14 DAY TRIAL // Craving a notebook computer that can withstand harsh treatments like being dropped on its head, going through shocks or living in extreme conditions like humidity or severe temperatures?
If the answer is yes, you’d probably prefer a laptop that won’t break your shoulder once you decide to take it out for a spin into the sunshine, right?
That's probably why you should know HP has just introduced the new EliteBook Folio 1020 line of laptops, representing an upgrade of last year’s EliteBook Folio 1040.
HP will give customers the chance to choose between two variations of this new thinner and lighter model. The first is called the EliteBook Folio 1020 (Standard Edition) which is due out in February, while the EliteBook Folio 1020 Special Edition should launch in April.
What’s the difference between the two, you might wonder. Well, for starters, they are made up of different materials, the Standard Edition is made of lithium-magnesium alloy, while the Special Edition one benefits from carbon fiber, thus a lower weight.
The new HP Ultrabook is even thinner than the MacBook Air
The Standard comes with a 15.4 mm / 0.6 mm thick profile and weighs 1.2 kg / 2.6 lbs, which classifies as one of the thinnest and lightest Ultrabooks on the market today. Furthermore, the Special Edition takes things further beyond, by pushing the boundaries to just 1 kg / 2.2 lbs.
Comparatively the MacBook Air (13.3-inch one) measures 17mm / 0.6 inches and weighs 1.3 kg / 2.96 lbs, so if you want a notebook that's light as a feather, you should probably be on the lookout for the new HP Ultrabook.
But just because the EliteBook Folio 1020 is sleek, it doesn't mean it’s too delicate. As we mentioned above, the Ultrabook is of the rugged variety. This translates into the fact that the Folio 1020 takes advantage of the industry standard MIL-STD-810G in terms of shocks, falls and extreme temperatures.
So the new Ultrabook is not only sleeker than Apple's lappy but also capable of surviving a few bumps and bruises that might come into the picture at times.
HP has also integrated a biometric sensor for fingerprint authentication, TPM chip for encryption of sensitive data and hardware technologies, HP Sure Start and self-healing BIOS and Client Security.
As for the computing department, things don’t differ all that much with the two models. Both bring to the table a 12.5-inch form factor with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution for the Standard Edition and 2560 x 1440 pixels in the case of the Special Edition (optional).
The MacBook Air a native 1440 x 900 native resolution, if we refer to the same 13.3-inch model we talked about a few paragraphs before.
The new EliteBook Folio 1020 offers a fanless design
HP utilizes Intel’s new Core M (Broadwell) architecture to juice up the two new laptops, a chip that is capable of prolonging the standard battery life of the machines. The producing company says the new notebooks should be able to offer up to 9 hours of battery life, which is pretty swell.
The MacBook Air (still the 13.3-inch one) on a 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz) with 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory that's configurable to 8GB plus Intel HD Graphics 400.
The laptops are fitted with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid state storage. We don’t have any information related to pricing for the time being, but you shouldn’t be expecting these notebooks to sell for affordable price tags. They are most likely going to jump above the $1000 / €808 threshold.
