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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros HP Go 5G internet works great Multi-network 5G without any configuration Lots of ports (including Ethernet!) Cons HP GO 5G isn’t yet aimed at Consumers Dim display can be hard to read outdoors Middling CPU, keyboard, and webcam Slow GPU Our Verdict The HP EliteBook 6 G1q is a dependable business laptop for companies looking to roll out fleets of 5G-connected laptops to their employees. The 5G experience is premium, but the rest of the laptop doesn’t live up to that high bar. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: HP EliteBook 6 G1q Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The HP EliteBook 6 G1q is a 14-inch Qualcomm Snapdragon X laptop with a killer feature: Integrated 5G connectivity. HP Go is a built-in eSIM solution that delivers multi-network 5G connectivity, so it connects to AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile. It automatically switches depending on which one has the best signal, and you never even have to think about it. It’s a magical experience being able to set up a laptop without connecting it to Wi-Fi, taking it with you in a bag, and taking it out of your bag to use it wherever you want without connecting to Wi-Fi or tethering it to your phone. Being able to pull the laptop out of my bag — in downtown Boston, at the beach, or wherever else — and have an immediate internet connection immediately was magical. The HP Go 5G experience delivers five stars. This first version is mainly aimed at businesses. HP implied it might be looking to deliver more consumer laptops in the future when I asked. Unfortunately, the rest of the laptop experience here doesn’t stand out. Our review model had a lower-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip and a webcam that looked grainy. And the display is on the dim side, which is a real problem for a 5G laptop you may want to use outdoors. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Specs The HP EliteBook 6 G1q is a 14-inch business laptop available in a wide variety of configurations with different Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors. Our review model had a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 CPU. The model we reviewed is available from CDW for $1,695. HP also has a configurator where you can configure options, including buying models without 5G and choosing higher-end Snapdragon processors, but it gets expensive fast. Since this is a business laptop, businesses buying fleets of PCs might end up negotiating pricing closer to the CDW model. Thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon hardware, these are all Copilot+ PCs with a fast enough NPU to run the AI features Microsoft is adding to Windows. Model number: HP EliteBook G6 G1q with HP GO 5G CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 Memory: 32GB RAM Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno NPU: Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (45 TOPS) Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with 60Hz refresh rate and 400 nits of brightness Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD Webcam: 1080p webcam Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (40 Gbps), 2x USB Type-A (5Gbps), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x combo audio jack, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet, 1x nano SIM slot, 1x security lock slot Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, Ethernet, 5G with HP Go Biometrics: Fingerprint reader Battery capacity: 56 Watt-hours Dimensions: 12.54 x 8.83 x 0.43 inches Weight: 3.17 pounds MSRP: $1,695 as tested The HP EliteBook 6 G1q delivers 5G connectivity that just works. It transforms how you use a laptop like this one, and I hope to see more laptops delivering seamless 5G out of the box in the future. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Design and build quality Foundry / Chris Hoffman The HP EliteBook 6 G1q is a lightweight silver laptop made of a mix of aluminum and plastic, and HP is proud that it includes recycled materials. At 3.17 pounds, this 14-inch laptop isn’t heavy, but it’s not the lightest laptop either. Some thin-and-light laptop designs would shave off a half pound or more here. The build quality is good but not fancy. This is a business laptop through and through: A design made for corporations to buy in bulk for their employees, not to buy as a premium one-off machine for the CEO. It’s a solid design with a hinge that feels good, and it feels sturdy. But it doesn’t feel like a premium all-metal machine: When I run my fingers over the edges of the laptop — down from the keyboard tray, over the ports, and then to the underbody, I can feel the edge of where the aluminum keyboard deck meets the plastic bottom. It’s not going to cut me or anything, but every time I pick up the machine, I can feel that metal-meets-plastic feeling. In summary: It’s a workhorse, and not a premium machine. A more premium design would be lighter and have a unibody construction without a seam you could feel. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Keyboard and trackpad Foundry / Chris Hoffman The keyboard and trackpad on the HP EliteBook 6 G1q are serviceable. Since this is a 14-inch machine, there’s plenty of space for a large keyboard. The chiclet-style keys don’t feel mushy, but they don’t exactly feel snappy either. Key travel is a little low. That’s a tad disappointing for a business laptop, where keyboards are usually a focus. The trackpad is also fine. It’s a good size and smooth enough, but it’s not the kind of premium glass surface you’ll find on higher-end business machines. Our review model didn’t have a touch screen, only a few configurations of this laptop do. This is the kind of business laptop a company can hand out to its employees and know they’ll be able to work everywhere, but not the kind of business laptop an individual seeks out for the best typing experience. