HP ZBook 14 Review: Mobile Workstation Meets Ultrabook

HP ZBook 14: Battery Life

Our final benchmark is a test of battery life. Here's where HP runs into a bit of trouble, as the default software installation ends up negatively impacting battery life. I usually leave on the manufacturer utilities, but in this case HP has a security suite that results in about 15-20% less battery life. I ran the battery tests first with the software installed and then again after uninstalling, and the difference was quite dramatic. The problem is that some companies might actually like the HP software suite, and if so you'll just have to know you're going to lose out on some power savings. For testing, the LCD was run at 85% brightness (200 nits); we've switched our 1080p video and playback software for 2014, and as this laptop is running Windows 7 instead of Windows 8.1 we opted to use Windows Media Player as an alternative to the Win8 Video app.

Even without the extra HP software dragging battery life down, the results here are merely good and not exceptional. Seven hours of light use and four hours of heavy use might be enough to get you through the day, but more likely than not you'll want to bring along the AC adapter – just in case. As another option, HP does sell a slice battery that works with the ZBook 14, so you can sacrifice weight and thickness to basically double the battery life. The slice battery is also "intelligent" – the laptop will discharge the slice battery first and charge the integrated battery first, so you can potentially leave the slice in your bag and continue using the laptop when the power is drained.

Normalized battery life has the ZBook leading several other laptops, but at least the Sony VAIO Pro 13 and the new Surface Pro 3 maintain an efficiency advantage. Some of that might be due to the larger LCD on the ZBook, but while that could potentially narrow the gap in the Heavy workload, in the Light workload we're looking at a relatively large deficit.