By Brady Betzel

In March 2020, there was a huge scramble to prepare the entire post world to work from home, from remote access to systems in a facility to distributing systems safely and effectively. HP’s Z Central remote access protocol was one of post production’s saving graces during 2020. But there are those without remote access who need the same (if not more) powerful workstations at home that they use in a traditional office environment.

The HP Z8 workstation is one of the best Windows- or Linux-based workstations on the market, but it’s not portable, or at least not as portable as a laptop. This is where the HP ZBook takes over. There are multiple versions of the ZBook, each with their own benefits and price savings, but I will be focusing on the HP ZBook Studio G7 for this review. And, boy oh boy, it’s nice, but it does come with a price tag to match its power.

There are multiple categories of ZBooks, from the ZBook Firefly to the ultra-high-end ZBook Fury 15/17. But in the middle are the ZBook Create and ZBook Studio. The Create and the Studio are very similar in form factor, but the Studio allows for Nvidia Quadro graphics processing units and up to Intel Xeon CPUs. The ZBook Create is aimed more at high-end creators that don’t necessarily need the enterprise-level CPUs and GPUs. That being said, they aren’t far behind, with the ability to house up to an Intel i9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce-level GPU.

The ZBook line of products is technically classified as mobile workstations, and this is where a lot of people get confused. The label of “workstation” on a system from a manufacturer like HP, Lenovo and Dell comes with many assurances that your system will be able to run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If it doesn’t, the warranty provided by the manufacturer will quickly remedy any issues. For HP, the classification of “workstation” means that the system you are buying has been put through the wringer and is made to handle almost anything you can throw at it, with the expectation of 24/7/365 uptime.

In addition to other testing, HP certifies its workstations using the MIL-STD 810H standard. Simply, that means they test the workstations under extreme conditions — including sandstorms, rain, vibration, heat, solar and more — with the intent of the workstation continuing to function as normal when put through these tests. For those nerds like me interested in this, you can find an over 1-000-page writeup here. Be sure to find Revision H for the ZBook Studio.

Beyond the MIL-STD 810 testing, HP also tests its workstations with different software companies, such as Adobe, Avid and Autodesk — also known as ISVs (independent software vendors). For this specific mobile workstation, I went to the HP ISV Certification Lookup and found that the ZBook Studio G7 has been tested with multiple versions of Adobe Premiere Pro, including CC 2020, and it’s certified to work with Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000, 4000, 5000, T2000 and T1000 GPUs. You can search for more application compatibility on HP’s ISV lookup search.

If you haven’t fallen asleep yet, I’ll now focus on the specs and testing results I got from the HP zBook Studio G7. First off, the technical specifications:

HP zBook Studio G7 costs $3,758.64

• Intel Core i7-10850H
• Windows 10 Pro 64
• Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 with Max-Q design (6GB VRAM)
• 6-inch FHD (1920×1080)
• 1000-nits HP Sure View Reflect privacy panel
• 32GB 2666 MHz soldered down
• 1TB PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe SSD TLC
• Intel AX201 WiFi6 / 802.11AX 2×2 + BT 5.0 combo (vPro)
• Intel vPro support
• HP 200-watt Smart Slim adapter with fast charge
• HP long life battery 6-cell 83 WHr
• Warranty: 3/3/0 = three-year parts, three-year labor and no onsite service

As you can see, it’s not cheap, but for a workstation-class mobile computer system from HP with tested components and software applications we use daily, you are getting more than what you’re paying for.

Speakers and Sure View Reflect
A couple of non-post features that I like are the speakers and the HP Sure View Reflect. The built-in speakers on the HP ZBook Studio and Create are not only loud but rich. They have very high fidelity for laptop-style speakers. When working on a separate system, I would play some music on the Studio G7 and sometimes think my phone was vibrating because the bass was shaking the desk a little. It can go down to as low as 150Hz and can be cranked as loud as 79dB (which HP compares to a lawn mower, which is typically 90dB). Overall, the speakers are rich and full of life, something most mobile workstations do not have.

