Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Nederlands
Polski
Português
Русский
Türkçe
Svenska
Chinese
MagyarThe Best Mobile Workstation Laptops
A wide range of extended support options, system-specific accessories, long-lasting availability of spare parts, and extended warranty options are staples in this category. In addition, these notebooks often come with ports that have been all but eradicated on other devices but are still fairly common in businesses worldwide. Product cycles tend to be very long, and a case can easily remain current for three or more years. Prices more often than not start significantly above $1,000 and can quickly rise to seeming exorbitant levels.
The main driving cost factors, in addition to above-mentioned characteristics, are the professional-level GPUs often found in these devices. Unlike the more common consumer-level GPUs they have special capabilities and are optimized for stability, compatibility, and reliability when used with certified software. And while this may not be relevant for home users businesses tend to have very different priorities, and these GPUs can make or break a purchase decision. Please consider the following lists as well:
- The Best Business Notebooks (premium office laptops)
- The Best Budget Office Notebooks (affordable office laptops for less than 800 Euros)
- The Best Subnotebooks (small and mobile laptops, less than 14-inch)
The Best Mobile Workstation Notebooks
Position | Total Rating | Date | Image | Model | Height | Weight | Size | Resolution | Screen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 91 % | 03/2021 New! |  | HP ZBook Studio G7 Intel Core i9-10885H NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Max-Q 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 18 mm | 2 kg | 15.60" | 3840x2160 | matte |
| 2 | 90 % | 01/2021 |  | HP ZBook Fury 15 G7 Intel Xeon W-10885M NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 Max-Q 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 25.9 mm | 2.4 kg | 15.60" | 3840x2160 | matte |
| 3 | 90 % | 04/2021 New! |  | HP ZBook Fury 17 G7 119W5EA Intel Core i9-10885H NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 Max-Q 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 26.9 mm | 2.9 kg | 17.30" | 3840x2160 | matte |
| 4 | 88 % | 01/2021 |  | Lenovo ThinkPad P73-20QR0030GE Intel Core i9-9880H NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 (Laptop) 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 31 mm | 3.5 kg | 17.30" | 3840x2160 | matte |
| 5 | 88 % | 11/2020 |  | Asus StudioBook Pro X W730G5T-H8050T Intel Xeon E-2276M NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 (Laptop) 64 GB Memory, 1024 GB NVMe | 28.2 mm | 2.9 kg | 17.00" | 1920x1200 | matte |
| 6 | 88 % | 08/2020 |  | Dell Precision 7550 Intel Xeon W-10885M NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 Max-Q 16 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 27.36 mm | 2.8 kg | 15.60" | 3840x2160 | matte |
| 7 | 87 % | 09/2020 |  | Dell Precision 5000 5750 P92F Intel Xeon W-10885M NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Max-Q 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 19.5 mm | 2.5 kg | 17.00" | 3840x2400 | glossy |
| 8 | 87 % | 08/2020 |  | Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 Intel Core i7-10875H NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 Max-Q 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 13.98 mm | 2.2 kg | 15.60" | 3840x2160 | glossy |
| 9 | 86 % | 03/2021 New! |  | Lenovo ThinkPad T15g-20UR000GGE Intel Core i7-10750H NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q 32 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD | 31.45 mm | 2.8 kg | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | matte |
| 10 | 86 % | 08/2020 |  | Dell Precision 5550 P91F Intel Core i7-10875H NVIDIA Quadro T2000 Max-Q 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 18 mm | 2 kg | 15.60" | 3840x2400 | glossy |
The table above contains an overview over the best portable workstation laptops reviewed by Notebookcheck over the course of the past 12 months as well as still relevant and available older products. In cases of identical score the more recent device is listed first. All prices in above table and price comparisons are updated daily and can thus differ.
Link: all devices in this class reviewed
Editor's Comments
When reviewing a mobile workstation performance is of utmost importance. Accordingly, the category of mobile workstations trimmed for mobility and more akin to Ultrabooks is seldom to be found among the top contenders in this specific category, even though they are without a doubt decent laptops.
1st – HP ZBook Studio G7
HP’s ZBook Studio-series is at the forefront of HP’s ZBook portfolio, and the ZBook Studio G7 performs accordingly and manages to score the hitherto highest rating of any 2021 EliteBook generation notebook of 91 %, mainly responsible for which are its excellent speakers, its comfortable keyboard, and the extremely well-made high-quality premium metal case paired with high performance and the excellent DreamColor display.
There aren’t too many drawbacks either. One is the missing webcam shutter, and we would have also liked to see a WWAN option. However, all these pale in comparison to its largest downside: soldered and not upgradable RAM.