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Display and speakers Foundry / Chris Hoffman The HP EliteBook 6 G1q has a display that does the job in indoor lighting conditions, but it doesn’t go above and beyond. It’s a 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS panel running at 60Hz and delivering up to 400 nits of brightness. That’s not going to win any awards, but I’m grateful I had the 400 nit display: HP also sells configurations with a dimmer 300 nit panel! For a 5G laptop, I’d say this is a real problem. The ideal 5G laptop would let me work from anywhere, whether that’s at the beach or on a park bench in downtown Boston (I tested both.) At 400 nits of brightness, this panel doesn’t have enough brightness to compete with the sun on a bright day, making it near unusable in many lighting situations. Many laptops like that, but a 5G laptop — where the goal is to use it on the go — really deserves a brighter panel than this. The speakers have enough volume, but they didn’t wow me, either. I test all the laptops I review by firing up Spotify and playing both Steely Dan’s Aja and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. The sound is a little muffled and muddy. Instrument separation in Aja wasn’t particularly clear and bass in Get Lucky wasn’t particularly distinct. These speakers are usable in a pinch, but you’d definitely want headphones for music and media. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The HP EliteBook 6 G1q has a 1080p webcam, which sounds good on paper. But the webcam was incredibly grainy and washed out in non-ideal lighting, which is a disappointment for a business machine, where nicer webcams are often a feature. It did better in brighter lighting, but it’s not up there with many higher-end business laptop webcams. HP includes a physical webcam shutter switch you can slide to block the webcam, which is always nice to see. The microphone sounds reasonably clear with good noise cancellation. I’d say it’s better than the webcam, but neither are particularly impressive. If you need to be visible and audible in an online meeting, this machine will do the job. But it won’t deliver high recording quality. Our review model had a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello on the keyboard deck. It worked fine. But an IR camera for facial recognition would’ve been a nice option — it does appear like that is an option on some other configurations. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Connectivity Foundry / Chris Hoffman The HP EliteBook 6 G1q’s connectivity is its crown jewel. 5G just worked out of the box: I powered on the laptop, set up Windows, and started using the machine without ever connecting it to Wi-Fi or plugging in an Ethernet cable. This also enables better management of a laptop fleet. If a laptop is stolen or lost, a business can track and locate it even if it isn’t connected to Wi-Fi. From an end-user perspective, I never bothered configuring anything. It “just worked” and switched between networks as needed. At a starting price of $19 per user per month for the 5G service, that’s extremely impressive. This machine also has a lot of ports: On the left side, two USB Type-C (40Gbps) ports, one USB Type-A port (5Gbps), HDMI 2.1 out, and a combo audio jack. On the right side, a second USB Type-A port (5Gbps), an RJ-45 Ethernet jack, a security lock slot, and an optional nano SIM slot for models with cellular connectivity. This machine has both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. So the connectivity is incredible: Multi-network 5G, Wi-Fi 7, and wired Ethernet all in one machine. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Performance The HP EliteBook 6 G1q ran cool and quiet, delivering reasonable desktop performance. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 hardware here is some of the slowest hardware HP could choose, however. It’s the slowest Snapdragon X Plus chip you’ll find. The only thing slower is the Snapdragon X X1-26-100, which doesn’t even get a “Plus” in its name. It does the job for basic productivity tasks: A web browser, office tools, and communication apps. As always, we ran the EliteBook 6 G1q through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. We normally start with PCMark 10, but it doesn’t yet run on Arm laptops like this one. Foundry / Chris Hoffman First, we run Cinebench R24. It’s available as a native Arm program, which lets us compare performance across laptops. CPUs with more cores do better on this multi-threaded benchmark. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 is an eight-core CPU, so it won’t keep up with CPUs with more cores on multithreaded tasks. With a multi-threaded score of 759, the CPU here was definitely behind AMD’s Ryzen AI HX 300 series hardware, but it delivers better performance than many lower-tier power-efficient Intel chips. