HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 2-in-1 13.3 review – Can you do RAM upgrade?

Should you buy ? It comes with Newest Intel 7th Gen Core i7-7600U Kaby Lake Processor (2.8 GHz, up to 3.9 GHz, 4 MB cache) + Intel HD Graphics 620. Get more in HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 2-in-1 13.3 review – Can you do RAM upgrade?

Pros & Cons – HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 2-in-1 13.3

PROS

• Long battery life.
• Intel Core i7 power.
• Compact, convertible form factor.
• Premium construction and design.
• USB-C with Thunderbolt 3 port and USB 3.0 ports.
• Windows Hello works with fingerprint reader and IR webcam.

CONS

• 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM make it somewhat pricey.
• Lacks on-board storage for Active Pen.

Specs

• CPU: Core i5-7300U dual-core 3.5GHz
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 620
• RAM: 8GB DDR4-2133
• Screen: 13.3-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution display
• Storage: 256GB SSD SanDisk SD8TN8U
• Ports: 2 x USB Type-A, 1 x USB Type-C, audio jack, HDMI, microSD
• Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2
• Camera: 720p front webcam
• Weight: 1.28kg
• Size: 317 x 218.5 x 14.9mm (W x D x H)
• Battery: 57Whr

Compare HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 2-in-1 13.3 vs Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga

HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 2-in-1 13.3 review

Build

With its bright silver, aluminum unibody chassis, the EliteBook x360($1,349.00 at HP) looks more like a premium consumer laptop than a typical business PC. it’s more eye-catching than the charcoal-colored ThinkPad X1 Yoga, another top pick. According to HP, designing the EliteBook x360 to visually complement a user’s smartphone makes it more attractive to business users who put a premium on aesthetics.

Ports & connector

Connectivity is excellent. Next to the smart card reader on the left side of the laptop are a headset jack and a USB 3.0 port. On the right side are an HDMI port, a Kensington lock port, a microSD card reader, a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 technology, a USB 3.0 port, and the jack for the AC adapter. You can also use the USB-C port to charge the laptop, which will come in handy if you use a USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 display with the EliteBook x360 (the same cord transmits DisplayPort signals and charges the laptop simultaneously), or you can use another laptop’s USB-C charger if you leave your AC adapter in the office. HP includes an USB-C-to-Ethernet dongle if you need wired networking access. 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 handle wireless connections.

Design

The 2.8-pound, 12.5 x 8.6 x 0.6-inch EliteBook cuts a striking profile. It’s smaller than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (2.8 pounds, 13.1 x 9 x 0.7 inches) and only slightly thicker than the consumer-grade HP Spectre x360 (2.9 pounds, 12 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches). The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is smaller, at 2.7 pounds and 12 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches.

The 360-degree hinges allow the EliteBook to be used in several modes, including as a laptop, a tablet, a tent (an upside-down “V”) and a display (with the keyboard facing down).

Screen

The display is a 13.3-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The FHD panel is made of Corning Gorilla glass. Alternatively, HP also offers the EliteBook x360 1030 G2 equipped with a UHD panel. 

The EliteBook reproduces 109 percent of the sRGB color gamut, which is more than the ultraportable average (98 percent), the Spectre x360 (102 percent), the ThinkPad X1 Yoga (102 percent) and the XPS 13 2-in-1 (107 percent). On a model with the privacy screen turned on, the EliteBook only covered 76.9 percent of the gamut.

With a Delta-E score of 0.6 (0 is ideal), the EliteBook’s panel produces very accurate colors.  On the SureView model, it was 0.4. The average is 2.46, the Yoga was worse (1) and the XPS 13 2-in-1 was far less precise (6.1). Only the Spectre x360 came close, with a score 0.7.

However, with a brightness of 239 nits,the EliteBook isn’t as bright as other 2-in-1s. The average is 300 nits, and the XPS 13 2-in-1 and the X1 Yoga were brighter than this HP. Our SureView screen was brighter, though, at 323 nits.

