Zbook X2 Just Announced

https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/18/hp-zbook-x2-hands-on/

 

Holy Crap........are those Programmable Express Keys!!!!!!!!!!

And to boot......Wacom EMR with a Cintiq Styled backend eraser......wow....between the Acer Switch 7 and this thing......the game has been raised.

Pity for the 16:9 aspect ratio though....but still this thing looks sweet as heck.

 

This looks nice...but I think the marketing is a bit too hasty? They claim "the world’s most powerful detachable PC".

However, according to the datasheet, the processor is still only a 15W i7-8650U. (That's still a far cry from the "true" quadcore i7-4770HQ in the Z Canvas. ) Passmark pegs the performance at 6588 (albeit with with only sample) but that's got a long ways to go before it can surpass the 8937 score of the 4770HQ.

According to Notebookcheck, the Quadro 620 is not even as powerful as the M1000M in the MSP16, which is already a slower Maxwell part that falls well-behind Pascal-based P2000 and higher mobile cards.

So while I think this a very nice device, the marketing is setting the wrong expectations.

 

I have to agree that the most powerful claim is a bit far fetched....but as is, it's more then powerful enough as is for most artists/photographers. And everything else looks too good to be true. 32GB of Ram, 4K 14-inch, etched glass screen, 100% full adobe RGB, Programbale Express Keys, Tons of ports including 2 Thunderbolt 3 USB-C and a USB Type A, Wacom EMR Cintiq grade pen, kickstand, detachable keyboard cover....that even works when detached via Bluetooth.

The Express Keys alone, and the Cintiq style pen easily take this thing beyond the Acer Switch 7 and any of Samsungs products......I mean.....it's like HP mated the Surface Pro with the Mobile Studio Pro to create this beast.

 

Official page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations-x2/index.html
Quick specs: http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c05386169

Specs:
14" 16:9
Wacom EMR with 4k pressure
Dedicated shortcut buttons on both side
7th gen i7 7500U & 7600U
8GB - 32GB RAM
256GB - 1TB SSD
Nvidia Quadro M620
Active cooling with 2 fans
Claimed 10 hours battery life
2x Thunderbolt 3 ports via USB C
SD Card & Fingerprint
$1,749

Pros:
Wacom EMR
Dedicated Graphics
Thunderbolt 3 (unknown how many lanes)
Shortcut buttons on each side of the tablet
Active cooling with 2 fans (which in theory, should handle throttling better than passive cooling)
lot of features (sd card, fingerprint, smartcard)

Cons:
16:9
Heavy. 3.6 pound Just the tablet. Keyboard adds another pound.
Still using 7th gen processor
Still using maxwell-based gpu
no silo

Both this and switch 7 slated for december launch. The use of old technology and form factor turns me off but those dedicated shortcut buttons tho. Let's see how both perform

--EDIT--
8th gen processor may present in some models

 

Well, certainly a better job than Microsoft have managed to do.

 

Wow.

I guess there are more of us than i realized: a real market!

Why on Earth would they go 16:9?

 

I tend to think that you would end up wanting to disable one of the two columns of hotkeys, depending on your hand orientation. From that point, it would be a question of how annoying it would be to brush your hand against them. By the looks of it, probably not so bad at all, though my initial takeaway is that it would fall a bit flat in the ergonomics department primarily for that reason; it can't quite dethrone the Wacom solution.

It will be great to hear more about the stand. My guess is most of us would just consider it a one-position solution, always drawing with it at the lowest angle since, like all other kickstands on the market, it apparently can't lock into any other angle. However, maybe the resistance on it would be unusually high? It definitely bears the appearance of something rugged that will bear your weight for years to come, unlike the impression I get from that Acer Slate 7.

Another thing I won't be finding out for a while is will the screen ripple under moderate pressure like the MSP, or will it use an optical resin bonding (IIRC) solution like the Z Canvas to minimize it?

 

This looks like it could be a pretty solid machine.
I'm really hoping that it has proper Wintab support. The fact that the Samsung Galaxy Book does not have them worries me.
From what I understand, you can install the same limited wintab driver that the Surface Pro uses on the SGB, but this has me concerned that non-wacom products will not have the proper Feel It wintab drivers going forward, meaning limited compatibility with legacy software. :/

 

The octagonal design reminds me of their gamer devices. Maybe they were going to make one, and then remembered that gamers already have great 14" devices for under $1500.
I'm really, really digging the 100% Adobe RGB display. I hope it's 10-bit.
The 8550U seems to be 5%-10% faster at brief benchmarks than the 7700HQ, and 10% slower in sustained benchmarks. This is definitely an improvement for the average user, but I don't think this machine is geared towards the average user.

Definitely a worthy successor to the Vaio Z Canvas. That's it boys, we can stop comparing everything to the Vaio Z Canvas now.