The best display we have tested so far: DreamColor in the 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.
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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 Ø4.9, calibrated: 0.8
ΔE Greyscale 1.5 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
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, 15.6" | Dell Precision 7530 Sharp LQ156D1, IPS, 3840x2160, 15.6" | Lenovo ThinkPad P51 20HH0016GE LEN40BD, B156ZAN02.1, IPS, 3840x2160, 15.6" | HP ZBook Studio G5-4QH10EA AUO30EB, IPS LED, 3840x2160, 15.6" | Apple MacBook Pro 15 2018 (2.6 GHz, 560X) APPA040, IPS, 2880x1800, 15.4" | Average of class Workstation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | ||||||
| Brightness middle | 602 | 292.8 | 317 | 417 | 520 | 459 ? |
| 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 | 0.2875 ? |
| Contrast | 1584 | 813 | 881 | 1438 | 1333 | |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 1.1 | 3.48 | 2.7 | 4.4 | 1.2 | 2.71 ? |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 2.2 | 6.81 | 4.1 | 6.7 | 2.3 | 5.65 ? |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 0.8 | 3.13 | 1.9 | 1.604 ? | ||
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 1.5 | 4.1 | 3 | 5 | 1.3 | 2.82 ? |
| Gamma | 2.21 100% | 2.2 100% | 2.27 97% | 2.28 96% | 2.18 101% | 2.22 99% ? |
| CCT | 6463 101% | 6740 96% | 6077 107% | 7575 86% | 6738 96% | 6565 99% ? |
| 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).
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.
