded by this HP-exclusive Ryzen CPU. Also, while AMD is winning in the CPU department right now, Intel has better integrated graphics, so if you care about that, check out the HP EliteBook X Flip G1i.

That CPU also has a 55 TOPS NPU, and HP has some of its own software it's built for it, which is pretty awesome.

HP supplied the EliteBook X G1a for review. It had no input on the contents of this article.

HP EliteBook X G1a pricing and availability

The HP EliteBook X G1a is available now from HP.com, starting at $1,699, although that's currently discounted from $2,099. That unit comes with a Ryzen 7, rather than the more powerful Ryzen 9 SKU that's under the hood of the unit HP sent me. It also comes with 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a WUXGA display.

As configured, with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, 64GB RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 2.8K OLED display, it's going for $2,349, discounted from $2,749.

Great keyboard, great display, great everything

Everything about this laptop is as I want it to be

This is the first (formerly known as) EliteBook 1000 series laptop to include an AMD processor, so things are a bit different. In fact, when HP first started this journey down the path toward a diverse silicon lineup, it made questionable decisions. I'd call this the business version of the OmniBook Ultra, but it's better. It's got that EliteBook keyboard that I fall in love with all over again every time I use one, and it's got an OLED display.

And yes, I do fall in love with the keyboard every time. I use a lot of laptops, but when I use one like this, I don't want to stop when I'm done with it. This is the type of product that makes me wish I could just stop and pick a forever laptop.

HP still makes best-in-class keyboards.

There are some minor differences though, the most notable one is that the key-press is a bit deeper than in previous generations. HP did it justice though. Clearly, the force required to press the key has been adjusted to compensate for the additional depth. The other difference, which actually made its debut in the EliteBook 1040 G11, is cosmetic. It's a dual-tone design with a dark gray keyboard.

When I reviewed the EliteBook 1040 G11, it was after Snapdragon X laptops started shipping, with Lunar Lake already announced. I called it the only Meteor Lake laptop that was still worth buying. I meant it, and the EliteBook X G1a is just as good. This whole product line is fantastic.

As I've said, the 14-inch display comes with an OLED option, which is 2880x1800 with a 120Hz refresh rate. However, unlike Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition, it supports dynamic refresh rate. In other words, you don't have to sacrifice battery life as much if you want the better screen performance. Oddly, the two refresh rate options are 48Hz and 120Hz.

The screen is properly calibrated out of the box, offering 100% or near-100% on sRGB, NTSC, Adobe RGB, and P3. Brightness maxed out at 408.4 nits, so just north of the promised 400.

As for the general design of the laptop, it comes in Natural Silver and weighs in at 3.3 pounds, so it's pretty beefy for a 14-inch laptop. It was the same with the OmniBook Ultra, and when I asked HP about it, I was told it's because it's prioritizing power over portability. There are lighter, Intel-based convertibles if that's more your speed.

It has a healthy selection of ports, including USB Type-A, HDMI, a 3.5mm audio jack, and three USB Type-C ports. Two of those USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 4, something we're seeing more in non-Intel laptops.

While USB4 definitely solves the disparity we've seen in ports between AMD and Intel laptops, I really don't like disparity between ports on the same laptop. On this one, there's one Thunderbolt port on each side, with a second USB 3.2 Type-C port on the left. I only discovered this because I plugged in my dock and one of my 4K displays didn't light up. It's just an annoyance, and I wonder why that third port was added at all.

AI Companion is still getting better

It was already great

I've talked a lot about HP's AI Companion, but I'll always mention it as long as it's a differentiating factor between HP and competing laptops. Also, I know you don't care about AI, but I promise you that this is something that's worth it.

There are three tabs in the app: Discover, Analyze, and Perform. Discover lets you pretty much ask questions, and Perform lets you optimize performance on your device.

But the one I like to shout out is Analyze. It lets you drop a bunch of PDFs in there, it indexes them, and you can search them using natural language. This is fantastic for me, considering how much I have to reference spec sheets when I'm working. If some company announces a new laptop and I have to look up the display resolution, I just ask.

HP AI Companion makes a meaningful difference to how I work.

A couple of months ago, HP announced some big improvements to AI Companion, such as offline mode and voice commands. Unfortunately, that update still hasn't shipped, but it should arrive through the Microsoft Store whenever it does. I was hoping to have it in time for this review, but we'll have to wait a bit longer.

