HP EliteBook 850 G1 Performance Business Laptop

The HP EliteBook 850 G1 is a 15.6-inch business laptop with a slim profile of 0.8″, Intel’s widely adopted Core i-series i3, i5, and i7 dual-core ultra-low voltage processors, up to 16GB of RAM, and various storage choices including up to 1-Terabyte hard drive and up to 512GB solid state drive, plus additional flash-based cache for improved responsiveness. Graphics is either the basic integrated Intel HD 4400 or dedicated mid-range AMD Radeon HD 8750M 1GB. The screen can be either a 1366×768 or 1920×1080 panel, with anti-glare coating in both cases. Touchscreen isn’t available, but it is expected to arrive as an option. The optical drive is also missing. Since this is a business laptop, it comes with Pro version of Windows 8 with downgrade rights to Windows 7 Pro, as well as optionally Intel vPro system management technology and a fingerprint reader. There are also a spill resistant keyboard with optional backlight, webcam, stereo speakers, 3.0 speed on all four USB ports, DisplayPort and VGA video outputs, and a docking connector.

Unlike the majority of 15.6-inch laptop which have dedicated numeric pads on the keyboards, the 850 G1 doesn’t have it. Quite surprisingly for a business laptop, since this ommision will make entering large amounts of numeric data harder. On the positive side, the main part of the keyboard is perfectly centered.

The chassis of the EliteBook 850 G1 is rugged. It meets MIL-STD 810G ruggedness standards, meaning it can withstand very high and low temperatures, increased pressure, altitude, and humidity, and can absorb greater shocks than the non-rugged notebook. The keyboard deck is done up in silver aluminum, while the magnesium lid is covered with scratch-resistant matte soft-touch.