HP 340S G7 review – the affordable business solution

On this rather warm February day, we are going to share our thoughts on the HP 340S G7. Basically, it is a business notebook that targets value as its most important feature. It really looks simple and non-obnoxious, while it packs quite the punch in the form of the 10nm Ice Lake processors from Intel.

Additionally, you can pick from a 768p TN panel and a 1080p IPS one, and given the subtle price difference, we would certainly recommend the latter. By the way, this is one of those notebooks that come with some bloatware, such as an Amazon store app, Dropbox, an antivirus program and more, preinstalled. Of course, you are free to remove everything you don’t need, and honestly, we are fans of clean Windows installations, so… the choice is yours.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-340s-g7/

Contents

Specs Sheet

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you are going to find a 45W power brick and a plastic bag holding all of the mandatory paperwork.

Design and construction

So, let’s start by saying that this notebook sits very comfortably both in your hands and on the lap. It has a weight of 1.47 kg and a height of 17.9mm, which makes it both thin and light. On the other side, its only disadvantage is the plastic material, used to build its body. However, this is not the biggest problem, as we’ve seen very rigid ThinkBooks made entirely out of plastic. No. Here the build quality is poor. The body squeaks and pops when you try twisting it.

Its lid, cannot be opened with a single hand, but after you lift it from the base, the weight of the hinge becomes very balanced. Once again, the structural integrity is not the best. However, it is good to see thin side bezels, and a camera placed above the display.

Moving to the base, we see the power button, which is placed above the “Escape” key, so prepare for spontaneous shutdowns, every once and a while. Beside the power button, there is a long grill, which houses the speakers. It is great to see front-firing speakers on a budget product.

Next, there is the keyboard. If you see on HP’s official website, the option to include a backlight costs 21 bucks, and we think that it is definitely worth it. Additionally, the key travel is very long and the feedback is clicky. Ultimately, this is a very comfortable keyboard to use. Do you know what else is comfortable? The touchpad. It is short, but wide and is very responsive. Honestly, HP is doing a very good job with their touchpads on their latest laptops. By the way, the 340S G7 also comes with the option for a fingerprint reader.

Since the speakers are at the top, you can only see a ventilation grill on the bottom plate, while the hot air is fired towards the hinge cover.

Ports

On the left side there is only the SD card reader, while the right side is home to the power plug, an HDMI connector, two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports and one USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, and an audio jack.

Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

Not again… HP has once again tried to trick us, ladies and gentlemen. As soon as we saw the bottom panel on this device we felt a cold sweat run down our foreheads. There are only four Phillips-head screws naked to the eye. However, you need to remove the two long rubber feet as they house four more screws. Thankfully, our plastic pry tool is exactly the same size as the feet, and we were able to easily remove them, without destroying them.

So, cooling is nothing extraordinary. Only one, rather thin, heat pipe and a medium-sized fan.

This device has two RAM SODIMM slots for up to 16GB of memory in total. Additionally, you can upgrade the storage with an M.2 PCIe NVMe drive, and a 2.5″ SATA drive slot.

While the battery is not the biggest, seen on a 14-inch laptop, it is also not the smallest – 41Wh.

Display quality

Coming soon!

Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.hp.com/gb-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-340s-g7-notebook-pc/30268685

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. As we mentioned, the battery size on this device is 41Wh.

We got 9 hours and 30 minutes of Web browsing and 10 minutes more when playing an HD video on loop.

CPU options

This notebook comes with a choice of the Core i3-1005G1, Core i5-1035G1 and the Core i7-1065G7.

GPU options

For the first two processors, you get the Intel UHD Graphics, while the flagship features the Intel Iris Plus Graphics.

Gaming tests

Obviously this laptop is no gaming device, so don’t expect anything too fancy from it.

CS:GO	HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)	HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS	39 fps	23 fps	– fps

DOTA 2	HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)	HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS	55 fps	30 fps	– fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-1035G1 (15W TDP)	0:02 – 0:10 sec	0:15 – 0:30 sec	10:00 – 15:00 min
HP 340S G7	2.71 GHz (B+171%) @ 92°C	2.42 GHz (B+142%) @ 93°C	1.77 GHz (B+77%) @ 72°C
Acer Swift 5 Pro (SF514-54GT)	2.88 GHz (B+188%) @ 80°C	1.62 GHz (B+62%) @ 64°C	1.65 GHz (B+65%) @ 67°C
Dell Inspiron 5593	2.53 GHz (B+153%) @ 99°C	2.14 GHz (B+114%) @ 94°C	1.88 GHz (B+88%) @ 87°C
Dell Inspiron 17 3793	2.75 GHz (B+175%) @ 98°C	1.97 GHz (B+97%) @ 91°C	1.79 GHz (B+79%) @ 89°C
Intel Core i5-1035G4 (15W TDP)	0:02 – 0:10 sec	0:15 – 0:30 sec	10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo Yoga S740 (14)	2.64 GHz (B+140%) @ 100°C	1.89 GHz (B+72%) @ 83°C	1.66 GHz (B+51%) @ 69°C

As it happens, the HP 340S G7’s cooling is doing a pretty good job in cooling down the Core i5-1035G1. Well, it does run a little bit warm in the first two checkpoints, but in the end, it stabilizes both at a decent frequency and not too high temperature.

Comfort during full load

Interestingly, the fan works even during file transfers and app installations, although at a very low speed. However, with the higher load, the fan speed increases and becomes clearly audible, if not a little loud. As of the temperature on the base, you can see the hottest point on the IR images below.

Verdict

In a few words, this notebook was really fun to work with. It is swift, responsive and comfortable thanks to its amazing keyboard and touchpad, M.2 SSD and quick 10nm processor inside.

What else is great is that you have the opportunity of upgrading it via its two RAM SODIMM slots, M.2 NVMe slot, and 2.5″ SATA drive bay. How many 14-inchers can boast with that? Well, yes, you need to do some gymnastics with a plastic pry tool in order to gain access to all of the screws, but at least the glue on the feet is not too hard and you don’t risk damaging them.

If you are traveling a lot, or you do most of your work away from the office, you will be glad to hear that the battery should last you through an entire workday. We got 9 hours and a half of Web browsing and around the same time during video playback.

At this price point, naturally, there is one thing that will suffer – build quality. While the HP 340S G7 is light and relatively thin, its plastic body produces a lot of noises when you handle it by the edge or try to twist it. We are not sure how it is going to impact the longevity of the components inside, but one would certainly want to be extra cautious with this one.

So, if you are interested in buying such a device, the HP 340S G7 is definitely not a bad choice. Just make sure you get the IPS version of the display as it will bring a lot more value to the laptop.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-340s-g7/