Another unique feature that impressed me on the HP ZBook Studio G7 is the HP Sure View Reflect. Think of working in public (after the latest pandemic maybe?) at Starbucks, and you need to work semi-privately but can’t find a seat that has a wall behind it. You can press F2, and like magic, the HP Studio G7 screen will dim a little, but more importantly, it blocks anyone on the sides from seeing your screen. I don’t work out in public with data I need protected, but if I did, the HP Sure View Reflect would be one of those features that could sell me on the HP ZBook Studio G7. Essentially, only the person sitting directly in front of the screen can see the display.

Look and Feel
From strictly a design point of view, the ZBook Studio G7 looks sharp. It also has edges that are actually a little sharp, pun intended. After typing on the ZBook Studio G7 off and on for a few hours, I noticed my wrists/forearms would start to get a little tired and would have indents from the edges of the mobile workstation. After a few weeks, I was able to get used to it.

The Studio G7 measures 17.5mm thin, weighing just 4.23lbs, which is smaller than the previous generation. The screen bezel has been shrunk down considerably, giving the workstation a much more streamlined and modern look. The machined aluminum body and spill-resistant keyboard have been test-cleaned and sanitized over 1,000 times using common household disinfectants and cleaners. There is a great white paper here with more info. Just keep in mind that not all disinfectants are the same, and some may damage your components, so make sure to reference the white paper above.

Testing
When testing the HP Studio ZBook G7, I ran it through some of the most common benchmarks as well as real-world test cases. Using Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve Studio 17.9 beta and Premiere Pro CC 2020 by way of Adobe Media Encoder 2020, I edited and exported two 23.98fps UHD sequences that contain a mix of footage:

• ARRI Raw: 3840×2160 24fps – 7 seconds 12 frames
• 4448×1856 24fps – 7 seconds 12 frames
• BRaw: 6144×3456 24fps – 15 seconds
• RedRaw: 6144×3072 23.976fps – 7 seconds 12 frames
• 6144×3160 23.976fps – 7 seconds 12 frames
• Sony a7siii: 3840×2160 23.976fps – 15 seconds

One sequence is basic color correction and 110% resize, while the other adds in noise reduction. During this testing, Resolve would not finish exporting when using Neat Video 5 or Resolve’s built-in Temporal Noise Reduction. It felt like it was more a Resolve issue rather than an issue with the workstation because it did work in Premiere Pro. But here are my results:

Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve Studio 17.9 Beta – No Noise Reduction

Export Times (lower is better):

• 265 (restricted to 10,000 Kb/s, .mov) – 1:01 (1 minute 1 second)
• 264 (restricted to 10,000 Kb/s, .mov) – 1:50
• DPX (10-bit) – 0:49
• DNxHR HQX (OP1A .MXF, 10-bit) – 1:11

Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2020

Export Times (lower is better):

Without Neat Video Noise Reduction:

• 265 (restricted to 10,000 Kb/s, .mov) – 2:16 (2 minutes 16 seconds)
• 264 (restricted to 10,000 Kb/s, .mov) – 1:48
• DPX (10-bit) – 3:22
• DNxHR HQX (OP1A .MXF, 10-bit) – 2:56

With Neat Video Noise Reduction:

• 265 (Restricted to 10,000 Kb/s, .mov) – 1:02:14 (1 hour 2 minutes 14 seconds)
• 264 (Restricted to 10,000 Kb/s, .mov) – 41:56
• DPX (10bit) – 06:49:44
• DNxHR HQX (OP1A .MXF, 10-bit) – 1:06:58

I always feel that Blackmagic does a better job than Premiere Pro at optimizing both the CPU and GPU, something you can watch in real time if you open the Task Manager (CTRL + ALT + Delete > Task Manager > Performance). My tests reflected that at least in a 23.98fps UHD sequence with only basic color correction and resizes.

Keep in mind that the Neat Video Noise Reduction plugin is the best noise reduction product on the market. It is easy to use once you understand it and almost always gives a stellar result. However, the tradeoff is the slow render times. Noise reduction is a very intensive process and will really stress-test a system. If you use Neat Video, be sure to run the optimization test in the options of the plugin. It will find the fastest processing time by using different amounts of CPU cores, with and without the GPU.

