3 ms·

I was disappointed to see an endless stream of nearly identical mini PCs using it while the options for an actual laptop remained "do you want one of two small

I was disappointed to see an endless stream of nearly identical mini PCs using it while the options for an actual laptop remained "do you want one of two small touchscreen tablet?". Even Framework only made it available in mini PC form factor! That said it wasn't too hard to grab a HP ZBook Ultra G1a 14, just not the ideal model I had in mind. The hardware is great though!

dontlaugh 1y ago
Is HP ok these days? I've been avoiding them because of the atrocious build quality I've experienced in the past. That particular laptop also seems very heavy.
- PaulHoule 1y ago
  I had a friend come over with a recent low end HP laptop to print something and I was shocked at the poor build quality.
  - wmf 1y ago
    Low end everything has poor build quality (they're probably all made by Quanta).
    - dontlaugh 1y ago
      Not only. I had a look at a coworker’s Framework 13 and was shocked at the poor build quality. The keyboard flex in particular was terrible. That’s not a cheap laptop.
    - PaulHoule 1y ago
      I was looking at a school-issue Chomebook from Dell the other day and thought the build quality was pretty good even if the parts inside were weak. I like the build quality of corporate Dell laptops and their 1.5 liter desktops -- though an Alienware 15 I had died earlier than it should have because the battery swelled up and damaged the circuit board. The machine still sorta but made a chime every 30 seconds or so because it thought USB devices were being plugged or unplugged or something.
  - BoredPositron 1y ago
    From envy upwards they are usually fine besides the x360 hinge problems.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- pmontra 1y ago
  The last laptop I bought from HP was a ZBook 15 in 2014. I'm still using it. It's rock solid.
- zamadatix 1y ago
  You really have to split this kind of thing into market category, not just what the brand name is. The 3.5k mobile workstation is going to be a different realm than a 0.6k laptop which may well also be a different quality than the mid range enterprise focused laptop. I'm very happy with the build quality of the G1a though, no complaints in that regard. Just wish it were a few inches larger. OTOH I got my nephew an HP Victus laptop a hear ago and the build quality was a bit garbage, but the price matched.
SomeHacker44 1y ago
I have the Zbook Ultra G1a since it came out. The USB-C PD implementation is very bad, badly broken. I have not been able to get it to charge or even use anything but the HP 140W charger while on. While off, anything works, but once powered on into Ubuntu (from HP!) of Windows... It does not charge or use the power at all. Even with 140W 3rd party chargers from Anker, Ugreen, Insignia, etc. Super limits its usability.
- nicolaslem 1y ago
  For me the firmware 0x01030b00 solved most of the problem. It now runs well on my previous laptop 65W HP charger, which is much lighter than the literal brick the G1a came with. It still does not work on an Anker 140W power bank I have. However this firmware was only available on HP's website for a few days. It has now been retracted, but it works well for me so YMMV. My last remaining hurdle is getting color correction working for the DCI-P3 OLED screen. Maybe it's a Gnome/Wayland thing but I cannot get full display correction to work so colors are ultra saturated. Edit: the fan curve is also bad, it makes fans spin up/down continuously under certain conditions. Not a deal breaker but quite annoying when it happens.
  - green7ea 1y ago
    The fan curve also drives me nuts. It seems to be related to the processor's speed so I turn off boost — I don't notice a perf diff for my workloads. The fan noise is much better. echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
- hmry 1y ago
  The AMD Framework laptops have the same issues, I've heard from several people. It seems AMD's implementation of USB C/4/PD is just broken (or at least extremely difficult to write firmware for)
- green7ea 1y ago
  I have one as well and haven't had this problem. I've been using mostly the HP G4 dock and a Dell dock at the office with an occasional use of the charger. I'm running Linux 6.17.8-arch1-1, it could also be fixed in newer kernels. When I play demanding games, it pulls quite a few watts and all the chargers are keeping up. It might be your device that is unlucky, maybe contacting support might help.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

dontlaugh 1y ago

Is HP ok these days? I've been avoiding them because of the atrocious build quality I've experienced in the past. That particular laptop also seems very heavy.

PaulHoule 1y ago
I had a friend come over with a recent low end HP laptop to print something and I was shocked at the poor build quality.
- wmf 1y ago
  Low end everything has poor build quality (they're probably all made by Quanta).
  - dontlaugh 1y ago
    Not only. I had a look at a coworker’s Framework 13 and was shocked at the poor build quality. The keyboard flex in particular was terrible. That’s not a cheap laptop.
  - PaulHoule 1y ago
    I was looking at a school-issue Chomebook from Dell the other day and thought the build quality was pretty good even if the parts inside were weak. I like the build quality of corporate Dell laptops and their 1.5 liter desktops -- though an Alienware 15 I had died earlier than it should have because the battery swelled up and damaged the circuit board. The machine still sorta but made a chime every 30 seconds or so because it thought USB devices were being plugged or unplugged or something.
- BoredPositron 1y ago
  From envy upwards they are usually fine besides the x360 hinge problems.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
pmontra 1y ago
The last laptop I bought from HP was a ZBook 15 in 2014. I'm still using it. It's rock solid.
zamadatix 1y ago
You really have to split this kind of thing into market category, not just what the brand name is. The 3.5k mobile workstation is going to be a different realm than a 0.6k laptop which may well also be a different quality than the mid range enterprise focused laptop. I'm very happy with the build quality of the G1a though, no complaints in that regard. Just wish it were a few inches larger. OTOH I got my nephew an HP Victus laptop a hear ago and the build quality was a bit garbage, but the price matched.

SomeHacker44 1y ago

I have the Zbook Ultra G1a since it came out. The USB-C PD implementation is very bad, badly broken. I have not been able to get it to charge or even use anything but the HP 140W charger while on. While off, anything works, but once powered on into Ubuntu (from HP!) of Windows... It does not charge or use the power at all. Even with 140W 3rd party chargers from Anker, Ugreen, Insignia, etc. Super limits its usability.

nicolaslem 1y ago
For me the firmware 0x01030b00 solved most of the problem. It now runs well on my previous laptop 65W HP charger, which is much lighter than the literal brick the G1a came with. It still does not work on an Anker 140W power bank I have. However this firmware was only available on HP's website for a few days. It has now been retracted, but it works well for me so YMMV. My last remaining hurdle is getting color correction working for the DCI-P3 OLED screen. Maybe it's a Gnome/Wayland thing but I cannot get full display correction to work so colors are ultra saturated. Edit: the fan curve is also bad, it makes fans spin up/down continuously under certain conditions. Not a deal breaker but quite annoying when it happens.
- green7ea 1y ago
  The fan curve also drives me nuts. It seems to be related to the processor's speed so I turn off boost — I don't notice a perf diff for my workloads. The fan noise is much better. echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
hmry 1y ago
The AMD Framework laptops have the same issues, I've heard from several people. It seems AMD's implementation of USB C/4/PD is just broken (or at least extremely difficult to write firmware for)
green7ea 1y ago
I have one as well and haven't had this problem. I've been using mostly the HP G4 dock and a Dell dock at the office with an occasional use of the charger. I'm running Linux 6.17.8-arch1-1, it could also be fixed in newer kernels. When I play demanding games, it pulls quite a few watts and all the chargers are keeping up. It might be your device that is unlucky, maybe contacting support might help.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]