The HP ZBook 15 is a mobile workstation, and that means a powerhouse
laptop that can stand in for a desktop. The 6.2 pound 15.6" ZBook we
look at has a quad core Intel Core i7 CPU clocked at 2.7GHz, NVIDIA
Quadro K2100M graphics, 16 gigs of RAM and a phenomenal wide gamut full
HD DreamColor display. It's not cheap at $2,799 though; HP's business
and professional line workstations aren't for the budget conscious.
In a world where Ultrabooks, those super thin and
light laptops with few upgradable parts, are the new norm, the ZBook
line is old guard. It's upgradable, rugged and significantly more
powerful than Ultrabooks. It uses the full mobile CPU line from Intel
rather than the ultra low power U series Ultrabook line of CPUs, and it
packs workstation graphics for CAD professionals, architects and
engineers. As a bonus, Quadro graphics can handle some demanding gaming
too, though it's designed more for 3D design, engineering and video
production. Clearly, if you just work in MS Office and edit a few photos
in Photoshop this is overkill. But if you're a professional who needs
serious computing and graphics power, this is your kind of machine.
The ZBook is available in three sizes:
14, 15 and 17 inch. We look at the middle child, which is the most
interesting in terms of delivering the most computing power in the
smallest package. The ZBook 15 and 17 use the same fourth generation
Intel Haswell full mobile CPUs with 4 core CPU options, and they're both
available with HP's DreamColor displays and relatively powerful NVIDIA
Quadro graphics. The ZBook 17 is available with Quadro K610M or K3100M
graphics, while our 15 inch model is available with Quadro K610M, K1100M
or K2100M graphics, making both models powerful workstations. The 14"
model uses AMD Firepro M4100 graphics with dual core Intel full mobile M
series CPUs, making it portable but less powerful.
