One of the best laptop keyboards: HP should use this everywhere

Every laptop has one, but they are too rarely given the appreciation and importance that they actually deserve. We are talking about the humble keyboard, the central input device of pretty much all PCs and the thing that separates laptops from tablets.

Innovation in laptop keyboards these days is quite rare. After all, laptops had them for decades, so manufacturers figured them out a long time ago. If anything, when manufacturers change something, they make things worse, like Apple with their infamous and short-lived butterfly keyboard switches.

HP uses very good keyboards in their EliteBook laptop line, their premier business laptop series. Keyboards like the one in the HP EliteBook 8 G2a 14 are good, but also have not changed too much in many years. The Chiclet keycap design, 1.5 mm travel and backlit nature, as well as basic six row layout, are very much standard these days for business laptops.

Changing something that is good, improving it, is difficult. But HP has managed it, with the new HP EliteBook X G2i 14. Here, HP has introduced a completely new keyboard, with a brand-new, frameless keycap design. This does not just look more modern, it also is better, because the keycaps improve the backlit function: With a classical Chiclet design, the LEDs light often bleeds out beneath the keys, this is not the case here. Plus, the dark grey keys have a very nice, premium material texture that does not seem to get dirty easily, and the typing feel is great. Different from Dell's frameless design on the XPS, HP's is easier to use, as you can still clearly tell each key from another.

Overall, we were highly impressed by the keyboard of the 2026 HP EliteBook X G2i 14 - hopefully, HP implements it across the rest of the EliteBook lineup in the future.