 The HP Elitebook 640G9 is a very interesting device that might turn out to be better than its more expensive Elitebook 840G9 reality. It comes with a very similar build quality and hardware selection, while being offered at a lower price. Get comfy because there is a great surprise regarding the performance of this model. The laptop uses aluminum for a large part of its construction as both the lead base and bottom panel are made from this material. The only area where you can see plastic is the long strip on the top of the lead, where the antennas are mounted. This means that the laptop is kept light, weighing 1.37 kg. In terms of durability, the lead does show some flex, while the base is very rigid. The former opens with one hand which shows up the keyboard. The keyboard deck is reinforced on the base, so there is zero flex even with harsh typing. The board is still resistant and has a backlight while managing to squeeze out as much key travel as possible from the 19.9 mm profile. Sadly, the touchpad isn't as great as the surface is a bit rough to work with. On the other hand, it's still responsive. For a device with these dimensions, we are very satisfied with the I.O. On the left we have a LAN port and a 5 gigabit full-sized USB port which works even when the laptop is off and a smart card reader that's optional. The right side is more populated with the Thunderbolt 4 port, two more full-sized USB ports, an HDMI port, an audio jack and a SIM card slot. The more affordable EliteBook 640 uses a conventional 16-9 display, but the panel itself is still fantastic for all types of use. It gets very bright, up to 429 nits while the contrast ratio is high as well. More importantly, it shows 95% sRGB coverage, so if you're a web designer or do graphics for online advertising, the display is right up your alley. In terms of accuracy, our design and gaming profile puts the Delta E value at 0.9, which is ideal as the human eye can see the difference below a Delta E value of 1.0. We'll have links to the design and gaming profile along with the rest of the profiles that we offer. The 51.3W battery pack that's inside the device lasts for 13 hours and 20 minutes of web browsing and 10 hours and 18 minutes of video playback. These scores are achieved with the Core i5-1235U. As for performance, the EliteBook 640G9 is only 5% less powerful in the 3D rendering benchmark when compared to the EliteBook's 840G9 with the same CPU. It's also around 0.6 seconds slower in Photoshop. The Core i5 is kept cool using one heatpipe and one fan. It reaches much higher clock speeds and wattage than the same CPU inside the 840G9 while not overheating. Well, here is a surprise. It turned out that the 640G9 is faster in both short and long loads, while the 840G9 is faster just in the specific time frame of the benchmarks. Of course, we should know that the 840G9 is kept very cool by its cooling system, but we'd still choose the 640G9. Moreover, the laptop is very comfortable under full load, as the fan doesn't generate a lot of noise while the base remains cool. Also, the upgrade ability is fantastic, as the laptop offers two sodium slots for up to 64GB of DDR4 memory and a single M.2 slot for Gen4 SSDs. We'll link our tiered-down video in the upper right corner, which shows how to get inside the EliteBook 640G9 for upgrades and cleaning. The EliteBook 640G9 is very similar to the more expensive EliteBook 840G9 with great build quality, keyboard and upgrade ability. While it lacks the extra pixels that the 16-10 aspect ratio offers, you'd be more than fine with the FHD panel that's available. All in all, you get a good performing notebook with good connectivity and features for reduced price, which is all you can ask for. If you want to see more tests and details about the device, you can check out our in-depth review. The link is in the video description below.