HP ZBook Power 15 G10 workstation review: Excellent alternative to the ThinkPad P15v

The HP ZBook Power 15 G10 replaces last year’s ZBook Power 15 G9 by swapping out the Alder Lake 12th gen Intel CPUs for newer Raptor Lake 13th gen and AMD Ryzen Zen 4 options. The chassis is otherwise identical to the ZBook Power 15 G9 or ZBook Power 15 G8 and so we recommend checking out our older reviews to learn more about the physical features of the model. Our specific review unit is the highest-end AMD configuration with the Ryzen 7 Pro 7940HS CPU, Nvidia RTX 2000 Ada GPU, 1440p IPS display, and 64 GB of DDR5-5600 RAM for approximately $2600 USD.

Lesser SKUs starting with the Ryzen 5 7640HS, 1080p display, and only integrated graphics are also available for as low as $1600. Note that configurations with Intel CPUs are called ZBook Power 15 G10 while those with AMD CPUs are sold as the ZBook Power 15 G10 A. Alternatives to the ZBook Power 15 G10 include other ultrathin workstations like the Dell Precision 5560 , Lenovo ThinkPad P15v G3 , or Asus ExpertBook B6 Flip .

More HP reviews: Whereas our ZBook Power G9 was configured with a 1 MP webcam, our Power G10 comes with a 5 MP webcam instead for a much sharper picture. The IR and physical shutter features remain unchanged. HP has made one small but notable change: the M.

2 WLAN module is now replaceable whereas it was soldered on last year’s ZBook Power 15 G9. Most everything else remains untouched including the two DDR5 SODIMM slots and two M. 2 PCIe4 x4 slots.

The model offers four matte display options as follows: Unless if touchscreen is a must, we recommend avoiding the two 250-nit options as they each cover only 45% of NTSC for noticeably shallower colors. For reasons unknown, HP does not offer 4K options for any ZBook Power G10 configuration even though they were previously available on the ZBook Power G9. We suspect that this could be due to supply issues as manufacturers are currently moving away from 16:9 15.

6-inch panels to 16:10 16-inch panels instead. Our 1440p panel is nonetheless excellent with its fast refresh rate, fast response times, and accurate sRGB colors fit for content creation and even gaming. It may not be OLED or 4K, but it’s still one of better 15.

6-inch IPS displays out there. HP does not ship the model pre-calibrated which is a shame for a ZBook-class laptop. Average grayscale and color DeltaE values out of the box would be at 5.

9 and 3. 27, respectively, with the color temperature being slightly too warm. Calibrating the display ourselves would improve the average deltaE values to just 0.

5 and 0. 56. Our calibrated ICM file is available to download above for free.

We set both Windows and Nvidia Control Panel to Performance mode prior to running the benchmarks below. The system does not appear to have any additional power profiles from HP. Optimus is supported as expected, but there is no ECC VRAM mode unlike on the thicker ZBook Fury 16 G10 with the faster RTX 5000 Ada.

The Ryzen 7 Pro 7840HS offers up to 20 percent faster multi-thread performance than the Core i7-12700H in last year’s ZBook Power 15 G9. For even faster performance, however, users should configure with the Intel Core i9-13900H instead which can run up to 30 percent faster than our Ryzen 7. Downgrading to the Ryzen 5 Pro 7640HS configuration from our Ryzen 7 Pro 7840HS is expected to impact performance by as much as 25 to 30 percent.

On the other hand, upgrading to the Ryzen 9 Pro 7940HS is expected to boost performance only marginally by about 5 to 10 percent based on our time with the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 . Thus, performance-per-dollar decreases significantly if configuring with Ryzen 9 instead of Ryzen 7. PCMark results are excellent with scores that are consistently higher than other workstations running on the older Nvidia RTX A2000 including the ZBook Power 15 G9.

The fast 5600 MHz RAM is also a highlight as evident by the high AIDA64 memory scores. LatencyMon reveals DPC issues when opening multiple browser tabs of our homepage. 4K video playback at 60 FPS is otherwise perfect with no dropped frames recorded.

Our unit comes configured with the WDC PC SN810 instead of the Samsung PM9A1 on last year’s model. In general, the WDC drive is slower than the Samsung when it comes to reading and writing small 4K blocks at high queue depths. HP allows buyers to configure with SED or non-SED drives, but HP does not explicitly list the SSD brands in question.