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Second, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3DMark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. This particular benchmark is written for traditional x86 versions of Windows and runs through the Prism translation layer, so you’ll get an idea of how traditional GPU-accelerated apps (and games) will perform on this machine. With a 3DMark Time Spy score of 1,066, this machine just isn’t suitable for GPU-accelerated workloads or gaming. Even the Qualcomm Hexagon GPUs in higher-tier Snapdragon X SKUs are significantly faster. Foundry / Chris Hoffman We also run 3DMark Night Raid. This benchmark does have a native Arm version, so we can compare the Qualcomm Hexagon GPU here and see how fast it runs when it isn’t being held back by the Prism translation layer here. The score here gives you an idea of how well the GPU will perform in apps written for Arm hardware. With a score of 16,819 on the Night Raid benchmark, this machine closes some of the gap with Intel and AMD systems. The translation layer isn’t slowing things down, but it’s still far behind other machines in GPU performance. Overall, the HP EliteBook 6 G1q we reviewed delivers serviceable performance for lightweight desktop PC tasks while running cool and quiet. But it’s no speed demon, and it will be quickly outpaced even by laptops with higher-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPUs. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Battery life The HP EliteBook 6 G1q has a 56 Watt-hour battery. That’s low for a laptop that weighs over three pounds. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus hardware here is power-efficient, so it’ll get you through a workday. But I didn’t see the kind of extremely long battery life — 24 hours — that I did on Snapdragon X laptops with larger batteries. Foundry / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. The HP EliteBook 6 G1q lasted for 983 minutes on average. That’s over 16 hours. It’s a lot, probably more than most people would need, but the battery size has it behind many competing Snapdragon laptops. It’s another way the laptop cuts a corner and doesn’t aim for the high-end premium experience crown. It’s a shame because long battery life matters even more on a 5G laptop, which could be used in locations far from Wi-Fi and power outlets. HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Conclusion The HP EliteBook 6 G1q delivers 5G connectivity that just works. It transforms how you use a laptop like this one, and I hope to see more laptops delivering seamless 5G out of the box in the future. For businesses, it also makes their fleet of laptops remotely trackable and manageable just like a cellular-connected phone or tablet is. The way HP has delivered multi-network 5G you don’t even have to think about is technically impressive. Unfortunately, the rest of the laptop experience is a lower-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus machine. A company that wants to deliver a fleet of connected-but-mid-range laptops to a large number of employees will love these. But I bet the CEO will use a different machine. Read...

Our data is a precious commodity, not only to us but to the many potential customers of data brokers who collect and sell it without our knowledge. Once obtained the information can then be used to market products at us, assess our suitability for jobs or financial services, and even whether we qualify for certain healthcare coverage. The worst part is that we’re often unaware of the data being amassed and sold, as it all happens behind our back. Thankfully, you don’t have to be at the mercy of these practices, as there are services that can help you have your data removed and then prevent it from being collected again. So, if you want to keep your information secure, you’re going to need a little help. What are data brokers? As we’ve already outlined, data brokers collect information from websites, services and other companies, then package it to be sold to the highest bidder. It’s a legal practice, but not one that feels fair to consumers or in their best interests. There are two main types – public and private. You may have seen public ones, as they come in the form of people search sites where you can look up a surprising amount of information about individuals – often including their address and contact details. Then there are the private brokers. These collate the personal information of people and offer them to range of sectors, including marketing, risk-mitigation (for insurance companies, healthcare, etc.), recruitment (providing background information on candidates), and financial (data on whether you should be offered accounts, loans or other services). Incogni A report from the BBC, including video footage obtained from a call centre in India, showed the scammers that worked there laughing about their victims in the UK and USA. One recounted how he’d forced a woman to hand over her last $100, leaving her in tears. How does this relate to data brokers? The truth is that scammers don’t pick phone numbers at random. They buy your data from brokers. Once your data is out there, it’s not just calls. It’s phishing, impersonation, and identity theft. How can I stop data brokers selling my information? This is no easy task, as there are many private brokers and obviously your data is part of their business model. So, getting them to remove your information can be difficult. That’s where Incogni can give you a massive advantage, with its deep knowledge of the industry and how it works. Incogni specialises in helping customers regain control of their personal data by automatically removing listings from over 420 data brokers, both private and public. On its Unlimited plan, customers can also send custom removal requests in additional to the standard ones, where they point out particular websites and Incogni handles the removal of the data. With over 1,000 unique sites already addressed