The new HP EliteBook X G2i is making a strong case as one of the most capable 14-inch business laptops on the market, combining a lightweight design with Intel’s latest Panther Lake processors. After two weeks of testing, the machine handled everything thrown at it without a hitch.
The laptop weighs just 1.1 kilograms, making it nearly invisible in a bag. For someone who commutes on a motorbike, the weight difference is noticeable every time you pick up the bag. The chassis uses an aluminum alloy, with at least 30 percent recycled plastic and about 85 percent recycled metal in its construction. Build quality is excellent, though the lid uses a magnet to stay closed, which made the one-finger opening test a bit annoying. The bottom panel comes off easily with just four Philips screws, but the RAM is permanently attached.
A display that actually works in bright rooms
The 14-inch WUXGA anti-glare OLED panel runs at 60Hz with 300 nits of brightness. Indoor use is fine, even in well-lit rooms, but working near a sunny window might be a problem. The anti-reflective coating made a real difference compared to other laptops on the desk, cutting down on glare from ceiling lights and windows.
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Color coverage sits at 95 percent DCI P3, and a quick test in Lightroom and Photoshop confirmed the panel handles photo editing well. The top-of-the-line variant bumps things up to a 3K tandem OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate and full coverage of the color space. The base model lacks HDR support, but this does not hinder most office work.
Connectivity that goes beyond the basics
Port selection is generous for a thin-and-light business machine. It includes three USB-C ports: two Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps with DP 2.1 and PD 3.0) and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps). A single USB-A port, HDMI 2.1 (supporting 8K at 30fps), a 3.5mm audio jack, and a Kensington lock slot are also present. An optional 5G SIM module is available for always-on connectivity.
Wireless duties are handled by a MediaTek WiFi 7 card and Bluetooth 6.
Keyboard and trackpad that feel right
The keyboard is a highlight. Key travel measures 1.5mm, the feedback is crisp, and the typing experience feels excellent. Backlighting has a standard two-stage brightness adjustment. The haptic trackpad is large, responsive, and uses a vibration motor instead of a mechanical button. Gesture controls let you swipe up and down on the left side to change brightness and on the right side to adjust volume. Vibration intensity can be tweaked in settings. The audio system surprised me. Two downward-firing speakers and two upward-firing speakers deliver sound that overpowered the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i in direct comparison. Clarity is top-tier for a machine of this size, though nobody would call them jaw-dropping.
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AI-powered noise cancellation is built in, and the 5MP IR camera — powered by the Poly Cam Pro application — produced video quality that was hard to believe at first.
Panther Lake performance and real-world benchmarks
The review unit came with the Intel Core Ultra 7 358H, a 16-core, 16-thread CPU based on Intel’s 18A process node. It is paired with 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM (9600MT/s) and a 1TB NVMe M.2 PCIe 4×4 SSD. A new NPU offers up to 50 TOPS of AI compute. Total on-device AI compute for the X7 358H hits 181 TOPS, combining CPU, GPU, and NPU.
The benchmark results are as follows:
- PCMark 10: 8,820
- 3D Mark Time Spy: 7,721
- PugetBench for Photoshop: 8,603
- Geekbench 6.6: 2,854 single-core, 15,627 multi-core
- Cinebench 2024: 993 multi-core, 124 single-core
The new Intel Arc B390 iGPU — a 12-core design — is a huge improvement over the older Iris Xe graphics. Games like Forza Horizon 6, Tomb Raider, Halo Infinite, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ran well at 1080p on medium settings. Nobody is buying this laptop for gaming, but it handles casual play without complaint.
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The processor options range from a Core Ultra 5 with 4.5GHz boost and 12MB L3 cache up to the Core Ultra X7 368H with 5GHz max turbo frequency. My unit had soldered RAM, which is a letdown — the Asus ExpertBook Ultra, a direct competitor, offers user-upgradeable memory.
Battery life that lasts the workday and then some
Average battery life came in at 20 hours. Some light work days stretched past that mark. The included 65W GaN charger is small enough to fit anywhere, a welcome change from the boxy adapters of earlier HP laptops. It also ships with a fingerprint sensor, a physical camera shutter, a TPM 2.0 chip, and HP Wolf Security for malware prevention and threat containment. The lid does have a slight bit of flex, which is noticeable but not alarming.
Starting at Rs 2,50,000, the EliteBook X G2i sits at the higher end of the business laptop market. It is not cheap, but the combination of build quality, performance, and portability makes it one of the top choices in its niche. Keep following the outlet for more tech reviews.