Alex Hernandez | November 21, 2021 November 21, 2021 Hardware Reviews, Reviews

In 2019, I reviewed the ZBook 17 G6, which is a great device, but it also has some drawbacks. Mainly the size, weight, ugly frame and huge display screen. I missed the opportunity to review the G7 follow-up products in 2020, but the new HP ZBook Fury G8 17.3 inches did arrive at my doorstep, and it is a great improvement over the 2019 G6.

The HP ZBook Fury G8 17.3" is designed to be a mobile workstation with ports that other laptops no longer have. The Fury series is also designed to be HP's powerful series, with performance focused on creative and business professionals.

So although the new HP ZBook Fury G8 is smaller and lighter than the 2019 G6, it is still a big boy, as I said in 2019... If you are looking for a thin and light mobile notebook Computer, this may not be you. For serious advanced users who need workstation power, this is a serious laptop. Please continue to read the full review.

The 2021 HP ZBook Fury G8 17.3" sent to us has the following features and specifications:

I have always liked the appearance of the HP ZBook series. The HP ZBook Fury G8 has not changed much in the past few years. HP has removed the bevel cut on the back of the laptop to make it more like other laptops today. I'm not sure why they did this. Although it looks good, I like this slanted cut because it gives the laptop a unique personality.

The laptop has the Z logo on the lid instead of the HP logo. I think this is a good choice; now that those slanted cuts are gone, the Z logo helps to define it and give it personality.

The bottom of the laptop is boring, with a large vent for cooling. You can see the fan through the vent. This thing needs that big vent and fan. There is also a tool-free access lock, a brilliant idea, so you can enter and upgrade when you need it. Two long rubber strips are used as feet to fix this thing on any surface you place it on. There are more vents on the back edge of the laptop, which I think is a wise choice.

Part of the attractiveness and marketability of this laptop is its I/O availability. Nowadays, most laptops have abandoned the ports used by professionals and only chose Thunderbolt/USB-C ports. The old G6 I reviewed had many ports and a DVD drive. The HP ZBook Fury G8 also has many ports, but this time there is no optical drive.

On the left side of G8, you will find the following ports:

On the right side of G8, you will find the following ports:

When you open the lid of the HP ZBook Fury G8, you will see its large and beautiful 17.3-inch DreamColor display. This is a full 4K panel with a peak brightness of 550 nits. The nit value is 150 higher than G6, I like it very much.

Looking down from the display, you will find that the large deck is not as large as the G6, but considering the size, it is still a large area. Bang & Olufsen stereo speakers are installed under a beautifully designed speaker grille. The fingerprint sensor is located at the bottom right of the keyboard. Speaking of the keyboard, this is a full-size Chiclet-style keyboard that makes typing comfortable. It has a full row of function keys and a numeric keypad. Here are some of the functions you can find on the keyboard:

The HP ZBook Fury G8 trackpad has a larger surface area than the G6, which I appreciate. It is also centered with the space bar, which offsets it from the rest of the machine. For many laptops with full-size numeric keypads, this is relatively normal, but this is not a design I like. This is not against ZBook, because the trackpad is great. It is made of glass and has smooth and no lag functions. I just don't like the trackpad in this position; I prefer it to be centered. Here are some functions on the touchpad:

There is no doubt that the HP ZBook Fury G8 is a big boy, although it is still smaller than the G6. The starting weight of the G8 is just over 6 pounds. This is more than a pound less than the G6, so this is an improvement. Nonetheless, this is not entirely about throwing it into your backpack and becoming a nomad laptop. But this is not what it wants. Another huge improvement of this design is the power brick. It is slimmer and lighter than the G6, which is commendable.

In general, although it is smaller than previous generations, G8 is still a big boy, and you should be prepared for it. Nevertheless, for the extra weight, you will get a lot of ports, battery life, and a complete mobile workstation experience. I don't think those who look at this laptop will mind how big it is.

Our HP ZBook Fury G8 did not skimp on the display, because it is equipped with a top-notch HP DreamColor 17.3-inch diagonal UHD (3840×2160) display. This is a complete 4K panel with a peak brightness of 550 nits. Compared with G6, this is a huge improvement in brightness. Unlike the G6, this panel also has a touch function. I don't use touch often, but I know many users do it, which is a good addition.

For professional photographers and videographers, this 4K DreamColor monitor will be indispensable. Using 100% Adobe RGB, the color reproduction is excellent, which will satisfy the professionals who are looking for accurate colors. The HP ZBook Fury G8 has a built-in monitor calibration tool, so you can be sure that the monitor fully meets your requirements.

