The 700 nit panels of the 12.5-inch EliteBook 1020 G2 and 14-inch 1040 G4 are brighter than even the MacBook Pro 13 and over twice the brightness of the XPS 13.

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[Update: Made a correction related to the 4K UHD panel and 120 Hz refresh rate. 4K UHD is limited to 60 Hz while the 120 Hz option is available only for the FHD panel.]

In an attempt to appeal more to the millennial generation, the HP EliteBook series has been steadily growing thinner and sleeker without necessarily dropping MIL-STD standards or build quality. It's no surprise, then, that the two latest EliteBooks have even more in common with the flagship consumer Spectre series than ever before.

The EliteBook 1020 G2 and 1040 G4 convertibles succeed the EliteBook Folio and 1040 G3, respectively, with very different specifications between successive generations. First, the 1020 G2 will have vastly upgraded processor performance as it is moving away from the 4.5 W Core m series to the 15 W ULV Core U series. RAM has been doubled, the speakers are now 32 percent larger, and even the battery capacity has been upped from 11.5 hours on the last generation model to 15.5 hours on the latest.

Perhaps the most notable update is to the display itself. The QHD panel will be dropped in favor of FHD and 4K UHD options. It's worth noting here that this makes the 1020 G2 one of the very few 12.5-inch notebooks shipping with 4K UHD with the Razer Blade Stealth being the other model. The 120 Hz FHD panel includes an optional Sure View feature that limits viewing angles for privacy concerns and a 700-nit backlight compared to 300 to 400 nits on most other flagship notebooks. These extra features are unique to the FHD panel and are not available on the 4K UHD SKUs.

Notable drawbacks for the 1020 G2 are its lack of USB Type-A ports, proprietary docking ports, and SD card reader. Users are encouraged to exploit the versatile Thunderbolt 3 connection for port replication.