New ZBook Studio G4 (Loaded)

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Joel

Active Member
Jan 30, 2015
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I remember getting my first MBP years ago because of the touch pad / right click on the pad ability... totally blew EVERYTHING windows out of the water.... now my original chromebook does a rather good touch pad scroll/click too and my SP3. Def. not as smooth feeling as MAC but they've come a very long way in the last couple years that's for sure :)

I gave up on MAC after ~3 years of daily use I couldn't get accustomed to their naming/verbiage dealing with files and would constantly delete more than I had thought based on how windows did it.
I tried a 13 MBPr in ~2014, and had a similar experience though for me it was just the workflow in the file manager. I only lasted about two months though. The person I sold it to on Amazon tried to scam me, but that's another story... Nowadays, if it wasn't for Ableton, I'd be running Debian on the metal.
 

AJXCR

Active Member
Jan 20, 2017
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The original link was an exceptional deal and not something I expect to see again anytime soon. I've been keeping an eye on Zbooks for 1 month+ and have never seen anything that remotely approached the $999 special. Humorously, it was brought to my attention by one of the usual eBay spam emails as an item which had been marked down ~68%. Maybe it was an eBay related discount?

If it had the Dreamcolor I would have bought 10.
 
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AJXCR

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Jan 20, 2017
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Too big and bulky for me. Luckily, we can use it in the family.
Huh?? Were you shipped the correct product? A studio G3/4 is an ultrabook and one of the least bulky workstations on the market.. Should be on par with a 2017 Macbook Pro.

Can you post pictures?
 

AJXCR

Active Member
Jan 20, 2017
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If you were shipped the correct machine and don't like it, I'll buy it right now for $1K.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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@AJXCR i would consider it small for how powerful it is, I would not however compare it to a 2017 MacBook Pro (not to mention that power ‘brick’)
 

EricE

New Member
May 11, 2017
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I'm also not following all the hate about PC trackpads, aside from the fact that they used to be really tiny. 7510's is sizeable, but I'm coming from a Lenovo x220. I've tried the new MBP in store and found it to be too big (palm mousing while typing, anyone?). I'm not a huge fan of them in general though; when I need to get stuff done my Logitech MX Master is the first thing out of my bag.
I used to not be a fan of trackpads, but once you get used to gestures and taps they are far superior to mice - at least the Apple trackpads. That's part of the reason bigger is better - it's more than just moving one finger and have the pointer track it. And Apple's palm rejection is flawless - I've never had to think about it with my Mac laptops. Indeed on my Mac desktop I picked up a Magic Trackpad and I really prefer it to a mouse (especially with my 30" monitor - I dunno what they are doing with the acceleration but I can move a lot faster and with far more precision than I ever could with a mouse).

I have yet to find PC trackpads that are even close but I haven't looked at that many. Sony's glass trackpads are supposed to be similar, I haven't tried them myself. I do know Dell's are absolute crap - I use external mice with my work Dell laptop. Their palm rejection is an utter joke as well. Lenovo weren't bad but still were far from as reliable or fluid as Apple's. I haven't tried HP's but they seem to get good marks.

I think whether you are a fan or not comes down a lot to the quality of the trackpad hardware (glass at a minimum for me) and then the quality of the software for things like palm rejection. Years of using MacBooks I'm very, very spoiled by what I would consider flawless trackpads.

Different strokes for different folks. Some people won't buy a laptop if it doesn't have the nipple/touchpoint/touchstick whatever the name of that abomination is :)
 

frogtech

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2016
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What's interesting is this is a 'mobile workstation' but doesn't have HP's docking port connector on it. Fail! Their thunderbolt dock is far more expensive than the traditional docks.

I think the only real benefit you're getting of buying this device is the fact it can us ECC RAM which I doubt most users here need on a mobile device.

from notebookcheck:

The ZBook Studio G3 is a small mystery to us. HP delivers a great product in some respects, while it disappoints in other categories. Sadly, overall, our impression of the ambitious workstation is negative. This is mainly a result of the emissions as well as the battery runtimes. The surfaces reach alarmingly high temperatures that can cause burns, even with normal workloads. The fan behavior is also very annoying, because both fans act independently, get very loud and pulsate heavily. The practical runtimes of less than four hours are also hard to justify for a device that is actually pretty mobile. Otherwise, there are just small issues, like the lack of a SmartCard reader or the missing WWAN module.

