New HP Z Displays roll out for home or office use on any budget

On Wednesday, HP introduced new products for professionals spanning three new “Z” desktop workstations, and seven new displays. The updated desktop portfolio includes the HP Z8, the Z6, and the Z4 workstations that will begin rolling out in October. But in this installment we’re simply focusing on the mainstream-friendly HP Z Displays that can be used in the home or office. One of these include the curved Z38c display packing a Ultra HD resolution.

HP Z38c Curved Display

For starters, we have HP’s new curved display. It sports a curvature with a 2,300mm radius, making it slightly less “curvy” than a panel with a 1,800mm (1800R) radius. For reference, a screen perfectly optimized for the human eye’s natural field of view would have a 1,000mm radius, but manufacturers have yet to reach that point with an affordable price tag.

Outside the panel’s form factor, the Z38c is based on In-plane Switching (IPS) technology, which provides super-rich colors and wide viewing angles. HP doesn’t say what type of color spaces this panel supports, but you should see better colors than what you get on older panels based on the formerly widely-used Twisted Nematic (TN) technology. But the company does state that the panel packs 111 pixels per inch.

Other notable features include a USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C port that can charge your mobile device, a three-sided micro-edge bezel, Ultra HD resolution, LED backlighting, and a maximum brightness of 300 nits. That’s standard as of late, especially for displays based on IPS technology.

HP Z “N G2” Displays

Here we’ve grouped the four “N” panels together. The Z22n and the Z23n are essentially the same save for their sizes, providing identical inputs, outputs, brightness levels, and resolutions. Things change with the 24-inch Z24n display, which sports an odd 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, and a 16:10 aspect ratio. It also has a higher brightness level, and additional Type-C ports capable of charging devices.

As for the Z27n, it’s a 27-inch monitor that returns the aspect ratio back to 16:9 while cranking up the resolution to 2,560 x 1,440 and the maximum brightness level to 350 nits. Otherwise, it has the same inputs, outputs, contrast ratio, and response time as the Z24n panel.

Like the curved display, these four models are based on IPS technology, promising rich colors and wide viewing angles: 178 degrees horizontal, and 178 degrees vertical. For the Z24n and Z27n, you could technically daisy-chain three panels from a single workstation by using a DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable with the first monitor, and a Type-C-to-DisplayPort cable between the first and second panels.  You would then use another Type-C/DisplayPort cable to connect the third panel to the second.

The Other Z “G2” Displays

These last two are variants of the 24-inch monitor revealed in the previous group. The Z24i is nearly identical to the Z24n, only the DVI-D port is swapped out for a VGA port. There’s also no audio output, no USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C ports, and one less USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port. Otherwise, you get the same resolution, screen brightness, contrast ratio, and so on.

As for the Z24nf, this is the only panel in the pack with a 23.8-inch form factor. It’s essentially a carbon copy of the Z24i, only it sports a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio instead. The maximum screen brightness is lower, too, at 250 nits, but you can daisy-chain the panel just like the Z24i and the Z24n.

“We rigorously test each HP Z Display to help ensure it’s a reliable, long-life visual solution, and back it up with the HP Zero Bright Dot Guarantee, HP’s most stringent pixel policy, which  replaces the screen if even one bright sub-pixel fails,” the company says.