HP ZBook Power 16 G11 A Review: Real Workstation Power on a Budget (2025)

HP's value-driven option, the ZBook Power outperforms the lightweight ZBook Firefly and offers capabilities similar to the ZBook Studio, albeit without the Studio's style or high-end options. This laptop is suited for light content creation and modeling rather than 4K video editing or heavy CGI rendering like the flagship ZBook Fury.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The ZBook Power base model doesn't really qualify as a workstation with the Radeon integrated graphics of its AMD Ryzen 5 processor. Our review config, by contrast, maximizes this laptop's potential, boasting a Ryzen 9 Pro 8945HS CPU and Nvidia RTX 3000 Ada Generation graphics. HP also offers an Intel-based version, the ZBook Power 16 G11 (without the A).

The ZBook is one of the largest business laptops, measuring 0.9 by 14.2 by 9.2 inches and weighing 4.5 pounds. It isn't as sleek as the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch but is more portable than the HP ZBook Fury 16 G11. Neither of those laptops competes directly with the Power; in fact, it faces little competition, as value-oriented AMD mobile workstations are absent from Dell's and Lenovo's lineups.

Simply picking up the ZBook Power will impart that HP knows how to build a strong laptop. Its aluminum chassis is as solid as they come, with minor flex in the lid that's forgivable given its size. Its gunmetal finish emits a pleasant scratchy sound when you run your fingers across it. Perfectly rounded edges and the stylized HP logo on the lid set off the notebook's professional aesthetic.

The ZBook Power's entry-level status doesn't preclude premium features, such as a three-year warranty and a sharp 1440p webcam with privacy shutter. Its abundant security features include an infrared webcam sensor, a fingerprint reader, and a SmartCard slot. Additionally, the laptop comes with HP's Wolf Pro hardware and software security suite and, when equipped with a Ryzen Pro processor, AMD's IT deployment and management capabilities.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The workstation's physical connections include two USB4 ports, two USB Type-A 3.2 ports, an HDMI monitor output, an Ethernet jack, a full-size SD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack—it's a solid variety. The barrel-style power connector is on the left while a Kensington cable-lock notch is opposite. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 are standard. Although there's no option for Wi-Fi 7, 4G mobile broadband is available.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The ZBook Power is an ideal desktop replacement. From its expansive screen to its full keyboard, it provides everything required for a productive day.

The 2,560-by-1,600-pixel screen, an upgrade from the base 1,920-by-1,200-pixel panel, boasts impressive brightness and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Its anti-glare coating minimizes reflections but lacks the touch capability offered on the base screen. While colors appear well saturated, testing (covered in the next section) reveals the display doesn't fully cover the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 color spaces, making it less suitable for color-critical work. Those willing to sacrifice graphics performance for a better screen can buy the ZBook Firefly 16 G11 with a vibrant OLED screen for similar money. For every other purpose, though, this screen is more than sufficient. I also appreciated the laptop's fold-flat design when I had it propped on my knees while lying on the couch.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

I performed well on the ZBook's keyboard, achieving 117 words per minute with 99% accuracy using MonkeyType. The keys have ample travel and satisfying feedback. While they're spaced a bit closer than I anticipated—likely to make room for the number pad—I appreciate the inclusion of this feature. The keyboard layout is refreshingly straightforward, with no unexpected quirks. I was especially impressed by the touchpad, which offers ideal actuation pressure for precise clicks.

Entertainment value isn't paramount for a workstation, but the Power's speakers offer enough volume for personal use. The HP Audio Control app automatically switches presets depending on the media. The music preset is a good all-around choice, while the movie preset noticeably widens the soundstage.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The cooling fans are audible but not disruptive during demanding tasks like rendering, with airflow directed out the back against the display hinge. During normal usage, the fans often remained silent, and the laptop stayed comfortably lukewarm to the touch.

In addition to the abovementioned Ryzen 9 Pro 8945HS processor (8 cores, 5.2GHz boost) and Nvidia RTX 3000 Ada Generation graphics card (8GB of dedicated memory, 50W maximum graphics power), our ZBook Power review model includes 64GB of RAM, a hefty 4TB solid-state drive, and Windows 11 Pro. A second M.2 slot is available for further storage expansion.

Prices fluctuated during our review period; at one point, I saw our model listed at $6,818 on HP's site before being discounted to a more reasonable $2,629. Better value can be realized in a Ryzen 7 configuration with an RTX 2000 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, which was priced under $2,000. With competitors like the ZBook Fury 16 G11 and Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 often exceeding $3,000, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro starting at $2,499, the ZBook Power stands out as a value choice.

