Over the past month I have been testing out the HP ZBook Ultra G1a powered by AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO Strix Halo. Simply put: WOW! I don’t remember the last time I have been so fascinated by a laptop SoC from its incredible performance generationally and even compared to existing AMD SoCs within the Ryzen AI 300 series and outright dominating against the Intel Lunar Lake for its Xe2 integrated graphics. The HP ZBook Ultra G1a thanks to AMD Strix Halo offers an incredibly potent integrated GPU and allowing up to 16 cores / 32 threads offers immense CPU performance too. HP packages Strix Halo up into a very well built, mobile workstation oriented laptop design to create an amazing laptop. It’s a reliable laptop with captivating performance but does carry a high price tag but with good Linux support too except for one caveat.
I don’t remember the last time I had so much fun benchmarking a laptop as I have over the past month of finally being able to test AMD Strix Halo with this HP ZBook Ultra G1a. The performance has simply been incredible and it works well on modern Linux distributions. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 CPU performance is splendid with 16 cores / 32 threads with SMT still proving very beneficial as shown in those benchmarks plus AVX-512 being of big benefit for a mobile workstation laptop. There’s also room with the HP ZBook Ultra G1a for either increasing the performance or stepping up the power efficiency via the ACPI Platform Profiles on the laptop. This laptop even ended up performing better in Linux than with Microsoft Windows 11 as shipped by HP.
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a testing was going so well I even got my hands on the model with the AMD Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 as the 12-core Strix Halo design with Radeon 8050S Graphics as slightly cut-down from the Radeon 8060S flagship. That HP ZBook Ultra G1a was configured the same otherwise as the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 review unit. Check out all of the links above for an enormous number of benchmarks from AMD Strix Halo / HP ZBook Ultra G1a over the past month.
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a review unit with AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 was configured with 64GB of LPDDR5x-8000 memory (can be configured with up to 128GB), 2TB Western Digital SN810 NVMe SSD (512GB in base model), and a 2880 x 1800 14-inch display.
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a features two USB Type-C 10 Gbps ports with power delivery and DisplayPort 2.1 (one on each side of laptop), one HDMI 2.1 output, one headphone/microphone jack, one Thunderbolt 4 port with USB Type-C 40 Gbps signaling, one security lock slot, and one USB Type-A 10 Gbps port. Connectivity is nice with even squeezing in a full side HDMI port for those that prefer it to USB-C with DP. It’s also nice still having even a Kensington lock slot on the laptop considering they have waned in popularity in recent years with slim laptops.
The dimensions on the HP ZBook Ultra G1a come in at 12.29 x 8.45 x 0.71 inches and weighs 3.46 lbs. The HP ZBook Ultra G1a is equipped with an HP XL-Long Life 4-cell, 74.5 Wh polymer battery and relies on a 140 Watt USB Type-C charger. The HP ZBook Ultra G1 isn’t as light as the likes of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura, but it’s still not too heavy and comfortable still for traveling.
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a has a spill-resistant, backlit keyboard that has worked out rather well from my extensive testing over the past month. The HP ZBook Ultra G1a build quality is very nice and on-par with other premium mobile workstation laptops. Over the past month of testing I haven’t had any concerns over the build quality or questioned the build quality of the device itself. Unfortunately with needing to have sent back prior HP ZBook review samples over the years, I don’t have any long-term insights to share around the HP ZBook build quality over the long-term such as how they have compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad laptops with their stellar build quality and popularity among Linux enthusiasts / power users. But at least over the short-term of the HP ZBook Ultra G1a build quality specifically, it’s been very nice and a solid piece of hardware.
