HP Folio 13 Ultrabook Review

Performance

The Folio 13 performs on similar lines as the Toshiba Portege Z830 and the Dell XPS 13, owing to similar hardware. The Toshiba manages to pull ahead in some of the tests due to the faster CPU.

Good performance

The Folio runs cools for the most part. Even with extended use and while charging, it never gets uncomfortably hot, which means the CoolSense tech is actually working well. The keyboard is extremely comfortable to type on, even for extended sessions and the backlit keys help when the going gets dark. The LED backlit screen has a gloss finish, which make pictures and videos extremely vivid and the colour reproduction is also pretty good. The brightness levels are ample, so you can easily use the notebook outdoors as well.

Easy to carry around

The audio quality is actually pretty good. The sound lacks bass, but has a nice warm feel to it, so you can actually enjoy a movie with the use of headphones.

Battery Life

The Folio 13 is fitted with a 6-cell 59WHr Li-Ion that managed to deliver 2hrs 50min in Battery Eater Pro. This, by far is the best battery life we’ve gotten from an Ultrabook, so the extra thickness of the notebook can be forgiven. Under normal usage, you should easily be able to squeeze out 5hrs of battery life.

Verdict

There’s just one variant of the HP Folio 13 for now and this retails for Rs.69,990, so it’s about 10K cheaper than the Dell (not to mention, better equipped) and about 25K cheaper than the Toshiba, which makes it the best buy out of the three. The Folio scores high on the excellent industrial design and it feels and looks like it can take a beating, when compared to the other two, which seem a bit delicate. We love the attention to detail, connectivity options, great battery life and excellent keyboard. If you can live with the godawful trackpad buttons, then we highly recommend you check out this Ultrabook, as it’s one of the best in the market and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg (well, just an arm actually).