HP Brings Privacy Filter to Mobile Workstations

Later testing a congenital-in screen privacy filter on a few of its EliteBook convertible laptops, HP is now bringing them to its line of powerful mobile workstations.

The new HP ZBook 14u and ZBook 15u, announced Friday, can blur the screen with a single button press, among other new features. The privacy filter, which HP calls SureView, is currently available on the EliteBook 1000 series lineup, including the EliteBook x360 1020 G2.

HP SureView Pressing the F2 key activates the filter and makes text on the screen virtually unreadable to people viewing it from an bending greater than about 40 degrees. While it's a novel and potentially very useful security feature, SureView also has a tendency to reduce battery life on the 1000-series by more than than 30 percent, co-ordinate to HP's ain estimates. The company didn't denote battery life expectations for the SureView-equipped ZBooks, but workstation users typically look shorter bombardment life anyway, since their machines are equipped with more power-hungry CPUs and GPUs.

The ZBook CPUs are from Intel's eighth-generation Core lineup, processors that are also now coming to revamped flagship EliteBook 800 series conventional laptop line, which HP as well announced last week (the thou-series uses seventh-generation silicon).

In addition to more avant-garde processors, the 800 series is losing some weight and slimming downward a bit. The new HP EliteBook 830 G5 is roughly the same size as its 820 G4 predecessor, but has a 13-inch screen instead of a 12-inch ane. Meanwhile, AMD RX540 discrete graphics cards will exist bachelor in the larger models, the new EliteBook 840 G5 and 850 G5.

The revamped 800-series and ZBooks will all continue sale this calendar month, with starting prices in a narrow range between $1,029 and $1,109. Those prices may sound intriguing, but it's worth noting that decently equipped EliteBooks and Zbooks typically price around $2,000, and often north of $3,000.

In addition to new laptops, HP also unveiled a new Thunderbolt dock and a trio of new external displays. The Thunderbolt Dock 2 provides power, supports up to 2 4K displays, and tin can double as a speaker for conference calls. Three new 4K Z-series displays each support Thunderbolt over USB-C, which lets them accuse a laptop and send information over the same cable.

The Thunderbolt Dock ii will go on sale in May, while the new 4K displays are available now, starting at $549.