HP's ZBook Fury 17 G8 wastes potential

The product category of mobile workstations only addresses a comparatively small group of users, but there is definitely demand and in addition to high reliability, these machines are supposed to offer plenty of performance. There are also slim mobile workstations, but there are still “classic” models with comparatively bulky case. The ZBook Fury 17 G8 from HP falls into the latter category, but it cannot really meet the high performance expectations.

The CPU performance is decent an on par with the rivals (although the upcoming Alder Lake CPUs will offer significantly better multi-core performance), but the manufacturer unnecessarily limits the performance of the dedicated graphics card. The designation Max-Q for very efficient and slower versions of the professional mobile GPUs from Nvidia is not officially used anymore, but they are basically still used here. Our review unit with the Nvidia RTX A3000 only has a TGP of 80 Watts and the performance is stable, but overall, a bit underwhelming considering the large chassis and the powerful cooling unit. You can equip the ZBook Fury 17 G8 with the RTX A5000, but we once again expect a TGP of 80 Watts due to the conservative 200W power adapter and our test unit is already at the 200W mark during the stress test, so it is hardly possible to integrate a more powerful GPU. For comparison: The MSI WE76 also uses the RTX A5000, but the most powerful version with a TGP of 155 Watts (or the RTX A3000 with 130 Watts). So you pay a lot of money for a mobile workstation and do not get the expected GPU performance. You obviously pay for other advantages (including services, special software solutions or long parts supply), but the ZBook just cannot meet the high performance expectations. 

The manufacturer also needs to continue the development of the DreamColor displays. They offer very accurate colors, but the HDR capabilities in particular are limited. Apple definitely raised the bar in this respect with the Mini-LED displays in their new MacBook Pro models, which can reach up to 1500 nits with HDR contents.

Despite our criticism, the ZBook Fury 17 G8 is not a bad device by any means and you can combine many components of the mobile workstations based on your requirements. But there are some areas HP should improve, so the ZBook Fury models can stay competitive. Please see our review of the Fury 17 G8 and the smaller Fury 15 G8 for more information on the devices:

• HP ZBook Fury 17 G8 Review (Core i9, RTX A3000, 4K DreamColor)
• HP ZBook Fury 15 G8 Review (Core i9, RTX A5000, 4K DreamColor)