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The best display we have tested so far: DreamColor in the HP ZBook 15 G5

Teaser
HP's DreamColor displays are designed for customers with high requirements in terms of accurate colors and wide color gamut. We checked the performance of the 15-inch DreamColor screen in the mobile workstation HP ZBook 15 G5.

DreamColor is probably a familiar term for many users and it is synonymous for screens with excellent picture quality, both for external screens as well as displays in mobile workstation from HP's ZBook lineup. This technology was developed in partnership with the movie studio DreamWorks. They just did not find any suitable LCD screens for their high requirements for the time after CRT screens.

We had the chance to test a 15-inch DreamColor display in the ZBook 15 G5. The full review will be published soon, but we wanted to present the excellent results of the screen right away.

567
cd/m²
613
cd/m²
577
cd/m²
564
cd/m²
602
cd/m²
569
cd/m²
551
cd/m²
617
cd/m²
567
cd/m²
Distribution of brightness
AUO33EB tested with X-Rite i1Pro 2
Maximum: 617 cd/m² (Nits) Average: 580.8 cd/m² Minimum: 49.5 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 89 %
Center on Battery: 601 cd/m²
Contrast: 1584:1 (Black: 0.38 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 1.1 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5, calibrated: 0.8
ΔE Greyscale 1.5 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
99.9% sRGB (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
85.6% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
Gamma: 2.21

The subjective picture impression is great, even without a calibration. Even though it is a matte panel, you can enjoy rich colors and high contrasts that other are often reserved for glossy screens. Matte HP panels also suffer from a grainy picture impression on brighter surfaces, but this is not the case here.

The screen is also extremely bright at almost 600 nits. The black value suffers a bit as a result, but is still decent and results in a contrast ratio of more than 1500:1. We were also surprised by the even brightness distribution and we did not notice any issues with backlight bleeding. There is no sign of PWM for the regulation of the background illumination.

HP ZBook 15 G5-4QH94ES
AUO33EB, , 3840x2160, 15.60
Dell Precision 7530
Sharp LQ156D1, IPS, 3840x2160, 15.60
Lenovo ThinkPad P51 20HH0016GE
LEN40BD, B156ZAN02.1, IPS, 3840x2160, 15.60
HP ZBook Studio G5-4QH10EA
AUO30EB, IPS LED, 3840x2160, 15.60
Apple MacBook Pro 15 2018 (2.6 GHz, 560X)
APPA040, IPS, 2880x1800, 15.40
Average of class Workstation
 
Screen
Brightness middle
602
292.8
317
417
520
Brightness
581
295
309
412
492
Brightness Distribution
89
85
89
85
88
Black Level *
0.38
0.36
0.36
0.29
0.39
Contrast
1584
813
881
1438
1333
Colorchecker dE 2000 *
1.1
3.48
2.7
4.4
1.2
Colorchecker dE 2000 max. *
2.2
6.81
4.1
6.7
2.3
Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated *
0.8
3.13
1.9
Greyscale dE 2000 *
1.5
4.1
3
5
1.3
Gamma
2.21 100%
2.2 100%
2.27 97%
2.28 96%
2.18 101%
CCT
6463 101%
6740 96%
6077 107%
7575 86%
6738 96%
Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998)
85.6
84.4
87.6
62.3
Color Space (Percent of sRGB)
99.9
99.6
99.5
96

* ... smaller is better

The other manufacturers also offer very good (optional) wide color gamut displays for their workstation laptops, but they cannot quite keep up with the DreamColor display from HP and even the excellent 15.4-inch display of the Apple MacBook Pro 15 is beaten. The only drawback are the comparatively slow response times. However, this is also a subjective matter, and we personally had no problems (also due to the great picture quality).

AdobeRGB coverage according to CalMAN (2D calculation)
AdobeRGB coverage according to CalMAN (2D calculation)

We also want to mention the color gamut. HP advertises full AdobeRGB coverage, but we only determine 85.6 %. We use the tool Argyll for the calculation of the color space coverages, which uses two 3D models. This method is more precise. However, the laptop industry usually only advertises the 2D results, which can be determined via CalMAN, for example. Here you can clearly see that the measuring points only follow a 2D model and the result is 98.5 %.

We have already finished our display measurements and the sub-rating for the display is 96.2 percent, so the HP ZBook 15 G5 will easily take the top spot in our Display Ranking next month.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2019 07 > The best display we have tested so far: DreamColor in the HP ZBook 15 G5
Andreas Osthoff, 2019-07- 1 (Update: 2019-07- 2)