The Nvidia RTX 2000 Ada is a noticeable upgrade over the RTX A2000 in last year’s ZBook Power 15 G9 and a major reason for choosing the newer G10 model over the previous version. Raw graphics power is roughly 55 to 65 percent faster and SpecViewPerf results are also consistently higher. Running on Balanced mode instead of Performance mode does not appear to impact CPU or GPU performance as shown by our Fire Strike results below.

Running on battery power, however, significantly reduces performance even if set to Performance mode. Annoyingly, HP offers the RTX 3000 Ada GPU only for Intel configurations of the ZBook Power 15 G10 while AMD configurations are limited to the RTX 2000 Ada. The 3000 Ada GPU offers roughly 5 to 15 percent faster performance than the 2000 Ada based on our time with the smaller Dell Precision 5480 .

Overall gaming performance is most similar to the GeForce RTX 4050 even though the 2000 Ada integrates more unified pipelines, TMUs, VRAM, and a wider memory bandwidth. Demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 are playable at 1080p and Extreme settings, but lower settings are required if playing at the native 1440p resolution. Fan noise is essentially identical to last year’s model with similar minimums and maximums despite their performance differences.

For what it’s worth, the internal fans of our G10 unit are able to remain quieter for slightly longer than on our G9 unit when running 3DMark 06, but this is of course dependent on initial temperature conditions. Fan noise when running Witcher 3 would remain the same between Balanced and Performance modes which correlates with our test results showing minimal differences between the two power profiles. Surface temperatures are warmest toward the center and cooler along the sides of the keyboard or edges of the chassis.

Hot spots on the keyboard center and bottom can reach over 42 C which is several degrees cooler than on the competing ThinkPad P1 G6 with the same RTX 2000 GPU. When stressed with Prime95, the CPU would boost to 4. 2 GHz and 65 W for only the first few seconds before slightly falling and stabilizing at 4.

0 GHz and 54 W. Core temperature would be quite warm at 87 C, but this may be par for the course when it comes to many Zen 4-powered laptops. Repeating this test on the ThinkPad Z16 G2 , for example, would cause its Ryzen 9 CPU to stabilize at an even warmer 100 C.

Running Witcher 3 on Balanced mode would show no significant differences in temperatures or clock rates when compared to Performance mode which aligns with our Fire Strike observations in the section above. GPU board power draw would hover around 44 W against the 50 W target. Overall power consumption is higher than on last year’s model which correlates with the higher performance of our configuration.

However, performance-per-watt still favors our newer model especially when it comes to graphics performance. For example, running Prime95 demands 16 percent more power for 20 percent faster multi-thread performance over the Core i7-12700H in the ZBook Power 15 G9 while running FurMark would demand just 14 percent more power for up to 65 percent more graphics performance. The medium-sized (~13.

8 x 6. 5 x 2. 3 cm) 150 W AC adapter has not changed as the ZBook Power 15 G10 operates under the same power envelope as the ZBook Power 15 G9.

USB-C charging is nonetheless supported; our 135 W USB-C charger from Lenovo, for example, is compatible with our HP test unit. Runtimes are almost exactly like what we recorded on the last year’s model despite the differences in CPU, GPU, and display. Ten hours of real-world browsing is similar to many consumer-level Ultrabooks.

The ZBook Power 15 G10 design is approaching three years old. It’s one of the few 16:19 15. 6-inch workstations remaining to carry both AMD Zen 4 Pro CPUs and Nvidia RTX Ada GPUs while most others in this category have moved on to 16:10 16-inch form factors with additional display options including OLED and 4K.

If the taller form factor and newer displays are important to your workloads, then you may want to wait until HP refreshes the ZBook Power design or look for alternatives like the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 G6 instead. If not, then the ZBook Power 15 G10 is still a classic and reliable option. For potential 16:10 revisions in the future, we’d like to see HP go the extra mile by including both ECC RAM and ECC VRAM support and full USB-C charging only.

The proprietary AC barrel charger is becoming more difficult to justify now that next generation Thunderbolt can support USB-C charging of up to 240 W. The ZBook Power 15 G10 will likely be one of HP’s last 15. 6-inch workstations before the series is refreshed with a more modern 16:10 design.

The major differentiating factor between the ZBook Power 15 G9 and G10 is that the latter comes with Ada Lovelace GPUs for much higher performance-per-watt than the older Ampere GPUs. If the newer CPUs and GPUs are of value, then the G10 is recommended over the G9. Otherwise, the user experience between the models is essentially identical including even the battery life.

HP is now shipping the ZBook Power 15 G10 starting at $1600 USD for the Ryzen 5 configuration to $2100 for our Ryzen 7 and Nvidia 2000 Ada configuration or higher. .