Review HP ZBook Create G7

For many, it's an ideal, innovative option at a better price than rivals from Dell and Apple. However, hot external issues, average battery life, and keyboard layout can be too difficult to ignore depending on your workflow.

Detailed configuration

1. 15.6 inches, 3840 x 2160 IPS
2. Intel Core i9-10885H
3. Nvidia RTX 2070 Max-Q
4. 32GB DDR4 RAM
5. 1TB SSD hard drive
6. Weight: 1.92kg

Design of the HP ZBook Create G7

The G7 has a very eye-catching design. The aluminum base has smart chamfered edges, neatly machined vents and smart Bang & Olufsen grille, and the lid is the same material with the ZBook logo is illuminated. The screen has thin bezels and the edges are quite polished.

The finishing quality is also excellent - the base is sturdy, the opening is gentle, and the hinge is very quiet. The G7 is also MIL-STD-810H certified, which means it has been tested and rated to withstand drops, knocks, dust and even extreme temperatures.

All of this comes neatly in a weight of 1.92kg, 18mm thick and 354mm wide, so it's hardly a strong impact. The Dell XPS 15 is slightly lighter and narrower, while the Apple MacBook Pro 16 is thinner, but heavier and wider, however the difference is negligible. HP is also often appreciated for the quality of the machine.

On the right edge of the machine, you'll find two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports that support 10Gb / s data transfers, a Thunderbolt 3 port along with a Mini-DisplayPort output, and a full-size SD card slot. The left side has a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port running at 5Gb / s along with a headphone jack and Kensington lock slot. Above the top of the screen, the device is equipped with a 720p webcam with Windows Hello support and below the keyboard is a fingerprint sensor. The G7 also has TPM 2.0 and a host of BIOS security options.

HP ZBook Create G7 keyboard

The ZBook's keyboard is very smart, with a recessed chiclet design and good typing quality. The keys are quick, consistent and quiet, with deep key travel and a solid base. For the casual typing experience, this keyboard has the same quality as Dell and better key travel than Apple.

However, there are a few layout adjustments that make the keyboard look unattractive. The power button is sandwiched between the Delete and Print Screen keys and is annoying, the function row keys are a bit small. The arrow keys are also shrinking. The biggest problem for some people will be the unfortunate omission of the numeric keypad because the spare metal on either side of the keyboard is quite wide.

The trackpad of the device is of good quality. The surface is large, smooth and precise, supports multi-touch gestures, and fast and standard click movements.

HP ZBook Create G7 display

The ZBook's display is one of its strongest points. IPS 4K panel with 10-bit color and HP's DreamColor certification, so it comes in full sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamut and achieves a peak brightness of 600 nits.

Excellent image quality. The G7's maximum measured brightness is 688 nits, which is immensely large (well above HP's expected figure), combined with a black point of 0.41 nits to yield a 1678: 1 contrast ratio. A laptop with such a good screen is very rare indeed. The high contrast ratio, the screen is more vivid and the colors are more accurate than most laptops on the market, enough for photo and video editing.

The speaker is also surprisingly well finished - incredibly loud, surprisingly bass and well balanced. The only problem is that the head is a bit small. For everyday audio activities, however, the G7 is a great fit.

HP ZBook Create G7 performance

ZBook G7 is equipped with Intel Core i9-10885H processor, eight cores like mobile phones. This processor has base speed and speeds up to 2.4 GHz and 5.3 GHz, respectively, Intel vPro for added security. It is paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics card, which means 2,304 regular stream processors and 8GB of RAM along with a limited clock speed of 900MHz and 1,125MHz.

There's ample dual-channel 32Gb memory and 1TB Samsung PM981 SSD drive that delivers excellent read and write speeds of 3,440 MB / s and 2,871 MB / s. Internal connectivity is handled by dual-band 6-band Wi-Fi.

The actual performance of the machine is amazing. The ZBook can easily handle a photo editor, allowing you to edit and encode 4K videos. In this content creation area, HP will handle almost anything and it far surpasses the competition in the market. The G7 is also flexible and perfectly responsive to everyday workloads. If gaming, it should play any light game at 1080p but it will only handle 4K games if you tweak the settings a bit. However, the 60Hz screen refresh rate is not really suitable for high-demanding games.

HP ZBook Create G7 battery life

The device can last about 5 hours after a single charge with the screen at maximum brightness and nearly 6 hours when the brightness is down.

This is a reasonable number for a system with high-end components like this, sure enough to handle normal office work, but it cannot compete with competitors in the market. Both Dell and Apple machines lasted 9 hours on the same test.

Lesley Montoya

Update 03 December 2020