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The HP ZBook Ultra G1a 14 is HP and AMD’s newest foray into the PC market together. It promises to deliver workstation-class performance with AI chops in a small, lightweight package.
We were sent a version to review over a couple of weeks, and after putting it through its paces, we have some thoughts on it and where it sits for PC consumers.
The ZBook Ultra G1a we were sent had the following specs:
The HP ZBook Ultra looks like so many other laptops, but it feels different. It is lightweight but solid and premium-feeling. At just 1.51kg, it is the same weight as the MacBook Air 15, which is impressive.
The body has no torque to it and the hinges are solid and feel like they will last forever. The palm rest area has a little bevel chiselled into it to allow you to easily lift the lid with a single hand or finger – this is a nice addition and something many manufacturers forget about.
It’s not that you need or want to open it with one hand, but it means that it is easy to open – sometimes I’ve been worried about dropping the laptop because it was challenging to get my fingers in between the lid and base easily.
The display is a matte IPS display that is bright and colourful, although it lacks the vividness of an OLED display. Many laptops these days sport OLED displays, but you do pay a premium for such a display. I lite the matte display — it means the laptop is easier to use in more environments, something this laptop is designed to do.
This FHD+ resolution is good but not great. The text is still relatively sharp, but it would have been nice to have a 2K display. As a productivity device, though, this resolution means that it is comfortable on your eyes for longer periods of time and also uses less battery power to run.
The webcam above the display is a 2K webcam with support for Windows Hello. I love some Windows Hello webcam action and this one performed admirably, instantly recognising me and logging me in as required.
HP has included an AI tool called “onlooker detection.” The laptop will blur your display automatically if it detects someone looking over your shoulder or you look away from the screen. This is a productivity powerhouse, and I can see many times this would be useful for professionals.
HP has pre-installed a camera app, Poly Camera Pro and Poly Lens, to perform workplace meeting tasks such as blurring backgrounds, watermarking contacts, and more. The app does a decent job, but its inclusion seems superfluous, considering most video conferencing apps already have this built in.
There is also a built-in fingerprint sensor for those who want more security. Sometimes, the Windows Hello camera-style is a bit quick and you don’t want it opening when others are around. This is where the fingerprint sensor can make it so that the laptop does not unlock until you are ready. Both options to unlock worked accurately and consistently.
The HP ZBook Ultra is powered by the AMD RYZEN AI MAX PRO 390, which, as you may have guessed, can process AI tasks onboard. I was able to run a few AI tasks onboard but at this moment, HP are having issues with their HP AI Companion app (it is still in beta) and I was unable to log in. I have been able to use it on other models previously so I dare say if you are buying this laptop, by the time you get it they will have the bugs squashed.
At the launch of the ZBook Ultra G1a, HP had it perform multiple intensive tasks all at once—data entry, data processing, 3D modelling, and Gaming! I was able to play a few games easily, but I would steer away from AAA games on this if you want the best experience. As a productivity device, though, it powers through solid workloads.
HP claims it can handle this many tasks at once thanks to its “excellent venting and the vapour chamber paired with the AMD chipset and GPU.” The extensive vents underneath the laptop are a major part of this.
The keyboard I enjoyed to a certain degree. The keys have a small amount of travel with a nice cushion to it and were relatively comfortable when typing on it for longer periods. My only issue with it really was the shape of the key caps themselves – flat. A bit of a curve to them would have been nice but that doesn’t happen on may laptops, so I’m really being a bit finicky in saying that.
Considering the laptop is only a 14-inch laptop, the touchpad is a decent size. However, I’m having trouble deciding whether I prefer the clicking of a touchpad or the mushy sound this touchpad makes. I think I prefer the soft, mushy click, although it is not really a “click.”
The sound reminds me of the soft-click buttons on the Logitech mice which I love. The feel of the click and its sound make it seem premium. It feels a sounds a LOT like the trackpad on a MacBook Air so it must be premium right?
