We check with big-screen, full-powered laptops as desktop replacements, however that is far too delicate a time period for the HP ZBook Fury 16 G11 (begins at $1,558; $3,564 as examined). “Desktop destroyer” or “desktop annihilator,” possibly. Or simply “desk”—choosing up the Fury after a typical ultraportable, it appears to have two or three laptops’ price of beefy base underneath its skinny lid. This ZBook is not the very quickest cellular workstation we have examined, as a result of our assessment unit has solely Nvidia’s third-quickest skilled GPU, but it surely simply earns an Editors’ Alternative award as an ultra-expandable, cost-no-object selection for barreling by way of the most important datasets and most demanding specialised functions.Configuration & Design: eleventh Gen Workstation, 14th Gen CPU The 16-inch Fury G11 is a refresh of the ZBook Fury 16 G10 seen right here in March 2024. The most cost effective configuration is $1,558 with Intel’s Core i5-13600HX vPro processor, 16GB of reminiscence, a 512GB solid-state drive, and a 1,920-by-1,200-pixel show. With lowly Intel UHD built-in graphics as a substitute of a discrete GPU, actual workstations beat it up and take its lunch cash.
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(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Our $3,564 take a look at mannequin raises the ante significantly with Intel’s colossal Core i9-14900HX chip (eight Efficiency cores, 16 Environment friendly cores, 32 threads, max turbo 5.8GHz), 64GB of RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and Nvidia’s RTX 3500 Ada Technology graphics with 12GB of show reminiscence and all of the impartial software program vendor (ISV) certifications you possibly can need. The non-touch IPS show is considered one of HP’s dazzling DreamColor panels with 3,840-by-2,400 decision and a 120Hz refresh fee. An OLED contact display with the identical 4K decision and a fraction much less brightness is an possibility, as is a 1200p panel with HP’s SureView Replicate privateness filter to thwart snoopy seatmates on airplanes. The reminiscence ceiling is 128GB, with error-correcting-code (ECC) DRAM out there for to-the-penny precision, and a whopping 4 M.2 slots enable as much as 16TB of solid-state storage if you happen to do not thoughts pushing the worth to 5 figures.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
At 1.13 by 14.3 by 9.8 inches and 5.3 kilos, the Fury G11 occupies the heavyweight class of cellular workstations, versus middleweights with decrease reminiscence and storage limits just like the Dell Precision 5690 (4.46 kilos) and HP’s personal ZBook Studio 16 G10 (3.81 kilos). The 16-inch Apple MacBook Professional splits the distinction at 4.8 kilos. Unfashionably thick bezels encompass the display, which flexes a bit if you happen to grasp the corners, however the keyboard deck resists even a powerful press—the ZBook has handed MIL-STD 810H torture assessments for journey hazards corresponding to shock, vibration, and excessive temperature and humidity. A fingerprint reader within the palm relaxation and IR face recognition within the webcam offer you two methods to skip passwords with Home windows Hiya.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
A SmartCard slot on the correct edge presents a 3rd method. It is joined by two 5Gbps USB 3.2 Sort-A ports, an audio jack, an Ethernet port, and a nano safety lock. The laptop computer’s left facet has two USB4 Sort-C ports, HDMI and mini DisplayPort monitor outputs, an SD card reader, and the AC adapter connector. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth are commonplace, with 4G or 5G cellular broadband out there at ordering.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Options: An Ignominious Keyboard Custom, However the Relaxation Rocks The Fury G11’s keyboard makes us downright indignant. Figuring out that computer-aided design (CAD) and different demanding ISV apps usually make use of a center mouse button, HP offered three soft, exact buttons under a big, responsive touchpad. However then the corporate caught to its laptops’ infamously awkward placement of the cursor arrow keys in a slipshod row as a substitute of the proper inverted T, with half-height, hard-to-hit up and down arrows stacked between full-size left and proper. It is ham-handed and aggravating. In any other case, the keyboard scores factors for a full numeric keypad and colourful RGB backlighting, with Z Mild Area software program that gives a actually dizzying array of animated results. Typing really feel is shallow and type of rubbery, however comfy for extended, speedy enter. The system is new sufficient to have Microsoft’s Copilot key on board, although we seen Home windows Digital camera didn’t have the brand new AI-enhanced Studio Results choices corresponding to auto framing and background blur.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
That is the worst factor we are able to say concerning the 5-megapixel webcam, which captures movies and pictures which are well-lit and vividly colourful at as much as 2,560-by-1,440 (16:9 side ratio) or 2,560-by-1,920 (4:3 ratio) decision. Particulars are crisp and there is zero noise or static; you will not get away with not shaving or washing your hair the day of a convention name. They nonetheless use IPS expertise in an more and more OLED age, however we have not modified our opinion of HP’s DreamColor workstation shows because the most interesting screens within the PC biz. The Fury’s is solely stunning, with wealthy, vivid colours, faultless distinction, and ample brightness (although this one fell a fraction in need of its rated 500 nits in our testing and by no means appeared too brilliant as some 600-nit-plus panels can). White backgrounds are pristine, and viewing angles are broad. Excessive-res pictures and movies—hell, even Sticky Notes—regarded gorgeous. Stereo audio system on the backside entrance pump out not notably loud however good and clear sound; there’s minimal bass, however highs and midtones are fairly clear, and it is easy to make out overlapping tracks. HP Audio Management software program supplies auto, music, film, and voice presets and an equalizer, in addition to clever noise discount for convention calls.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
The Fury additionally comes with HP’s Wolf Safety suite, which leads the enterprise laptop computer section with options starting from OS restoration to a sandboxed safe browser and hardware-enforced containment or isolation of malware apps detected by deep studying AI.Testing the HP ZBook Fury 16 G11: Quick? Yeah, We’re Thinkin’ It is Quick Moreover its predecessor the ZBook Fury 16 G10, we in contrast the G11’s benchmark numbers to these of one other (if barely dated) unlimited-class workstation, the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1, and a slimmer Editors’ Alternative honoree, the Dell Precision 5690. The 16-inch Apple MacBook Professional and its mighty M3 Max processor spherical out our take a look at set.
