Not sure where else to post this, but I had to brag on my new baby a lil bit somewhere!
I got my laptop in last Thursday and I'm excited. HP zBook. I struggled with this for the better part of two years, researching brands and options. I've always wanted a Wacom tablet or display, but their Mobile Studio Pro was kind of silly, IMO. The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 had won my attention but I chose to hold out for a v5 release hoping for slightly improved specs, more customization for illustrators and finally a few additional ports. The latest 'pro' release didn't really meet any of that so I began again my quest for the perfect mobile workstation.
I looked at the Dell XPS convertibles for a long while after and nearly bought one, but 1) the screen felt very slick with the gloss finish to control the stylus and 2) being a convertible, the keyboard folds back and out of the way. While that might be cool looking, the more I thought about it the less practical that option became. I mean, if folded back the keys would literally rest key-down on my lap. That alone seems dangerous for snagging a key or three at some point moving the tablet around when drawing. The other issue is that I use a lot of shortcut keys in Photoshop. If the keyboard was flipped and technically under my tablet, that would be completely useless without adding a second Bluetooth keyboard. UGH.
I found the zBook by mistake actually. There were some great reviews on YouTube (all of the three reviews ever made it seemed) and last March (2018) was a GREAT time to buy in that prices were being slashed. I missed that window, but found a Facebook ad from BHPhoto a month or so back that had much lower prices than what HP listed. I pulled the trigger without a test drive, and that is unheard of for me.
So I've been sitting on pins and needles since March 15th waiting as my order got postponed later and later due to backorder status from the manufacturer. I figured the price was too good to be true and was a misprint. That eventually, they would contact me to let me know they screwed up or something and I'd not be getting the specs I ordered, or that I would have to settle for an earlier release or even a refurb model. I contacted their shipping department after my order was delayed a third time to April 1. With a day or two of email traffic they finally found another seller and repurchased my order through them. Once received, everything appeared to be in order.
When it came in, a coworker joked saying I would come in the next day exhausted from being up all night playing with the new laptop. I told them yeah, I planned to buy a nice bottle of wine, get a li.... well. nevermind. It was funny when I said it, but as I type and read it just makes me look weird, to say the least. I'm enjoying drawing on it. Still have a few apps to install before it becomes my default PC but so far so good.