on behalf of customers, alongside the 420+ standard scans, plus over 245 million successful data removal requests so far, you know that Incogni is a company you can trust to get the job done. This is borne out by the fact that it’s also the first data removal service to have its commercial claims verified by a Big Four auditing service. The process of removing data is very simple. After setting up an account on the Incogni site, the service will run a scan on people search sites to find your personal information, then send removal requests. Next, requests are sent to the private brokers (something which is not always offered on other services without upgraded to a higher tier). Incogni If needed, follow up requests are sent after 60 days (public brokers) or 90 days (private brokers), with Incogni boasting an impressive 99% confirmation of removal requests. The company then re-scans the sites and sends fresh requests so that customers won’t have their data collected again. While this is going on, Incogni keeps you up to date with individual progress reports. The approach of constant monitoring and recurring removal requests prevents brokers from sneakily re-adding your information again. This means that even if it does reappear, Incogni’s on-going process will take it down again, keeping your privacy safe. Invest in your privacy with Incogni The cost of having your data sold can be high but protecting it is very affordable with Incogni. Prices start at $7.99/£5.99 p/m and there are also plans for up to 5 people if you want to protect the privacy of your family. There’s a 30-day money back guarantee and you can cancel at any time. To celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October, Incogni is running special promotions with major discounts off its subscription prices. So, be sure to check the site throughout the month to grab a fantastic deal. Sign up to Incogni Today Don’t let secretive companies track and report on you to make themselves money. Instead, take control again with Incogni. After all, data brokers can’t sell what they don’t have. Read...

It’s been a few months since I started using Starlink for home internet. And apart from some minor flaws and complaints—like weak upload speeds and the occasional global service outage—I have to admit it’s generally better than I expected it to be. One of the best things about Starlink is how normal it feels. Once you get it set up, it behaves just like regular internet: it’s fast, effective, and perfectly suitable for gaming and other latency-sensitive tasks. No, Starlink isn’t right for everyone. But it is good for what it is! In fact, here are some of the ways I find it even better than conventional home broadband internet (including ADSL, cable, and fiber). Starlink is available just about everywhere Jon Martindale / Foundry, Starlink While I might look enviously upon the upload (and download) speeds of my fiber-powered friends and colleagues, it’s not like everyone truly has multi-gigabit home internet. Indeed, outside most major cities, getting even gigabit fiber can be something of a challenge. If all you have access to is older-style cable or fiber broadband—or even ADSL over copper telephone lines—then Starlink’s performance is going to blow that away… and Starlink is just about everywhere. If your local internet options suck, then it can be mighty tempting. Okay, okay, Starlink technically isn’t available everywhere. But just take a look at Starlink’s US availability map. It’s ubiquitous! Across the entirety of the Americas, there are only a handful of countries where it isn’t available. (The reasons why are complex and beyond the scope of this article.) Starlink, by its satellite nature, is widely available because it doesn’t require much local infrastructure. It’s just you, your dishy, and the thousands of low-orbiting satellites that you connect to. For standard home internet, where you are dictates what kinds of internet service you can get. Not so with Starlink. As long as you aren’t living in Russia, China, Afghanistan, or North Korea, you’ve got Starlink now (or will get it at some point). Starlink goes with you when you move Evgeny Opanasenko / Unsplash Moving to another house? No problem. Just take your Starlink dish and router with you. You’ll need to update your address on your Starlink account so it’s all above board, but other than that you can maintain the same service package at the same price with no interruptions. Compare that to cable or fiber internet, which tend to lock you into contracts with termination fees (depending on how predatory your ISP is) and usually require you to return your equipment. You then need to sign up for another internet service at your next home. I love the hassle-free convenience of Starlink. I can just plug everything in, wait for the dish to connect to the satellite network, and I’m immediately online and ready to go. That means I don’t have to wait for service to be re-established or new hardware setup kits to arrive. Starlink is faster than some broadband Jon Martindale / Foundry, Speedtest Getting Starlink was a big speed boost for me. I went from an average speed of 65 Mbps with fiber to about 150 Mbps with Starlink. It’s even better during off-peak hours, as I’m able to hit 300 Mbps later in the evening and have even gotten close to 400 Mbps a few times. Although that’s still a far cry from gigabit fiber—not to mention multi-gigabit options in some major cities—it’s faster than low-tier broadband plans that cost about the same, or costs less than similar-speed broadband plans. (Your mileage may vary based on where you live, and gigabit