Meet the HP ZBook x2, the world’s most powerful tablet PC

HP has revealed the new ZBook x2, a 2-in-1 hybrid aimed at creative types which the company claims is the ‘world’s most powerful detachable PC’.

The device is specifically targeted at artists and design professionals who use Adobe’s heavyweight Creative Cloud apps, and is built around an Intel Core i7 (Kaby Lake) processor with Turbo up to 4.2GHz backed with up to 32GB of system RAM. The GPU is an Nvidia Quadro M620.

As for the display, the ZBook x2 runs with a 14-inch anti-glare touchscreen with a 4K resolution, and there’s an optional 10-bit one-billion color HP DreamColor display available too, the latter of which is calibrated to 100% of Adobe RGB.

You can specify up to 2TB of PCIe storage and this hybrid also has a full-sized SD card slot which photographers will doubtless appreciate. Speaking of connectivity, you get a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports, a USB 3.0 (charging) port and an HDMI 1.4 connector.

As for battery life, HP promises that this detachable tablet can last for up to 10 hours, and has a fast recharge capability that can juice up the battery to 50% in half an hour.

Weighty matters

The HP ZBook x2 has an aluminum and magnesium chassis and it weighs 1.6kg and is 14.6mm thick when in tablet mode, and 2.2kg/20.3mm in laptop mode. The device has also been designed and tested to live up to the MIL-STD 810G standard, meaning it should be impressively durable.

The hybrid notebook comes with a nifty stylus based on Wacom EMR technology, with the pen having no need of a battery, dispensing with any charging-related rigmarole. It offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity with multi-directional tilt functionality, and also has a built-in eraser.

The ZBook x2’s security features include a fingerprint reader, facial recognition, as well as TPM 2.0, and HP Sure Start Gen311 which protects the BIOS.

Expect the HP ZBook x2 to be on sale in December with a starting price of about £2,075 (around $2,730). No, it’s not cheap, but if you’re after a bargain convertible for creative usage, maybe we’ll see some good deals come Black Friday.