The HP EliteBook 845 G9 offers better battery life and is more portable with a lighter build and a smaller screen, making it well-suited for business professionals and general use. It comes with a higher-quality display and more RAM out of the box, enhancing multitasking and productivity tasks. In contrast, the MSI GF65 Thin, with its high-refresh-rate display and powerful graphics card, is designed for intensive gaming and 3D applications, but it has a shorter battery life and is heavier, which impacts portability. If tasks like 3D rendering and gaming are a priority, the MSI could be the right choice, despite its trade-offs in portability and battery life. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the HP EliteBook 845 G9
Good for general use
Good for engineering and design
Good for software development
Good for content creation
Good overall display quality
Very good overall build quality
Very good portability
Very good battery life
Good speakers
Very good keyboard
Advantages of the MSI GF65 Thin
The MSI GF65 Thin has no clear advantages over the HP EliteBook 845 G9.
Key differences
General Use
7.7/10
6.5/10
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
402.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
262.0 nits
12.0 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
4.5 Hours
8.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
7.0/10
8.3/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
7.3/10
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 is good for general use, while the MSI GF65 Thin is only fair.
PerfectRec’s General Use Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for general productivity, web browsing, streaming, video calls, and running a wide variety of apps and programs.
Content Creation
7.6/10
6.8/10
6.3/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
4.6/10
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
16.0 GB
RAM
8.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 is good for content creation, while the MSI GF65 Thin is only fair.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
7.7/10
6.3/10
6.3/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
4.6/10
16.0 GB
RAM
8.0 GB
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
8.5/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
7.0/10
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 is good for software development, while the MSI GF65 Thin is only fair.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
7.1/10
6.8/10
14.0in
SIZE
15.6in
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
402.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
262.0 nits
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 has a better screen than the MSI GF65 Thin for general use, engineering and design, software development, and content creation, while the MSI GF65 Thin has a better screen for gaming and AI.
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 offers a higher resolution and brighter display which makes it suitable for general use and detail-oriented engineering tasks, ensuring crisp text and vibrant images. Its color gamut coverage is adequate for many engineering and design professionals who need to work with a wide range of colors accurately. However, for gaming and 3D applications, the HP falls short due to a lower refresh rate, which is crucial for smooth motion rendering, whereas the MSI GF65 Thin, despite having a modest screen quality for both general use and engineering tasks, may not provide the color richness or sharpness desired by professionals but has a better refresh rate, more aligned with gaming needs, although it's still not considered high enough for optimal 3D performance.
Battery
12.0 Hours
4.5 Hours
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 has 12 hours of battery life. The MSI GF65 Thin has 4.5 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Very Good
Good
14.0in
SIZE
15.6in
3.0 lbs
WEIGHT
4.1 lbs
0.7in
THICKNESS
0.8in
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 has very good portability, while the MSI GF65 Thin has good portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
8.0/10
6.7/10
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 has very good build quality, while the MSI GF65 Thin has only fair build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$740
$1,100
$0
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
The HP EliteBook 845 G9 has a price of $740 and the MSI GF65 Thin costs $1,100.
The MSI GF65 Thin and HP EliteBook 845 G9 are both only fair for gaming and AI.
PerfectRec’s Gaming and AI Score strongly emphasizes graphics processing capability, while also taking into account other factors that impact suitability for gaming and AI work.
Engineering and Design
7.2/10
6.7/10
6.3/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
4.6/10
3.7/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
6.1/10
16.0 GB
RAM
8.0 GB
Although they have very similar scores, PerfectRec considers HP EliteBook 845 G9 to be good for engineering and design, while the MSI GF65 Thin is only fair.
The HP EliteBook 845 G9's powerful AMD processor with integrated graphics and ample memory make it well-suited for engineering and design tasks, also offering a high-resolution screen with good color coverage that benefits design applications, while its lighter weight improves portability compared to the MSI GF65 Thin. The MSI GF65 Thin, with its dedicated Nvidia graphics card, provides robust rendering capabilities crucial for certain engineering applications and better gaming, but has less memory and a lower resolution screen, making it less optimized for design tasks where screen quality is key.
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How the HP EliteBook 845 G9 and the MSI GF65 Thin compare to other laptops
"The high-end version of the HP EliteBook 845 G9 with a Ryzen 9 PRO 6950HS, 32GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD packs a lot of power, but is still quiet and cool enough to operate in noise-sensitive environments. Quiet, cool and drawing on a massive 40 watts from the APU at the same time, however, is not possible. The 14-incher only has a single-fan solution and it only just manages to keep an near unthrottled Ryzen 9 in check."
"The MSI GF65 Thin offers a GeForce RTX 3060 on a budget. The MSI GF65 is a relatively inexpensive RTX 3060 laptop and, perhaps not coincidentally, it also comes with a slower-than-average RTX 3060 GPU. Other laptops we've tested thus far with the same GPU are about 10 to 15 percent faster. CPU performance is also slightly slower than average unless if users decide to enable Cooler Boost mode. Colors, black-white response times, Thunderbolt, and DisplayPort are either average or completely omitted. Gamers who want to maximize performance-per-dollar without sacrificing RAM or SSD upgradeability will find the lightweight MSI GF65 attractive."
Get a great deal on the HP EliteBook 845 G9 or the MSI GF65 Thin
About HP
HP, also known as Hewlett-Packard, is an American technology company that develops personal computers and computer peripherals. In the laptop industry, HP is known for its entry level Essential series laptops, its mid-range Pavilion, Envy, and Victus series, and high-end Omen and Spectre series, in addition to its business-oriented EliteBook, ProBook, and Dragonfly series laptops. HP laptops generally undercut other mainstream competitors in terms of price, placing itself as the value-oriented mainstream brand.
About MSI
MSI, also known as Micro-Star International, is a Taiwanese technology corporation. MSI is known for their wide range of gaming devices. Their series include the entry-level Cyborg/Thin and Sword/Katana series, the mid-range Bravo/Delta and Crosshair/Pulse series, and their high-end Vector, Raider, Stealth, and Titan GT series. At every performance level, MSI offers a variety of devices with varying balances between performance, battery life, weight, and price, making them a solid option to consider at every price point.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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