84 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379
ULTRAPORTABLES
RYZEN-BASEDBUSINESSlaptops remain
surprisinglyrare,given that AMD’s chips tend
to be better multitaskersthan their Intel
counterparts.Perhaps the HP EliteBook 745
G5, with its quad-coreRyzen 72700U, can
make aconvincingargumentforthe platform.
This silvery notebook is abit plain, but it’s
well crafted nonetheless.The metal chassis
has apleasantlyexpensive-feeling matt finish,
and the whole thing just seems more solid
and rigid than the average laptop.At
326x234x17.9mm, it’s about middlingin
terms of thickness,and at 1.48kg it
comes in pretty heavy fora14-incher.
Still, we were alot happiercarryingit
about than we have been forany
15.6in laptop,savefor the LG Gram.
Being an EliteBook, securityis given a
special focus. On the hardwareside,that
means asmart card reader,afingerprint
reader and an infraredcamera,which is
compatiblewith WindowsHello forlogging
in via facial recognition.Forus, this worked
very well indeed,unlockingto the desktop
almost instantaneouslyafter we sat down.
The fingerprintreader is nice and fast, too.SAFE HANDS
HP has included its Client Security software.
One of its best features, full disk encryption,
isn’t supported on this particularlaptop,but it
still adds numeroussafeguards,such as a
requirementforadditionalpasswordor
fingerprintauthenticationbefore Windows
starts up,and HP Sure Recovery,which allows
you to re-imagethe EliteBook over anetwork
connectionin the event of amalware attack.
There’s also adecent mix of connections:
two full-sizeUSB3 ports plus aUSB Type-C
connector with video output support,along
with an HDMI port, Ethernetjack and aslot
forHP’s optionalThunderboltDock G2. ASIM
card slot also sits on the right edge,although
actuallybeing able to use it is an optional
extra; it was blockedoff on our test model.
Typing on the EliteBook 745 G5 is, forthe
most part, apleasure.Besides some weirdly
narrowup and down arrow keys, the chiclet
keys are large enoughforeasy,comfortable
tapping,and the switch design has a
wonderfulchunkyyet crisp feel to it.
The EliteBook 745 G5 is awash with other
inputs: there’s the usual trackpad,but also a
touchscreenand apointing stick in the middle
of the keyboard.This last one doesn’t have
any issues in itself,but does cause
one of very fewproblemswith the
keyboard:three of the keys have had
chunkstaken out of them to make room.HPEliteBook745G5
★★★★★
£1,108•From http://www.ebuyer.comVERDICT
Thissecurity-ladenlaptoptripsoversome
qualityissues,evenwhenitexcelselsewhereThe Bkey has sufferedparticularlybadly: it
was genuinelyoffputtingto catch our fingers
on the little rubber nub every time we went
forakey input. Comparedto,say,Lenovo’s
much lower-profile pointingstick design, it’s a
farless elegantimplementation.
Luckily,the trackpadis much better.
The texture is wonderfullyconduciveto
smoothswipes,and it feels spacious
withoutthe sense that the body had to
becomelarger as aresult.
The 14in touchscreenisn’t toobad at a
glance; the Full HD resolutionis sharp enough,
and contrastlooks high. We confirmedthis in
our colour calibrator tests, measuringavery
respectablecontrastratio of 1,264:1.
However,these tests also revealed the
display’s ugly side: sRGB colour gamut
coverage is particularlylow,atjust 56.8%, and
the average delta-Eis high, at 3.45. In other
words, despitethe laptop’s professional
leaningsit’s farfrom ideal forthings such as
graphicdesign and photoorvideo editing.IMPAIREDVISION
The biggestproblemis brightness.With the
laptop pluggedin, it managesapeak
brightnessonly of 213.7cd/m^2 ,which is lowenough,but unplugged,with brightness
settingsstill at maximum,it only reacheda
paltry 87.8cd/m^2 –not even enoughto meet
the 170cd/m^2 we use forbattery testing.
Combinedwith the glossy finish, this screen
has problemswith the reflectionsof overhead
office lights, let alone the sun.
Along with its Ryzen 72700U processor,
the EliteBook 745 G5 comes equippedwith
8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD.Althoughthis
configurationperformed well in our image and
video benchmarktests, scoring102 and 86
respectively,itproducedonly 67 in the
multitaskingtest, which forced down its
overall score to 79.That makes it atough sell;
besidesthere being faster laptops that cost
less, such as the Asus ZenBook 14 UX433FA,
even the MicrosoftLaptop 2isfaster with its
slower-on-paperCore i5 chip.
Then again, the EliteBook performs well
enoughin normaluse,and while there are
plenty of faster ultraportables,most of them
cost alot more.
There’s no arguing,however,that battery
lifeisanythingother than aletdown at just
5h 50m in our video rundowntest, and
remember,that’s at alower brightnesslevel
than we usually test laptop batteries.DOWNTO BUSINESS
Forsuch astrait-laced laptop,the EliteBook
745 G5 ends up an odd one: marvellousbuild
quality and features collidingawkwardlywith
adull screen and short battery life.
If the securityaspectsappeal,consider
the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga instead.
This is also aprofessionally-minded
laptop,and comes with afingerprint
sensor as well as Windows10 Pro.
It’s also alot pricier,however,sothe
Surface Laptop 2–with its facial
recognitionsign-in via WindowsHello –
might be amore realisticalternative.