The Best Mobile Workstation Laptops

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.

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.

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.

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 %.

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.

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.

The ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 W700G3T sits one step below the significantly more expensive StudioBook Pro X. It lacks extras such as the ScreenPad but retains important qualities such as for example the 16:10 display aspect ratio. Like its more expensive sibling it, too, lacks a high-resolution display option, which remains the StudioBook’s most striking flaw. Apart from that you get a great workstation in a robust case with comfortable input devices and decent performance.

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.

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.

The Acer ConceptD 9 Pro managed to secure a spot on our list. It is one of Acer’s most expensive workstations, and a very special one at that: the ConceptD 9 Pro is a convertible. At its premium price it offers a 17-inch touchscreen display that you can flip around, stylus support, an Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 GPU, and a Core i9 CPU. A hardware configuration that does not leave much to be desired, if only it wasn’t for the ConceptD’s high weight and very poor battery life.