HP ZBook 14 G2 Review

The HP ZBook 14 G2 combines the slim form factor and battery life of an Ultrabook with the performance of a mobile workstation by including a dedicated AMD FirePro M4150 graphics card. We found a great deal to like about this 14" notebook during our review process including its performance, high quality display, cool and quiet operation and sturdy build quality. We were less thrilled about its lackluster keyboard feel but that didn't prevent us from being able to give it a recommendation.

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I think this is a small market. Most people looking for portability don't want the GPU. The T450s has a better keyboard/stick and the E7450 can be had in the Dell Outlet for a third of the price.

 

Nice review Charles. The easy internal access is a very nice feature, nice to see that HP is keeping its business customers in mind and not just taking away functionality (aka the ability to upgrade and fix) in the name of design. Speaking of design though, this thing is kind of ugly, it's a little too Volkswagen punch bug'esque with those super rounded corners. I guess it's thin at 0.83" but somehow it manages to look thicker than it actually is with that the rubber top and bubbly corners.

I'm in the market for a new business notebook and at $2K this definitely will not so much as make a shortlist. I'm also curious as to who exactly buys these.

 

Yeah there's no way we were giving it anything other than a general recommendation. The first-gen ZBook 14s which are largely identical to the G2 variant we reviewed can be had for $750-800 on the low end and $1,200 or so for a fully loaded model in the HP Outlet which isn't bad but it's still a relatively premium price.

Great to hear from you Andrew.

The only crowd I can see remotely interested in this notebook or other workstation Ultrabooks like the ThinkPad W550s and ZBook 15u are photographers who want a thin and light notebook but the ability to drive a 10 bit display which you'll only get from AMD FirePro/Nvidia Quadro graphics. Even the top-end consumer graphics cards can't drive 10-bit. Otherwise (IMO) you're better off with a standard Ultrabook.

The keyboard feel is a real-turn off with some of the poorest tactile feedback I've witnessed in a long time which makes it very hard to like. Combined with the price - interesting notebook, but no thanks.

My personal choice for an Ultrabook would be an HP EliteBook 1040 G2; I reviewed the G1 variant here. The aforementioned ThinkPad T450s or X1 Carbon are also excellent.

 

Travelling salesmen who need to present company products in autocad to customers. They don't need the power to create the cad files but something to make them viewable.

 

Nice review .

I definitely have to agree that the keyboard isn't the best out there. I have an 840 G1 as my current work computer, and the keyboard isn't that much better than typing on a tablet display. Personally, I think that the 8x70 series of Elitebooks have better keyboards than the current generation.