HP ProBook 14" 4 G1q Silver 2025

The HP ProBook 4 G1q packs a whopping 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD into a portable body, but it's all held back by a painfully slow Snapdragon X chip. The display is dim and dull, and gaming is a no-go. Only worth a look if you find it for around $1000 and your workload is strictly basic office stuff.

Let's be real, this Snapdragon X chip lands in the 13th percentile for CPU performance in our database. That's rough. Everyday Office tasks and web browsing feel fine, and the 45 TOPS NPU does its thing for Copilot+ features, but push it with anything heavier and it wheezes. The integrated Adreno GPU is even worse, sitting in the 27th percentile, so gaming is a complete write-off at a 15.2 score. The 32GB of RAM is a standout at the 93rd percentile, which helps with multitasking, but it feels like a ton of memory strapped to a motor that can't really use it. The 1TB SSD is solid, landing in the 81st percentile, so at least storage and app loading are snappy.

Stacked against a Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition, the ProBook feels clunky and slow, with a much worse screen. The Surface's Snapdragon X Elite runs circles around this X1-26-100. An Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro is in a completely different universe for performance and display quality, though it costs more. Even a mid-range ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 will obliterate this for any creative or gaming task, while a Lenovo Legion 5i offers actual GPU power. The ProBook's only real win is that port selection, which embarrasses most of those sleeker competitors.

Pricing on this thing is all over the map, with a wild spread from $1020 to $4368 across vendors. At the low end, around a grand, you're getting a lot of RAM and storage for the money, even if the processor is a slug. At the high end, you're getting absolutely fleeced. If you can snag it closer to that $1020 mark from a place like Newegg, it becomes a decent deal for a basic office machine. Pay a dollar over $1200 and you should run away.

The HP ProBook 4 G1q is HP's swing at a Snapdragon-powered business laptop, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. You get a generous 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD in a fairly compact 14-inch chassis, which sounds great on paper. But the chip inside, the Snapdragon X X1-26-100, is the entry-level option in Qualcomm's lineup and it shows.

If you need any kind of graphics horsepower for photo editing, video work, or even light gaming, skip this entirely. The dim, color-inaccurate screen and weak integrated GPU make it a terrible choice for creatives. Also, if you rely on niche Windows software, check ARM compatibility first because this chip can be a headache with older apps.

This is a laptop for someone with very specific, low-intensity needs. If your workday lives entirely in Outlook, Word, and a web browser, and you absolutely need 32GB of RAM and a ton of ports, the ProBook 4 G1q makes a case for itself at the right price. For anyone else, especially students or anyone who values a good screen, there are much better options out there.