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HP made a ridiculously powerful detachable tablet for artists

HP made a ridiculously powerful detachable tablet for artists

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HP ZBook x2

If you’re a graphic artist and find yourself needing a ton of power on the go, HP may have the answer. It’s unveiling a new detachable tablet today called the ZBook x2 that has the specs of a workstation PC: a quad-core i7 processor (from Intel’s Kaby Lake-R line), an Nvidia Quadro M620 graphics card, and up to 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.

That’s all inside of a seriously chunky tablet and detachable keyboard cover. The tablet has a matte 14-inch touchscreen that can be configured up to 4K resolution with 10-bit color. It supports a passive pen — made by HP but with Wacom tech — that includes 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and an eraser on the back.

HP ZBook x2

The ZBook x2 also has a kickstand, a smart card reader, an SD card reader, an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, and two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt support, allowing it to power two 4K monitors. There’s a 720p webcam on the tablet, and the keyboard includes backlighting. It weighs 4.78 pounds.

Pricing starts at $1,749, but for the top specs listed above, expect to pay much, much more when the machine goes on sale this December. The ZBook x2 is an altogether ridiculous tablet in both form and function that’s going to be way outside the realm of what most people need or are willing to pay for. But there’s a dedicated market for workstation desktops and portables, and HP is hoping that the flexibility provided by the x2 will entice even more of those high-paying customers.

HP ZBook x2

Correction October 18th, 9AM ET: The ZBook x2’s GPU is built into the tablet itself, not the keyboard, as HP initially indicated to us.