I have mentioned that the peak brightness of this display is 550 nits, but I have to praise it again. I often use my laptop in sunny conditions, and having extra brightness is very useful. The colors are bright but accurate and lifelike. The white is bright and clean, the white has no yellowing or blue tones, and the black is deep and ink.

I used Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, ON1 Raw, and DaVinci Resolve on this laptop, and the colors are great when editing through these programs. This display makes entertainment content look great. Watching movies on Disney, Prime Video, Vudu and other 4K streaming services is great and the pictures are great.

Overall, this is an excellent monitor. It is the perfect showcase for content creators and design professionals looking for the best products. It far exceeds the needs of ordinary users, but HP ZBook Fury G8 is built for professionals, and it provides professionals with what they need.

The HP ZBook Fury G8 we reviewed runs Windows 10 Professional for workstations, and you can use Windows 10 on any configuration you choose. We already know the ins and outs of Windows 10, so there is no need to re-discuss any Windows software here. It works well and has all the latest Windows updates. This laptop can use Windows 11; if you choose to do so, it can be upgraded.

HP also includes some software here. According to the content on our system, you will see the following in terms of added software:

Other software on the HP ZBook Fury G8 includes Bang & Olufsen audio control and NVIDIA GPU settings. Except for HP software, there is almost no other expansion software on this laptop. I wouldn't even call HP software bloat; most of it is useful. Overall, the software experience is good, there is almost no bloatware, and Windows 10 can run as expected, you can choose to upgrade to it when Windows 11 is available.

The HP ZBook Fury G8 can be configured to your liking, or you can order a pre-configured device from HP. You can start with the basic model and then assemble it the way you like. HP is a perfect fit for our model. This configuration is a scream, starting with 64GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB NVMe SSD.

The Intel Xeon W-11955M CPU and NVIDIA RTX A5000 with 16GB of dedicated RAM make the G8 capable of everything I can put in. This configuration is suitable for professional videographers who edit 4K and 8K videos and photographers who edit a large number of photos.

Browsing, word processing, media consumption, mail and other actual performance are all easy on this machine. There are only basic tasks, and it barely moves. Even for my light photo editing, light 4K video editing, and content creation tasks, I hardly brought challenges to this configuration.

Even editing 4K short videos in DaVinci Resolve did not put pressure on G8. I certainly don't have enough firepower to emphasize the HP ZBook Fury G8.

As I said before, this special configuration is very suitable for professionals, such as graphic designers, CAD engineers, and users who need a lot of processing and graphics functions to complete their work quickly. In general, this is not your ordinary laptop, far from it. This is a real professional machine, it is designed to output power when you need it, and it has enough power.

The Bang & Olufsen dual stereo speakers do not seem to have changed much. They still sound great, and they may even have more bottom ends. In general, there is nothing to say except that the speakers sound a few miles better than most laptops.

camera. So HP did something here that confuses me. The ZBook 17 G6 is equipped with a 1080p webcam, and I praise HP for having an FHD webcam on the laptop. From now on, every laptop should be equipped with at least one FHD webcam.

But in the case of the HP ZBook Fury G8, HP went backwards and this time only included a 720p webcam. I'm not sure why they do this, especially in an era when so many people work remotely. This is HP's mistake; in such an expensive laptop, given our era, HP should be equipped with a 1080p camera.

HP ZBook Fury G8 is equipped with HP long-life 8-cell 94 Wh lithium-ion polymer battery. This is an improvement to the 6-core G6. Although it is a better battery, you must consider the G8's brighter panel and touch capabilities. HP does not give an estimate of battery life, and it is difficult to estimate, mainly because everyone uses laptops in different ways.

When using the battery for basic tasks such as web browsing, word processing, email, some YouTube and basic functions, I can almost get a full working day from the battery. But like any other powerful laptop, once you start intensive software processing on it, battery life will be shortened.

I noticed that the battery is pulled quickly when rendering 4K video in DaVinci Resolve. This is expected behavior and your battery range will vary.

The base model starts at US$3,026, and the evaluation unit sent to us has a final price of US$9,956. These are the full retail prices, and HP did cut prices for this series last time we checked. Therefore, although these prices seem high, there are still some discounts available, and you should check the HP website for more pricing options.

I mentioned before that the G8 is not a laptop for ordinary people. This is too powerful for the average user, so it's not worth it for most people. For professionals, this is worth the price.

Ordinary users may be at a loss for this machine, but professionals need to take a look here to get some value for money. Although not cheap, this investment will definitely help you do your job better and expand your business.

In addition to the webcam, the G8 has excellent improvements in almost all aspects over the G6. It is an excellent machine that can provide many services for professional and advanced users.

Techaeris was founded in 2013 by Alex Hernandez, who is the editor-in-chief and owner.

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