HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8

HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8: Design and construction

There is one thing that you can’t miss on this notebook, and it is the design. The sharp edges, the cool touch provided by the aluminum chassis, and the portable form factor. All of this combined results in a compelling package made entirely out of aluminum. It has a profile of 16.6mm and weighs 1.31 kg, and its anodized finish doesn’t let smudges and fingerprints stick to the surface. Moreover, the structural integrity seems on point with very little visible flex even with a lot of force applied to the chassis.

Now, the lid can be opened with a single hand, but as soon as you pass 60°, the base will lift up. On the bright side, the hinges provide a very smooth movement, and once you open in tablet mode, a set of magnets help the lid stick to the base. This makes it comfortable for both handling, and using the Active Pen HP provides with the device. Speaking of which, you can stick the Pen to the left side of the notebook, again, thanks to the help of magnets.

As for the display, it has extremely thin bezels around it. By the way, due to the fact that our unit is equipped with the Sure View technology, it has an anti-reflective layer on top despite the glass protective layer. Interestingly, there is a pronounced strip hidden in the top bezel, which holds a ton of sensors. This includes the HD camera, some microphones, an ambient light sensor, and an IR face recognition sensor. Moreover, you get a proximity sensor, which detects your presence/absence and logs out of the device as soon as you stand from your desk.

Further down we see the keyboard. It has a dual-stage backlight and a spill-resistance layer. But this is not the most impressive thing about it. Instead, it has very good feedback, which is both tactile, and quiet. Plus, the key travel is surprisingly long, given the profile of the notebook. We also observed very little deck flex in general.

Appropriately, it is paired with a responsive touchpad, which has a glass surface, delivering smooth gliding to your fingers. And before we forget – there is one more feature there – an NFC coil built to the top right corner of the touchpad.

In case you didn’t see, there is a couple of speakers surrounding the keyboard. But this is not all, as two more are hiding at the bottom panel. There is also the ventilation grill, while the hot air escapes from super slim cutouts on the back.

Ports

On the left side of the notebook, there is a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an audio jack, a SIM card tray, and a security lock slot. Switch sides, and you will find another USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an HDMI 2.0 connector, which is followed by two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, either of which can be used for charging.

Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

In this case, the battery pack has a capacity of 54Wh. Please, make sure you unplug the battery connector before you do anything on the inside.

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, the memory here is soldered to the motherboard. With that said, the laptop comes in configurations including 8, 16, or 32GB of LPDDR4 RAM, all working in dual-channel mode. Storage-wise, there is a single M.2 PCIe x4 slot, hidden by a metal bracket.

Looking at the cooling solution, we see two heat pipes leading to a pair of heat sinks. Perhaps the most controversial part of this system is the fans, which are really small and have a very thin profile.

Display quality

HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8 is equipped with a Full HD IPS touchscreen panel, IVO X140NVFC R0 (IVO8C78). Its diagonal is 14-inch (35.5 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.16 х 0.16 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels). One important feature of this device is its Sure View technology. Its purpose is to block unwanted viewers from seeing the content of your screen. A key role in that place the backlight and an additional light directing layer.

We apply these photos to evaluate the viewing angles. The 45-degree photos are taken with a longer exposure than the front-facing one.

The following set of images are taken with the same exposure (manual shooting mode) in a dark room.

The maximum measured brightness is excellent – 605 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 601 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 12%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6300K – slightly warmer than the standard 6500K temperature for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 29% Brightness (White level = 141 cd/m2, Black level = 0.07 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1900:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 89% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 29 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.

Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8’s backlight does not use PWM for brightness adjustment. This makes it comfortable and safe for use in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8’s touchscreen IPS panel has a very high maximum brightness, great contrast ratio, and reasonably wide color coverage (89% of the sRGB gamut). We are happy to find that its backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level, which makes the laptop comfortable and safe for long periods of use. Moreover, with the help of our Gaming and Web design profile, the color representation is accurate enough for e-commerce and other scenarios. As we said, it comes equipped with the Sure View system. When it’s enabled, you can take advantage of the narrow viewing angles. This, respectively, will keep your work to yourself (and everyone sitting right behind you).