Display and audio

The HP EliteBook Ultra sports a 14-inch 2.2K LED touch display. The display offers decent colours and brightness. However, it requires frequent adjustments due to suboptimal viewing angles worsened by a slightly weak display hinge. Moreover, the glossy property of the display makes it reflective and less suitable for use in bright environments.

Despite these minor niggles, the display is good and suited for work purpose. Featuring a 16:10 aspect ratio, the display accommodates more vertical content within a single view compared to traditional 16:9 screens. This characteristic reduces the need for excessive scrolling, proving advantageous for work-related tasks.

Coming to the audio, the laptop has a pair of bottom-firing stereo speakers that deliver loud, balanced, and clear sound. These speakers are well-suited for regular everyday use.

Windows 11 on ARM

As stated above, the EliteBook Ultra is among the first-generation AI laptops based on Windows 11 on ARM platform from Microsoft. It is essentially the Windows 11 experience tailored to leverage the unique architecture of ARM-based processors for enhanced performance without compromising on battery life.

The core difference between Windows on ARM and regular Windows is in app compatibility. While regular Windows 11 supports a wide range of legacy applications designed for x86/x64 (32-bit and 64-bit) architectures, Windows 11 on ARM relies on emulation or native ARM64 support for apps. This means not all apps designed for the regular version of Windows 11 may run natively on ARM devices without additional compatibility considerations.

Most of the software and apps required in general everyday use – the productivity suite from Microsoft such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint; browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Opera; and creator-focused software such as Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom – run perfectly fine because these are available in native ARM64 form. Then there are applications such as Adobe Acrobat and Reader, which are not available in native ARM64 form yet runs fine on the laptop as these get emulated by the Windows 11 on ARM.

But, there is still a long list of apps and software not yet ready for Windows 11 on ARM. Among the most crucial are the Adobe Creative Cloud apps such as Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Media Encoder. Native ARM64 apps for these are in the works, but there is no defined timeline for the availability.

Outside apps, it is important to check if you have third-party hardware such as printers, scanners, etc. that require software for connectivity and functioning. During testing, I figured that the old Canon printer I have been using for over a decade is not compatible because the software it required for establishing connection with the laptop is based on X86 (32-bit) architecture and could not run even through emulated version.

Software and artificial intelligence features

Based on Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC platform, the EliteBook Ultra is packed with AI features from Microsoft – Studio Effects to uplift video conferencing experience, Cocreate for content generation capabilities in built-in Paint and Photos applications, and live captions to translate audio and video content into English subtitles from 44 languages.

The EliteBook Ultra also comes pre-loaded with an HP software suite, which encompasses tools – HP AI Companion – to generate content using text prompts and the Poly Camera Pro app for enhanced video conferencing experience. The Poly Camera Pro app offers features similar to Microsoft Studio Effects, and both use on-device AI. However, the app drains battery even when it is working in the background. 

Now, the important thing here is that some of these tasks tasks are offloaded to an integrated Neural Processing Unit (NPU), enhancing performance and battery efficiency by reducing CPU and GPU load.

Performance and battery 

Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, the EliteBook Ultra is offered in 16GB of soldered LPDDR5x RAM and up to 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD storage. This on-paper specification may not look power-packed, but the Qualcomm chip is a performance-powerhouse that delivers on most counts. Be it regular operations or AI-related workloads supported by the platform, there is enough performance to keep you going.

Complementing the swift performance is the impressive battery life. During typical operations, the laptop effortlessly endures through a full day, providing approximately fourteen hours of on-battery time on a single charge. For mixed usage scenarios, the battery life stabilises at around ten hours, which should suffice for most professionals. As noted above, Poly Cam Pro app drains battery even when it is working in the background. Therefore, you might want to force disable it from start-up settings to get the best battery life.

Verdict

The EliteBook Ultra is a capable Windows laptop complemented by AI features from Microsoft and HP. From thin-and-lightweight construction to productivity-oriented display, smooth performance, and lasting battery life, the laptop ticks all the right boxes of a good workbook. However, prospective buyers should scrutinise app compatibility to ensure all necessary software aligns with ARM architecture.

First Published: Aug 02 2024 | 2:41 PM IST