HP courts creative professionals with enhanced ZBook lineup

As Adobe Max kicks off today in Los Angeles, HP is making a bid of its own for creative professionals with a refreshed lineup of ZBook laptops. In all, the refresh sees Intel's 8th Gen Core i9 processors, increased RAM, and more for four of its ZBook PCs: the ZBook Studio and the ZBook Studio x360, along with the ZBook 15 and 17.

The biggest addition here is the availability of the 8th Gen Intel Core i9-9950HK processor across the lineup. That's in addition to the Core i5, i7, and Xeon options that are also available across devices. Memory is also getting a boost, with a new 32GB option, and HP says that it is planning to extend that up to 128GB on certain models in December. As for graphics, both ZBook Studio models now offer NVIDIA's Quadro P2000 graphics card as an option.

Speaking of the ZBook Studio, the x360 convertible model can now be equipped with an anti-glare touchscreen. While it will cut down on glare, the display is also pretty bright, coming in at 20 percent brighter than a MacBook Pro 15-inch display, according to HP.

Lastly, the ZBook lineup can now keep your data backed up with RAID 1 storage mirroring.

Availability

All four refreshed Hp ZBook models are available now. The ZBook 15, 17, and Studio are available starting at $1,349, while the ZBook Studio x360 fetches a slightly higher starting price of $1,499.

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Z Club and HP SmartStream Designer

Aside from its hardware refresh, HP has also announced a new hardware and services subscription bundle for creators, along with a fresh plugin for Adobe Illustrator CC. The former is called Z Club, which will act as "an exclusive program for elite creators to upgrade their studios." From HP:

A group of 100 creative professionals will be selected as initial members and will be outfitted with custom-made photographer, video editor, graphic designer or artist bundles.

The service will be available for free for three months and as a subscription afterwards. While pricing info isn't available just yet, the subscription will include computers, displays, printers and other accessories.

Meanwhile, HP SmartStream Designer for Designers (D4D) is now globally available as a plug-in for Illustrator CC. HP describes the plug-in as a "suite of 'light' design solutions" that can give designers more personal control over their creations with variable text, color, and images. Another feature of the plug-in, called Mosaic, can be harnessed to create "endlessly unique outcomes in real-time" from seed files that designers create.