Palms on: The HP ZBook Extremely G1a smashes the ‘work laptop computer’ paradigm

I’ve searched excessive and low for an enterprise-grade laptop computer that’s transportable, has the instruments I have to preserve my work safe, however that’s additionally highly effective sufficient to run graphically demanding 3D fashions, design software program, and video games.

However up till now the closest factor I’ve come throughout is a creator laptop computer that may’t compete within the portability stakes. Plus it appears to be like too industrial for the workplace — yuk!

HP’s new 14-inch HP ZBook Extremely G1a, nonetheless, simply received’t toe the road on that paradigm. In truth, it destroys it fully, combining a particularly light-weight, skinny, and enticing chassis, a strong AI-capable chipset, and most significantly – the one factor that has me so in awe – graphics energy that may rival a gaming laptop computer. What?!

How a lot graphics energy am I speaking about? For example, at HP’s launch occasion for the ZBook Extremely G1a the HP group had it operating an F1 Simulator and outputting to a number of shows at 2.2K decision, and it nonetheless managed to common an impressive100 frames per second! Are you catching on why this laptop computer has my consideration now?

However as spectacular as that’s, the HP ZBook Extremely G1a shouldn’t be confused for a gaming laptop computer. No, this laptop computer is an enterprise laptop computer via and thru, with all of the hallmarks of a contemporary workstation. It has a compact 14-inch chassis that’s each strong and powerful. Its 2.8K OLED show is colour wealthy, nevertheless it’s additionally straightforward on the eyes due to its Eyesafe certification.

I discussed earlier than that it’s gentle and skinny, however in actual fact it’s impressively so! It weighs not more than 3.3 kilos and measures simply 0.73 inches on the entrance — so that you received’t have any downside packing it right into a satchel for conferences on the fly.

The port choice is superb, too, for a small laptop computer. You get 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10Gbps USB-C port, a USB-A port, in addition to an HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5mm Kensington lock. This pocket rocket additionally helps as much as 4TB storage, so there’s loads of house to retailer giant recordsdata and packages. For video calls it has a 5MP IR digital camera.

HP ZBook Extremely G1a additionally has the type of safety that differentiates work laptops from different varieties. It comes with HP’s Wolf Safety and a fingerprint reader for using the Home windows Howdy safe login. HP demonstrated the HP SureView onlooker safety function on the Extremely G1a which blurs your display screen while you stroll away from it. Little question that may turn out to be useful when strangers attempt to peek at your recreation… ahem…work!

The important thing behind the ZBook Extremely G1a’s energy and portability could be put down to 1 factor: Its AMD Ryzen AI Max Professional chip which I’ve been desirous to see in motion ever since I heard about it at CES 2025.

This spectacular piece of silicon is predicated on AMD’s new Strix Halo structure. It combines CPU, GPU, and NPU processing all on a single chip. Certainly, the Extremely G1a could be configured with any one in all 9 AMD Strix Halo processors, starting from the AMD Ryzen AI Max Professional 386 as much as the zippiest AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Professional 395.

The latter places 16 cores of wonderful desktop-grade CPU energy in your fingers with a powerful 5.1GHz most clock velocity, so greater than sufficient to maintain even essentially the most demanding apps ticking alongside easily. The graphics energy comes courtesy of 40 built-in RDNA 3.5 cores.

Dominic Bayley / Foundry

If the APU is spectacular, so is the reminiscence it feeds. It consists of a unified structure that options as much as 128GB DDR5 RAM operating at 8,533 MT/s. A whopping 96GB of that RAM could be allotted to the GPU for while you want the ZBook Extremely G1a to run essentially the most graphically demanding packages.

The opposite good thing about the APU and unified reminiscence is multitasking, which I noticed in motion on the HP launch occasion as nicely. HP stated the Extremely G1a can simply deal with complicated 3D units interactively, and huge AI fashions domestically — the latter of which goes to redefine what staff can obtain on the sting with out the necessity of the cloud. So, this laptop computer has workflow in addition to rendering down pat.

One demonstration had the HP ZBook Extremely G1a operating the appliance Amuse concurrently alongside the packages Navisworks and LM Studio, once more outputting to totally different shows. Regardless of loading up the chip with this stage of labor, the efficiency remained very easy. If there was any lag, I didn’t see it.

Dominic Bayley / Foundry

HP stated the Extremely G1a would swimsuit a spread of various professionals, from engineers to artistic professionals. I’ve little question about that.

Suffice it to say, this laptop computer has the type of energy and portability that might make their lives lots simpler — to not point out enhance productiveness. One productiveness mannequin offered by AMD on the launch confirmed a productiveness enhance of 39 p.c — however something simply shy of that may nonetheless be helpful.

To that finish the ZBook Extremely G1a may be very nicely geared up with AI energy — which is predicted to be one of many greatest boosters of productiveness sooner or later. The NPU helps 50 TOPS processing energy to a complete 125 TOPS complete energy for the entire chip. That’s sufficient for a seamless expertise with AI apps like Microsoft Copilot or HP’s personal AI Companion.

Me, I’m unsure I’ll push the AI energy to the boundaries. I’m simply excited to see how far I can push the graphics energy once I get a evaluation mannequin to check. Judging by what I’ve seen to this point, I believe I’ve received much more eyebrow elevating to look ahead to.