On a recent trip, I had to pack lightly, which meant I needed to take a laptop that could run my go-to games. I thought about just sticking with my MSI Claw 7 AI+ handheld, but I knew I’d need to get some work done while on the road, and a laptop’s the easier choice when traveling since I don’t need to bring additional accessories.
My typical choice for a work and travel laptop is my MacBook Pro 14. However, while it can run Final Fantasy XIV just fine, it can’t handle my guilty pleasure games, Genshin Impact, or Honkai Starrail. So, I instead opted to bring an HP EliteBook X G1i I had handy. While it is a business laptop, it features an Intel Core Ultra 7 268V processor with an integrated Intel Arc 140V GPU. Which is the same iGPU powering my MSI Claw.
I didn’t have particularly high hopes for the EliteBook, as it is designed for business use rather than gaming, but I figured that even achieving 30fps on my games while away was better than not gaming at all. So, I downloaded my games and Discord to the EliteBook and headed to the airport.
The iGPU was no slouch
Business laptop or not, the Intel Arc 140V iGPU is solid
The HP EliteBook X G1i is similar to the HP EliteBook Ultra G1i, with a few differences in the bells and whistles. The EliteBook X has the same kind of high-build quality and streamlined business aesthetic as the Ultra, with enhanced HP Wolf Security and an Intel vPro chipset to boot. With that in mind, it’s not impossible that performance would take a hit due to HP Wolf Security on the EliteBook lineup and what it may be doing in the background. While I don’t typically get too invested in the GPU testing on a business laptop, I did expect that performance to take a bit of a hit as well.
Despite the slightly lower power and increased thermal constraints of the HP EliteBook compared to my gaming handheld, I was pleasantly impressed by the EliteBook X as a gaming device. Gaming is an off-label use of the EliteBook, so I wasn’t expecting handheld gaming PC-level performance, never mind the performance of a dedicated gaming laptop or desktop rig, though I did expect to get at least above 30 FPS with some of my games set to medium graphics, at the very least.
In Final Fantasy XIV, on Laptop (Standard) settings at 1080p, the EliteBook was easily clearing 30 FPS even in the crowded end-game hub city. The EliteBook even managed to hold a stable 60 FPS in most dungeons, though the newer Dawntrail content often dropped that down to about 50 FPS, and high-traffic areas dropped my framerates to about 35 FPS , but that’s pretty standard for the endgame hub on a thin and light laptop. Baldur’s Gate III was smooth, stable, and had frame rates in the 55–60 FPS range even at high graphics settings and 1080p resolution.
Both Genshin Impact and Honkai Starrail are titles optimized for mobile and consoles, so they’re not the most graphically demanding in terms of style or texture, but the constant flash of special abilities can get a bit demanding on an iGPU over time. That said, the EliteBook X wasn’t running hotter than you’d expect after an hour of gameplay.
General work was a breeze
Lunar Lake is a pretty solid processor, even under multitasking loads
A business laptop does need some solid computing power, because even the least-intensive work tasks can add up when you add multiple browser tabs or complex spreadsheets. While the EliteBook X isn’t a powerhouse machine with a discrete GPU and a 16-core CPU, it is still designed for business users. Other CPU options may outpace the EliteBook X in multithreaded performance, since Intel’s Core Ultra 200V Lunar Lake chipsets are designed with efficiency in mind rather than raw power.
However, it’s not just some light gaming that this laptop is capable of. I didn’t have any CPU hangups or delays when working off the EliteBook X for a week, even with photo editing software open and over 20 research browser tabs running. The additional load of that many Chrome tabs, GIMP, and Discord all running at once did eat into the EliteBook X’s battery life a bit, but even running unplugged from power, I had no issues.
The ideal travel device
All I really need is a thin and light Windows laptop
I normally travel with my MacBook Pro and MSI Claw 7 AI+ when I’m going on the road. Because it lets me separate my workday from my relaxing gaming time. But carrying both a laptop and a handheld gaming PC is far from an efficient use of space, and a thin and light Windows laptop like the HP EliteBook X G1i is exactly the kind of laptop that’s useful both on the clock and off of it, though I would probably go with a consumer laptop rather than a business laptop if I were picking one out on my own.