HP Elitebook X360 G2 review: Powerful device but pricey

HP Elitebook X360 G2 review: Powerful device but pricey

When it comes to business notebooks, HP is known to blend high-end specs with premium looks almost seamlessly. Taking forward the same legacy the company recently introduced the HP Elitebook X360 G2 in India. The laptop offers latest specifications and excellent build. Along with this, it also offers some security features which makes sure that your important data is safe and secure. The convertible comes with a price tag of Rs 1,61,496 and promises to offer best in-class experience. We used the business notebook for some time to help you decide whether it's worth your money or not.
Design and display
The HP Elitebook x360 G2 is a premium and elegant looking laptop. The device is made using the CNC Aluminium panel and is carved out of single metal block. The laptop resembles a lot to the earlier launched Spectre X360 which HP launched last year. It is quite sleek with 15mm thickness and flaunts a sleek business class design. The laptop comes with round edges and weighs 1.28kg, despite that it doesn't feel that heavy. The rear panel consists of the logo of HP and a single antenna line running to the top.
The laptop comes with a 13.3-inch full HD display with touchscreen display. The device comes with two USB 3.1 ports, 1 HDMI, USB Type C, 3.5mm audio jack and microSD card slot for connectivity. The company claims that the device can also be used in extreme weather conditions as well. The convertible comes with a completely flexible hinge, this means that you can easily use the device in various modes such as tent, tablet and others. The company has made the hinge quite sturdy and it keeps the display fixed in one position.

The HP Elitebook X360 G2 comes with a 13.3-inch full HD display with 1080X1920 pixel resolution. Despite a display of this size, the laptop is pretty sleek and compact. The display of the device is coated with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass which protects it from any kind of scratches and damage. The display offers punchy and bright colours from all the different viewing angles. It offers good colour reproduction and readability when used both indoors and outdoors.
The touch response on the device was also smooth and it took no time to register the inputs. The notebook also incorporate HP Sure View technology and it comes really handy when you are travelling in a public transport. The users can activate the feature with a press of F2, once activated the display will look washed out to the person sitting next you and will prevent them from peeping in your screen. The screen, on the other hand, will appear normal to you. This features aims to keep your information private and makes sure you work without any disturbance. The display offers a contrast ratio of 13221:1 which is good enough for high end laptops.
Keyboard and touchpad
All the HP laptops offer some of the better looking and comfortable to use keyboard. The company constantly work on improving the quality of its keyboards and touchpad. The HP Elite X360 G2 also comes with a nicely backlit and responsive keyboard. The keys have ample space in between and the company has installed indicator lights for Caps lock, Airplane mode, Num lock, Mic and Mute. The keyboard also offers a dedicated Skype for Business button which enables the users to share their screen and answer a call. Along with this, the keyboard also comes with a dedicated key which open up the Outlook Calendar.
Coming to the touchpad, it measures 11 x 6.5cm and is quite smooth to handle. The touchpad is Microsoft Precision-certified and it very well registers all the gestures such as two-fingered scrolling, pinch to zoom and others. In all we had a pretty good experience with the touchpad. The laptop also comes equipped with a fingerprint sensor which works with Windows Hello. We didn't face any issues with the fingerprint sensor in fact it was quite responsive. Along with this, the company has also incorporated two IR sensors located on both the sides of the camera for recognition which also work in accordance with Windows Hello security.

Performance
The high-end HP Elite X360 G2 is powered by Intel Core i7 - 7500U processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD space. It is a decent performer but takes up a lot of time to boot up.

Once its on it works quite fast and enables you to load heavy web pages with multiple tabs on with ease. Despite hours of continuous working the laptop remains cool as the company has incorporated its own cooling solution in the laptop. Multitasking on the device was smooth and the dual speakers placed on the either side of the laptop offers an uninterrupted audio experience. The speakers are powered by audio product manufacturer Bang & Olufsen and the sound output is clear and loud both on headphones and speakers. Considering that this is a business laptop, the manufacturer has also added some basic security features to it. The laptop comes with HP SureStart, which works at BIOS level and makes sure that your BIOS remains safe in case the device is attacked by any malicious software or security breach. Apart from this, there is also HP Client Security onboard which improves the security y adding a layer of two-factor authentication. We also ran some benchmarking tests and it scored 4,786 and 3,982 on PCMark and 3DMark respectively. The laptop easily manages to offer up to 10 hours of battery backup on a single charge and the battery charges completely within two hours.

The HP Elitebook X360 G2 runs Windows 10 and come with all the standard features of the operating system. Along with this it also has its share of bloatware and come pre-loaded with some apps from HP. The bloatware include Twitter, Facebook, Micecraft, Candy Crush Soda and Sling. There is also an HD webcam to facilitate video calling. It is positioned above the display and offers a fine experience during video calls. Considering that it an expensive machine the webcam lacks facial recognition so you can have a bit of a problem during video calls if the ambient light is not good enough.
Verdict
The HP Elitebook X360 G2 is no doubt a pretty good device designed for the business users. It flaunts a premium design, built and high-end specifications. It has a powerful processor with the latest operating system and a decent battery backup. Along with all this, it comes with a hefty price tag of Rs 1,61,496 which can be a turn off for many. You can also consider going for a MacBook if you are willing to spend this much. Moreover, we do feel that the convertible is a bit overpriced when compared to the other business laptops available in the market.