HP EliteBook X Flip G1i 14 review: A solid business laptop with AI prowess

Hence, you might wonder whether this laptop truly justifies its price tag, as premium business laptops are an unusual slice of the broader laptop arena, and in this competitive consumer laptop market, most machines are judged based on performance-per-buck, rather than their all-around aspects. We solve this conundrum with our extensive review of the EliteBook X Flip G1i 14 2-in-1 laptop.

Design

The EliteBook X Flip G1i 14has a small and light enough body, which makes it comfortable to hold with just one hand. Its size and dimensions fall right in the middle, which makes a big difference, especially if you are a frequent traveller. We received the deep Atmosphere Blue finish, which adds a touch of class with a magnesium alloy chassis that feels sturdy yet feather-light.

However, internal components have a plastic finish, which slightly wobbles under heavy load or when pressure is applied. Still, the build feels solid throughout, with minimal flex on the lid, deck, and keyboard area. Talking about the keyboard, it feels good to type on thanks to the size of each key and the softness of the caps, which is great for someone who has used mechanical keyboards mostly.

Finally, it has a smooth and silky touchpad that has a large real estate and allows dragging documents or web pages across the screen without any hiccups or accidental touches.

However, we did notice the trackpad falling to register inputs occasionally at the upper portion, which is also not clickable. Still, the multi-finger gestures work without any problem, and we could swiftly move between multiple tabs or minimise windows with ease.

Display and audio

The 14-inch 2-in-1 touchscreen display of the EliteBook X Flip G1i 14 has thin side bezels on all sides. The top and bottom borders are wider to house the 5 MP IR wide‑angle camera, which has Windows Hello support. Thankfully, it’s bright, the colours look good, and we didn’t notice any glaring issues while working outdoors. It also comes with a full 16:10 aspect ratio. However, we wished it were an OLED panel, as it would have ensured more punch colours and adequate screen contrast.

For business executives or professionals who want to showcase a lot of presentations, it strikes the right balance, offering enough portability and full 360-degree convertability, to provide a tablet-like experience while still being large enough to stay productive, whether one is working on presentations, wants to binge watch movies, or use it to sketch something.

Coming to the EliteBook X Flip G1i 14s top-firing dual speakers, they are amongst the best we have tested, as they are powerful, clear, and offer a punchy bass. The combined stereo speaker output creates a powerful and immersive sound experience. While watching videos or listening to music, the vocals were clear with a sense of realism in the sound, and the output was loud enough to fill a single room.

Performance and battery life

At the heart of the HP EliteBook X Flip G1i 14 is the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, featuring integrated Arc graphics and a dedicated NPU (neural processing unit) for AI workloads. This combination handles virtually any day-to-day task with ease. Whether you're juggling multiple Chrome tabs, running data-heavy presentations or spreadsheets, or switching between multiple apps, the EliteBook manages to provide a lag-free experience. As for its other hardware details, our EliteBook X G1i review unit came with 32 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 1 TB of SSD storage.

It’s not a gaming machine by any stretch, but we tried to play occasional casual games such as Asphalt 8, Sniper Fury, and Candy Crush, with the laptop managing to provide adequate performance without any stutters or heating issues. However, the EliteBook X is more suited for browsing the web, building presentations, and maybe doing some light creative tasks.

Despite its compact form factor and lightweight design, the EliteBook X G1i houses a big 68Wh battery. This huge capacity ensures we get up to two days of battery life, with a typical 13-14 hours of usual screen time. However, on a typical heavy day, which involved heavy Chrome usage, watching multiple videos during breaks, and even doing a brief gaming session, we still had around 20% charge remaining.

Interestingly, there was no noticeable performance dip when the machine was unplugged. Fast-charging is another boon with this laptop, as the supplied 100W USB Type-C charger tops up a 50% charge in just 30 minutes, which is a lifesaver for frequent travellers or professionals.

Security and AI features

The EliteBook X Flip G1i 14 includes several security features, which are nowadays essential for business executives or professionals, and one can’t afford to overlook them, especially in today’s environment where data security is the utmost priority for most organisations. It comes with HP Wolf Security, which protects against malware and phishing attacks, monitors critical applications, and can restore the operating system in case of an infection. Further, the HP Sure Click protects the PC from browser-borne malware or unnecessary cookie files.

HP has also introduced its own AI Companion hub in addition to Microsoft Copilot, which performs similar tasks as Google Gemini and Copilot, such as summarising your documents and emails, providing an overview of the system, and other enhancements. It also functions as a chatbot that can help you create to-do lists or assist with other everyday tasks.

Moreover, the HP SureView privacy‑screen feature limits the display’s viewing angle to shield sensitive data. The Poly Camera Pro gives you full control over your web meetings from the laptop’s camera, while AI-based audio tuning ensures crystal-clear calls with a dedicated output from its mic, eliminating the outside background noise. The 5MP web camera also has a privacy shutter, so that no one can peek through the machine when it is not being used.

Verdict

The HP EliteBook X Flip G1i 14 nails the fundamentals of a business laptop, which are adequate performance, lightweight design, essential security features, and great battery life. Moreover, it runs very quietly and blends power with portability, with multiple connectivity ports and dual usability with its 2-in-1 tablet mode.

That said, the asking price might give some pause for thought, especially when there are other premium options available in this price range. However, if your budget allows, though, the EliteBook X Flip G1i 14 is one of the finest business laptops currently available, and you won’t be disappointed with it.