2-in-1 convertible

A 2-in-1 convertible laptop, the EliteBook x360’s screen can pivot 360 degrees on its dual hinges, allowing you to use the touch screen in five modes. In addition to Laptop mode, there’s Media mode (which has the screen facing you, and the keyboard facing the table), Conference mode (wherein the screen and the keyboard both face up, so you can share the screen and speakerphone functions), Tablet mode (in which you fold the keyboard a full 360 degrees away, with the screen facing you), and Tent mode (which has the hinge pointing upward, and the screen angled toward you.

Memory & Storage – Can you do HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 RAM upgrade?

Oddly enough, the models available on HP’s website come with the slower Core i5-7200U or the faster 7600U processor. Tthe 7200U doesn’t support vPro – Intel’s enterprise management platform – and it’s slower than the 7300U CPU

The EliteBook x360 we reviewed costs $1,910 and rocks a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7600U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB PCIe SSD and a 1080p display.

The base model is $1,239 and has an Intel Core i5-7200U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SATA SSD.

In between, there are a variety of options, including a Core i5-7300U CPU and a 256GB SSD (both SATA and PCIe options). If you want to add HP’s Sure View privacy screen to any configuration, it will cost an extra $50.

Touchpad

The 4.3 x 2.6-inch precision touchpad is smooth and accurate, and I could perform gestures such as tapping four fingers to summon the Action Center and pinching to zoom easily and reliably. Initially, I thought the trackpad was a bit too stiff to click, but I got used to it quickly.

Keyboard

I was pleasantly surprised by the keyboard on the EliteBook. Despite just 1.2 millimeters of travel and 65 grams of force required to press the keys, the keyboard doesn’t feel shallow. It’s clicky and responsive, and I never bottomed out. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I sped along at 122 words per minute (faster than my usual 117 wpm, and that’s on a good day) and standard 2 percent error rate.

Stylus

All of the modes let you use the HP Active Pen (included with our test configuration, but $60 extra if you’re buying a base model) to interact with the display, or you can simply use the touch screen. The Pen has two function buttons on the side, and a third programmable, eraser-style shortcut button. You can alternate between using the Pen and touch screen interchangeably, and the screen is quick to respond to both pen and touch inputs. The pen comes with a pocket clip and a lanyard

Security – HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 2-in-1 13.3 review

The EliteBook x360 is jam-packed with security options. Any organization can customize this 2-in-1 to fit its IT policy. You can use the fingerprint reader and infrared camera with Windows Hello, and I happen to be a fan of facial-recognition login. If you prefer a nonbiometric way of logging in, you can use the smart-Card reader. This system also supports vPro for remote management, and TPM to encrypt your biometric data. Whenever you reboot your computer, HP SureStart kicks in, verifying the BIOS and self-healing if there are any issues.

Certain configurations of the EliteBook x360 have HP’s Sure View technology, which lets you turn on an integrated privacy screen with the push of a button. I got to see the feature on a pre-production laptop, and it really works: From the side of the laptop (as you would be, for example, if you were on an airplane or a bus), it’s almost impossible to make out what’s on the display — a feature that should ward off potential snoops.

Additionally, HP’s WorkWise app makes sure to lock your PC when you’re away, and it will detect tampering and send a notification to your phone if someone opens or closes the lid, inserts a USB drive or even moves the laptop.

The EliteBook is also durable, with MIL-STD-810G certification. It’s designed to survive shocks, drops and extreme temperatures.

SureView Privacy 

The SureView privacy screen works surprisingly well. With the press of a button (F2, to be precise), the display appears completely white to anyone trying to sneak a peek at what you’re looking on. From straight on, you can still see everything, although with a slightly foggy quality. It’s still good enough to see some writing, web browsing or spreadsheets.

From 45 degrees, the screen is difficult to read. From 70 degrees, it’s impossible. Someone sitting next to you on a plane or a bus will have no idea what you’re working on. It’s truly impressive, and better than the implementation we saw on some HP notebooks last year.

Personalize function

There are four dedicated buttons on the top edge that fire up your Outlook calendar, initiate screen sharing, and start or end a call (those last three functions are achieved through Skype For Business).

When I boosted the audio up most of the way, the vocals became a bit shrieky on the high end. The Bang & Olufsen Audio app has an equalizer that you can customize, but there are no easy presets to help make adjustments.

HP has partnered with Bang & Olufsen again to tune the company’s speakers, and they’re a bit of a mixed bag. When I listened to White Rabbits’ “Percussion Gun,” the vocals, choral chanting and namesake drums were all balanced, but I found the sound to be quiet for my taste. It only just filled up our midsize conference room.

