Credit: HP Designed for business users who need serious power on the go, these two workstation-class laptops will be available on May 27. Pricing has not yet been announced. Both laptops are extremely portable but the 14-inch ZBook 14u G6 is the star of the show at just 0.7 inches and 3.3 pounds. For those who want a larger display, the 15.6-inch ZBook 15u is also quite portable, at just 0.7 inches and 3.9 pounds. These machines may not have the brawny aesthetic you’d associate with a workstation, but their dark silver aluminum chassis are still durable. In fact, they passed 19 MIL-STD tests, so don’t worry about using them in extreme conditions, like at high altitudes or in suffocating humidity. Credit: HP If their portable chassis don’t already make these machines great road warriors, their estimated 14 hours of battery life does. As always, that rating should be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s a promising claim that we’re excited to put to the test. Both laptops can be configured with non-touch or touchscreen 1080p panels if you need the extra juice. However, if battery life isn’t a major concern, then consider choosing the 4K display, which promises vivid colors and 600 nits of brightness. Credit: HP A few concessions were made to keep these devices so thin. For one, port selection is somewhat limited on the ZBook 14u G6 and ZBook 15u G6. Both machines offer the same connections, including a USB 3.0 port, an RJ-45 Ethernet input, a Thunderbolt port, an HDMI and headphone jack. Another compromise is the U-series Intel chips found in the ZBook 14u and 15u, which aren’t as powerful as the H-series or Xeon CPUs typically found in workstation laptops. Despite the low-powered components, the new ZBooks should offer more oomph than your average ultrabook. That’s because they come equipped with up to an Intel Core i7-8665U CPU, up to 32GB of RAM and up to 2TB of storage. Credit: HP You might be wondering what makes the ZBook 14u and ZBook 15u workstations, not just slim business laptops. One reason is the optional AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200 GPU, which HP claims offers 50 percent better graphics performance over its predecessor. The ZBook 14u and ZBook 15u also pack the latest connectivity options, including Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi 6 and LTE Advanced, and you get HP’s proprietary security features, including Sure Start, Smart Erase, and Sure Sense, a newly announced security technique that uses AI to flush out malware.
Best Workstations of 2019