Productiveness Exams We run the identical common productiveness benchmarks throughout each cellular and desktop methods. Our first take a look at is UL’s PCMark 10, which simulates a wide range of real-world productiveness and workplace workflows to measure total system efficiency and in addition features a storage subtest for the first drive. Three different benchmarks give attention to the CPU, utilizing all out there cores and threads, to fee a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 makes use of that firm’s Cinema 4D engine to render a posh scene, whereas Geekbench 5.5 Professional from Primate Labs simulates well-liked apps starting from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine studying. We additionally use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to transform a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p decision (decrease instances are higher). Lastly, we run PugetBench for Photoshop by workstation maker Puget Methods, which makes use of the Inventive Cloud model 22 of Adobe’s well-known picture editor to fee a PC’s efficiency for content material creation and multimedia functions. It is an automatic extension that executes a wide range of common and GPU-accelerated Photoshop duties starting from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving a picture to making use of masks, gradient fills, and filters.
Apple’s M3 Max is a thermonuclear CPU, however the ZBook’s Intel Core i9-14900HX isn’t any slouch both. The Fury 16 G11 squeaked to a win in PCMark 10 (although utilizing any of those machines for Phrase and Excel is like utilizing a Caterpillar bulldozer to select up after your canine) and shone in our processing and Photoshop assessments. Graphics Exams We take a look at Home windows PCs’ graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Evening Raid (extra modest, appropriate for laptops with built-in graphics) and Time Spy (extra demanding, appropriate for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). We additionally run two assessments from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses each low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like picture rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Automotive Chase assessments, rendered offscreen to accommodate completely different show resolutions, train graphics and compute shaders utilizing the OpenGL programming interface and {hardware} tessellation respectively. The extra frames per second (fps), the higher.
Seven hundred frames per second is a bit a lot even for the Fury’s 120Hz show. Little recreation excerpts like these are foolish assessments for workstations like these. It is true that the G11 did not sweep the sector, however upgrading from Nvidia’s RTX 3500 Ada to the top-of-the-line RTX 5000 would have doubtless mounted that (and added $1,849 to its value). Workstation-Particular Exams Turning to extra acceptable benchmarks, Blender 2.93 is a well-liked open-source 3D suite for modeling, animation, simulation, and compositing. We file the time it takes for its built-in Cycles path tracer to render two photorealistic scenes of BMW vehicles, one utilizing the system’s CPU and one the GPU (decrease instances are higher). BMW artist Mike Pan has mentioned he considers the renders too temporary for rigorous testing, however they seem to be a well-liked benchmark. Maybe our most essential workstation take a look at, SPECviewperf 2020, renders, rotates, and zooms out and in of strong and wireframe fashions utilizing viewsets from well-liked ISV apps. We run the 1080p decision assessments primarily based on PTC’s Creo CAD platform; Autodesk’s Maya modeling and simulation software program for movie, TV, and video games; and Dassault Systemes’ SolidWorks 3D rendering package deal. Outcomes are in frames per second.
The G11 gained Blender’s CPU contest and trailed solely the MacBook Professional within the GPU occasion (once more, with Nvidia’s third greatest skilled silicon), and was greater than aggressive in SPECviewperf. Large overkill for on a regular basis jobs, it is a useful accomplice for the hardest engineering, design, and information science duties. Battery and Show Exams We take a look at laptops’ battery life by enjoying a domestically saved 720p video file (the open-source Blender film Tears of Metal) with show brightness at 50% and audio quantity at 100%. We be certain that the battery is totally charged earlier than the take a look at, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off. We additionally use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and software program to measure a laptop computer display’s coloration saturation—what share of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 coloration gamuts or palettes the show can present—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per sq. meter).
The Fury G11 significantly improved on the poor battery lifetime of the G10 mannequin, however its runtime remained a rounding error of the Apple’s. No biggie; workstations are unplugged just for occasional showings of CAD or CGI renderings at a shopper’s workplace. The DreamColor display delivered impeccable coloration and brightness.Verdict: When Solely King Ghidorah Will Do We admire Dell’s Precision 5690 as a potent however comparatively moveable cellular workstation, however when even that machine’s excessive energy is not sufficient, the ZBook Fury 16 G11 stands alone. In the event you want the uncooked horsepower, reminiscence, and storage to justify its value—or extra doubtless, make its value the smallest a part of a mission’s payables—it is a merely superior Editors’ Alternative award winner.
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About Eric Grevstad
Contributing Editor
I used to be picked to jot down the “20 Most Influential PCs” characteristic for PCMag’s fortieth Anniversary protection as a result of I bear in mind all of them—I began on a TRS-80 journal in 1982 and served as editor of Pc Shopper when it was a 700-page month-to-month. I used to be later the editor in chief of House Workplace Computing, {a magazine} that promoted utilizing tech to work at home twenty years earlier than a pandemic made it commonplace follow. Even in semiretirement in Bradenton, Florida, I can not cease enjoying with toys and telling folks what gear to purchase.
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