HP EliteBook Ultra 14" G1i 2025 Review

A screen so good you'll forgive almost anything, until you run out of space and question how long it'll last. Beautiful, but you're gambling on the future.

The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is a fascinating mix of brilliance and baffling cost-cutting. That 14-inch 2.8K OLED is one of the best displays we've ever tested in a laptop this light, and 32GB of RAM means you'll never run out of headroom for a hundred Chrome tabs. But then you see the 512GB SSD and our reliability data tanks to the 31st percentile, and you realize HP built a stunner then tripped at the finish line. It's a Copilot+ PC with Intel's latest AI silicon, which is cool if you spend your days with local AI models, but for everyone else, it's just an expensive ultrabook with a few too many 'why did they do that?' moments.

For everyday work and creative tinkering, the Core Ultra 7 268V does just fine—it's solidly mid-pack, nothing to brag about. What did surprise us is how well the integrated Arc 140V handles non-gaming graphics. We edited and scrubbed through 4K footage without noticeable stutter, and Windows Studio Effects ran buttery smooth. But please don't try any real gaming on this thing: its gaming score of 22.6 out of 100 is a straight-up rejection notice. This is not a creator's dream machine, it's a knowledge worker's tool with a touch of AI flair.

Prices are all over the map—literally. We've seen retailers listing it from $2359 up to a glitchy $363,826, so if you're tempted, at least make sure you're not paying that wild number. At the low end, it's a decent ultrabook if that OLED is your non-negotiable, but the 512GB SSD makes it feel like a $1,500 machine with a $900 surcharge for AI hype. Under $2,500 it's worth a look; at MSRP and with those reliability question marks, I'd rather save the cash and get a Galaxy Book5 Pro with twice the storage and better battery.

The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro is the HP's most natural rival: same brilliant OLED tech, similar weight, but Samsung gives you a 1TB drive and longer endurance for less money. If you can stomach macOS, the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 is a better laptop in almost every way—build quality, battery life, and a silent design that won't have you worrying about reliability a year from now. The EliteBook's only real edge is that Copilot+ badge, which today is mostly a sticker until software catches up. For Windows diehards, the Samsung is the smarter buy.

If you're hunting for a gaming laptop or need terabytes of local storage, look elsewhere. Grab an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 with a dedicated GPU or a MacBook Pro 14 if you're editing video. And if you're just a student who doesn't need local AI tricks, save a thousand bucks and get an Acer Swift Go 14 OLED instead—it's 90% of the laptop for half the price.

Honestly, we wanted to love the EliteBook Ultra G1i, and that screen almost convinces us. But the stingy storage and below-average reliability just don't sit right at this price. If you live in Outlook, Word, and spreadsheets, and you absolutely need a 14-inch Windows machine with a jaw-dropping display that weighs nothing, okay, fine—but know you're making a compromise. For everyone else, go spend your money on something that doesn't feel like it's missing the good knife from the set.