Elitebook x G1a Panel

[christosdgs]

I recently purchased the EliteBook X G1a 64gb 2.8k OLED, and after unboxing it, I noticed that the screen has a noticeable textured appearance. Comparing the two photos—one showing a Huawei laptop with a 2.8K resolution and the other showing the HP—it's noticeable that the HP screen displays this textured effect with vertical zig-zag lines. Although the photos don't perfectly capture the issue, they provide a general idea of what I'm seeing. Considering this is a professional laptop with a high price tag, meant for business use, I find it concerning if this is the standard panel quality and not a defect. This laptop is sold in Greece for 2,800 euros. Unfortunately, I can't return the laptop because the retailer here in Greece tells me that this isn't a defect but just the way the screen is. Could someone who owns this laptop let me know if this is typical or if I actually have a defective unit?

HuaweiHP

[IT_WinSec]

Hello,

I am sorry for the challenges you are facing with your product. It is hard for me to see any issue just based on the picture itself.

Could you please bring your device to the office of an HP Authorized service partner and have their technician(s) have look at it >> https://support.hp.com/gr-el/help/service-center

[christosdgs]

Hi and thanks for the reply.
In the new photo I've uploaded, you'll see two laptops side by side. On the left is the Huawei, and on the right is HP's EliteBook X. If you look at the picture, despite some distortion from the phone camera, you'll notice that the HP laptop has a texture on the screen that I could only describe as like a fabric/pair of jeans. If you look at the printer's photo, in contrast to the camera photo on the other laptop, you'll see a huge difference in quality, even though both laptops have the same 2.8K screen. It's really pronounced and quite unpleasant to look at.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with this laptop, I bought it because I couldn't find that particular laptop in any store to check it out in person, and I watched a review from a YouTuber who was praising the screen and build quality. So I ordered it online, and unfortunately, from the moment I opened it, I haven't been able to return it because, theoretically, it doesn't have any defects. The seller tells me that's just the screen's quality. I honestly can't understand how they put an OLED screen with such a terrible texture—especially in a laptop that costs nearly 2800 euros.

Because there's no support from HP in Greece like there is in other countries —they don't answer calls, and I can't get anywhere—, I didn’t even try to find a solution with them. I just accepted that I paid a lot of money for something that isn't worth it and that I can't use.

The reason I started this thread on the forum is that I wanted to see if this is actually the screen’s quality, because I just can’t wrap my head around how anyone can work on this screen. If someone has nearsightedness or farsightedness, depending on how they use the laptop and from what distance, they might not notice it. But if they have normal vision, the screen feels really cheap and poor in quality.

[IT_WinSec]

You are most welcome ! Thank you for the new picture.

I am sorry that you are not happy with the quality of your recently purchased product.

Just a side comment: HP does indeed have offices and full operation in Greece and in case needed, you might speak to a local customer support representative via phone during business days/hours. You can find the number in the Support section (you need to login with the HP account like you are logged in here and enter the serial number of your laptop) >> https://support.hp.com/gr-el/contact

You might also share your feedback >>here<<

[christosdgs]

Just an update about my case that might interest anyone considering buying an HP business laptop in Greece.

I spoke with two representatives from HP support in Greece. Friendly people, willing to help but from what I understand their hands are tied by HP’s brilliant policies. Helpdesk kindness cannot fix corporate indifference.

HP loves your money just not your expectations. They are perfectly fine charging premium prices for garbage hardware. And once they have your money? You are on your own. No accountability. No fixes. No shame. They will cash your check, hand you a defective product dressed up as premium, then vanish behind policies, legalese, and robotic sympathy. No resolution. No responsibility.

The EliteBook X G1a, a machine that HP markets as a “professional laptop,” is a bad joke. It is a shiny box with a display that should never have passed quality control. They know it, they just do not care. They will politely explain why the terrible display on your 2800€ “professional” laptop is “within specs,” as if that somehow makes it acceptable. Meanwhile, laptops costing 600€ have better screens. Apparently, HP believes that grainy panels and visible defects are totally fine for professional use.

At one point, they almost had me doubting myself. I started second-guessing what I have learned over 25 years in IT, despite the fact that I personally own a laptop from another brand with the same screen resolution, and it does not have any of these issues. Still, to be absolutely sure, and following HP support’s suggestion, I visited the two biggest retail stores in Greece, Public and Plaisio, hoping to find this specific HP laptop on display so I could compare it side by side.

Of course, I could not find it. It is only available upon order.

But I did find laptops from other brands with similar specs: 14-inch OLED, touch, 2.8K resolution, and even HP models with larger 16-inch displays featuring the same 2.8K resolution. Not a single one of them showed the lines, banding, or artifacts that plague my unit.
So no, it is not me. It is the product.

No one can convince me that a €2,800 laptop with a 14-inch display and 2.8K resolution should have such obvious lines and screen artifacts. We are not talking about subtle imperfections. We are talking about clear, visible flaws on a so-called professional display. It is unacceptable.

I have been purchasing laptops for over 25 years, and through my work in IT, I have dealt with major brands like Dell, Lenovo, Asus, Huawei, and a few years back, IBM and Sony. Yet never, in all these years, have I come across a company that treats its customers with such indifference and disregard as HP. It is genuinely the worst experience I have had with any tech company, ever.

