HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G review: This laptop has you beat, MacBook Pro

The HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G looks unassuming, but it’s full of surprises. At first glance, all I noticed was its boring (albeit fingerprint-resistant) silver exterior, but after using it for a few weeks, this laptop is certainly more than its lackluster chassis. 

Equipped with one of Intel’s new Core Ultra chips, the HP Elitebook 1040 G11 outpaces the M3 MacBook Pro in almost every category, most notably performance and battery life. I’m used to Windows laptops dying after seven hours; this laptop almost tripled that. It doesn’t quite rival the battery life of Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7, but still, I was thoroughly impressed.

Consider its satisfyingly responsive keyboard and trackpad, plentiful ports, and barely there weight — and the HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G might just make it to our best laptops list. It’s certainly not a perfect laptop, but its pros help you overlook some minor foibles.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G price and specs 

The HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G I tested for this review costs $2,099 via HP and comes with the following specs:

• Intel Core Ultra 7 165H CPU
• Integrated Intel Arc graphics
• 16GB of RAM
• 512GB SSD
• 14-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel, 60Hz, non-touch display
• Windows 11 Pro

If you don’t need as much performance power, you can pick up an HP Elitebook 1040 G11 configuration for just $1,899. It swaps out the Core Ultra 7 165H CPU above for Intel’s Core Ultra 5 125H CPU, but otherwise shares the same specs.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G design

The HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G won’t wow you visually with its design. The HP logo is sleek on the top cover, but the laptop’s chassis is a boring silver shade. In the laptop world, silver or dark gray are two of the most common laptop shades — and I’d love to see something new and different for this Elitebook.

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

While I’m not a fan of the laptop’s colorway, there are other things I adore. Opening the laptop with one hand is smooth, the hinges are sturdy, and its rounded corners are a nice design touch.

What I love most about the HP Elitebook 1040 G11’s design is how incredibly light it is. Starting at 2.6 pounds, this is the lightest laptop I’ve ever tested. My daily driver laptop is only three pounds, but man, that 0.4-pound difference is noticeable.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G display

The HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G features a simple 14-inch display with specs I’ve seen many times before, but it looks great. Its 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution is plenty crisp for streaming videos and working — and the 60Hz refresh rate offers a decent cloud gaming experience.

This is a non-touch display, which I rarely see anymore. I tend to avoid using my daily driver laptop’s touch screen anyway to prevent smudges from accumulating, so it definitely didn’t feel like anything was missing from this laptop.

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

In a fully lit room or while working outside, I used all 400 nits of brightness the HP Elitebook 1040 G11 offers. But with the lights off or at nighttime, I’d drop it to 50 percent brightness or even lower, which greatly extends its battery life. 

To get an idea of how well the laptop represents colors, I fired up the official Wicked trailer for the millionth time. Every color in the fictional world of Oz looked bright and vibrant, from Glinda’s pink attire to Elfaba’s green skin and the blue Shiz University uniforms.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G ports

The HP Elitebook 1040 G11 has all the ports I’d want in a laptop. 

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

On the right side, you’ll find: 

• USB Type-C port (3.2 Gen 2, 10 Gbps)
• USB Type-A port (3.2 Gen 1, 5 Gbps)
• Kensington Security slot
• SIM card slot

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

And on the left side: 

• HDMI 2.1 port 
• Two USB Type-C ports (Thunderbolt 4, 40 Gbps)
• Headset jack

For charging convenience, I love that this laptop features USB Type-C ports on both sides. And although you can connect external displays via Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, I prefer to see a laptop equipped with an HDMI port because most monitors come with an HDMI to HDMI cable.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G audio

Despite featuring quad stereo speakers with discrete amplifiers and audio by Poly Studio, the sound quality on HP’s Elitebook 1040 G11 5G is just okay.

I fired up the song I play on every set of speakers or headphones I test: Unprocessed’s “Real ft. Polyphia’s Tim Henson & Clay Gober.” The title is a mouthful, but this song has plucky bass notes and high-synth sounds that create rich depth that’s only audible on better-quality speakers. 

The full-bodied atmosphere this song is capable of creating was missing through the Elitebook 1040 G11’s speakers. The bass notes rang out slightly better than other laptops I’ve tested, but the song overall sounded dampened and a bit tinny through these speakers.

When I bumped it up to max volume, it got very loud, but not distorted — so that’s a win at least.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G keyboard and trackpad

Before I even started typing on the HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G’s keyboard, I could tell I’d like it. The keys look slightly raised, indicating a nice amount of travel while typing — and the keys feel nice and wide under my fingers. 

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

Because these keys are a bit wider than the keys on my daily driver laptop, the Yoga 9i, I made a few mistakes in the beginning. But as I’m typing on the Elitebook 1040 G11’s keyboard now, it feels fluid, like my fingers are easily bouncing from one key to the next. 

The power button for this laptop is in the top right corner of the keyboard, where I expected the Delete key to be. It only took a few typing sessions for my fingers to remember where to reach for the Delete key instead of the power button.

This laptop’s trackpad was smooth and responsive to swipe gestures. And although I initially noted clicking as clunkier than my regular laptop’s trackpad, it felt satisfying to click by the end of my time with it.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G benchmarks and performance

The HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G performs well under pressure. I fired up 35 RAM-hungry Google Chrome tabs, one of which was streaming live low-fidelity hip hop radio, and experienced no lagging nor stuttering. In fact, I could barely hear the fans kick up when muting the live radio.

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

However, the laptop can get hot under heavy workloads. And unfortunately, the laptop’s hottest point seems to be right under the middle of the keyboard. It never got too hot to touch while typing, and the laptop’s fans work quickly and efficiently to cool it down.

While real-world performance experience is important to mention, so are official benchmarks. On the Geekbench 6 performance test, the HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G earned a wonderful multi-core score of 12,680.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G battery life

MacBooks are no longer the only top dogs in the laptop space when it comes to battery life. I’m used to Windows laptops dying after only six or eight hours, but the HP Elitebook 1040 G11 more than exceeded my expectations.

We run down every laptop’s battery life by looping a 1080p video at 50 percent brightness — and this laptop just wouldn’t quit. The HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G lasted an incredible 19 hours and 27 minutes.

The only other Windows laptop we’ve tested so far that surpasses this is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, which lasted 22 hours and 50 minutes in the same battery test.

HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G webcam

The HP Elitebook 1040 G11 has a 5-megapixel IR camera on the top bezel, along with a slidable privacy shutter.

I snapped a photo of myself (and my tuxedo cat) on my patio outside and was impressed with the results. My green eyes, dark blue jacket, and pale complexion all rendered accurately — and I didn’t look too blurry.

Credit: Sarah Chaney / Mashable

Overall, it’s a great webcam compared to the average 1080p webcam I see on most laptops, but you need to have good lighting to get a crisp image. You don’t need to be outside like I was, but letting in some natural light makes a world of difference.

Is the HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G worth it?

With almost 19.5 hours of battery life and performance that rivals that of Apple’s M3 MacBooks, the HP Elitebook 1040 G11 5G is absolutely worth it. At the time of this review, this is the longest-lasting, non-ARM Windows laptop.

At $2,099, it's a pricey laptop, but you get a lot in exchange for that high price tag: zippy performance, a battery that just won’t quit, ports galore, a satisfyingly responsive keyboard, and a super lightweight design that you’ll barely notice in a backpack.

That said, it’s not perfect. If you need a laptop with the best speakers, a high-quality webcam, or a more interesting design, this probably isn’t the laptop for you. Instead, take a look at the M3 MacBook Pro.