In the corporate world where users carry a lot of sensitive information related to the business on their PCs and laptops, data security is something that should not be taken lightly. And a normal laptop will a simple password will not suffice if you want to ensure that your data is secure. HP has been already developing high-end laptops that feature security and performance in a stylish thin-and-light design. We take a look at the latest HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 laptop.
Design
HP is one of the major PC makers that deals with laptops specifically designed for business and corporate users. With the rise of thin-and-light laptops, the company ensured that the latest EliteBook x360 1040 G7 features a blend of both style and performance along with a bunch of security features. The display that you see here is 14-inch in size and with Full HD as its screen resolution. The display is also capable of producing 1000 nits of brightness and also has its own anti-glare coating. The display also brings full support for touchscreen, just as any other 2-in-1 lightweight laptop. The screen comes with a color range that covers 72% NTSC color space. While the display has a matte finish, the colors of the screen are more than sufficient.
And while IPS displays are actually known for great viewing angles, this 14-inch IPS display isn’t an ordinary IPS that is common in the market. As you can see in the images below, the viewing angles of the display are not up to the mark. That’s because HP has integrated the Sure View Reflect integrated privacy screen to protect the visibility of the display from people around you. This is quite an important thing if you don’t want people around in the office or outside premises to peep and see what you are doing. There is a dedicated button on the keyboard that activates the Sure View feature, and once activated the viewing angles reduce further to the point where only by looking on the front side of the display, will you be able to view the contents of the screen.
HP ensured to offer as much as connectivity options on the EliteBook x360 1040 G7. On the right side, there is a full-sized USB Type-A 5Gbps SuperSpeed port with support for charging functionality, one HDMI 1.4b port, one Thunderbolt USB Type-C port, and another USB Type-C port for connecting the adaptor. There is also a power LED indicator next to the ports.
Looking at the left side of the device, you again get a full-sized USB Type-A 5Gbps SuperSpeed port, an audio jack for headphone/microphone, and a micro-SIM card slot. Users will be able to surf the internet and do their work on the go with an active internet package via the SIM card.
The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 is primarily designed as a 2-in-1 laptop where the display can rotate 360 degrees. You can use it as a normal laptop mode, tablet mode, tent mode, and more.
HP has integrated its Quiet keyboard that is designed to feature spill resistance with its DuraKeys. The keys are also backlit so you will be able to identify the keys easily in dark situations. And the smooth trackpad brings support for multi-gestures.
The EliteBook x360 1040 G7 has a total of four premium Bang & Olufsen certified speakers, two of which are on either side of the keyboard portion. The other two speakers are located below the laptop. The speaker grills feature a unique pattern with most of the speaker holes forming the shape of multiple triangles. This design suits the overall style of the laptop. The system also features two user-facing multi-array microphones and the other two microphones facing outside.
The laptop lid features the reflective HP logo and the entire device is silver in color with a metallic build. The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 features a dimension of 31.93 W x 20.26 D x 1.66cm H. And the weight of the laptop is only 1.32kg. While it isn’t the lightest in the market, the weight is still very light for its size and features.
Take a look at some of the preinstalled HP softwares below.
Specifications and Performance
The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 laptop features a combination of both a stylish form-factor and performance. The laptop runs on Windows 10 Pro OS and is powered by the latest 10th generation Intel i7-10710U processor, paired with 16GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The processor here features 6 computing cores and 12 threads, with the base clock speed set at 1.1 GHz and can push to 4.7GHz boost clock speeds with Intel Turbo Boost. The 16GB LPDDR4 RAM is clocked at 2933 MHz and is soldered within the motherboard. The EliteBook x360 1040 G7 also packs a fast Samsung 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD drive that is identified with the part number MZVLQ512HALU. It’s basically the Samsung PM991 NVMe drive that is used on commercial laptops. The SSD has a read speed of 2200 MB/s and a write speed of 1200MB/s. While it may not be the fastest of what Samsung offers, these blazing speeds are more than enough to process applications and copy large files in less time.
