HP ZBook Ultra 14 Costs $8250: Understanding the Price of This Pro Laptop
HP recently released its new ZBook Ultra 14 G1a Mobile Workstation laptops. They are aimed directly at professional content creators. The cost might make even seasoned pros reconsider. We are discussing costs that scale well past most top-end gaming laptops. What are you paying for here?
Loaded with Professional Power (and Memory)
These are not average consumer notebooks. The ZBook Ultra 14 line is built for heavy use. The "entry-level" one starts at a staggering $4296. That provides a decent Ryzen AI Max Pro 385 processor with integrated Radeon 8050S graphics, 32GB of fast LPDDR5X RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The 14-inch display on this model has a standard 1920x1200 resolution.
The top-of-the-line model shatters boundaries. It also significantly impacts the bank account. For $8250, HP provides:
- The most high-end Ryzen AI Max Pro 395 processor with Radeon 8060S graphics.
- A whopping 128GB of LPDDR5X RAM, typically found on desktop workstations.
- A whopping 4TB SSD for storing humongous project files.
- A better 14-inch OLED screen with a more vibrant 2.8K display.
All models share the same 74.5 Wh battery capacity.
Busting the Range (and perhaps a Typo)
There is a wide range of options between the bottom and the high end. You can have combinations with different groups of the Ryzen AI Max Pro 385, 390, and 395 processors. Memory options include 32GB, 64GB, and the high-end 128GB. Storage ranges from 512GB up to the 4TB maximum.
Here is a quick look at how the options and prices appear:
- $4,296: Ryzen AI Max Pro 385 / 32GB RAM / 512GB SSD
- ~$4,900 - $5,600: 1TB SSD upgrade, higher-powered CPUs (390/395), 64GB RAM
- ~$6,200 - $6,400: 64GB or 128GB RAM choices with 1TB or 2TB SSDs
- $8,250: Ryzen AI Max Pro 395 / 128GB RAM / 4TB SSD / 2.8K OLED
(Note: One option with 128GB RAM and 2TB SSD shows a price of $4049 on the website, suspiciously low in comparison to others and perhaps a typo.)
Who Needs This Much Laptop?
The ZBook Ultra 14 G1a is not competing against ordinary laptops. It is a "Mobile Workstation." This means it has professional-grade hardware and software certification for heavy usage. Applications include video editing, 3D rendering, CAD, and analysis with large amounts of data. Configuring it to support 128GB RAM (enormous for a notebook) and large, fast storage places it in the hands of professionals. Their workload fills up less powerful hardware. The premium cost indicates these high-performance, specialized components, workstation certifications, and memory and storage density packed into a portable 14-inch chassis.
