HP ZBook Fury 15 G8 review – the good, the bad, and the quiet

Naturally, the ZBook lineup of workstation notebooks from HP is pretty broad. It comes in some space-friendly options, as well as some that focus on compromise. However, today’s machine is all about performance and usability. We are talking about the ZBook Fury 15 G8.

Unlike most notebooks out there, which have two slots for memory, and two slots for storage if you are lucky, this laptop is an absolute unit. It features four SODIMM slots that support up to 128GB of RAM. And if you opt for a Xeon processor, you have the option to use ECC memory, albeit the maximum capacity is halved. Additionally, there is the option of four M.2 slots for storage.

In addition to the Xeon CPU, this beast can be configured with up to the Core i9-11950H. Yes, this means Tiger Lake H45 found its way to the ZBook series, and it has its vPro options as well. In terms of graphics, the top-of-the-line product comes equipped with the RTX A5000 with 16GB of GDDR6 video memory. However, it can and will cost you an arm and leg.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-zbook-fury-15-g8/

Contents


Specs Sheet

HP ZBook Fury 15 G8 - Specs

  • Innolux N156HCA-GA3 (CMN15F6)
  • Color accuracy  4.9  0.9
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 7600GB SSD + up to 2000GB HDD
  • RAM
  • up to 128GB
  • OS
  • No OS, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Home, Linux
  • Battery
  • 94Wh
  • Body material
  • Aluminum, Magnesium alloy
  • Dimensions
  • 361 x 242.5 x 26 mm (14.21" x 9.55" x 1.02")
  • Weight
  • 2.35 kg (5.2 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4
  • HDMI
  • 2.0b
  • Displayport mini
  • Card reader
  • SD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Smart Card Reader
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x Stereo Speakers, Bang & Olufsen
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

All HP ZBook Fury 15 G8 configurations

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What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found a 150W power adapter, some paperwork, and mounting hardware for two M.2 drives. Additionally, by purchasing this notebook, you get access to 6 months of Adobe Surface membership for free.


Design and construction

HP clearly didn’t save on materials here, as you will find aluminum for the lid and the base, as well as magnesium for the bottom panel. Additionally, the optional touchscreen panel will be protected by Gorilla Glass 5. Other than that, the laptop is about 26mm thick, and the weight starts at 2.35 kilos. Not the thinnest, nor the lightest laptop out there. However, it is still nearly 500 grams lighter than the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2, which is pretty respectable.

Here, the lid opens easily with a single hand, and honestly, we didn’t expect anything else. The bezels around the matte display are rather thin, with the exception of the bottom one, which is thicker and houses the HP logo. This laptop has an HD Web camera, and an optional IR face recognition system.

Respectively, the keyboard is backlit, offers spill-resistance, has a NumberPad, and features a Point stick. The key travel is long, while the feedback is tactile, yet quiet. The only complaint we have is with the size of the “Up” and “Down” arrow keys. Thankfully though, there is an optional fingerprint reader, placed beneath the secondary “Enter” key.

In order to use the pointing stick as intended, there is a set of three buttons above the touchpad. But that’s not it, the touchpad has its own trio of buttons, and they are placed below it. Additionally, the glass surface offers a super smooth gliding experience, while your touch input is recognized almost immediately, leading to superb tracking.

Something you won’t find at the bottom panel is speaker cutouts. This is because the Bang & Olufsen stereo setup is located above the keyboard. So, at the bottom, you will only see the ventilation grill, and a lock switch, which we are going to discuss in a minute. Hot air, respectively, escapes the notebook out of the back.

Ports

On the left side, there is a LAN port, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an audio jack, and a smart card reader. Then, on the right, there is the power plug, two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a Mini Displayport 1.4 output, an HDMI 2.0b/2.1 connector, and an SD card reader.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

Accessing this laptop’s internals is very easy. Just flick the switch on the bottom panel, and slide the panel away from the chassis. Then, you can unplug the 94Wh battery pack with the help of two further sliders.

Storage-wise, there is a maximum of four M.2 PCIe slots, which is insane. However, two of them require an adapter, which HP provides inside the box. Otherwise, you can connect a 2.5-inch SATA device in their place. And when it comes to memory, there are a total of four RAM SODIMM slots. Two are accessible from the bottom, while the other two are located beneath the keyboard. The total amount of memory supported is 128GB of non-ECC, and 64GB of ECC.

While HP states, that this device will come with a vapor chamber cooling solution, we suppose that it will only feature on the top tier specs, since ours had a more conventional design, including a couple of heat pipes.

To access two of the SODIMM slots, and one M.2 slot, you need to remove the keyboard. First, undo 3 marked Phillips-head screws, and stick your pry tool through the open space around one of the fans. Before you proceed, make sure you have unplugged the black and orange connector from the touchpad. Then, reattach the bottom panel, turn the laptop around, and carefully pry the keyboard with a plastic tool. Keep in mind that there are two further ribbon cables that need to be removed – one for the backlight, and one for the keyboard, itself.

Here, you can see that both the storage and the memory slots are covered by metal plates. You just need to unscrew a total of three Phillips-head screws to be able to use the slots.