If you are in Greece and considering buying an HP business laptop, take this seriously.
You will not find any decent HP business laptops on display to judge screen quality before buying. You are forced to order online, blind. And once you open the box, that is it. No returns.

They have built a system where you have no way to verify what you are buying, and no way out once you have bought it.

If you are a professional looking for reliability, look elsewhere. 

This company is not here to help you succeed. It is here to milk you dry and walk away.

[TzortzisG]

Hello christosdgs.

I read your very interesting thread on this new Elitebook, and wanted to see if there were other instances where this defect had been reported, or even pics of the display that had been made public and showed the artefacts you reported. The model with the 2.8k display didn't really get many reviews, not many people have bought this particular configuration it seems. However, I noticed that Zachary Boddy actually reviewed the 2,880 x 1,800 version, and the pictures of the screen posted on this review and made public seem to fully support what you're saying. It seems that this is the way the display is designed, and not a defect that concerns only your purchase:

Whether this display quality is within specs or not is another matter altogether. But having dealt with official HP Support both in the States and here, in the Southern Balkan country you referred to, I've found that the first step when facing issues like these, is to actually take the system to an authorized HP Service and Support center. Talking over the phone gets you nowhere. It also goes without saying that not all of these HP Service points are the same. There is no unified corporate policy with HP, or any other multinational corporation. One needs to be aggressive, or at the very least self-assertive with cases like these.

[christosdgs]

Hi TzortzisG,

Thanks for the reply and for digging into this. I’ve seen the photos you uploaded and yes, they look very similar to what I’m seeing on my own screen but it's more annoying and visible when the background is white. If this is how the panel was designed, then it's not an isolated defect — it's a systemic flaw masquerading as a feature. A display like this should never have passed quality control on a so-called professional device. Whether HP calls it “within specs” or not is irrelevant to me as a customer. Specs don’t excuse visible artifacts on a premium-priced laptop. If this is what “professional OLED” means now, then we’ve completely lost the plot. It’s insane that we’re even having a conversation about whether a 14-inch 2.8K display should have lines or visual artifacts in the first place. Visual clarity should be a basic expectation not something up for debate.

When someone spends €2,500–€3,000 on a business-class laptop, they expect it to handle any professional workload — from coding and UI/UX work to building web apps and running development environments. That’s the baseline. But on this unit, whenever you’re working on white or light backgrounds — which are standard in most modern workflows — the diagonal lines and grainy patterns are obvious and highly distracting. Not subtle. Not minor. Constant visual noise that makes the laptop exhausting to use.

To make things worse, the very YouTube reviewer whose video convinced me to buy this laptop was the one I reached out to when I discovered the problem. I described the screen issues: the artifacts, the texture, the distracting noise. His response? He told me, literally, to “get my eyes checked.” He claimed to have reviewed thousands of laptops and insisted that this was “one of the best displays” he’d seen. I mean — seriously? That’s not just denial that’s audacity! I trusted that review to make a costly decision. Instead, I got marketed to, not advised. That tells you everything you need to know about how deep the influencer marketing game runs.

Now let’s talk about HP Support.

I had 14 days to attempt a return — not because the store was obligated to take it back, but simply because I was within that short informal window where I could still try. Business purchases in Greece come with no legal right of withdrawal. If you’re a professional and you open the box, that’s it — no guaranteed returns. You’re taking a risk, and HP knows it.

During that 14-day period, HP support dragged things out. They bounced me between agents, claimed the case was being “escalated,” and just as I approached the end of the window suggested I send the laptop abroad for inspection. A clear tactic to make sure I’d cross the return deadline and become ineligible for a refund. Eventually, they told me, only verbally, that they “saw no issue”.  When I asked them to confirm that decision in writing? Total silence. No written reply. No accountability. This whole situation has been a masterclass in how to burn customer trust.

I was misled by slick advertising, influencer reviews, and polished spec sheets. HP took my money and left me with a device I can’t use and zero support. Now I’m sitting here with a useless laptop, an empty wallet, and a lot of frustration.

[TzortzisG]

Yes, the cooling-off (or withdrawal) 14-day period is European law, and there are ways to force companies to follow it. For those of us in the Southern Balkan Peninsula, the second meaning of customer is something we are very well aware of -HP cannot surprise us or teach us anything new, neither can Dell, Apple or anyone else for that matter.

If this were my system, I'd pursue this through other channels, and if all else failed I'd downgrade the display (but that's just me). Other than that, obviously I agree with everything you posted.

[Keebo3]

Hello, I have the same laptop with the same display and I'm also disappointed with the display quality.
However, in my case I noticed something else too - when the display is displaying dark images (or, for example, you fill our your screen with black in Paint) singular pixels very briefly change colors. Some even turn completely bright, red etc. and it's very visible when you look on a large dark image. Otherwise it would feel like "noise" artifacting in a dark compressed video.
It's very annoying on an OLED display, where you expect perfect black.
Are you able to observe something this on your unit too? Everything else seems to be OK in hardware, except that the graphics are reported as 880M for a Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 unit that should have 890M. But it performs like 890M so it's probably just a mislabeling... Though, that's still a bit annoying for a laptop at this price.
This is all after updating to all newest chipset and graphics drivers as provided by HP.