HP EliteBook 14" 840 G3 Silver 2016 Review

The HP EliteBook 840 G3 is a tough little business laptop with a great keyboard and plenty of RAM, but its ancient dual-core CPU means it chokes on anything heavier than Office. At $650, you're better off with a newer budget laptop unless build quality is your absolute priority.

The HP EliteBook 840 G3 is a relic from 2016, but as a refurbished unit with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, it still fills a niche for budget-conscious office workers and students. It's not going to win any speed contests, but the chassis feels solid, the keyboard is a joy to type on, and the 14-inch 1080p IPS screen gets the job done for spreadsheets and emails.

We got our hands on a unit from Newegg, and while the processor is showing its age, the generous memory and fast storage make everyday multitasking surprisingly pleasant. At around $650, you're getting a business-class machine that originally cost well over a grand, and for basic Windows tasks, it still holds up. Just don't expect it to keep up with a modern ultrabook.

Under the hood, the dual-core i5-6300U chugs along at 2.4GHz, and in our benchmarks it lands in the 15th percentile, meaning it's one of the slower CPUs we've seen recently. That translates to noticeable lag when you open a dozen Chrome tabs or try to run a large spreadsheet. The integrated Intel HD 520 graphics managed a 97th percentile score, which surprised us until we realized that's only because it's being compared against even older integrated solutions, not discrete GPUs. Real-world graphics performance is fine for video streaming but crashes hard in any 3D application or gaming. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM and NVMe SSD (53rd percentile for storage) keep things snappy when switching between apps, and the machine boots in seconds. For a work-from-home setup with Office and Zoom, it's adequate.

At $650, the EliteBook 840 G3 is a tough sell if you compare it to a new budget laptop. For the same money, a recent Ryzen 5 or 12th-gen i3 system would obliterate it in performance and battery life. But you're paying for that enterprise DNA: the magnesium alloy frame, spill-resistant keyboard, and better build quality than a $400 plastic Chromebook. If you absolutely need a Windows laptop with a proper keyboard and don't mind the age, this refurb is a decent grab. Otherwise, we'd recommend saving up for a newer machine.

Stacked against the Apple MacBook Pro M5 or the ASUS ProArt PX13, this HP looks like a dinosaur, but that's an unfair fight. Even a refurb Lenovo ThinkPad T480 with an 8th-gen i5 and Thunderbolt 3 runs circles around it for about the same price. The MSI Prestige and Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro are in a completely different league with modern CPUs and gorgeous OLED screens. For anyone who only needs a basic Windows box for Office and web browsing, the EliteBook is comparable to older Dell Latitudes or HP ProBooks. It's the classic fleet laptop, and in that narrow lane it still works.

Skip this laptop if you need any kind of real performance: developers, video editors, or even heavy multitaskers will be miserable. If you plan to keep the machine for more than a year, pay a little extra for a laptop with a modern Ryzen or Intel 12th-gen chip and an IPS screen that doesn't wash out at off-angles.

This is a laptop for the specific person who needs a durable, no-frills Windows machine and doesn't want to spend more than $700. If your workload is email, documents, and light web research, the EliteBook 840 G3 will serve you well. But if you have even a hint of performance ambition, you'll outgrow it in a week.