The laptops we’re using for performance comparison include the MacBook Pro 16-inch ($3,649 as tested), the HP ZBook Fury 16 G11 ($3,564 as tested), the HP ZBook Studio 16 G11 ($7,283 as tested), and the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 ($4,019 as tested). All but the Studio are full-power mobile workstations that will outperform the ZBook Power, though they are considerably more expensive. We'll try to keep things relative.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.

The next few such benchmarks stress the CPU, using all available cores and threads to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses the company's Redshift engine to render a complex image using the CPU or GPU. We run the multi-core CPU benchmark that works across all of a processor's cores and threads—the more powerful the chip, the higher the score—and its single-core variant.

Geekbench 6.3 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. We record its multi- and single-core scores; higher numbers are better. Our last CPU stress test is the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.8, which converts a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution; lower times are better.

Next, we run a cross-platform content creation benchmark: Adobe Photoshop 2024 using the 1.2.20 version of PugetBench for Creators by Puget Systems. This test rates a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

The ZBook Power produced strong PCMark numbers, surpassing the ZBook Studio and coming close to the others. While its Ryzen HS processor lagged in Cinebench—falling up to 50% behind the ZBook Fury and ThinkPad and trailing the MacBook Pro by nearly double—it performed better in Geekbench and excelled in Photoshop. For tasks other than intensive rendering, the ZBook Power should hold its own.

Gaming and Graphics Tests

We test the graphics inside all laptops and desktops with three cross-platform gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Steel Nomad and its Light variant, Wild Life and its Extreme variant, and Solar Bay.

The Steel Nomad tests use the DirectX 12, Vulkan, or Metal graphics APIs, depending on the processor in play. Both are non-ray-traced benchmarks. Steel Nomad is built for high-end gaming systems and runs at 4K resolution, while the Light version runs at 1440p with less detail.

Wild Life and Wild Life Extreme are less demanding than Steel Nomad, though the two also run at 1440p and 4K resolution, respectively. This test aims to compare midrange Windows and macOS systems, tablets, and smartphones.

We turn to Solar Bay to measure ray tracing performance in a synthetic environment. This benchmark works with Vulkan 1.1 for Windows and Android and Metal for Apple devices, subjecting 3D scenes to increasingly intense ray-traced workloads at 1440p.

The ZBook Power's RTX 3000 Ada GPU is capped at a maximum graphics power of 50W, significantly limiting its performance compared to the ZBook Fury's RTX 3500 Ada and even more so against the ThinkPad's RTX 4000 Ada. Meanwhile, the ZBook Studio, restricted to 70W, delivered mixed results—occasionally outperforming the Power, but at times falling short.

Workstation Tests

Our main measure of workstation performance is SPECviewperf 2020 (version 3.1), which renders, rotates, and zooms in and out of solid and wireframe models at 1080p resolution. The three subtests represent PTC's Creo CAD platform, Autodesk's Maya modeling and simulation software for film, TV, and games, and Dassault Systemes' SolidWorks 3D rendering package.

Next up is Blender, an open-source 3D content creation suite for modeling, animation, simulation, and compositing. We record the time it takes for Blender 4.2 to render three distinct scenes to measure CPU and GPU rendering performance.

Finally, we also use PugetBench for Creators to test DaVinci Resolve Studio 18's video editing performance on systems suitable for that challenging app. As with our Adobe Premiere test, these automated tasks and features push the CPU and GPU, letting us gauge real-world media creation speeds.

Although the ZBook Power's RTX 3000 Ada isn't near the top of Nvidia's charts, it still outperformed the ZBook Studio and is perfectly capable of accelerating creative apps. Meanwhile, the Blender CPU tests further demonstrate that the Ryzen HS CPU can be used for rendering, albeit not as swiftly as a full-power mobile workstation.

The Power failed to complete our Premiere Pro video editing test, though this was because of a fault with the benchmark, not a lack of capability. It did, however, finish DaVinci Resolve just ahead of the ZBook Studio.

Battery and Display Tests

We test each laptop and tablet's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To gauge display performance, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

While there was no catching the MacBook Pro, the ZBook Power’s 16 hours of battery life is remarkable for a large-screened mobile workstation. As for the display, the ZBook Power offers a bright and colorful viewing experience, though it can't match the ZBook Studio's professional-grade DreamColor screen in color coverage.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

HP's ZBook Power offers creators and designers a spacious display and solid performance at a relatively affordable price. While its screen lacks the complete color coverage found in a top-end workstation, it's still suitable for many creative tasks. This ZBook also stands out with some of the best battery life we've seen from a workstation and maintains the excellent build quality we see in HP's high-end models. Provided you take advantage of the company's frequent sales, the ZBook Power is sure to satisfy.