HP EliteBook 745 G5 Review

Written by Ira ArellanoPublished • April 5, 2019

Back in the day, business laptops were utilized for one purpose only — business. They didn’t pack much of a punch in them since work was the primary focus. Enter the present times where individuals who are in the market for business laptops are also looking for one that can function more than its intended purpose. HP’s not a stranger with business laptops, and so, the company released the HP EliteBook 745 G5. Here’s a review on it.

Table of Contents

Design and Construction

The HP EliteBook 745 G5 features an anodized aluminum body that feels premium and elegant to touch. Despite how it may look, the laptop is pretty thin and light. There’s also a reflective minimalist HP logo on the lid. Lifting the top, the lower half of the EliteBook also has the same finish as the outside while the upper half has matte bezels surrounding the display. Above the screen sits the webcam that has a sliding cover; a pretty neat feature since most people these days do cover their webcams for security. On the lower half are the speakers, the slim power button, the keyboard, and touchpad. The chiclet backlit keyboard has a matte finish, while the touchpad is the decently-sized — the speakers. However, by Bang & Olufsen and have an eye-catching triangular pattern.

The keyboard feels a tad springy when typed on, but significant travel is decent and produces a soft clicking sound. The touchpad is smooth and responsive when used. A pointing stick sits in between the G, H, and B keys, and it’s a nuisance when typing, especially when one has to hit the B key. You end up hitting the pointing stick instead of the B key. Another odd thing about the EliteBook’s touchpad is that it has two buttons on top, to use for left and right clicks when you use the pointing stick. That’s great and all, but it also ends up being a distraction when using the touchpad.

As for ports, on the right side, the EliteBook 745 is equipped with a SIM card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB port, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, a docking connector, a Thunderbolt port, and the charging port. Situated on the left side are the Smart Card reader, a USB 3.0 port, and USB Type-C charging port, and the heat vent.

Display and Multimedia

The EliteBook 745 has a display measuring at 14 inches with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. Colors on the EliteBook are a tad disappointing, as they’re a little muted and aren’t as vibrant as we’d like them to be.

As for the Bang & Olufsen speakers, the audio produced is quite good. It’s already pretty loud when set at 50%, but it’s alright for users to go past that volume as well. It doesn’t have that ear-splitting effect if you set the volume to maximum, but the audio can fill the room.

Performance and Benchmarks

An AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 2700U processor, Radeon Vega graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD powers the EliteBook. It runs on Windows 10 Home and comes with the usual Microsoft default programs such as Microsoft Office, Edge, and Paint 3D. It also has HP programs like HP JumpStart and HP WorkWise pre-installed in it. Since it’s a business laptop, office work can definitely be done on it. The multiple ports are a plus too, readying individuals for presentations if needed be. If you’re done with work and feel like sitting back to play, the EliteBook 745 can also run games such as Counter Strike, Dota 2, PUBG, and Monster Hunter World. The laptop can run triple-A games however settings must be switched to low for it to run properly.

We ran the EliteBook 745 on Geekbench, and it scored:

While the EliteBook 745’s Crystal Disk Mark scores are:
Sequential Read: 2543.6 MB/s
Sequential Write: 1973.1 MB/s

Battery Life

To figure out how long the EliteBook’s battery will last, we tested it out with our usual video loop test (1080p, 50% brightness, 50% sound with headphones, airplane mode, and balanced power setting. The result is a disappointing 6 hours, not even enough to fill an entire workday.

Conclusion

The HP EliteBook 745 G5 is sleek and elegant. However, it has a couple of unsatisfying aspects to it. I don’t think I’d trade in a short battery life span in favor of a light body, premium-looking design, and excellent audio output. They pointing stick in between the keyboard is a downer as well, but it’s not much of a significant issue, unlike the battery life.