The laptop performed amazingly fast as it should for a thin and light business laptop, including fast boot ups, fast application loading, fast transfer speeds, etc. We also conducted PC Mark 8 benchmarks in which the laptop scored 4675 points for the PC Mark Creative test, and 4630 points for the PC Mark Work test. And since the laptop features a SIM card slot, we had run speed tests with an active 4G subscription. According to Speedtest, the laptop was able to achieve a download speed of 126Mbps and an upload speed of 37.92Mbps. Of course, this can vary based on the area and server selected. The laptop features the Intel XMM 7360 LTE Advanced Cat 9 chip, the Intel AX201 WiFi 6 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.
The laptop houses the HP Long Life 4-cell, 78.5 Wh Li-ion polymer battery, where users can charge the laptop with the included 65W USB Type-C adaptor. The laptop was able to last for 3-4 hours of continuous use that involved watching YouTube, writing articles, e-mails, file uploads/downloads, etc.
Security
One of the most important selling points of the HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 is its suite of security features that comes preinstalled. We have already spoken about the HP Sure View display where the viewing angles are limited in order to protect the user’s privacy from surrounding people. Users will be able to simply press the Sure View key to activate the mode. There is also the HP Privacy Camera that has its own integrated shutter. If you are familiar with Lenovo laptops, most of the ThinkPad models come with a physical privacy shutter that can be manually opened or close the front-facing camera so malicious software does not record anything with the video camera. In the case of the EliteBook x360 1040 G7, the user will only need to press the dedicated privacy camera key to activate the privacy shutter.
HP has also integrated its Sure Sense that is based on deep learning AI. The Sure Sense helps to provide real-time detection and prevention of zero-day cyber threats, along with detection of ransomware activities that happens within the system. HP Sure Sense does all this without impacting the performance of the laptop. Then you have the HP Sure Click that deals with web browser-based security. The Sure Click feature is a hardware-enforced secure web browsing solution. The feature isolates the web content operations in a virtual machine, reducing the risk of malware affecting other browser tabs, other applications, and the operating system.
While data recovery can be a good thing for some users, it can also backfire if you are one of those who change their laptops, even if you have formatted the drive. The HP Sure Erase is a BIOS-level feature that is designed to destroy the data permanently, leaving no chance for others to recover the data. There is also the HP Sure Start that monitors the system BIOS to detect any damage caused by malware, rootkits, or any other form of data corruption. The feature makes the laptop’s BIOS the only one that can heal itself. The HP Sure Run makes sure that the critical process keeps running during an event where malware forcefully shuts down the critical processes needed to keep the system running. This is a hardware-enforced feature that is backed by the HP Endpoint Security Controller. HP also ensured that the laptop can be quickly recovered with the Sure Recover feature that restores the device fast and secure by using the latest software image.
The Endpoint Security Controller is a physically isolated and cryptographically protected hardware unit that supports most of the features mentioned above. The HP Multi-Factor Authenticate makes sure that your connected network and VPN access is safe from any unauthorized users by enabling three-factor login security. This includes the fingerprint reader and IR facial recognition. We would like to point out that the fingerprint scanner isn’t very fast as you would expect. There is a small delay from the time it recognizes the fingerprint to the point where Windows 10 gets unlocked. That said, HP also has the SpareKey that is designed to reset passwords and resume access to PCs that were locked out, in case you have forgotten the password.
Verdict
There is no denying that security is one of the major factors that need to be considered before investing in a business laptop. And HP is one of the leading brands that have expertise in this category. The new HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 not only offers stellar performance in a stylish form-factor but also provides a plethora of security features that ensure that your sensitive data does not fall into the wrong hands. The performance of the laptop is backed by the Intel 10th generation processors aided with sufficient RAM and a fast storage drive. The laptop’s Sure View privacy screen will not allow users in the surrounding area to view the contents of the screen and the Privacy Camera can avoid any attempt of malicious applications from doing a video recording session without your knowledge.
The laptop also packs a lot of security features like the Sure Click that protects the laptop from malicious web-based processes, the Sure Erase that permanently destroys the data when formatted, the Sure Run that keeps the laptop running even if the laptop’s critical features are compromised, the mult-factor login that prevents unauthorized users from getting access to your system, and much more. The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 business laptop is set to be released in February 2021 and will cost 7000 AED (VAT inclusive) in the UAE.
