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HP Elitebook 865 G9. Top notch Ryzen chip, up to 64GB RAM (non soldered), IPS screen, LTE WWAN modem, 75whr battery, very user serviceable, and USB 4 (charging

HP Elitebook 865 G9. Top notch Ryzen chip, up to 64GB RAM (non soldered), IPS screen, LTE WWAN modem, 75whr battery, very user serviceable, and USB 4 (charging + display). ~$1400 USD https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-elitebook-865-g9-notebook-pc-customizable-473r6av-mb https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-elitebook-865-g9-notebo...

davidovitch 4y ago
I have an EliteBook 845 G7 and also that one is top notch, minus the screen and driver bug on the WWAN modem. I whish HP did not include a keypad though on the bigger screen sizes since your hands are always towards the left instead of the middle of the machine (Dell and Lenovo have 15/16 inch options for which the keyboard does not have a keypad).
nicolaslem 4y ago
My main driver is a HP Elitebook 845 G9 (so the 14" version) running Arch. I have been using it for the past six months to do mostly backend development in Python. Pros: - Performance is really good, I haven't run benchmarks but day to day I see no difference with my beefy Zen 3 desktop. It completely replaced my desktop computer, except for games. - Almost everything works out of the box on Linux. I think the fingerprint reader does not work, but I wasn't going to use it anyway. - Issues tend to be fixed via either kernel updates or BIOS updates. I used to have to reboot it daily at the beginning for one reason or another (did not wake from sleep, wifi card stopped working...), now I rarely get any problem. - Easy to open and every component is user serviceable. They have official disassembly guides on Youtube and sell spare parts. - Suspend works reliably (which is not a given these days, even on Windows). - Key travel is short but the tactile feedback is strong enough that I don't feel like I'm missing too much on this front. - The 16:10 aspect ratio of the display is a game changer. My SO has the G8 with a 16:9 ratio and the difference is night and day. - Enough connectors to not have to carry dongles. Cons: - The GPU still crashes from time to time, roughly once a week. This requires a reboot. - The only version available in my region has a 38Wh battery which gives only ~6 hours of life. I will be swapping the battery for a bigger one at some point. - The non-LPDDR5 means that the battery life when sleeping is not amazing, it tends to lose ~10% overnight. - Power consumption is good but not on par with the best laptops at ~5W idle. - I chose the matte low-power display, color is good, viewing angles are good but the ghosting is atrocious. It's the first time I get a device where ghosting is distracting. - The NVME drive the laptop shipped with died on me after a few hours of use. I swapped it with another drive I had available, no problem since. - Firmware updates are only officially available for Windows but the Windows binary can be used on Linux with a bit of command-line-fu. - The trackpad is large and good but the push to click only works on the bottom half as opposed to a typical Macbook where the whole surface can be pressed down. - USB-C ports for charging only on the left side. - Arrow keys are half-height, I hit page up/page down all the time while trying to press arrow keys. Super annoying when using the command line.

davidovitch 4y ago

I have an EliteBook 845 G7 and also that one is top notch, minus the screen and driver bug on the WWAN modem. I whish HP did not include a keypad though on the bigger screen sizes since your hands are always towards the left instead of the middle of the machine (Dell and Lenovo have 15/16 inch options for which the keyboard does not have a keypad).

nicolaslem 4y ago

My main driver is a HP Elitebook 845 G9 (so the 14" version) running Arch. I have been using it for the past six months to do mostly backend development in Python. Pros: - Performance is really good, I haven't run benchmarks but day to day I see no difference with my beefy Zen 3 desktop. It completely replaced my desktop computer, except for games. - Almost everything works out of the box on Linux. I think the fingerprint reader does not work, but I wasn't going to use it anyway. - Issues tend to be fixed via either kernel updates or BIOS updates. I used to have to reboot it daily at the beginning for one reason or another (did not wake from sleep, wifi card stopped working...), now I rarely get any problem. - Easy to open and every component is user serviceable. They have official disassembly guides on Youtube and sell spare parts. - Suspend works reliably (which is not a given these days, even on Windows). - Key travel is short but the tactile feedback is strong enough that I don't feel like I'm missing too much on this front. - The 16:10 aspect ratio of the display is a game changer. My SO has the G8 with a 16:9 ratio and the difference is night and day. - Enough connectors to not have to carry dongles. Cons: - The GPU still crashes from time to time, roughly once a week. This requires a reboot. - The only version available in my region has a 38Wh battery which gives only ~6 hours of life. I will be swapping the battery for a bigger one at some point. - The non-LPDDR5 means that the battery life when sleeping is not amazing, it tends to lose ~10% overnight. - Power consumption is good but not on par with the best laptops at ~5W idle. - I chose the matte low-power display, color is good, viewing angles are good but the ghosting is atrocious. It's the first time I get a device where ghosting is distracting. - The NVME drive the laptop shipped with died on me after a few hours of use. I swapped it with another drive I had available, no problem since. - Firmware updates are only officially available for Windows but the Windows binary can be used on Linux with a bit of command-line-fu. - The trackpad is large and good but the push to click only works on the bottom half as opposed to a typical Macbook where the whole surface can be pressed down. - USB-C ports for charging only on the left side. - Arrow keys are half-height, I hit page up/page down all the time while trying to press arrow keys. Super annoying when using the command line.