Introduction and design
HP's ZBook family of high-end mobile workstations provide desktop-like performance in a business laptop. The ZBook 17 is the largest model in the range, and can accommodate more powerful components than the smaller variants. It comes with an Intel Core i7 processor, up to 32GB of DDR3 memory and an Nvidia Quadro graphics card.
It's mainly aimed at people who work in fields such as graphic design, 3D modelling and engineering, who use power-hungry visual design software such as 3DS Max, AutoCAD and the Adobe CS suite, which need both processing and graphics power.
The ZBook's optional 1,920 x 1,080 DreamColor display is of particular interest then, since it's a bright and vivid colour-accurate screen that not only looks good, but ensures red, green and blue levels are a closer match to NTSC, sRGB and AdobeRGB colour spaces than you get with a standard laptop screen.
A hefty price of £2,950 (around US$4,630 or AU$5,500) accompanies this ultra-high-end portable computer, which isn't surprising given the performance it provides, although as always, a slightly less beefy configuration cuts the price considerably. With less memory, a standard laptop display and an entry-level Quadro K610M graphics card, the price falls to £1,545 (around US$2,415 or AU$2,885).
Design
Like arch-rival Dell's Precision M6800 workstation, the ZBook 17 puts performance ahead of portability. This is not a thin or light laptop - it weighs 3.48kg, and its chassis measures 3.4cm. It stretches the definition of portable, since it really isn't the easiest thing to carry around.
But the large frame means the ZBook 17 has enough battery and thermal headroom to be kitted out with top-end components that are unsuitable for smaller systems. You wont find a 13-inch laptop with an Nvidia Quadro K4100M graphics card, or a quad-core 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ, which were included in the ZBook 17 HP sent me for review. You can choose an even faster Core i7-4900MQ processor and Nvidia Quadro K5100M if you want, or downgrade to less powerful components.
And while it may be portly, HP has ensured the ZBook 17 carries a stylish design that looks sleek and professional. The logo on the top of the lid is surrounded with aluminium, covering a dark grey solid plastic chassis. The keys are the common chiclet style, but large enough and providing enough travel for comfortable typing regardless of your finger size.
Connectivity
This notebook's large frame also ensures a good selection of ports - three USB 3.0, one of which is for charging gadgets, with another for USB 2.0. There are video outputs for DisplayPort and a legacy analogue connector, Ethernet and a 2x2 Intel 6235 802.11ac wireless adapter. Audio support is somewhat lacking - there's only a single 3.5mm jack for both input and output, and no digital connector.
A Blu-ray writer, optional ExpressCard and an SD card slot cater for external storage while there's a flexible range of internal storage options. You can have two 2.5-inch hard disks, up to 1TB in capacity, along with a 128GB mSATA SSD, or any other combination you like, including larger 2.5-inch SSDs.
The 2.4GHz Core i7-4700MQ processor is from Intel's first generation of 22nm Haswell processors, rather than this year's refresh. It's still one of the fastest mobile CPUs around, with 8 execution threads and a Turbo frequency of 3.4GHz. It's an order of magnitude more powerful than the processors in more portable laptops, but its 47W TDP puts a real strain on battery life.
Nvidia's Quadro K4100M is a similarly high performance DirectX11 GPU with 1152 shaders and 4GB of video memory, enough for rich, detailed models and scenes in 3D applications. It has certified drivers that are tested for use with graphic design software, unlike the GeForce series, which are better for gaming. Cuda-accelerated software, such as Nvidia's iRay renderer for 3DS Max, will see a major boost with this powerful GPU.
Performance
With such a high price and high-end specification, nothing less than superb performance is to be expected from the ZBook 17, and that's precisely what it delivers, rivalling mid-range desktop workstations.
In Cinebench 15 the ZBook 17 managed a frame rate of 83.24 FPS in the OpenGL test, and 616 points in the CPU test. The OpenGL results are particularly impressive, not just a leap ahead of laptops with less powerful GPUs, but even some desktop workstations with Quadro cards. The CPU result is excellent too, but this matches, rather than beats, its rivals. It's a whisper higher than the result from Dell's 15-inch Precision M4800 mobile workstation.
PCMark 8 is a standard benchmark I run on practically any computer I see, but it's not always the best way to judge workstation performance, as it only tests general tasks rather than graphics-heavy visual design. The ZBook 17 still delivered an excellent result of 3631, compared with 3158 for the Dell Precision M4800 and 2632 for the particularly thin Dell Precision M3800.
