The HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16 is a portable 16-inch machine that'll keep your sensitive data under lockdown – but there's a catch

HP is putting security front and center in the EliteBook 8 G1a 16 – a stylish and compact 16in business laptop that caters to enterprise users who could specifically benefit from tight security measures as well as top-of-the-line hardware.

Powered by an impressive AMD chipset, you would expect performance and battery life to match the best machines on the market – especially at a premium £2,277.50 retail price – alongside plenty of AI power to run native workloads. But the most appealing part of this machine is the security-centric software and hardware protections that come with it.

Given its relatively sleek dimensions and lightweight frame, this machine is also in with a shout of being one of the best 16in machines to work with on the move. Question marks remain over a fairly basic IPS display and a processor that might not live up to the highs of some of its counterparts.

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HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16: Design and display

The EliteBook fits the mould of a modern business-centric notebook to a tee; it's designed to feel fresh and compact, thanks to its sharp silver finish, while remaining minimalist enough in nature to avoid drawing too much attention in a busy office environment. The lightweight chassis, made from a combination of aluminum and magnesium, is sturdy and well constructed – it feels comfortable when you're resting your palms against it and feels incredibly robust, especially when manipulating the lid.

It's also among the lightest 16in business machines out there, weighing 1.69kg, which is just as light as the Dynabook Tecra A65-M while exuding a much more premium feel. It's also on the thinner side, with a height of just 15.5mm. The Dell 16 Premium, by contrast, weighs 2.11kg and has a height of 16.7mm, while the Dynabook is much bulker at 19.9mm. Overall, this is as small and compact of a 16in laptop as you'll find.

One of the downsides comes in the way the display is slightly recessed and encased with plastic bezels. While they're fairly narrow bezels, the overall look spoils the otherwise sleek design aesthetic. Our disappointment with the display extends to the quality of the screen overall.

Although HP fits some of its higher-end machines with outstanding displays, including those with OLED technology, the HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16 features a fairly uninspiring panel that lacks the flair you'd expect to pay for at this price point. The 1,900 x 1,200 IPS screen is the same used in the HP ZBook Power G11 – and it's limited to a basic 60Hz refresh rate and poor 140.45 pixels-per-inch sharpness. It's also on the dimmer side; we measured a peak luminescence of 319 nits using a display calibrator (less than the roughly 350 to 400 nits average); anything less than 300 nits would be a noticeable problem, so thankfully, this model falls just on the right side of the line.

If you can put up with a display that isn't the brightest available, you'll find that its colors are at least accurate for professional usage, boasting a solid 99% coverage of the sRGB spectrum, as well as 74.7% coverage of the Adobe RGB spectrum and 81.4% coverage of the DCI-P3 spectrum (above the 70% and 80% that we're looking for). The screen also boasts an impressive 0.16cd/m2 black level (excellent for an IPS screen), corresponding to a 1,960:1 contrast ratio. The downside is a horrible maximum delta-E figure of 15.21 (where under 6 is considered a decent result) – translating to a heavy propensity for color distortion against the norm. We'd say this rules out any prospect for using this machine for accurate visual-based work, despite a good set of color accuracy results.

HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16: Performance and battery life

For a more-than-£2,000 machine, you should expect high-end performance – but the HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16 sadly doesn't quite hit the mark. Our review unit was configured with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (8 cores) processor and AMD Radeon 860M graphics card, alongside an impressive 1TB SSD and 64GB RAM. The processor also includes an integrated NPU with 50 TOPS of AI power to make the most of the features available natively on AI PCs.

For a configuration like this, our benchmarking results were a letdown. When testing the machine with Geekbench 6, we registered a single-threaded score of 1,639 and a multi-core result of 9,659 – which are collectively well below average compared with the current generation of laptops. We would expect single-threaded performance of above 2,000 at a minimum – while multi-core performance of under 10,000 puts this alongside processors from at least one or two generations ago. The same processor fitted into the Asus ExpertBook P3 scored 2,659 and 11,004, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 255H in the Dell 16 Premium, by contrast, scored a huge 2,803 and 16,016. Overall, the EliteBook isn't as convincing for users who want to take advantage of maximum power.

