HP’s Z-series laptop series is known for its line-up of professional laptops that perform better than typical laptops in a stylish chassis. We take a look at the HP ZBook Firefly G8 professional workstation laptop.
Design
The ZBook Firefly G8 is a lightweight mobile workstation that features a stylish chassis for professionals who want to easily carry it around wherever they go. The laptop weighs about 1.35kg and comes with a 15.6-inch IPS display with FHD as its screen resolution.
While the IPS panel is only an 8-bit display, HP mentions that the screen is factory-color calibrated for better color accuracy. The whites appear to be well-balanced and the color temperatures appear on the cool side. The viewing angles are also good and there is also a webcam on the top bezel of the screen with IR functionality.
The laptop has enough ports to satisfy the connectivity needs of professionals on the move. On the right side, there is the HDMI 2.0 port, a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port, two USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4, and one nano-SIM slot with 5G support, if you want to access mobile internet. On the left, there is another USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port with a charging function, a headphone/microphone jack, a Nano security lock slot, and one HP Smart Card Reader.
HP mentions that the ZBook Firefly G8 features a redesigned keyboard with rubber domes and also an ambient light-sensing backlight system. There is also a pointer for those who still want the old ways and there is a dedicated left and right mouse click buttons above the large trackpad.
There is also a fingerprint scanner on the right palm rest portion for extra security. The speakers that are located above the keyboard are optimized with Bang and Olufsen tunning. The outer lid portion of the laptop features a silver finish, just like the rest of the chassis. And there is the Z branding logo in the middle of the lid.
The bottom panel of the laptop comes with air vents for better cooling and users will be able to access the internals for future upgrades or replacements.
Specs & Performance
The HP ZBook Firefly G8 packs the 11th generation Tiger Lake-U-based Intel Core i7-1165G7 quad-core processor with 2.79 GHz as its base speed and 4.69 GHz as its boost clock. And supporting the chip is 16GB DDR4 SDRAM at 1600 MHz speeds. Our review unit ran on a 512GB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD with Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OS preinstalled, which can be upgraded to Windows 11 Pro for free.
While the processor features its own Iris iGPU, the laptop does come with discrete pro-grade graphics and the GPU used here is the NVIDIA Quadro T500 with 4GB of video memory. The T500 is based on the Turing architecture that comes with 7.5 CUDA cores and runs on a 64-bit bus and 80.00 GB/s bandwidth. The silicon is based on the 12nm FinFET fabrication process. While the chip is based on the Turing series, the GPU does not offer RTX capabilities.
We ran the laptop through benchmarks such as Geekbench 5, PCMark 10 Extended, 3DMark FireStrike, 3DMark TimeSpy, and CrystakDiskMark. Check out the scores below.
As for the battery, the laptop houses a 3-cell, 56 Wh Li-ion polymer powerhouse. And as per our PCMark 10 battery test, the laptop lasted for 9 hours and 36 minutes. For better security measures, HP has also included the HP Wolf Security for Business suite. The laptop also comes with Wi-Fi 6 for high-speed internet connectivity.
Verdict
If you’re looking for a lightweight workstation laptop that offers decent performance in a stylish package, then take a look at the HP ZBook Firefly G8. The laptop comes with a lightweight and durable design and features a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display that is color-calibrated. The device also comes with several connectivity ports such as HDMI 2.0, USB-C, and USB-A ports, a nano-SIM slot with 5G support, and more.
The keyboard is pleasant to type on and the trackpad is wide enough for easy usability. There is also a pointer with buttons for left and right mouse clicks. The speakers are tuned by Bang and Olufsen. The performance is decent, thanks to the Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, 16GB DDR4, and 512GB SSD. The NVIDIA Quadro T500 GPU helps with pro-grade tasks and the 3-cell, 56 Wh Li-ion polymer battery can last for about almost a day of use.