internet may not even be worth it for you.) Furthermore, Starlink’s latency is better than other satellite internet options, making it more suitable for online games and video calls. Upload speeds do leave me wanting, though, capping out at around 45 Mbps (with an average of about 20 Mbps at the time of writing). That’s plenty for day-to-day use, but it does take a bit longer when I do stuff like uploading the odd video now and again. I can deal with that. You can use Starlink while on the go Roadpass / Unsplash For me, Starlink is a home internet solution. But for others, Starlink is high-speed internet wherever they go… and they really do go places. Check out any of the Reddit communities dedicated to remote living—think van life enthusiasts, house boaters, sailors, anyone who works in remote locations like oil rigs—and you’ll see they’re all using Starlink to get online and enjoy high-speed internet wherever they happen to be. I’ve even seen people strap Starlink to their cars just so the kids have great internet speeds on long drives and trips. Of course, Starlink’s Roaming packages are more expensive than its Residential plans on a per-gigabyte basis, and you’re capped in ways that the standard residential and business options aren’t. But for people who want to live a remote, nomadic lifestyle or need to travel often for work, Starlink is a unique solution that works fantastically well at delivering high-speed internet (almost) anywhere and everywhere. Starlink isn’t vulnerable to local outages Jon Martindale / Foundry Has your home internet ever gone down because a local substation blew or because someone cut through a buried fiber cable while renovating their yard? That simply can’t happen with Starlink. Sure, you have a cable that runs from your Starlink router (inside) to your Starlink dish (outside), but unless someone cuts that—there’s no way someone’s doing that by accident—you’re pretty much safe. That isn’t to say Starlink doesn’t have its own issues. When I first signed up, I was immediately hit by Starlink’s first major global outage in a long time. I’ve also experienced a few other spotty occasions since then, usually because a tree branch leaned in front of my dish or inclement weather got in the way of my satellite view. But on the whole? Starlink is surprisingly reliable and isn’t susceptible to the kinds of outages that most home internet users face. Starlink’s router is actually pretty good Jon Martindale / Foundry Some internet service providers send out legitimately good routers and modems with their internet service packages, but many don’t—especially when you’re on a cheaper plan. (Learn more about choosing a good router and getting started with it.) Although Starlink is very much not a cheap internet solution and absolutely should ship with a decent router, I’m pleased to report the one you get is indeed solid. Not excellent—and certainly worth replacing if you’re a power user—but if you’re just looking for a capable Wi-Fi 6 router to go with your fancy new space internet, it’s good. I have Starlink’s third-generation router and it’s plenty fast for most modern devices. Although it’s missing the newer Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 protocols, I’m okay with that because I don’t have any cutting-edge devices that could even take advantage of it. My Starlink router is tri-band, giving me plenty of network space for hundreds of devices. The router also comes with a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports, and the Wi-Fi range is capped at 3,200 square feet. That’s enough for all but the largest of homes, although some walls and obstructions can get in the way, and the lack of external antennas can make it harder to orient for a better signal. But for most apartments and open homes, it should be plenty. Need more range? It supports mesh networking, and Starlink sells cost-effective nodes for expanding your network if needed. Further reading: I spent $24 to future-proof my home Wi-Fi forever Read...

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TL;DR: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows is just $19.97 (MSRP $229) through October 19 only — one payment, no subscription fees, all the essential apps you already use every day. Why rent MS Office every month when you can just own it? For $19.97, you can score a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows. That gets you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, and OneNote, forever, no ongoing subscription fees required. This is one of Microsoft’s most widely used Office versions for good reason. It’s stable, streamlined, and packed with the features that everyday users, business owners, freelancers, and spreadsheet wizards rely on. Whether you’re managing invoices, writing your next pitch deck, editing a résumé, or organizing your inbox like a boss, Office 2019 is built to make your life easier. Once installed on your Windows PC, it’s good to go with—no recurring costs, no cloud dependency (thank goodness), and no fuss. Plus, this version’s got some sweet upgrades: better inking across apps, more data analysis in Excel, improved email handling in Outlook, and sleek new transitions in PowerPoint. Don’t miss getting lifetime access to Microsoft Office 2019 while it’s just $19.97 (MSRP $229) until October 19 at 11:59 p.m. PT. No coupon is needed. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for WindowsSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

The new suite is set to help firms adopt AI swiftly, offering tailored support across its cloud and data platforms for real business impact. Read...