The machine's capacity for graphics power is respectable, on the other hand, with a 20,855 score in the OpenCL test. That makes it good enough for basic-to-mid-level graphics-based workloads, but it's a little weaker than the Intel Arc Graphics GPU, as well as the same AMD Radeon 860M Graphics chip we tested in the HP ZBook 8 G1ak 14, which scored 22,153.

It's worth noting, however, that HP tends to fit its devices with faster-than-average SSDs, and that's certainly true for the EliteBook, with the 1TB SSD hitting read and write speeds of 7,041MB/s and 5,841MB/s respectively – comfortably above average.

Where the hardware comes to the rescue is the machine's battery life, with a lifespan of 14hrs and 29mins a very good result for a 16in machine, thanks to the chipset's efficiency. Many 16in laptops, by comparison, can't last beyond 12hrs in the same test – with the exception of the HP ZBook Power G11, which lasted more than 17hrs.

HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16: Features

The full-sized keyboard in the HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16 is a mixed bag, but pleasant overall. The keys are incredibly firm to the touch and snappy – perhaps giving too much bite with each keystroke – but satisfying while touch typing, given the deep travel distance and audible snap with each push. Our only major issue was the lamentable inclusion of PG UP and PG DN keys above the Left and Right arrow keys -- meaning it's a recipe for jaunty button taps. There's also, bizarrely, a shortcut to open the Calculator app. While useful to some extent, it would have been much better to turn this into a configurable hotkey that opens an app of the user's choosing. The touchpad, meanwhile, is almost perfect if it weren't for the slight lack of friction that might see your fingers slipping a tad too much if you are trying to be precise. Otherwise, it's large enough, and there's a healthy amount of force feedback with each click.

The connectivity options in this machine are satisfying – with the variety, modernity, and distribution of ports exactly what you would expect. On the left-hand side, you'll find two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbs), an HDMI 2.1 port, and 3.5mm headphone jack. On the right, you'll find another USB-C port (10Gbps), a USB-A port (5Gbps with power delivery), and a security lock slot. You'll also get access to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, futureproofing this machine. Unfortunately, there's no room for an SD card slot, but it's otherwise a decent array.

One of the biggest selling points of this machine is its security features. The most noticeable is a display that guards against shoulder-surfing. The viewing angle, however, is incredibly restricted – meaning you'll need to look at the screen from a specific angle to see visuals at their brightest and most color-accurate, but it's a price worth paying for safety while working on the move. Otherwise, this laptop ships with the HP Wolf Security suite and a one-year subscription, alongside a host of additional features including HP Sure Start, Sure Run, Sure Recover, Sure Click, and Sure Admin. With 50 TOPS of AI power at your disposal, you can also tap into a collection of HP-developed and Windows 11-based AI tools. Among the most useful ones are meeting-based tools like Poly Camera Pro (compatible with the 5MP IR AI camera) that improves your backgrounds and focus during video calls, as well as a color tuning feature that adjusts your image based on the ambient light. Alongside facial recognition, there's also a fingerprint scanner built into the power button.

HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16: Is it worth it?

There's plenty of positives to find in this machine – but we can't help but feel its hardware and screen lets it down. The build quality is fantastic, with its weight and size lending it well to working with on the move – underlined by an impressive battery life for a 16-inch machine. The sturdy and robust chassis also exudes freshness thanks to its sharp silver finish. The security features included in this machine, meanwhile, make it ideal for anybody working with sensitive material – or anybody advised to take as many precautions as possible against information security threats and cyber attacks.

We can't help but feel let down by the hardware, however, with middling performance levels that don't hit the mark we'd expect from high-ticket items. We also wanted more from the screen, with a basic IPS display lacking sharpness and brightness, while also registering an outrageously high maximum Delta-E score, suggesting it's not fundamentally reliable for visual workloads despite otherwise strong color accuracy results that we gleaned in testing.

Whether we'd recommend this machine comes down to pricing. Our configuration with 64GB RAM is heavily overpriced, but you can sometimes find the same machine with 32GB RAM available at a discounted rate of £1,600, which would make it a solid pick for deployment in the enterprise.

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