New PREVAILPRO Mobile Workstations from PNY Are Priced Starting at $2,499

If you are familiar with the mobile workstation class of computers, you may think at first glance that there is nothing special about this new offering from PNY. You can immediately see that it looks like a Sager or Clevo workstation in the Witness Protection Program (i.e., it is similar hardware and form factor with a different logo—in this case, PNY).

If you don’t like laptops with off-center keyboards, you probably won’t be interested in this workstation right off the bat. But if you don’t care about that particular aspect of laptop ergonomics, you might be interested to know that this is one of the first portable workstations to use NVIDIA Quadro Max-Q GPUs, which slenderizes the component so that it can fit in an extraordinarily thin mobile workstation, like the ultra-lightweight PREVAILPRO mobile workstation you see pictured below.

Specs of the PNY PREVAILPRO Family at a Glance

For primary storage, there is a 128 GB SSD or 512 GB SSD hard drive, as well as 1 or 2 TB HDD as the secondary storage device. HDD is not as desirable as SSD by a long shot, but it does help keep costs down relative to the expense of larger SSD drives as primary and secondary storage devices.

The workstations are relatively lightweight at 4.8 pounds, and come with either an FHD 15.6-inch display or a 4K display of the same size.

The chassis is very thin at 0.73 inches, and there are a ton of ports and connectivity features, but notably absent are Thunderbolt 3 ports. There are three USB Type-A 3.1 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, and two Mini Display Port 1.3 headers for starters.

They have a GbE connector, an 802.11 ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 controller from Intel, a 2-megapixel camera and a backlit keyboard, but CAD users and others who rely on the Thunderbolt 3 for external storage and quick transfer/backups may be put off by their absence.

I have mixed feelings about engineering hardware being ultrathin and lightweight. What are your thoughts?