Wouldn't feel too bad if you miss out on this deal.
 

EricE

New Member
May 11, 2017
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What's interesting is this is a 'mobile workstation' but doesn't have HP's docking port connector on it. Fail! Their thunderbolt dock is far more expensive than the traditional docks.
But unlike traditional docks thunderbolt docks will work with any computer that has a thunderbolt port - so it should be the last dock you ever need (or need for a very long time).
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Who doesn't nuke a system when they first get it? That's the FIRST thing you do.
Since it came with Windows 7 Pro, it is the first thing you should do! It is Win 10 Pro with license rights to Win 7 Pro that it is using so you are OK doing so.

On my last Lenovo I spent quite a bit to go from Home to Pro.

Battery life is bad when the NVIDIA GPU is churning. It does get somewhat hot. When you go into low power mode and just use office applications the stock battery I am getting around 8-9 hours on. Not great but enough for any trip without an outlet. I have not flown in the past 4 days since getting it, but the huge 150W AC adapter should be more airplane power outlet friendly than the typical wall wart version.

Here are the upgrades I am doing. Quadro M2000M arrives tomorrow (hopefully)
Patrick's HP ZBook Studio G3 15.6 Mobile Workstation
 

frogtech

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2016
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Since it came with Windows 7 Pro, it is the first thing you should do! It is Win 10 Pro with license rights to Win 7 Pro that it is using so you are OK doing so.

On my last Lenovo I spent quite a bit to go from Home to Pro.

Battery life is bad when the NVIDIA GPU is churning. It does get somewhat hot. When you go into low power mode and just use office applications the stock battery I am getting around 8-9 hours on. Not great but enough for any trip without an outlet. I have not flown in the past 4 days since getting it, but the huge 150W AC adapter should be more airplane power outlet friendly than the typical wall wart version.

Here are the upgrades I am doing. Quadro M2000M arrives tomorrow (hopefully)
Patrick's HP ZBook Studio G3 15.6 Mobile Workstation
M2000M is similar to the consumer Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M or 950M.

GTX 960M devices(with similar specs) went for 699 and 799 quite frequently when that GPU first launched (there's a Dell 15.6 notebook that came to mind, red/black), so unless there is some direct benefit from the Quadro drivers you need, probably not worth it. Just my thought.
 

LukeP

Member
Feb 12, 2017
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1080p is tiny on a 15" screen why would you want more? Can barely read the text in visual studio. I find 1080p the
Maximum useable for 15".

Since There are always apps that don't scale, running at higher scaling is out of the question

If I see a 4K 15" I avoid them like the plague. (Until Microsoft does proper low level scaling!)
 

Joel

Active Member
Jan 30, 2015
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1080p is tiny on a 15" screen why would you want more? Can barely read the text in visual studio. I find 1080p the
Maximum useable for 15".

Since There are always apps that don't scale, running at higher scaling is out of the question

If I see a 4K 15" I avoid them like the plague. (Until Microsoft does proper low level scaling!)
I have a 4K in my Dell Precision 7510, and most of the time Windows scaling works well. It goes nuts when I connect a 1080P external display though.

I bought it for the color gamut though, not the resolution, and images look awesome. I can also run it at 1080 for other tasks and it doesn't look "odd".
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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M2000M is similar to the consumer Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M or 950M.

GTX 960M devices(with similar specs) went for 699 and 799 quite frequently when that GPU first launched (there's a Dell 15.6 notebook that came to mind, red/black), so unless there is some direct benefit from the Quadro drivers you need, probably not worth it. Just my thought.
Sub $200 I was game to try the transplant. If it works, 14% or so performance boost when plugged in. The Iris 580 is plenty for anything else.
 

Joel

Active Member
Jan 30, 2015
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I have diagonal tearing when my 1000m is active, have you noticed anything similar?