A high-quality case, a very good DreamColor display, and plenty of performance. The ZBook Studio manages to rise above its competitors and is currently the best portable workstation available.
Availability is very poor right now with only a single SKU listed as available on Amazon.
Top 10 Laptops
Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks
under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1.000 USD/Euros
Best Displays, for University Students
Top 10 Smartphones
Smartphones, Phablets, ≤5-inch, Camera SmartphonesThe Best Smartphones for Less Than 160 Euros
Pricecompare
2nd & 3rd – HP ZBook Fury 15 G7 & Fury 17 G7
Watch out ThinkPad P-series, there’s a new kid in town. HP’s ZBook Fury 15 G7 manages to take the lead on our workstation top list. HP has completely revamped its workstation line-up and renamed its traditional workstation series by adding the “Fury” label. However, the ZBook Fury 15 G7 is so much more than just a new name. For example, HP decided to install a complex vapor-chamber cooler in order to increase cooling performance. Other benefits include excellent maintainability and upgradeability including a swappable battery, a robust metal case, a wide variety of options and ports, excellent input devices, and last but not least a DreamColor display. Accordingly, the device scored an excellent 90 % in our review. HP managed to create a portable workstation with no noteworthy flaws.
Upgradable and with a variety of configuration options. Despite its comparatively low weight the ZBook Fury 15 offers a number of traditional workstation features.
The same can be said about the HP ZBook Fury 17 G7, which is basically the same device as the Fury 15 but with 17-inch display instead.
HP’s G7-generation offers more performance in a more compact case. All things considered, the HP ZBook Fury 17 G7 119W5EA performed very well in our review.
At the time of writing, the HP ZBook Fury 15 G7 was only available through HP’s own webstore while the HP Fury 17 G7 was also available on Amazon.
Pricecompare
Pricecompare
4th – Lenovo ThinkPad P73
The Lenovo ThinkPad P73 can be found right behind its smaller P-series siblings. The larger ThinkPad P-series laptop offers the same qualities as the smaller P53, namely a very robust and sturdy case, a variety of ports and connectivity, and its extremely good upgradeability. However, compared to all other P-series ThinkPads, its 17-inch display offers much more screen real estate.
We had the chance to review a second version of Lenovo’s ThinkPad P73 for which Lenovo improved GPU performance significantly over the previously tested device back to normal levels again. Accordingly, the P73’s rating increased, and it rose to the top of this list.
Pricecompare
5th – Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro X W730G5T
Asus recently entered the workstation segment with its new “ProArt StudioBook” brand of notebooks. Its most powerful and expensive contender is the Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro X W730G5T that will set you back a whopping 6,000 Euros. It features an extremely robust magnesium case, an excellent keyboard, and a blazingly fast Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000, and the 16:10 display is the icing on the cake.
Nevertheless, the laptop “only” scored a good 88 %, mainly because Asus fails to offer more options readily available elsewhere. For example, the display lacks resolution and brightness. In addition, Asus does not offer any 8-core CPU options resulting in less than stellar CPU performance incapable of keeping up with its competition. Considering these compromises, we consider the StudioBook Pro X’s price simply too high.
Pricecompare
6th – Dell Precision 7550
Dell gave its traditional workstation series Precision 7000 a major overhaul. The Dell Precision 7550 is the smaller sibling among its brethren and offers a very robust case as well as a great CPU (Xeon) and GPU (Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000) performance. It offers great expandability and upgradability thanks to its three M.2-slots and four RAM slots. The keyboard felt very comfortable to type on, and the touchpad with its three dedicated buttons was very comfortable to use as well. Unfortunately, Dell decided to not include a trackpoint device. Another drawback is the 7550’s high weight. Apart from those small details Dell created a decent workstation, and scored a good rating of 88 %.
Pricecompare
7th – Dell Precision 5750
Based on the XPS 17, Dell’s Precision 5000-series is the OEM’s first 17-inch workstation. The Precision 5750 differs from many of its competitors by its 16:10 display with thin bezels, which makes it very compact for a 17-inch device and even lighter than various 15-inch workstations. The Precision 5750 also offers a very long battery life. Its major drawback is its lack of connectivity as it only offers four Thunderbolt 3 ports and a single SD card reader – that’s it. The thin design also results in high temperatures under load.
Pricecompare
8th – Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020
Razer made its name as gaming laptop manufacturer, and when talking about portable workstations Razer is one of the last names that comes to mind. Nevertheless, the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 managed to make our top 10 list of portable workstations. It is anything but a traditional portable workstation, which does not have to be a bad thing considering that this is also the case for other devices such as for example Dell’s Precision 5550. We particularly liked its 4K OLED touchscreen, its high-quality metal case, and the fact that it stayed comparatively cool overall.
