HP ZBook 15 G2 Mobile Workstation Review

HP extended its mobile workstation lineup with ZBook 15 G2, which is a larger version of ZBook 14. It looks similar but has a larger display in the same kind of body and keyboard. Though the company is targeting professionals looking for a portable business ultrabook, but it’s not that portable due to its large display.

The tough workstation: With the similar design, ZBook 14 G2, it also uses the same sleek form factor and elegant design. It has the same composition of a stylish brushed aluminum surrounded by a textured magnesium alloy. This business ultrabook gets an MIL-STD 810G certification, so it can withstand drops from as high as 4 feet. According to the company, it can hold its own against dust, functional shock, vibration and both high and low temperatures.

HD display and robust keyboard: The ZBook 15 has the 15.6-inch 1080p display that produces true colors and crisp images. The screen is bright enough with 390-lux, making it perfect for outdoor usage even in direct sunlight.  The business notebook also has a decent speaker, however, you can’t expect extraordinary performance from this, yet pleasing.

It shares the same keyboard of ZBook 14, backlit Chiclet-style keyboard with a lightly textured surface. The typing experience on the notebook is really cool as the keys are quite light and responded well with each touch. It is a spill-resistant keyboard, so you won’t have to worry if you tip your coffee on it. The ZBook 14 has 4 x 2.62-inch touchpad, larger than ZBook 14, which is smooth and accurate. There are four easy to use physical buttons, two above and two at the bottom or touchpad. It also has a rubber pointing stick at the center of its keyboard for mouse navigation.

Security: HP added additional security in the ZBook 15 G2 with a biometric fingerprint reader. It records your fingerprints, by simply swiping across the scanner, and registers two fingers, and then asks for three backup security questions. Once the setup is done, it requires a fingerprint swipe to log in to the system. Also it has TPM 1.2 and HP Sure Start, which checks the BIOS at startup, and will automatically self-heal if it detects any corrupted file.

It comes with preinstalled HP Client Security that enables you to manage your Windows passwords, encrypt your storage drives, wipe your hard drive and limit device access to the ZBook’s ports, to prevent someone from stealing data via a USB drive. Moreover, it has theft recovery, which protects your device in case of loss or theft.

Performance: The ZBook 15 G2 is equipped with a 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD and runs on Windows 7. This business ultrabook can easily handle even the most demanding productivity tasks. We tested the device and opened 20 tabs in Chrome and Mozilla simultaneously in which there were 5 tabs playing YouTube videos. There was no lag in the performance. We also run few other applications like Photoshop and MS-word simultaneously with the Mozilla and Chrome, to see the performance. We didn’t notice any performance lag in the system, even while switching between them. In our benchmark testing, it scored better than ZBook 14 and resulted in P2414 on 3DMark and 3860 on PCMark.