HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7 review – a premium mobile workstation that is worth checking out

A mobile workstation? Why not?! For quite some time now, manufacturers have been integrating powerful hardware into mobile devices, in order to provide exceptional performance and security on the go. However, these laptops also need quite the cooling, which results in thick and heavy machines, like the HP ZBook 17 G6.

But at the end of the day, not everyone needs the latest and greatest in terms of power, in order to do their work. This is why devices like the ZBook Firefly 15 G7 exist. Instead of the power-hungry 45W processors and beefy Quadro graphics cards, it offers Comet Lake-U CPUs, which are a lot more efficient, and the Quadro P520 (4GB GDDR5). Essentially the latter is pretty much the GeForce MX150, which graduated from Harvard and got some certifications and licenses with it.

Also, you get to pick from a bunch of 1080p panels, some of which have the controversial SureView technology that blocks unwanted eyes from viewing your content. Additionally, there is a 4K IPS option.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-zbook-firefly-15-g7/

Contents


Specs Sheet

HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7 - 规格

  • AUO AUOA08B
  • 颜色精度  4.8  0.9
  • HDD/SSD
  • 以至于 8000GB SSD
  • 内存
  • up to 64GB
  • 操作系统
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • 蓄电池
  • 53Wh, 3-cell, 56Wh, 3-cell, 56Wh
  • 车身材料
  • Aluminum
  • 外形尺寸
  • 359.5 x 233.6 x 19.2 mm (14.15" x 9.20" x 0.76")
  • 重量
  • 1.75 kg (3.9 lbs)
  • 端口和连接性
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD)
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Thunderbolt 3, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort, Sleep and Charge
  • HDMI
  • 1.4
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • 蓝牙
  • 5.0
  • 音频插孔
  • 3.5 Combo Jack
  • SmartCard Reader
  • 特点
  • 指纹识别器
  • 网络摄像机
  • HD IR
  • 背光键盘
  • optional
  • 麦克风
  • Dual Array Digital Microphone
  • 扬声器
  • 2x Speakers, Bang & Olufsen
  • 光驱

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we got a 65W USB Type-C power brick, and some paper manuals.


Design and construction

We’re not going to lie, the ZBook Firefly 15 G7 is giving us a lot of EliteBook 850 G7 vibes right off the bat. However, the two notebooks are not identical. One of the biggest advocates of that is the lid, which has a huge ZBook symbol on top of it. Well, in our opinion, it looks a bit bizarre and makes the laptop feel cheaper than it is, but that’s probably just down to the lack of recognizability of this specific brand. Other than that, the device has a profile of 19.2mm and weighs 1.75 kg, with most of its body being made out of aluminum (including the lid cover).

Thankfully, the lid, itself, opens with a single hand, and it reveals a display, surrounded by relatively thin bezels. And the top one hides the HD camera, as well as the IR face recognition camera.

And then we go to the base. There, we find one of the best keyboards out there – it features spill-resistance, a backlight, decent key travel, clicky feedback, full-sized NumberPad, and a Nipple. Well, it still has the poor Power button positioning, but interestingly, it doesn’t put the laptop to sleep if you accidentally press it.

In addition to the great keyboard, you get a glass-surfaced touchpad with plenty of areas to work with and two dedicated buttons (intended to work with the “Nipple” as well). Of course, the surface results in great gliding, and the tracking is frankly great. By the way, the speakers are placed above the keyboard and are tuned by Bang & Olufsen.

This leaves the bottom plate only home to a ventilation grill and, expectedly, the exhaust is located in the back (and firing towards the hinge cover).

Ports

On the left, there is a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an audio jack, and a Smart Card reader. Then, on the right, you can see the power plug, another USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an HDMI 1.4b connector, and two Thunderbolt 3 ports, both of which can be used for charging, as well as an optional SIM card slot.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

A total of five captive Phillips-head screws are holding the bottom panel in place. After you undo them, pry the panel with a plastic tool and lift it away.