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a offers many connectivity options, including Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, making it relatively future-proof.
The inclusion of not just a full-sized HMDI 2.1 port but two Thunderbolt 4 ports means that you can project your display however you want, something essential for a productivity workstation.
As you would expect, I could project the laptop to a 34-inch OLED gaming display I am currently reviewing without any issues. It pushed the monitor as fast as it could handle, even while running its own display. This was tested out for both the HDMI port and the Thunderbolt 4 port.
The ZBook Ultra G1a has all types of HP software pre-installed and their Wolf Security suite. There is also an HP secure browser, but if you care enough about security and privacy, you can find and already know of better secure browsers than this. I’m not saying it’s bad; it’s probably quite good, but I’m no security researcher/hacker.
As mentioned above HP also have their AI Companion app but I could not get that working for the life of me. This is very strange but happens occasionally apparently. For what it’s worth, in the HP Elitebook Ultra G1q review I wrote:
“You can use HP’s AI Companion app to analyse emails and other texts, suppress any noise in video calls, blur the camera background and ask it random questions but nothing out of the ordinary. The app is still in beta apparently, which is how I feel about AI on PCs full stop.”
Inside the myHP app, you will find overall laptop settings such as the programmable key, the battery manager, and excellent onlooker detection. The onlooker detection, as mentioned above, is a great little tool, especially for those working on sensitive material or if you want to play games while at work…..
The ZBook Ultra G1a is a powerhouse workstation with ISV certification for Adobe, Microsoft and CAD platforms. This means that the software is guaranteed to work with the hardware in terms of performance and compatibility.
Nowadays, using an AI PC is still about using third-party software for practical applications rather than gimmicks, which most software can perform without “AI.”
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a’s performance is its selling point. The AMD chipset powering it can handle many intensive tasks, and when combined with the 64GB of RAM, it can power through many tasks simultaneously.
I was able to push the laptop to extremes and it performed well no matter what I threw at it – I even had video editing software rendering a video at the same time I was playing a relatively intensive game and it performed both with ease.
I’m sure you can find the benchmark numbers elsewhere, but in real-world terms, the laptop is a powerhouse, and you would hope so considering its price and HP’s positioning of it as a portable workstation.
It has an NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS and can run LLM software like Meta’s Llama 70B or Mistral AI’s Mixtral 8x7B. Impressive—nothing I saw in the laptop makes me think these statements from HP are inaccurate.
The ZBook Ultra 14 G1a sports a 74.5 Wh Li-Po battery and can be charged using the USB-C/Thunderbolt ports on either side of the laptop. I like this option as it makes the “use it anywhere” feature even more spot on.
The charger is bigger and more powerful than most other laptop chargers, at 140W, so it is impressive that it is still relatively portable.
The battery life using the laptop for productivity purposes and the occasional video rendering etc was impressive. I was getting around the 15 hour mark which should mean two full days for most people. Sure, some laptops last longer but I doubt anyone would ever be away from a powerpoint for that long anyway so this 15 hours is enough.
Everyone wants you to buy their AI PC these days but at the moment there are very few really impressive use cases for AI and when they come along, will the current laptops be powerful enough to run the processes required. The HP ZBook Ultra G1a is powerful enough to be able to keep you future proofed for quite a while, with its traditional grunt positioned alongside its new NPU AI capabilities.
The ZBook Ultra G1a is a small (ish) laptop that is also very lightweight, which fits all of that power inside and still manages to keep cool enough to operate for long periods under heavy stress. The keyboard is comfortable and the touchpad premium, making it an impressive laptop for those looking for a productivity workstation.
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a is available on Hp.com with a price that starts from $3,000.
Scott is our resident open technology expert. If you can mod it, or want to use it your way, Scott has probably done it. From Laptops to phones, headphones and game consoles, he’s played with it and wants to see the next generation.
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