14 DAY TRIAL // This week HP has taken the opportunity of unveiling its Back-to-School product lineup and we already told you of the new, more colorful Chromebook 11.
Among these new products, here comes a fresh version of the HP Split x2 Ultrabook. The device gets its name from the fact that you can literally split the 2-in-1 apart in order to have a taste of both worlds. That’s right, the HP Split x2 is a hybrid that comes complete with a keyboard dock (via Liliputing).
Unlike many manufacturers today that offer tablets packed with flash storage, HP is tempting possible customers with an alternate choice in terms of storage, by providing a high-capacity hard drive instead.
So the 13.3-inch Split x2 tablet/laptop will arrive with a 500GB hard drive and VP of product management at HP, Mike Nash says the company wants to give budget customers the option of advanced storage capacity.
But unlike the earlier model unveiled a year ago, the hard drive doesn't go in the keyboard dock anymore, so there’s no need to dock the tablet to the keyboard.
Customers picking up the new HP Split x2 machine will be invited to choose which processor they want to have onboard. The selection includes Intel Bay Trail, Core i3 and Core i5 Haswell processors. The device is paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 500GB of onboard storage.
Moving on, the Split x2 comes complete with a fanless design, so it should work silently at all times. The producing company claims the device can last up to 5.25 hours when used in tablet mode and up to 7.75 hours when in laptop mode. Split x2 uses Windows 8.1 as default operating system.
The tablet is 0.5-inch / 12.7mm thick, but when you pair the keyboard dock, you get a 0.9-inch / 23mm combo.
Like the ASUS Transformer Book T100, the new HP convertible bundles an extra battery in the keyboard, which explains why the device lasts more in laptop mode than it does when used as a tablet.
The new model will be available later next month, starting at $600 / €440 for the Bay Trail model. Or if you don’t want to wait until then, you can pick up the original HP Split x2 that arrives with a Core i5-4202Y processor fitted with 128GB SSD, which sells for $750 / €550 and up.
Other manufacturers have been known to put hard drives in tablets. For example, Archos’ 80 G9 Android tablet is such a product, coming with a 260GB hard drive.