As you can see, the cooling comprises two relatively thin heat pipes, which are shared between the CPU and the GPU. Then, they finish in a rather lengthy heat spreader, which is attached to a decently-sized fan.

Beneath the metal bracket, you will find two RAM SODIMM slots, which can add up to 64GB of DDR4 dual-channel memory in total. And on their left, there is the M.2 PCIe x4 slot for storage.

Providing power away from the plug, there is a 56Wh battery pack.


Display quality

HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7 has an IPS panel, model number AUO AUOA08B. Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

It has comfortable viewing angles. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 395 nits in the middle of the screen and 381 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 8%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6800K – slightly colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is very good – 1730:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 95% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 33 ms.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7’s screen doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. Thankfully, this enables you to play for extended periods of time, without the risk of further damaging your eyes and brain.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, rather high maximum brightness (395 nits), and a very good contrast ratio. It also covers 95% of the sRGB color gamut, and the backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. Moreover, the color accuracy with our Gaming and Web design profile is closely matching the standard for sRGB, making the laptop appropriate for design, art, content creation, and pretty every work that values accurate color representation.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS AUO AUOA08B.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

除了获得高效和健康友好的配置文件,购买LaptopMedia的产品,您还可以支持我们实验室的发展,我们在实验室测试设备,以产生最客观的评论。

办公室工作

Office Work应该主要由那些花大部分时间看文本、表格或仅仅是浏览的用户使用。该配置文件旨在通过保持平坦的伽玛曲线(2.20)、本机色温和精确的色彩来提供更好的清晰度。

设计与游戏

本资料针对专业处理色彩的设计师,以及游戏和电影。设计与游戏》将显示面板发挥到了极致,使其在白点D65的网页和高清电视的sRGB IEC61966-2-1标准中尽可能准确。

卫生保健

Health-Guard消除了有害的脉宽调制(PWM),并减少了影响我们的眼睛和身体的负蓝光。 由于它是针对每个面板量身定制的,因此可以保持色彩在视觉上的准确性。 Health-Guard模拟纸张,因此大大减轻了眼睛的压力。

以33%的折扣获得所有3份资料


Sound

HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7’s Bang & Olufsen speakers produce a very good quality sound with pretty high maximum volume. Additionally, its low, mid and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be downloaded from here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-zbook-firefly-15-g7-mobile-workstation/32849625

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 56Wh battery pack lasts for 17 hours and 47 minutes of Web browsing, and 16 hours and 20 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

You can get this device with the Core i5-10210U, Core i5-10310U, Core i7-10510U, Core i7-10610U, Core i7-10710U, and the Core i7-10810U. All of them are four-core/eight-thread CPUs, except for the last two, which have six cores and twelve threads.

HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7 CPU的变体

在这里,你可以看到市场上[系列]机型的CPU之间的大致比较。这样你就可以自己决定哪一个[系列]型号是最划算的。

注:图表显示的是最便宜的不同CPU配置,所以你应该通过点击笔记本的名称/CPU来检查这些笔记本的其他规格是什么。


GPU options

In terms of graphics power, you get the professionally-certified NVIDIA Quadro P520 GPU, which comes with 4GB of GDDR5 memory. However, if you don’t need it, you can still purchase the notebook with the Intel UHD Graphics, although you won’t be able to upgrade afterwards.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average fps112 fps94 fps76 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average fps145 fps101 fps50 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-10510U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP ZBook Firefly 15 G73.63 GHz (B+101%) @ 83°C2.84 GHz (B+58%) @ 78°C2.64 GHz (B+47%) @ 70°C
HP EliteBook 850 G73.21 GHz (B+78%) @ 76°C1.92 GHz (B+7%) @ 57°C1.96 GHz (B+9%) @ 57°C
HP Envy x360 15 (15-ed0000)3.24 GHz (B+80%) @ 71°C2.03 GHz (B+13%) @ 59°C2.07 GHz (B+15%) @ 62°C
HP Envy 13 (13-ba0000)3.30 GHz (B+83%) @ 83°C1.87 GHz (B+4%) @ 60°C1.72 GHz @ 65°C
Fujitsu LifeBook U74103.05 GHz (B+69%) @ 86°C2.65 GHz (B+47%) @ 96°C1.94 GHz (B+8%) @ 79°C
ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX4633.50 GHz (B+94%) @ 92°C2.97 GHz (B+65%) @ 95°C2.31 GHz (B+28%) @ 73°C
Dell Inspiron 14 54903.62 GHz (B+101%) @ 80°C2.39 GHz (B+37%) @ 74°C1.92 GHz (B+7%) @ 65°C
Dell Inspiron 13 7391 2-in-13.50 GHz (B+94%) @ 98°C2.27 GHz (B+26%) @ 82°C2.09 GHz (B+16%) @ 79°C
Dell XPS 13 73903.62 GHz (B+101%) @ 89°C3.16 GHz (B+76%) @ 99°C2.70 GHz (B+50%) @ 85°C
Dell Vostro 54903.57 GHz (B+98%) @ 90°C2.51 GHz (B+39%) @ 87°C2.10 GHz (B+17%) @ 66°C

Looking at this chart shows us that the cooling solution of the HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7 is very efficient. It manages to push the Core i7-10510U further than a lot of other devices. And it does so by working alot cooler.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA Quadro P520GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
HP ZBook Firefly 15 G71531 MHz @ 68°C1531 MHz @ 73°C

Again, the GPU didn’t overheat, despite reaching 73C, clearly seen by the no change in the clock speed over time.

Comfort during combined load

While the laptop was relatively quiet under a combined load, we measured a slightly higher temperature on the keyboard.


Verdict

Quite frankly, we are pretty happy with almost everything about this device. Surprisingly, the performance was there, even though we are talkiнг about energy-efficient hardware. Also, there is the battery life, which delivers almost 18 hours of Web browsing and 16 hours and 20 minutes of video playback.

Surely, the build quality is on point, and the look is ecstatic… well, if we don’t consider the weird ZBook logo, placed on top like a pokemon sticker.

HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, rather high maximum brightness (395 nits), and a very good contrast ratio. It also covers 95% of the sRGB color gamut, and the backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. Moreover, the color accuracy with our Gaming and Web design profile is closely matching the standard for sRGB, making the laptop appropriate for design, art, content creation, and pretty every work that values accurate color representation.

Moreover, it has great input devices, and the keyboard is spill-resistant, which is also great. Upgradability-wise you get two RAM SODIMM slots, which support up to 64GB of memory, and there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, as well as two Thunderbolt 3 connectors for the I/O. Not in the last place, the laptop has a fingerprint reader and an IR face recognition system.

Interestingly, despite the awkward Power button placement, HP has designed it in a way, that if you press it accidentally, you won’t be sleeping or shutting down your system. So, is there anything wrong with the machine? Well, the price. It is just too expensive for the return you get in performance. But hey, if you have the money, no one can tell you how to spend it, right?

Pros

  • Doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment (AUO AUOA08B)
  • Covers 95% of the sRGB gamut (AUO AUOA08B)
  • Exceptional battery life
  • Supports up to 64GB of DDR4 memory
  • Thin, light, and well-built
  • High maximum brightness (395 nits) and great color accuracy with our Gaming and Web design profile (AUO AUOA08B)A
  • Optional IR face recognition and fingerprint reader
  • Comfortable inptut devices


Cons

  • A bit too expensive for what it offers in terms of performance
  • Lacks an SD card reader

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-zbook-firefly-15-g7/

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Lorrie
Lorrie
3 年 之前

I haven’t read your whole article ut the camera on the 15 inch firefly I have is horrendous. What did you make of it.