HP Elite Folio: Extreme mobility for a price

A superbright screen and all-day battery life make this a laptop you can use even in broad daylight.

- MARK HACHMAN

The HP Elite Folio wraps vivid display options, 4G and 5G connectivity options, and all-day battery life within a lightweight, stylish design. It is clearly a winning design when it comes to mobility.

The 2-in-1 laptop’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G processor has its caveats, though. Its performance still can’t compete with that of modern AMD Ryzen or Intel Core processors, and software compatibility issues persist. These limitations may be tough to tolerate considering the Elite Folio’s premium price tag.

BASIC FEATURES

HP’s Elite Folio is available in either an 8GB RAM/16GB SSD fixed configuration on HP’s website for $1,889 (go.pcworld.com/1889), or a configurable Elite Folio option (go. pcworld.com/cono) that begins at $1,895.04. It’s worth noting that while the first option appears to be ready to ship, selecting the configurable option puts the ship date at October 7—with a big qualifier: “This platform has an extended build time. Component availability, and hence the ship date, may change.” A different configuration is $1,949.95 on Amazon (go.pcworld.com/1949). closer to a 2-in-1 Windows tablet. The keyboard does not detach, as it does with Microsoft’s Surface Pro X (go. pcworld.com/mprx) or Surface Pro 7+ (go. pcworld.com/mp7p). Instead, it can rotate flat into a tablet mode. A “hybrid” mode allows it to pull forward, hiding the keyboard for streaming video and using the screen as a primary interface. HP also includes a pen, which incurs an additional cost with rival tablets.