All things considered the Blade 15 Studio Edition does not suffer from too many flaws, although the two that we did find can be showstoppers for many users. For one, it lacks mass storage upgrade options, which are practically mandatory for portable workstations. In addition, its keyboard is nowhere its competitors’.
Pricecompare
9th – Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 1
Wait, what’s that? A T-series ThinkPad on the portable workstation top list? How did that happen? Isn’t the workstation segment traditionally served by Lenovo’s P-series of ThinkPads? It is indeed, and the Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 1 is basically a Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 1 with a new name and GeForce instead of Quadro GPUs. Accordingly, it fits into the workstation category just fine.
Compared to its immediate predecessor, the ThinkPad P53, Lenovo changed quite a few things. The redesigned case is slightly thicker and made large of plastic compared to the P53’s more prevalent use of metal. And while there are a few benefits resulting from this redesign, such as for example the improved cooling system as well as better maintainability, we overall still prefer the predecessor to both the T15g and the P15. Key in this impression was the fact that both workstations showed a very pronounced keyboard clatter in the lower left corner.
Please note that the P15 and T15g are as mentioned before identical, and we thus refrain from list both models separately. The ThinkPad T15g thus represents both itself as well as its P15 sibling.
Pricecompare
9th – Dell Precision 5550
If you are looking for a smaller version of the Dell Precision 5750 look no further: The Dell Precision 5550 is just that, including all of its pros and cons. Transplanted into the real world this means that the Precision 5550 is very compact and thin for a 15-inch workstation but lacks essentials ports in return. Its 16:10 display aspect ratio is without a doubt a unique feature as these displays are even more uncommon in 15-inch devices than they are in 17-inch notebooks. The thin case required another sacrifice: Nvidia’s Quadro RTX chips are not available, and Dell no longer offers an OLED option. Nevertheless, the Dell Precision 5550 remains a high-quality premium workstation worth its money, as long as it fits your requirements.
Pricecompare
The Best Mobile Workstation Laptops in Comparison
Test Results
| HP ZBook Studio G7 | HP ZBook Fury 15 G7 | HP ZBook Fury 17 G7 119W5EA | Lenovo ThinkPad P73-20QR0030GE | Asus StudioBook Pro X W730G5T-H8050T | Dell Precision 7550 | Dell Precision 5000 5750 P92F | Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 | Lenovo ThinkPad T15g-20UR000GGE | Dell Precision 5550 P91F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | ||||||||||
| Display P3 Coverage | 98.21 | 95.55 | 99.28 | 86.77 | 96.02 | 82.09 | 83.63 | 99.87 | 61.27 | 89.91 |
| sRGB Coverage | 99.92 | 99.79 | 99.94 | 100 | 99.85 | 99.6 | 99.71 | 100 | 90.47 | 99.99 |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 86.51 | 84.47 | 86.87 | 98.84 | 84.46 | 96.76 | 97.71 | 97.31 | 62.25 | 99.93 |
| Response Times | ||||||||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 56.4 (27.6, 28.8) | 56 (27.6, 28.4) | 56 (26, 30) | 44 (22, 22) | 41.6 (22.8, 18.8) | 51.2 (24.4, 26.8) | 41.2 (18.4, 22.8) | 4 (2, 2) | 38 (18.4, 19.6) | 46 (24, 22) |
