I'll start by saying in a fan of Big Blue. I have had other units in the past but I always seem to come back to the Z Line. in 2009 I started with a Z600 workstation. My purpose for getting the unit was to be able to use it as a gaming unit and to edit off of. The dual xenon processors that I have made that very easy to do. Adding in a mid-range Nvidia Quadro card gave me everything that I needed. Right up to the moment that I maxed it out.
So what happens when you max out a z600? Well, its time upgrade. Keeping in mind that I went 10 years with just having to upgrade the normal equipment like ram, hard drives, and video card. The question comes down to what do I get this time? My travel PC is an HP Elite x2 1012 G2. This unit is perfect for planes, trains, and automobiles. If I want to pull out a PC and find a movie to watch, I can load a movie and remove the keyboard to save space. I can load pictures and videos and do basic edits on it. But is this enough?
Doing Data analysis at work I need a robust PC. Connecting to databases, running reports, creating excel reports and presentations like crazy. I have an HP Zbook 15 G3. This PC is great. Using the I7 I have not seen any lag when working. the screen is great. It's not 4k but I think that is something that doesn't need for how I use it. The downside to this unit is it is heavy and it's bulky. I don't want to take it on a plane with me. Not flying first class there is not a lot of room to break out the Zbook.
Ok, I want the best of both worlds. I want the power of my Z Workstations with the portability of my Elite X2. This week I got to play with the Workstation Zbook X2 G4 Detachable. I think this is going to satisfy my needs. The Zbook as a dream color display which will be great for video edits. It has 16 GB of ram matched with the I7-8850u processor. It is not slow. It did take a little to render a 4k video but I think it is something I can live with.
One of the downsides to the unit I can see is the price, around $2500 for the unit. That is not for the casual user. For someone who drops that much on the unit it better perform. Another downside to the unit is the 512gb hard drive. It will force me to use move cloud-based storage. The buttons on the side of the screen I haven't found a way to be able to make them my short cut buttons. But they do have functions in certain programs. The Pen was responsive and worked with ease.
All in all, I think this unit has great potential. It's portable but packs the punch of the desktop. I would like to see the ability to have more in-unit storage space. It can have a 1TB hard drive. That would be a good start. I can see my self with a NAS or other storage solution. That would be a small price to pay and a quick set up. I believe it is worth it in the end. Check it out and see what you think.
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