Another week goes by, another major notebook brand joins the ultrabook brigade. And this time it's the biggest name in the game, with HP revealing the Folio 13 ultrabook, slated for December release starting at $1,199.
With a 1.8cm waistline the Folio 13 isn't the slimmest of the ultrabooks – the design has a deliberately squared-off look instead of the tapered wedge introduced by the MacBook Air and since favoured by the creators of several Windows-based ultrabooks.
This conservative styling of this 13.3 inch ultrabook is intended to subtly underscore the Folio's role as a serious notebook which just happens to be fairly skinny, lightweight (1.5kg), fast and all those other appealing attributes.
For that same reason the Folio shares its design DNA with other HP business laptops, including the brushed champagne gold finish and squared-off keys on the backlit keyboard.
Where the Folio tries hardest to break the ultrabook mold is what HP claims as a 'best in class' battery life of nine hours – enough to get you through a working day, and then some.
Under the hood there's a choice of Intel's Core i3 or Core i5 processors (both are low voltage versions made to conserve battery life), an ample 4GB of RAM and a 128GB solid state drive.
Another sign of the Folio's 'built for business' pedigree is an Ethernet port for jacking straight into a wired network at the office or hotel. The rest of the port roster includes HDMI, two USB sockets (one of which is the superspeed USB 3.0 spec) and a memory card slot, so you've got pretty much the connectivity of a full-sized laptop but in a downsized package.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
18 Nov 2011
Total posts 2
Yay! More awesome tech I can't afford.
Seriously though, the "Ultrabook" phenomenon is doing well to fill in the huge gap between "notebook" and "netbook". I have, for the longest time, held a notebook and a netbook so I've got something speedy and something compact..but this is sure to change the way we compute on the go.
I'm interested as to what we might see in a second generation of these devices. I'd like to more in the way of embedded mobile communications; GPS, 3G etc.
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
Yes, these things are crying out for inbuilt 3G and hopefully just a SIM card slot so you're not tied to a contract with any one carrier.
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
Biggest issue that I think most manufacturers don't do too well with is construction quality. That's where the MacBook Air line leaps ahead of the rest of the offerings IMO...
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
Why has it taken so long for manufactuers to start making notebooks like this? I was looking for something like this two years ago and the closest thing I could find without paying hrough the nose was a netbook and that didn't have the power I need. Upgrading in 2013 so looking forward to seeing what everyone's got in the way of ultrabooks when it's shopping time, especially Dell!
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