Display quality

HP ZBook Fury 15 G8 comes with a Full HD IPS panel, model number Innolux N156HCA-GA3 (CMN15F6). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 142 ppi, their pitch – 0.18 x 0.18 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 60 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

The viewing angles are good. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is 445 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 407 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 11% in the bottom left corner. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6430K (average) – slightly warmer than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 54% Brightness (White level = 139 cd/m2, Black level = 0.11 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1310:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows HP ZBook Fury 15 G8’s color gamut coverage.

Its display is limited just to 95% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of HP ZBook Fury 15 G8 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 24 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

HP ZBook Fury 15 G8’s backlight uses PWM for brightness adjustment up to 115 nits. Thankfully, the frequency of the flickerings is high-enough, to make it rather safe for long periods of use.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP ZBook Fury 15 G8 configurations with 15.6″ Innolux N156HCA-GA3 (CMN15F6) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

HP ZBook Fury 15 G8’s speakers produce a loud sound of very good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s huge 94Wh battery pack delivers 16 hours and 40 minutes of Web browsing, or 10 hours and 57 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This laptop can be found with the Core i5-11500H, Core i7-11800H, Core i7-11850H, Core i9-11900H, Core i9-11950H, and the Xeon W-11955M.


GPU options

As far as the graphics go, you can choose from the NVIDIA T1200, RTX A2000, RTX A3000, RTX A4000, and RTX A5000. Also, there is an AMD option in the face of the Radeon Pro W6600M.


Gaming tests

Metro ExodusFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
Average FPS86 fps38 fps18 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
Average95 fps48 fps31 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Average66 fps57 fps35 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
Average68 fps62 fps39 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-11850H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP ZBook Fury 15 G83.47 GHz (B+39%) @ 98°C @ 88W3.13 GHz (B+25%) @ 97°C @ 69W3.03 GHz (B+21%) @ 96°C @ 65W
Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 23.58 GHz (B+43%) @ 100°C @ 92W3.45 GHz (B+38%) @ 99°C @ 84W3.10 GHz (B+24%) @ 100°C @ 66W

Well, two out of two laptops equipped with this processor ran at temperatures near the Tj Max of the processor. With that said, the ZBook Fury 15 G8 was a bit cooler and worked at slightly lower clock speeds than the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA RTX A2000GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
HP ZBook Fury 15 G81208 MHz @ 67°C @ 40W1230 MHz @ 65°C @ 40W
Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 21780 MHz @ 81°C1742 MHz @ 86°C

Well, the modest 40W TGP limit didn’t allow the ZBook Fury 15 G8’s RTX A2000 to operate at a frequency higher than 1230 MHz. This is significantly lower than the sustained 1742 MHz, the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 was capable of.

Gaming comfort

On the other hand, the laptop runs extremely quietly under a combined workload. Perhaps, this was the point in putting this GPU inside. Additionally, the temperature on the keyboard gets up to body temperature 36.6°C, and no warmer.


Verdict

Quite frankly, we were expecting more out of this notebook when it comes to performance. The CPU was pretty hot, while the GPU had a super unimpressive TGP limit. Yes, there are more powerful options than the RTX A2000, but the same graphics card inside of the Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 could maintain clocks of about 500 MHz higher.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to take the ZBook Fury 15 G8 out of the equation. Actually, it is extremely quiet in combined workloads. And it has a very good display.

HP ZBook Fury 15 G8’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio, and a pretty wide color coverage (95% of sRGB). Additionally, its backlight doesn’t flicker below 115 nits. What is more impressive is the color accuracy we were able to achieve with our Gaming and Web design profile – an Average dE of 0.8. And this is down from 6.3, which completely changes the perception of the device.

The great things about this laptop don’t stop there. You get excellent input devices, plus an optional fingerprint reader and IR face recognition system. Also, the I/O is super wide, as it has two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, an SD card slot, both HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, and more.

Once you get inside, it gets even more interesting. First of all, getting there is pretty easy. Then, there are four SODIMM slots for up to 128 GB of DDR4 memory (64GB of ECC RAM), and up to four M.2 NVMe slots with RAID 0 and RAID 1 support. We also have to mention the 94Wh battery, which delivers more than 16 hours of Web browsing, or nearly 11 hours of video playback.

Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with this laptop. Yes, the performance is not stellar, but it has everything you need. And if you are here only for the performance, some of the higher-spec versions get a vapor chamber cooling solution, which will be significantly more efficient. Unfortunately, we don’t have certain information on which configurations will be equipped with it.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-zbook-fury-15-g8/

Pros

  • 4x RAM SODIMM + 4x M.2 PCIe x4
  • Quiet under stress
  • Doesn’t use aggressive PWM (CMN15F6)
  • 95% of sRGB coverage and great color accuracy with our Gaming and Web design profile (CMN15F6)
  • Exceptional keyboard and touchpad combo
  • Great battery life
  • Thunderbolt 4, SD card and Smart Card readers + optional IR face recognition and fingerprint reader


Cons

  • Low TGP graphics card
  • Quite pricy

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gaston
gaston
7 months ago

tengo la ZBook Fury 15 G8 y al conectar un ssd2 en la ranura correspondiente. eleva la temperatura hasta niveles de casi no poder tocar la notebook. tienen informaciojn al respecto?