HP ZBook Firefly 15 G8: Now with more performance but also with higher heat development

As in the ZBook Firefly 14 G8, HP also uses a Tiger Lake CPU and Nvidia's Quadro T500 entry-level graphics unit for workstations in the Firefly 15 G8. This doubles graphics performance, and CPU performance is also up to 25% better with the Intel Core i7-1165G7 that we tested.

Like the ZBook Firefly 15 G7 predecessor model, the surfaces of the 8th generation also heat up noticeably. However, HP's workstation still remains usable with temperatures around 30 °C (~86 °F) on the palm rests. The bottom of the device heats up to 47 °C (~117 °F); therefore, you should avoid placing it on your lap without any protection.

While the CPU can also maintain its performance over a longer period in our Cinebench R15 endurance test, things look a bit different in the stress test. The CPU throttles its power consumption to 12 watts, the minimum rate for the i7-1165G7, under the extreme conditions of our continuous stress test. In contrast, a constant 25 watts was reached during the Cinebench R15 test.

This behavior shows that the cooling system of the HP ZBook Firefly 15 G8 is definitely capable of dissipating the generated heat. However, exceptional load scenarios can lead to performance throttling. Once you reduce the load again, the system stabilizes quickly, though.

HP has retained many characteristics of the predecessor model in the ZBook Firefly 15 G8, but it has also changed some aspects. We have documented the exact modifications in our review.