Seriously though, don't sleep on AI Companion. There are tons of AI features going around, from third-party software to Microsoft's own Copilot+ suite, but this is the one you'll only find on HP's products. Lenovo has some neat stuff with Aura Edition on its ThinkPad X1 Carbon, Dell isn't doing much in the space with its Dell Pro 14 Premium, but HP is doing pretty big things.

I think many consumers tune out when they hear AI, and that's fine. 5G was a buzzword too, and it should be. You don't care how your phone connects to the internet; you just care that you're connected when you need to be and it's fast enough for what you need to do. The same goes for AI. You don't care about the intelligent back end, just that it's doing the thing you need to do in a way that you weren't previously able to do it. So, ignore that AI Companion has AI in the name, and just focus on what you can do with it.

Don't sleep on Poly Camera Pro

It puts great webcam hardware over the top

The HP EliteBook X G1a has an excellent 5MP webcam, with a privacy shutter, but that's not all that makes it the best. It's very common for me to say things like, "If you want the best keyboard, you buy HP", and "If you want the best webcam experience, you buy HP", but part of that webcam win is due to the company's Poly Camera Pro software.

It's a pretty robust platform that lets you customize your video feed.

NOTE: For the above screenshots, I used HP's 4K webcam, not the built-in 5MP sensor.

My personal favorite feature is the overlay, so you can go and add a company logo, your name, a social handle, your email address, your location, and whatever else. You can change it to whatever you want, and there are different layouts you can use, as well as different blur and background settings.

If you want the best webcam experience, buy an HP.

Aside from that, there are controls for brightness, hue, saturation, contrast, backlight compensation, zoom, and more. It really is a one-stop shop for webcam management.

It works in any app you're using, creating a virtual webcam that you can select as the source of your feed.

The AMD Ryzen processor is powerful

It's a special SKU with extra AI chops

I mentioned that this is HP's most powerful PC in the EliteBook lineup, and that's because it has the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 under the hood. I'm not going to type out that entire product name again. It's a SKU that's exclusive to HP products, or at least it was. It's got a 55 TOPS NPU, and it's winning in CPU performance. That's also why HP says the EliteBook X G1a and OmniBook Ultra are heavier than competing devices.

That doesn't mean it's the best chip. There are more options than ever, and there are pros and cons to each. Intel is winning in integrated graphics, and Qualcomm is winning in battery life. AMD is winning in CPU power, and since HP locked down this CPU SKU early, HP is winning in AI power. Remember, AI Companion and Poly Camera Pro are available on any HP Colpilot+ PC, but this AMD Ryzen chip is only in some of them.

I still don't do AI performance testing, so if that's ever something you're interested in seeing, let me know in a comment somewhere. I still don't think it's relevant. Ultimately, this product is going to run NPU tasks a little faster than, say, a Surface Laptop 7 or a Dell Pro 14 Premium, but does it make a meaningful difference in your life? No, of course it doesn't. In fact, most people buying a laptop don't care about a few points in benchmark scores at all. What matters is what you need to do, and which chip is best at it.

This product is a winner for single- and multi-threaded CPU performance. If those are the tasks you're running, go for it.

As you can see from the results, HP wins in CPU tests, particularly multi-threaded ones in Cinebench and Geekbench. But when graphics come into play with 3DMark, it's a different story, and Intel Lunar Lake comes out on top.

Battery life was between seven and nine hours, which is solid and expected. Again, there are settings you can tweak to get more or less, including the power profile and the refresh rate. Interestingly, dynamic refresh is turned off by default. It's an odd choice because out of the box you're getting straight up 120Hz. I got closer to that nine hour mark after I turned it on.

Should you buy the HP EliteBook X G1a?

You should buy the HP EliteBook X G1a if:

• Super thin and light isn't terribly important to you
• You want the absolute best business laptop
• You use your webcam a lot
• You find yourself querying a lot of documents

You should NOT buy the HP EliteBook X G1a if:

• You need 5G connectivity
• The added weight in your bag is a problem
• Your work flow is more graphics-intensive

I do think that HP is making some of the best laptops right now. If this sounds like a great product for you but it's just too heavy or you need more powerful integrated graphics, check out the EliteBook Ultra G1i. It's a lot lighter and it has Intel Lunar Lake. It's just not as powerful of a CPU or NPU.