Hewlett-Packard unveiled a new 2-in-1 convertible today at Adobe MAX in Las Vegas. The ZBook x2 has been designed to give digital artists, designers and other professionals the power they need to make full use of the Adobe Creative Cloud software suite, as well as other resource hungry creative applications.
The insanely powerful ZBook x2 follows the launch of the Spectre x2 and Elite x2 earlier this year, with HP separating it from other less impressive 2-in-1 convertibles by calling it the world's first detachable PC workstation. Up to up to 4.2 GHz of turbo boost processing is available from the choice of i7/i5 Intel Core brains, supported by up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 2 TB of SSD storage.
The 2-in-1 has a 14-inch 4K (3,840 x 2,160) anti-glare, multi-touch display as standard, and the option to up screen performance and choose a 10-bit, 1 billion color HP DreamColor display calibrated to 100 percent of Adobe RGB. Discrete Nvidia Quadro graphics pump put the visuals, while dual-fan cooling helps keep processing temperatures down.
When used with the optional ZBook Dock, the ZBook x2 is reported capable of running two 4K displays over Thunderbolt 3. HP is promising up to 10 hours of battery life per charge, with a 30 minute fast charge juicing it up to 50 percent capacity.
The ZBook x2 can be used as a laptop or tablet, or a something in the middle where the built-in stand props up the tablet display and the backlit Bluetooth keyboard section can be place to one side – to paint with the pen, for example, yet still have easy access to keyboard shortcuts. HP says the battery-free pen that comes with the ZBook x2, which is based on Wacom's EMR technology, is its most accurate and expressive to date, and includes a dedicated eraser and has 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
Cabled connectivity comes in the shape of HDMI and USB 3 and USB-C ports, while wireless is served up with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 sauce.
There's an SD card slot for loading in photos from a digital camera, 720p webcams front and back of the tablet section and the keyboard also features 18 customizable shortcuts that change depending on which application is running. Finally, the ZBook x2 is wrapped in a machined aluminum and die-cast magnesium body, and has been "designed to pass MIL-STD 810G testing."
The HP ZBook x2 is due for release in December, with prices starting from US$1,749. The 2-in-1 powerhouse is introduced in the video below.
Product page: HP ZBook x2