HP EliteBook 14" 840 G8 2021, Core i7-1165G7, 32GB, 512GB SSD, Silver

A ridiculously light laptop with a glorious amount of RAM, held back by a tired processor and a strictly average screen. It's a niche masterpiece for the right desk jockey.

The 32GB of RAM is the real hero here, landing in the top quarter of our database and making this feel way snappier than its aging processor suggests. That i7-1165G7 is a bit of a letdown, sitting in the bottom quarter of all laptops we've tested, and you'll feel it if you push past basic office apps. The integrated Iris Xe graphics are firmly middle-of-the-pack, so it handles streaming and light photo edits fine, but the gaming score is a brutal 15.5 out of 100. This thing is all about business, and it shows.

Stacked against a new MacBook Pro M4 Pro, the EliteBook gets obliterated on performance and screen quality, but it's also a fraction of the cost and weight. The Lenovo Legion 5i is a gaming monster in comparison, but it's a chunky desktop replacement, not an ultraportable. The ASUS ProArt PX13 and MSI Prestige are more modern competitors with better screens and CPUs, but you'll likely pay a premium for that newer silicon. This HP is the budget-conscious road warrior's pick when a Dell Premium feels too heavy and a MacBook Air is out of budget.

For the $650-$700 street price, this is a fantastic deal if you need a featherweight laptop with a ton of memory. You're trading raw CPU power and a dazzling screen for supreme portability and multitasking headroom. If those are your priorities, it's absolutely worth it.

The HP EliteBook 840 G8 is a corporate workhorse that found its way to the used market, and honestly, it's a steal if you know what you're getting into. The one thing to know is this: it's an ultra-light, RAM-heavy beast built for multitasking spreadsheets and browser tabs, not for rendering videos or gaming. At just a hair over two pounds, it disappears into a bag, and the 32GB of RAM means you can basically open your entire workload without a stutter. Just don't expect the screen or processor to blow your hair back.

If you're looking for a vibrant screen for creative work or long battery life for all-day meetings, this isn't it. Go get a newer ASUS ProArt or an M-series MacBook Air instead. This HP is purely for the weight-and-RAM obsessed.

Buy this if you live in Excel, have three dozen Chrome tabs open, and carry your laptop everywhere. The 32GB of RAM and sub-one-kilogram weight are a killer combo for a specific type of user. Skip it if you care about screen quality, battery life, or any task more demanding than a video call.