HP Zbook X2
A quirky but powerful tablet workstation
We know what you’re thinking. Will you just look at those bezels? And that price. What the heck is HP doing with the ZBook X2, a $3,200 tablet that looks a decade old? But bear with us, because while this is a flawed device, it’s also pretty special.
HP says the ZBook X2 is the world’s most powerful detachable PC. A punchy claim at first glance, the detachable PC segment is in reality distinctly niche. In other words, the competition is fairly limited. Devices like the latest Microsoft Surface Pro 6 spring to mind, but despite being available with precisely the same Intel Core i7-8650U quad-core CPU as the ZBook, it isn’t actually that comparable.
That’s because of the ZBook’s overall feature set and functionality, which is remarkable, if not quite always for the good. For starters, the ZBook offers not just discrete graphics but discrete workstationclass graphics, in the form of Nvidia’s Quadro M620 GPU. More impressive is the ZBook’s 14-inch DreamColor display. It’s not only 4K, but very high fidelity, with 10-bit color, and support for fully 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color space. It’s also paired with a Wacom EMR input pen, offering 4,096 pressure-sensitive levels, and claimed ultra-low latency. Other major items as configured include 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB Toshiba NVMe SSD.
Arguably, however, it’s the industrial design that really stands out. This thing feels as though it could survive an all-out nuclear holocaust. It’s all-alloy, totally rock solid, and beautifully put together. Even the hinged kickstand feels impeccably engineered.
If the build quality oozes professional intent, what to make of those bezels? Well, the point of them is to accommodate shortcut buttons either side of the display. HP’s intent is to expedite navigating the dense menus and options in Adobe Creative Cloud applications, which can be awkward using an input pen. The result is a set of 12 buttons, six on each side of the display, which offer 18 preconfigured shortcuts customised for Adobe applications. Known as HP Quick Keys, the functions include quickly switching brush stroke size and hardness, turning touch on and off, pan and zoom, lock and unlock, and seeing a full-screen preview.
The ZBook has two USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt support, enabling two external 4K monitors, one USB 3.1 Type-A, HDMI 1.4, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack.
As for raw performance, there are no real surprises. The Intel quad-core U series processor is a known quantity, and the ZBook’s relatively chunky chassis means it performs to expectations. Likewise the Nvidia GPU and Toshiba SSD. In this age of relatively thin and light eight-core laptops, it’s not going to set new standards for portable power, but it does offer real computing performance in a tablet form factor. What it doesn’t offer is great battery life. Four hours is very poor indeed. Better battery life is possible using the integrated graphics, but that requires a trip into the BIOS, and comes at the cost of some functionality.
Ultimately, the ZBook is a niche product. For mainstream users, it offers poor value, but for content creators who do real work on the move, it’s an intriguing and very high quality device. It’s also been on sale for a little while now, so deals that undercut the fairly punitive official pricing should be available.