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HP · 2024

HP ZBook Firefly 14 G11 (Core Ultra 7 165H)

A 14-inch mobile workstation with an RTX A500 and slotted RAM, but the Quadro-class NVIDIA driver plus hybrid Optimus and a Meteor Lake kernel floor put it at minor-tweaks. Buy it for ISV-certified workstation duty, not for a clean Linux out-of-box story; an all-AMD T14 is less hassle.

Compiled from public sources and community data, not hands-on tested. What that means.

Linux readiness7.6

Best on ubuntu LTS. Confidence: medium

Scores

Specs

CPUIntel Core Ultra 7 165H
GPUNVIDIA RTX A500 Laptop (4GB)
RAM32 GB (slotted)
Storage1024 GB
Screen14" 1920x1200 @ 60Hz
Weight1.48 kg
Battery (real)~7 h

Linux compatibility

  • ubuntu-lts Minor setup
    Wi-Fi
    works
    Bluetooth
    works
    Fingerprint
    needs tweak
    Webcam
    works
    Audio
    needs tweak
    Suspend
    needs tweak
  • fedora Minor setup
    Wi-Fi
    works
    Bluetooth
    works
    Fingerprint
    needs tweak
    Webcam
    works
    Audio
    needs tweak
    Suspend
    needs tweak

ubuntu-lts: Meteor Lake (165H) needs kernel 6.8 or newer for the Arc iGPU, same floor as the EliteBook 840 G11 and Latitude 7450. This is the RTX A500 SKU, so you also carry the NVIDIA proprietary driver on a Quadro-class part and a hybrid Optimus setup, which is the reason the grade is not out-of-box. Webcam is a normal UVC sensor, not IPU6. Audio amp wants a sof and UCM profile. s2idle is functional but the dGPU can keep it shallow until configured for prime-offload. Slotted SO-DIMM DDR5. ArchWiki: Intel Meteor Lake on Linux →

fedora: RPM Fusion akmod-nvidia for the RTX A500, then PRIME render-offload. Fedora 40+ for the Meteor Lake iGPU.