HP's First Ultrabook To Launch In India

HP's first ultrabook to launch in India, the Folio 13, couldn't be more attractive. While the Asus Zenbook guns after the MacBook Air in every sense of the word (we don't want to call it a rip-off!), the HP Folio 13 manages to uphold its distinctive looks, style and design to resemble a product straight from HP's laptop portfolio.

Ultrabooks are still relatively new to the Indian market. While it may not be the sleekest, lightest, ultrabook of the bunch launched and available in India, the HP Folio 13 is definitely one that has a simple design aesthetic and a touch of understated elegance. It has a brushed metal screen lid made of aluminium coated with a soft champagne brown hue that looks classy from the outside. Prop it open to reveal the same colour and surface encasing the black keyboard deck. And, of course, the HP ultrabook is thinner, lighter than mainstream 13-inch laptops, making it easier to carry around.

Design  And Built:

The HP Folio 13 is very well built, its dual hinges provide great balance to the two halves of the ultrabook it binds together. Touch and feel the HP ultrabook's surface and you feel you're interacting with a premium product. The only disappointment is its plastic bottom panel which is black in colour -- it's definitely inferior to the Asus Zenbook or the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s' metallic bottom panel. That bit just ruins the HP Folio 13's exterior aura a bit, but it doesn’t compromise the ultrabook’s rigid build quality.

The laptop's 13-inch form factor is thin and light and easy to hold. Tuck the HP Folio 13 inside a backpack or a laptop bag, and you can barely feel its weight while walking around. It weighs just 1.5-kg, just a little over a regular 10-inch netbook's weight (1.33 kg). But below the hood, the HP Folio 13 has the potential to match any mainstream 14 or 15-inch laptop and in some cases even beat them outright.

Screen And Keyboard:

The HP Folio 13 has a 13.3-inch widescreen display with a 1366x768 pixel resolution. The display appears bright and offers adequate contrast in an indoor setting, offering up to 170-degree horizontal viewing angle with minimal distortion -- this is very good as it lets you share the HP Folio 13 ultrabook’s screen with a larger audience around you. Vertical viewing angles are okay at best. The Folio 13’s screen is good for reading text and watching movies.

The HP Folio 13 ultrabook’s keyboard has a distinctive HP laptop’s trademark on it -- the key design, layout and spacing are reminiscent of HP’s Pavilion laptops. The keyboard is good to type on, no complaints on the feedback, the overall experience is pretty good.

Final Review:

The touchpad, however, is a work-in-progress -- not just for the HP Folio 13, but for all ultrabooks released in India. While the MacBook Air deploys a similar design on its touchpad, using it is much better than any touchpad found on the current ultrabooks in the market -- that includes the one found on HP Folio 13.