HP EliteBook Ultra 14" G1i

The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is an ultraportable stunner with a jaw-dropping 2.8K OLED touchscreen and a barely-there 1.19kg chassis. 32GB of RAM is generous, but the 512GB SSD and weak integrated graphics feel like big compromises at the $2,299 starting price. It's a near-perfect travel laptop for business users who value screen quality above all else, but gamers and storage hogs should look elsewhere.

The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is one of those laptops that makes you do a double take when you first pick it up. At 1.19kg, it feels almost impossibly light, yet it houses a bright and vibrant 14-inch 2.8K OLED touchscreen that hits 100% DCI-P3 color and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. It's clearly aimed at business travelers, executives, and anyone who needs a premium Windows machine that slips into a bag like a tablet. HP is calling this a 'next-gen AI PC' thanks to the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and its neural processing unit, so there's some local AI wizardry built right in. But what really grabs you is that display. It's one of the absolute best screens we've seen in an ultraportable, landing in the top tier of our laptop database. The 32GB of RAM is also generous, sitting among the best RAM configs for this class. This combination of a drop-dead gorgeous panel and featherweight chassis is the main event.

Now, you might see the EliteBook Ultra G1i and think it's the perfect little productivity powerhouse for everything. And for office apps, video calls, spreadsheets, and some light photo editing, it absolutely sings. The integrated Intel Arc Graphics 140V is a step up from older Intel integrated GPUs and handles everyday visuals with ease. But the moment you ask it to do anything resembling modern gaming, the party ends. Our database places its gaming capability deep into the 'disappointing' zone, which makes total sense given there's no discrete GPU. That's by design. This is a business tool with a creative twist and AI smarts, not a gaming rig. The 512GB SSD is also a head-scratcher at this price. It's a fast PCIe 4.0 drive, but in a world where a thousand bucks gets you a terabyte, 512GB feels a bit chintzy for a flagship.

There's a heavy emphasis on security here too, with HP Wolf Pro Security baked into the hardware and firmware. The 5MP IR camera works with Windows Hello and HP's privacy features, and you get a fingerprint reader built into the keyboard. For corporate IT departments, that's a big selling point. The port selection is decent: three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, one USB-A, and a headphone jack. No HDMI, but that's typical for thin-and-lights. Wi-Fi 7 support is future-proof, and Bluetooth 5.4 keeps your peripherals humming. If you live in spreadsheets and PowerPoint and value a screen that makes everything look like a work of art, the EliteBook Ultra G1i is a strong contender. But there's a 'but' coming, and it has to do with price, storage, and just how much you're willing to pay for that screen.

The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is an efficient 8-core chip that clocks up to 2.2GHz, and in real-world use it handles a dozen browser tabs, Slack, Zoom, and Office with zero drama. It falls right into the solid, above-average range for CPU performance in our database. That means it's no slouch, but it's also not going to break any Cinebench records. The integrated Arc Graphics 140V with 16GB of shared LPDDR5X memory gives a slight boost to media playback and light creative work, but it's still a far cry from a discrete GPU. In our rankings, the overall GPU performance sits right around the middle of the pack, which is honestly fine for a business notebook. Just don't try to edit 4K video on a deadline or render 3D models.

Where the EliteBook Ultra G1i really shines under the hood is the memory speed and screen responsiveness. That 32GB of LPDDR5x is blazing fast and helps the system stay snappy even when you throw a lot at it. The 120Hz OLED makes every scroll and window animation buttery smooth. It's one of those things you don't think you need until you use it, and then going back to a 60Hz screen feels like stepping into molasses. The 512GB SSD is about average in terms of capacity, and the read/write speeds are typical for PCIe 4.0, so your apps and files load quickly. But that's it. There's no wild benchmark lead here. The chassis fans do spin up under sustained load, though they tend to stay at a lower, whooshing frequency rather than an annoying whine. If you work in a quiet office, you'll notice them.