| Response Time Black / White * | 37.6 (19.6, 18) | 36 (20.4, 15.6) | 40 (22, 18) | 26.4 (14, 12.4) | 30.8 (16.8, 14) | 34 (20, 14) | 34 (20, 14) | 4 (2, 2) | 16.8 (6, 10.8) | 34 (17.6, 16.4) |
| PWM Frequency | 26040 (50) | |||||||||
| Screen | ||||||||||
| Brightness middle | 723 | 672.8 | 573 | 366 | 341 | 473.5 | 483.8 | 380 | 504 | 469.8 |
| Brightness | 707 | 674 | 586 | 349 | 319 | 461 | 457 | 388 | 476 | 464 |
| Brightness Distribution | 92 | 89 | 91 | 88 | 80 | 90 | 90 | 93 | 90 | 85 |
| Black Level * | 0.35 | 0.5 | 0.38 | 0.38 | 0.43 | 0.55 | 0.37 | 0.018 | 0.34 | 0.42 |
| Contrast | 2066 | 1346 | 1508 | 963 | 793 | 861 | 1308 | 21111 | 1482 | 1119 |
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 * | 1.4 | 3.48 | 1.9 | 4.3 | 1.5 | 4.8 | 4.27 | 5.47 | 2.9 | 5.16 |
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 max. * | 2.9 | 9.44 | 4.2 | 7.1 | 2.8 | 8.73 | 8.78 | 8.19 | 7.1 | 9.33 |
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 calibrated * | 0.5 | 3.03 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 3.08 | 4.01 | 3.04 | 1.3 | 3.75 |
| Greyscale DeltaE2000 * | 2 | 3.1 | 2.9 | 5.5 | 2.1 | 5.6 | 3.5 | 5.3 | 4.3 | 5.5 |
| Gamma | 2.14 103% | 2.04 108% | 2.1 105% | 2.47 89% | 2.27 97% | 2.34 94% | 2.43 91% | 2.15 102% | 2.25 98% | 2 110% |
| CCT | 6484 100% | 6380 102% | 6217 105% | 6281 103% | 6281 103% | 7549 86% | 1741 373% | 6128 106% | 7265 89% | 6198 105% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 77.3 | 75.2 | 77.6 | 86 | 75.6 | 86.4 | 86.7 | 86 | 57.7 | 89.2 |
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 99.9 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99.8 | 99.7 | 99.9 | 100 | 90.8 | 100 |
| Noise | ||||||||||
| off / environment * | 24.4 | 26.4 | 24.4 | 29.5 | 29.4 | 25.8 | 27.5 | 30.1 | 24 | 26.2 |
| Idle Minimum * | 24.4 | 26.4 | 24.4 | 29.5 | 29.4 | 25.8 | 27.5 | 30.1 | 24 | 26.2 |
| Idle Average * | 24.4 | 26.4 | 26.6 | 29.5 | 29.4 | 25.8 | 27.5 | 30.1 | 24 | 26.2 |
| Idle Maximum * | 27.9 | 26.4 | 29 | 30.2 | 30.4 | 25.9 | 27.5 | 30.1 | 24 | 26.2 |
| Load Average * | 38.8 | 31.7 | 40.2 | 36.5 | 32.6 | 51.2 | 44.8 | 42.3 | 36.1 | 39.2 |
| Witcher 3 ultra * | 46.3 | 47 | 48 | 39.6 | 39 | 51.9 | 52.5 | 48.2 | 46 | 39 |
| Load Maximum * | 46.3 | 47 | 48 | 39.6 | 39 | 51.9 | 52.5 | 42.1 | 46 | 50.6 |
| Heat | ||||||||||
| Maximum Upper Side * | 45.7 | 48.8 | 46.1 | 49.2 | 44 | 49 | 55.6 | 54.1 | 47.7 | 47 |
| Maximum Bottom * | 50.6 | 62.6 | 57.6 | 45.2 | 55.6 | 51 | 42 | 54 | 62.1 | 44 |
| Idle Upper Side * | 24.8 | 27.2 | 23.4 | 34.3 | 25.3 | 28.2 | 28.8 | 28.9 | 31.3 | 29.4 |
| Idle Bottom * | 26.1 | 30.6 | 23.4 | 36.1 | 25.9 | 32 | 29.4 | 29.7 | 38.8 | 31 |
| Battery Runtime | ||||||||||
| Reader / Idle | 794 | 666 | 1089 | 527 | 1354 | |||||
| WiFi v1.3 | 468 | 515 | 455 | 236 | 510 | 534 | 652 | 341 | 673 | 540 |
| Load | 96 | 79 | 104 | 74 | 83 | 62 | 129 | 119 | 71 | 82 |
| Power Consumption | ||||||||||
| Idle Minimum * | 5.5 | 4.6 | 5.8 | 21 | 14.3 | 8.2 | 6.3 | 13.4 | 5.8 | 5.6 |
| Idle Average * | 13.7 | 13.6 | 14.8 | 30.4 | 19.2 | 16.8 | 14.2 | 18 | 11.4 | 11.2 |
| Idle Maximum * | 16.6 | 21.5 | 17 | 35.8 | 24.6 | 24.4 | 17.3 | 26.1 | 13.9 | 18.4 |
| Load Average * | 118.4 | 113.1 | 120.4 | 110 | 133 | 131 | 121.2 | 115 | 93.2 | 114 |
| Witcher 3 ultra * | 120 | 157.5 | 168.4 | 182 | 181 | 156.6 | 115.4 | 145 | 145 | 76.7 |
| Load Maximum * | 203.3 | 199 | 199.8 | 215.4 | 223 | 201.8 | 130.7 | 165 | 234 | 134.2 |
* ... smaller is better
