The EliteBook mainly competes against computer lineups such as Acer's TravelMate, Dell's Latitude, Lenovo's ThinkPad and Dynabook's Portégé and Tecra.

The HP EliteBook line is engineered to meet military MIL-STD-810 standards for reliability and performance under extreme conditions,[5] namely for temperature, altitude, humidity, dust, shock and vibration.

The notebooks feature a magnesium alloy chassis, anodized aluminum lid and palm rests, spill-resistant keyboards, active hard-drive protection and dual pointing devices (touchpad and pointing stick).

The xx30 generation comprised the following notebooks: All models used Core 2 CPUs and 16:10 aspect ratio displays.

The 6930p model was notable for being claimed by HP to be the first notebook to break the 24-hour battery life barrier.

Workstation models could be configured with ISV-certified professional graphics cards such as the ATI Mobility FirePro M7820 or the Nvidia Quadro FX 5000M (at the time of release the most powerful workstation-class graphics card on the market[60]).

Mobile workstation models featured Nvidia Quadro or AMD FirePro graphics.

[68] The notebooks were also completely redesigned, with a more boxy shape and less plastic used on the surfaces, as well as a larger glass touchpad.

The external design was also refreshed, resulting in a less boxy shape and overall thinner chassis.

AMD based models were added into EliteBook product line-up for the first time.

[93] EliteBook Folio 1020 Bang & Olufsen Limited Edition was announced in July 2015.

[123] A refresh model, EliteBook 840r G4, was released in April 2018 with Intel Kaby Lake R processors as options.

[159] New features introduced in this generation include optional 1000-nit display, privacy camera shutter, 802.11ax WiFi and Bluetooth 5.

[161] This generation of EliteBook notebooks feature Intel Comet Lake and AMD Zen 2 Renoir processors.

[172][173] Elite Dragonfly was updated with Intel 10th Generation processors at CES 2020 in January 2020.

[176][177] Other HP Elite notebook, tablet and accessory products are introduced at CES 2021.

[180][181] Additionally, the maximum display brightness is 1000 nits[182] but premium-branded speaker technology is not included.

Other HP Elite notebook, tablet and accessory products introduced at CES 2022.

These contain Intel's 13th-gen Raptor Lake mobile processors and AMD's Zen 4-based Phoenix CPUs.

[189] The 2730p Tablet PC was well received by GottaBeMobile, but noted shortcomings in its speakers, buttons, and latches.

With this flagship business line HP has combined good looks, ruggedness, high performance, and tons of features into one extremely attractive package.

"[193] IT Reviews said that the 8540p's "relatively high screen resolution is a real draw, and we found the keyboard to be well made and easy to use at full touch-typing speed".

"[194] The EliteBook 8440p received praise from V3.co.uk for its "attractive and robust design" as well as a "powerful processor" and "good range of features", but the review also noted that the overall appeal of the laptop was diminished by "poor battery life" and HP's choice of 32-bit Windows.