HP EliteBook 16" 860 G11 Review

So, HP's latest EliteBook 860 G11. It's a 16-inch business laptop that's trying to do a lot of things at once. You've got a big, bright screen, a ton of ports, and that classic HP business build. But at nearly $1900, it's asking you to make some pretty specific compromises.

Honestly, this thing is for the corporate road warrior who absolutely needs a 16-inch screen and a full set of I/O ports, but doesn't need serious horsepower. Think of the consultant who lives in spreadsheets and video calls, or the manager who needs to present from their laptop in a bright conference room. It's not for developers compiling massive codebases or anyone who wants to game on the side.

What's interesting here is the focus. HP clearly prioritized the screen and connectivity over raw performance. That 1000-nit display is seriously bright, and having Thunderbolt, HDMI 2.1, and a full suite of ports puts it in the 85th percentile for connectivity. That's a big deal if you're constantly plugging into projectors and docks. But that Intel 125U CPU and integrated graphics tell you where the budget didn't go.

Let's talk numbers. That Intel Core Ultra 125U CPU lands in the 40th percentile. In plain English, it's fine for office work, web browsing, and multitasking with a dozen Chrome tabs. But you'll feel it strain with heavy Excel calculations, video encoding, or running a local development server. It's not slow, but it's definitely not fast for the price. The integrated Intel Graphics are right in the middle of the pack at the 50th percentile, which matches the 'gaming: 17/100' score perfectly. You can watch 4K video, but forget about modern games or any 3D modeling.

The benchmarks back up the real-world feel. Our testing shows it's best suited for 'entertainment' tasks like media consumption (63.3/100), thanks to that fantastic screen. But for 'developer' workloads (51.4/100), it's just adequate. The 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD are also middle-of-the-road, at the 50th and 46th percentiles respectively. They get the job done, but you won't be blown away. Performance is exactly what the specs promise: competent for daily business tasks, but not an ounce more.

Here's the tough part: the value proposition at $1899 is really hard to justify. You're paying a premium for the EliteBook brand, the big bright screen, and the port selection, but you're getting mid-tier performance components. For the same money, you could get laptops with much faster CPUs, dedicated GPUs, or more refined designs. It feels like you're buying into a specific corporate ecosystem or a very particular need (that screen and those ports) rather than getting balanced performance for your dollar.

Stack this up against some obvious competitors, and the trade-offs become clear. The ASUS Zenbook Duo, for a similar price, gives you two screens and often better CPU performance in a more innovative package, though it sacrifices some port selection. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a gaming laptop, but even configured down, it would demolish this EliteBook in CPU and GPU power for less money, while being thicker and louder.

Then there's the elephant in the room: the Apple MacBook Pro. Even an older M3 MacBook Pro at this price point offers blistering CPU performance, incredible battery life, and a stunning screen, completely shaming the EliteBook in raw efficiency and speed. You lose some ports and Windows, but you gain so much performance. The EliteBook's niche is if you must have a Windows-based 16-inch business laptop with every port under the sun, and you're willing to accept slower internals to get it.

If you're a business user whose company is supplying this, and you need a big, bright screen for presentations and a laptop that can connect to anything without dongles, the EliteBook 860 G11 makes sense. It's a competent, professional-looking tool for that specific job.

For literally anyone else buying with their own money—developers, students, power users, or even general professionals—I can't recommend it. At $1899, the performance is too far behind the competition. Look at a higher-spec Framework Laptop, a Dell XPS 15, or even a last-gen MacBook Pro. You'll get more speed, better battery life, or more features for your investment. This EliteBook is a specialist tool priced like a generalist flagship, and that's a tough sell.