Battery Life

The EliteBook should last you through most (if not all) of your workday. This 2-in-1 endured for 9 hours and 17 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, handily beating the 8:13 ultraportable average.Advertisement

The XPS 13 lasted 8:27, and the X1 Yoga survived for 8:28. Again, HP’s consumer laptop came out on top, with an astounding 10:06.

We ran the same test on another EliteBook x360 with the SureView privacy screen on the entire time, and it takes a toll. That version lasted 7 hours and 30 minutes.

Heat

If you’re sweating and approaching a hard deadline, the EliteBook will still be cool and collected. It stayed nice and comfortable after we streamed HD video from YouTube for 15 minutes; it measured 77 degrees on the touchpad, 83 degrees at the center of the keyboard and 86 degrees on the bottom. At one point near the hinge, it reached 94 degrees, but that’s still lower than our 95-degree comfort threshold.

Webcam

The EliteBook’s 720p webcam takes vivid photos that are just sharp enough. In a shot I took at my desk, my red sweater really popped against the white walls in our office, and you could just make out individual hairs on my head. But the lights behind me were completely blown out, which was distracting.

HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 2-in-1 13.3 Performance review

The storage subsystem is one of the few stumbling blocks we encountered. The SATA-based SSD, a SanDisk X400 model, delivered read/write speeds that could best be described as average. Why an NVMe SSD was not used by default remains a mystery.

Wireless connectivity was good thanks to the Intel 8265 solution. Note that the laptop did become a bit noisy under load when we benchmarked it.

Battery life was surprisingly good: we achieved half of what HP promised, 8 hours 6 minutes instead of the firm’s very optimistic 16 hours 30 minutes.

Armed with a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7600U CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB PCIe solid-state drive, the EliteBook is more than prepared for a cornucopia of research and spreadsheets. I had 30 tabs open in Google Chrome, including one streaming a 1080p episode of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” from YouTube, and I saw no sign of slowdown (although the vents started going off).

On the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, the EliteBook x360 earned a score of 8,873, beating the ultraportable category average (7,147), the Spectre x360 (Core i7-7500U; 8,147) and the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (1.2-GHz Core i5-7Y54; 6,498).

It took the EliteBook x360 17 seconds to copy 4.97GB of mixed media files, which translates to 299.4 megabytes per second. That’s faster than the category average (187.4 MBps), the XPS 13 2-in-1 (187 MBps) and the ThinkPad X1 Yoga (186.23 MBps), but a bit slower than the consumer-centric Spectre x360 (318.1 MBps).

On our OpenOffice Spreadsheet macro, the EliteBook x360 took 3 minutes and 16 seconds to pair 20,000 names and addresses, handily beating the average (6:01) as well as the ThinkPad X1 Yoga (4:31), the XPS 13 2-in-1 (4:14) and the Spectre x360 (3:33).

With its integrated Intel HD Graphics 620, the EliteBook x360 isn’t a strong graphics performer. It ran the Dirt 3 benchmark at just 21 frames per second, tying the XPS 13 but falling below the average (33 fps) and our 30-fps playability threshold. The Spectre outperformed the field, at 40 fps, even though the EliteBook, Spectre and the XPS all share the same integrated graphics.

Here’s how the HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

• Passmark: 3044
• Passmark CPU: 5518
• CPU-Z: 1741 (single-thread); 3929 (multi-thread)
• Geekbench: 4528 (single-core); 8348 (multi-core); 20708 (compute)
• Cinebench: OpenGL: 45.05 fps; CPU: 354
• CrystalDiskMark: 483 MBps (read); 474 MBps (write)
• Novabench: 1018
• Atto:  535 MBps (read, 256mb); 484 MBps (write, 256mb)
• Sisoft Sandra (KPT): 6.83
• Windows Experience Index: 6.1
• UserBenchmark (higher is better): 77

Can you do HP EliteBook 1030 x360 G2 RAM upgrade?

According to the HP reference material I have found, the memory is not removable. It is integrated onto the system board instead of being a removable module.

Crucial memory says the same thing if you look to find guaranteed compatible memory.

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