HP ZBook Firefly 16 G10 review – the CPU clock under heavy load is low but the battery life is impressive
Temperatures and comfort, Battery Life
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 P-core frequency; Average E-core frequency; CPU temp.; Package Power
| Intel Core i7-1355U (15W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP ZBook Firefly 16 G10 | 3.85 GHz @ 2.89 GHz @ 67°C @ 50W | 3.32 GHz @ 2.48 GHz @ 75°C @ 37W | 2.14 GHz @ 1.44 GHz @ 66°C @ 17W |
| Lenovo ThinkPad L15 Gen 4 (Intel) | 3.34 GHz @ 2.54 GHz @ 86°C @ 39W | 3.16 GHz @ 2.45 GHz @ 93°C @ 35W | 2.38 GHz @ 1.77 GHz @ 77°C @ 20W |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 4 | 3.78 GHz @ 2.93 GHz @ 82°C @ 48W | 3.45 GHz @ 2.71 GHz @ 90°C @ 41W | 2.52 GHz @ 1.87 GHz @ 78°C @ 22W |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 | 3.83 GHz @ 2.89 GHz @ 78°C @ 51W | 3.7 GHz @ 2.82 GHz @ 93°C @ 49W | 2.38 GHz @ 1.75 GHz @ 64°C @ 21W |
| Acer Aspire 5 (A514-56M) | 3.82 GHz @ 2.82 GHz @ 64°C @ 55W | 2.18 GHz @ 2.26 GHz @ 65°C @ 37W | 1.43 GHz @ 1.98 GHz @ 60°C @ 28W |
| Dell Vostro 15 3530 | 2.06 GHz @ 2.70 GHz @ 94°C @ 40W | 1.56 GHz @ 2.22 GHz @ 96°C @ 26W | 2.06 GHz @ 2.25 GHz @ 95°C @ 26W |
| Lenovo Yoga Book 9 (13IRU8) | 2.23 GHz @ 2.58 GHz @ 76°C @ 40W | 2.13 GHz @ 2.42 GHz @ 85°C @ 35W | 1.64 GHz @ 2.03 GHz @ 77°C @ 24W |
| ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED (UX5304) | 3.46 GHz @ 2.47 GHz @ 80°C @ 41W | 3.06 GHz @ 2.24 GHz @ 91°C @ 31W | 2.36 GHz @ 1.68 GHz @ 75°C @ 21W |
The CPU can maintain a high P and E core clock in short and medium loads. In longer stress, the P core frequency is okay, while the E core one is unimpressive. On the bright side, the processor temperature is just 66°C. Wait – a 17W CPU power limit after 15 minutes of stress, is that a workstation?
Real-life gaming
| NVIDIA RTX A500 (Laptop) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min) |
|---|---|---|
| HP ZBook Firefly 16 G10 | 702 MHz @ 68°C @ 20W | 688 MHz @ 66°C @ 20W |
| Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 4 | 1050 MHz @ 74°C @ 30W | 1043 MHz @ 75°C @ 30W |
When it comes to GPU clocks under heavy load, the NVIDIA RTX A500 (Laptop) is a real challenge for modest cooling. The result is low core frequencies and TGP. However, the temperature is also low, which is good.
Comfort during full load
Interestingly, the fan is quiet when the dGPU isn’t working. It’s hard to hear any noise even while benchmarking the CPU with Cinebench R23. When the graphics card has to do the heavy lifting, the fan is audible but not noisy. In this scenario, the central and the left part of the keyboard are warm but comfortable for work. The laptop lacks power presets in the HP Power Manager, so you can control the performance via the built-in Windows modes in the Power & Battery menu.
Battery
Now, we conduct the battery tests with the 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. Our machine has an optional 76Wh battery. It lasts for 25 hours of Web browsing, or 11 hours and 40 minutes of video playback. It’s really important to use the “HP Optimized (Modern Standby)” power plan, not the Windows’ “Balanced” mode.
Brightness: 180 nits; Display Mode: SDR
Time to Full Discharge: Higher is Better
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
Author: Nikolay Palaozov
Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.
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