The HP ZBook Studio G7 performed very well with high resolutions, like 6K Red footage. It wasn’t as smooth as a high-end Z8 with multiple Quadros, 128GB of RAM and 64 cores of CPU power, but for being able to fit this workstation in a backpack and barely notice, it’s great. Something I do to stress-test the CPU and GPU of review systems is run cryptocurrency mining benchmarks for at least four hours. These run the CPU and GPUs through hours of hard use. The HP ZBook Studio G7 held up under a full day of benchmarking without any hiccups or crashes. This also shows me how hot a system will be to the touch; the bottom of the ZBook was definitely hot to the touch, and the fans were running. But when editing in Premiere Pro and Resolve, I barely noticed the fans. HP has introduced a new Z VaporForce cooling chamber that seems to have really helped keep the ZBook cooled on the inside.

I also ran a bunch of industry-standard benchmarks to see the results.

• Cinebench R23:
  • (Multi-core): 5262 pts
  • (Singlecore): 1245 pts
  • MP ratio 4.23x
• Corona 1.3 Benchmark
  • Render time: 03:53
  • Rays/sec: 2,079,030
• Neat Video Bench
  • Best score was CPU using 8 cores with GPU: 10.3 fps
• Octane Bench 2020.1.5
  • Multiple results — but when compared to GTX 980 most were double the power
• V-Ray GPU RTX 5.0.20
  • 498 V-Rays
• PugetBench for AERender .92
  • Overall Score: 591
• PugetBench for After Effects .93
  • Overall Score: 771
    • GPU score: 89.4
    • RAM preview score: 76.4
    • Render score: 72.3
    • Tracking score 82.5
  • PugetBench for Premiere Pro .95
    • Extended overall score: 381
      • Extended export score: 36.2
      • Extended live playback score: 44.8
    • Standard overall score: 412
      • Standard export score: 37.6
      • Standard live playback score: 52.6
    • Effects score: 33.4
    • GPU score 37.4
  • Real Bench 2.56
    • Image editing: 145,850, time: 36.5305
    • Encoding: 84,798, time: 62.8315
    • OpenCL: 112,463, K samples/sec: 20763
    • Heavy multitasking: 97,551, time: 78.2354
    • System score: 110,165
  • Superposition Benchmark
    • 4K optimized: 4018
      • FPS: min 24.74, Avg. 30.06, max 36.48
      • GPU (Celsius): min 44.0, max 67.0
      • GPU utilization: max 99%

Wish List
Is there anything I think HP could improve on? While the design is sharp, I would prefer a more dulled edge below the keyboard. Also, the touchpad is a little finicky for me. Maybe it’s just me not using it correctly, but multiple times I had a hard time right-clicking on things. Eventually, I got it after three or four clicks. The webcam (like most built-in webcams) is 720p resolution and would often be noisy in low-light environments when video conferencing over Zoom, Skype and other conference apps. Because I work in darker environments, I really need webcams that can perform in low light. I guess this is more of a pandemic/remote work problem, but I would really love companies to begin to put high-quality webcams on mobile workstations.

Final Thoughts
In the end, the HP zBook Studio G7 has many impressive generational improvements like size, weight, introduction of the HP Sure View Reflect privacy screen, superb-sounding speakers, quieter fans and overall CPU and GPU upgrades. If you work remotely, Z Central Remote Boost is a job-saver, especially during a pandemic.

For users who are moving over from a MacOS-based system, HP has a new option when purchasing a workstation called the “Z Command Keyboard,” which essentially moves the Control key to where the Command key would be on a MacOS-based system.

Additionally, the Z line of HP workstations brings together the power of high-end components like Nvidia Quadro RTX GPUs matched with enterprise-level components such as fans, aluminum body and more. If you are tasked with finding a mobile workstation for multimedia creation, the HP ZBook Studio G7 has many of the features and power you will want, and even some you didn’t know you needed.

Brady Betzel is an Emmy-nominated online editor at Margarita Mix in Hollywood, working on shows like Life Below Zero and The Shop. He is also a member of the Producers Guild of America. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @allbetzroff.