Just set aside the “price tag” for a moment and take a look at the EliteBook Ultra G1i from HP. The EliteBook Ultra G1i was announced at CES 2025 and has since been introduced in India.
The EliteBook Ultra G1i features Intel’s Core Ultra 5 and 7 processors (Series 2), up to 32GB of RAM, up to 512 of SSD storage, a gorgeous 3K (2880x1800 pixels) OLED touch display with 400 nits of brightness, Intel Arc graphics, 48 TOPS of NPU performance, a much-loved 9MP webcam for improved video calls and with Windows Hello support, and several ports included a USB Type-A port, three USB Type-C (with Thunderbolt 4 support) ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Additionally, the case is lighter, features a haptic touchpad, and has two silent fans. With a 64W battery, one no longer needs to worry about battery life.
Essentially, the EliteBook Ultra G1i is a remarkable package. Now, consider the starting price of Rs 1,67,075, and you’ll be a little bit disappointed. The top-end model costs a whopping Rs 2,41,499. Now, that will weigh on your mind if you are sold on this business laptop, as I have been. It is a fantastic device that consistently outperforms your expectations day after day, but finding the will to spend over Rs 2,00,000 on a business laptop is quite a feat.
Design and Display
Yes, this is a business laptop through and through, so don’t expect anything out of the ordinary. You get one single colourway - Atmosphere Blue - in a lightweight (yes, seriously lightweight) package. The laptop weighs 1.19 kg. That’s impressively light for such a loaded laptop. It’s one you just plonk in your backpack and forget that it’s even there!
Yes, the EliteBook Ultra G1i features excellent build quality. There’s a black bezel around the screen, with magnesium making up the chassis. It’s solid, lightweight and thoroughly premium. It’s a high-quality metal laptop that won’t weigh you down.
The kicker here is the exceptionally good 14-inch OLED (2880x1800 pixels) display, featuring an adaptive refresh rate that peaks at 120Hz. It has 400 nits of brightness, which is plenty good for outdoor usage. It’s a touch display, which is something I’ve become fond of over the years (I know many of you aren’t fans of touch displays, but it's still it's better to have an option than not). There’s also a physical privacy shutter added to the webcam.
The only downside is that this is a fairly glossy OLED display, but, for the most part, it shouldn’t hamper the experience. I also expected a brighter display (which is available in competitors’ laptops), but 400 nits does get the job done.
Yes, the “quad speaker design”, as HP terms it, is quite good for a laptop of this size. While watching Formula 1, the speakers remained loud while maintaining their clarity. The bass was
also significantly more than I expected. However, with that said, this is still nothing compared to a good external speaker.
Keyboard & Touchpad: Haptic for the win
The haptic touchpad, a first for HP’s premium laptops, is a joy to use. That’s it, I said it. It’s big and smooth, and thanks to haptic feedback, you can click anywhere on the surface. It’s very responsive and one of the best in its class. I wish more manufacturers would use haptic trackpads.
The keyboard is on par with Lenovo’s ThinkPads (the god of keyboards) and, in some respects, better than a MacBook. It’s got great key travel, good spacing and layout, and my typing speed was one of the highest it's been. It takes a few moments to get used to it, and then your fingers will just glide over like an Olympic gold medal ice skater!
Performance & battery life
This laptop is no slouch. Yes, it’s not as fast as HP’s OmniBook Ultra 14, which features AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX hardware, but it handles day-to-day tasks more efficiently. Web browsing, document typing, photo editing, light gaming, and executing AI tasks. This laptop performs all the functions with aplomb. From Copilot to HP's AI assistant and everything in between, the EliteBook delivered superbly. It did all of this without raising the temperatures. Yes, the fans were silent, and the laptop remained relatively cool.
I wasn’t impressed with the battery performance. Laptops like the Asus ZenBook A14 (which is even thinner) outperformed the EliteBook Ultra G1i in terms of battery life. Still, with a 6-cel 64Wh Li-ion polymer battery, I was easily able to squeeze out a full day’s of work with this laptop. I routinely only had to charge it the next morning. Thanks to a 65W USB Type-C adapter, the laptop juiced up in no time.
HP AI Companion
The HP AI companion comes bundled with this device. AI is a significant focus of many laptops these days, and that’s no different for the new EliteBook line of devices. HP’s AI Companion is built on GPT-4 skin and lets you take full advantage of the onboard neural processing unit. The downside here is that you need an active internet connection to work. The other thing is that the Copilot button brings up the Microsoft Copilot interface. It would have been nice if HP built in a key of its own here.
HP’s AI Companion lets you upload invoices, blogs, receipts, contracts, and more. The software will then try to understand the format, group them under a single “library,” and perform additional tasks. Like regular AI tools, the AI Companion can parse through information, summarise it, and thereafter, you can ask it specific questions. It’s hugely beneficial for a particular section of users, but it doesn’t break the battier with regards to AI. There’s nothing unique here.
Verdict: The complete package?
As the EliteBook Ultra G1i is a business laptop, it would be best to have your office purchase one for you. With a bulk order and a reduced price, this will very much be one of the best business laptops of 2025. It’s sleek, prioritises productivity, has all-day battery life and an outstanding keyboard and touchpad. The lightweight nature is the USP, and for frequent travellers, this is a boon.
It doesn’t have 5G connectivity (something that all business laptops should have as standard), and neither does it have a full-sized HDMI port. Nonetheless, this laptop is a fantastic package matched only by a few.
The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is designed for the modern professional. It’s sleek, prioritises productivity features, packs in decent battery life and offers a spacious keyboard. If you’re someone who has long commutes or frequent travel, you’ll genuinely appreciate the lightweight nature of this laptop, along with the abundance of connectivity ports.
The EliteBook Ultra G1i has numerous advantages, but the major downside is its high price point. With that said, this remains one of the best business laptop packages available. Good job, HP!