Likewise 3DMark is a test to evaluate gaming performance, and won't take full advantage of the K4100M. The ZBook 17 puts in a good show though, with a respectable 3123 points in the Fire Strike section, a test that quickly brings most graphics cards to their knees.
As an example of the difference between the ZBook 17 and an Ultrabook, the integrated graphics in the svelte Asus Zenbook UX301LA scored 693 in the same test. The ZBook is over four times faster.
Benchmarks of professional software offer a better example of the ZBook 17's power. In 3DS Max 2015 I rendered the Underwater demo scene, in its standard resolution of 800 x 451, in 5 minutes 15 seconds, and at 1080p resolution in 23 minutes 54 seconds. That is a pretty quick time, but
slightly disappointing compared with the Core i7-4900MQ in the Dell M4800, which took a minute less to render both scenes. Given the choice, we'd opt for a processor upgrade to the same Core i7-4900MQ for the ZBook 17.
Battery life
Since both mobile workstations and gaming laptops come with high-end components that guzzle power, it makes less sense to ask about the "best" battery life than to ask which laptop is least awful. While ultra-portable laptops and tablets can offer double-digit battery life, with mobile workstations, three hours is roughly average, and any more than four is an excellent result.
Using PCMark's built-in battery test, with the screen brightness set to 80%, I measured 1 hour 54 minutes, one of the worst scores I've seen. With the same brightness and looped playback of Avatar, it conked out after 2 hours 15 minutes.
It's no coincidence that the ZBook 17 is also one of the most powerful mobile workstations around. Despite energy-saving technology, any high-end software, video encoding or drawing complex 3D scenes will force the ZBook 17 to be connected to a mains power supply.
Display
The last aspect of the ZBook 17 I chose to test was the accuracy of the screen, the component that's arguably the real star of the show.
Using a Spyder 4 colorimeter, I looked at brightness levels, colour gamut and accuracy. The DreamColor display measured up fantastically. It captured 100% of the sRGB colour space, 95% of NTSC and 98% of AdobeRGB. Its brightness of 320cd/m2 is likewise excellent, with an average Delta E of 1.4. These results are matched only by standalone colour-accurate displays. HP's own Z1 G2 all-in-one workstation has a lovely screen, but it only offers 76% NTSC and 84% AdobeRGB coverage.
If you aren't yet sure that the ZBook 17's DreamColor display is simply awesome, the results from the Spyder's screen uniformity test may convince you. Screen uniformity is of most interest to professional graphic designers, where a difference in white levels on parts of the screen affects colour accuracy. Consumer-grade monitors with cheap backlights can vary by as much as 30%. Even expensive models sometimes dip by 20%.
Only the top of the screen on the HP ZBook 17 exhibited much of a brightness drop, with 11%. The rest of the scores were within 5%, a great result that really shows the class the ZBook 17 competes in. This type of colour-accurate display doesn't come cheap, but if you really need something like this, you'll find the budget for it.
Verdict
We liked
The ZBook 17's high-end performance is its most obvious positive feature. This is a laptop that's faster than many desktops. The flexible storage options are also a great thing to have. You can stuff two hard disks inside this machine and still have an SSD for the operating system.
HP's DreamColor display puts just about every other laptop screen to shame. It's gorgeous. If you're going for a more high-end ZBook configuration, a screen upgrade is a good idea.
It's also nice to see such a wide range of ports and expansion options.
We disliked
While our review model's CPU performance was excellent, we'd opt for the slightly faster 2.6GHz Core i7-4900MQ.
The price is also above the level of most budgets, so the ZBook 17 is more likely to be purchased by business users, while the rest of us wish we could afford such a nice computer.
Although its performance is excellent, the monstrous size is unfortunate. The thick chassis and heavy weight will put a lot of people off.
The great performance of the ZBook 17 would make it a useful machine for high-end audio software, but the single analogue jack means you'll probably want a USB sound card.
Final verdict
The ZBook 17 is one of the most powerful mobile workstations on the planet, and it will be unfazed by any software you throw at it. Expect it to chew through video encoding jobs, render scenes as quickly as a desktop workstation, and perform any number crunching you ask of it.
It's well built, offers oodles of storage and has plenty of expansion options. There are very few laptops on the market with colour-accurate screens, and even fewer with screens as good as HP's DreamColor display. That alone should pique the interest of any graphics professional.
However, despite all the lovely aspects of the ZBook 17, it's hard to see this category of ultra-powerful, ultra-heavy and ultra-expensive laptop ever becoming more than a niche. The sheer size of it makes this machine more of a desktop replacement than a portable computer.
from www.techradar.com
