HP EliteBook 14" 840 G9 Silver 2022

A refurbished business tank with a great keyboard and all the ports, but that 256GB SSD is a crime. Buy it cheap, live in the cloud, and don't you dare try to game on it.

The Core i7-1265U is a weird chip. It's a 10-core hybrid design that handles a dozen Chrome tabs and Slack without breaking a sweat, but its integrated Iris Xe graphics land in the 19th percentile for a reason. Don't even think about gaming beyond Solitaire. What surprised us is how snappy Windows 11 Pro feels on this thing for everyday office tasks, the 16GB of DDR5 RAM does a lot of heavy lifting to mask the older processor. It's a multitasking champ for spreadsheets and video calls, just don't ask it to render anything.

Stacked against a MacBook Air M4, the HP gets destroyed on battery life, screen quality, and raw performance. But the Air lacks USB-A and HDMI ports, which might drive you nuts in an office. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i is in a different league for creators, but it's also way more expensive. If you just need Windows, a great keyboard, and ports for days, this refurbished EliteBook carves out a niche the shiny new ultrabooks can't touch.

Pricing is all over the map, from $410 to a frankly absurd $1271. At the low end, this is a steal for a well-built business laptop. At the high end, you're getting robbed. Stick to the refurbished units around the $400-$500 mark and you're getting a lot of laptop for the money. Just budget for an external drive or embrace the cloud.

The HP EliteBook 840 G9 is a corporate workhorse that's aging into a seriously interesting refurbished deal. You're getting a proper 14-inch business laptop with a solid port selection, a decent 16:10 screen, and that classic tank-like EliteBook build for a fraction of its original price. The one thing to know? That 256GB SSD is a joke in 2025, but for a pure cloud-based office machine, the core specs still hold up.

If you need any local storage for photos, videos, or large applications, this isn't it. Go find a refurbished Dell Latitude or ThinkPad with at least a 512GB SSD. Creatives and anyone who wants a bright, color-accurate screen should look at a used MacBook Air instead.

The HP EliteBook 840 G9 is a smart buy only if you find it refurbished under $500 and you live in a web browser. It's a well-built, portable Windows machine with a keyboard that's a joy to type on and all the ports you actually need. Just know that you're buying an office tool, not a multimedia machine, and that tiny SSD will haunt you if you keep anything locally.