Pricing for the HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is a bit of a roller coaster. We've seen listings as low as $2,299 and some that are just... astronomical. Let's ignore the outlier that's nearly half a million dollars; the realistic entry point you should be looking at is that $2,299 mark, often from retailers like Newegg. For that sum, you're getting a premium OLED panel, 32GB of RAM, a lightweight magnesium alloy body, and some AI bells and whistles. But you're also only getting 512GB of storage, and the integrated GPU means you can't even dabble in casual gaming without chugging.

Compare that to a Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro, which often comes with a similar OLED screen and can be found for a bit less. The MSI Prestige series also trades blows and sometimes undercuts HP on price while offering comparable portability. But HP does have an ace in that screen; it's brighter and color-accurate enough for creative pros who don't want to lug around a MacBook Pro. If that display is your top priority and you're okay with the compromises, the value proposition starts clicking into place. For everyone else, you can get a lot more storage and even a discrete GPU in a slightly heavier chassis for the same money.

The most obvious rival is Apple's MacBook Pro M4 Max. That machine will steamroll the EliteBook in raw CPU and GPU power, and its battery life is legendary, but it weighs over a kilogram more and lacks a touchscreen. The HP fights back with its featherweight design, OLED touch panel, and a more flexible port selection if you count USB-A. For business travel, the EliteBook is simply easier to live with day-to-day. The ASUS ROG Flow GZ302EA-XS99 and Lenovo Legion Pro 7i are gaming-focused and way more powerful graphically, but they're also much thicker and heavier. If you even think you'll want to play games on a business trip, one of those would be smarter, but you'll sacrifice that grab-and-go convenience.

The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro and MSI Prestige are the more direct peers. The Galaxy Book5 Pro often matches the HP on screen quality and thinness, and its pricing can be more aggressive. The MSI Prestige sometimes sneaks in a discrete GPU and more storage at a similar price. However, the EliteBook's build quality feels a touch more tank-like in its magnesium casing, and the Wolf Security suite adds a layer of corporate trust that the others struggle to match. If your company requires vPro or hardware-level security, the HP moves ahead of the pack. For everyone else, the competition is too strong to ignore.

If your idea of a good time involves any kind of 3D gaming, this laptop will frustrate you to no end. The integrated Arc graphics are simply not cut out for modern titles, and the 512GB drive would fill up with a couple of big games anyway. Content creators working with large raw photo or video files should also pause. That 512GB cap is going to cause constant storage anxiety, and the lack of an SD slot means one more dongle to lose. Look at a MacBook Pro with a bigger SSD or a Dell XPS 15 with a discrete GPU instead.

Budget-conscious buyers, take note. At $2,299, you are paying a massive premium for the OLED screen and the weight savings. If you don't absolutely need a sub-1.2kg laptop with a perfect display, you can get a machine with double the storage and a dedicated GPU for less money. We'd steer you toward the MSI Prestige series or even a last-gen HP Spectre if you want to stay in HP's ecosystem without the eye-watering price.

If you're a business professional who travels frequently and lives inside Microsoft Office, Teams, and a web browser, the HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is almost a dream machine. That screen will spoil you rotten, the 5MP camera makes you look sharp in meetings, and the 1.19kg weight means you might legitimately forget it's in your bag. The 32GB of RAM gives it a long life span, and the AI features are a nice bonus. It's the kind of laptop that makes you want to work from a coffee shop just to show it off.

But if you're a student, a gamer, a video editor, or just someone who hates dongles, walk away. The gaming performance is abysmal, the SSD is too cramped for large media libraries, and the lack of an SD card slot or HDMI port will frustrate you daily. For those use cases, we'd point you toward the latest MacBook Air with a bigger SSD, or even a Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro if you want OLED and a bit more value. The EliteBook Ultra G1i is a specialist. It does a few things incredibly well, and it expects you to work within its narrow, beautiful bubble.