HP EliteBook 725 12.5" AMD A10 Laptop

Previous comments have not been very fruitful.

NotebookCheck was pretty lukewarm about this laptop, noting that the processor should’ve been capable of more but had severe throttling issues and mediocre battery life.

In theory, the A10 pro APU should be capable of playing modern games at medium-to-low settings but it may not be possible due to how this particular laptop is configured. The HP Elitebook 725 G3 was just announced a couple of weeks ago, which features all-new AMD “Carrizo” APUs, including the A12-8800B which promises to offer better integrated graphics and better single-core performance (and, hopefully, better battery life). As much as I’d love for AMD to release a killer APU for mobile, the fact that they’re still stuck on a 28nm process vs. Intel’s 14nm process means that you have to accept that they’re just not going to be as efficient overall, especially on cheaper machines that are saddled with either mediocre hardware or tight thermal/power constraints.

Still, for about half of what a new 725 G2 goes for (you can find A10 configs of the 725 G2 for about $900 and up if you look around), you could do worse for a 12" laptop, though I imagine you could certainly do better as well.

(Side note: I’ve been looking for a cheap-ish A10-or-better-equipped 12" laptop for a while for mobile gaming on my daily train commute, and I thought this ticked all the boxes so I’d researched it thoroughly only to come out disappointed…still holding out hope the 725 G3 isn’t as throttled and isn’t interminably expensive. Right now there are basically zero small notebooks with powerful APUs, which is why I’m forced to pore over off-lease business laptops.)