PC Pro - UK 2021-12)

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“It’saquietkeyboard,

whichisjustaswell

becausethepassively

cooledEliteFolioisas

silentasthegrave”

too,whichisjustaswellbecausethe
passivelycooledEliteFolioisassilent
asthegrave.Thetrackpadisequally
pleasanttouse.
The720pwebcamabovethe
displayhasaslidingprivacyshutter,
butthat’stheonlygoodthingIcan
sayaboutit.Thefeedlooksdulland
grainyandthere’sno supportfor
Windows Hello.TheFoliodoesn’t
evenhavea fingerprintscanner.

Soundandvision
There’slittlewrongwith theFolio’s
13.5in 16 :10IPStouchscreen.Peak
brightness measured385cd/mso
eventhoughit’sglossyandreflective
thisisn’ta problem;thecracking
2,350:1 contrastratiohelpstoo.
Don’texpectperfectcolours:we
measureda DeltaE of 2.4, whichis
acceptablebutnomore.Still,itcovers
97%ofthesRGBgamutand formost
businesscustomersit’s theshapeof
thescreenthatwhatwillattract,as
spreadsheetsanddocumentssimply
fitbetter on a16:10screen.
Thedisplayisalsoactivestylus
compatible,andHPincludesonein
thebox.Measuring 145 mmlong,it
hasa programmable,two-function
rockerbuttononthesideandanother
onthe topthatyoucan usetochange
slides.Ithas4,096levelsofpressure
sensitivityandeventiltsupport.Palm
rejection worked perfectlywhenI
restedmyhandonthe screen in tablet
modeandthesystemkeptupwithmy
fastestdoodlings.
Forsucha thinandlightmachine
thefour-speaker Bang& Olufsen
soundsystemisrather impressive.
There’svolumeaplentyandevena
reasonableamountof bass.
Proceedingsarehelped by thetwo
upward-facingspeakersoneachside
ofthekeyboarddeck.

Speedbumps
TheQualcommSnapdragon8cxGen2
chipsetinsidetheFolioEliteis
closelyrelatedtotheSQ1
chipsetinsidetheMicrosoft
SurfaceProX (seeissue 306 ,

p 68 )andmoredistantlytothe7c

Gen2insidetheSamsungGalaxy

BookGo(seeissue 325 ,p 55 ).All

thechipshaveeightcores,but

withabasefrequency

of1.8GHzthatbooststo

2.84GHz,the8cisalmost

twicethespeedofthe7cin

theSamsung.

Thatincreasedpower

meanstheperformance hit

involvedinrunning32-bit

Windowsappsunderemulation

isn’tsoobvious.Chrome,whichhas

yetto appearinnativeWindows-on-

ARMform, doesn’trunasfastasEdge

ontheEliteFolio,butyou havetorun

a browserbenchmarkstospotthis.In

theJetStream2tests,forinstance,

EdgeoutscoredChromeby 87 to41,

butI sawnosignofthisinpractice.

HPsays94%ofWindowsappswill

runontheElite Folio,but it didn’t

takemelongto findonesthatdidn’t.

TheHandbrakevideo-encoding

program is onethatcertainlywon’t

workonWindows-on-ARM,whichis

whyourbenchmarks can’truneither.

ItdidrunGeekbench 5 , which

producedscores of 7 94 forsingle-core

and3,082formulticoreperformance,

thelatterbeingmidwaybetween

whatweexpect to seefrom11th

generationIntelCorei3 andCorei5

laptops.Incidentally,the HP

informationpagefortheEliteFolio

says(atthetimeofpublication) thatit

usestheAdreno 540 GPU,whereas it

actuallyusesthemorepowerful

Adreno690,andthere’sa similar

mismatchwiththewireless

spec.Mymachinehada Wi-Fi

6 QualcommQCA639x

adapterbutthespecsays the

EliteFolioisWi-Fi5 only.

TheSSDreturned

lacklustrescoresbymodern

standards,withsustainedread

andwriterates of 2,079MB/sec

and654MB/sec.Again,however,

thisshouldn’tmattertomost

businessusers.Batterylife,onthe

otherhand,will,andit’soutstanding.

Inourvideo-rundowntest,theElite

Foliolasted17hrs 2 3mins.

Foldableonfire

TheEliteFolioisastylish,super-light

convertiblethat’s ideal

foranyonewhoneedsto

runbasicproductivity

andcommunication

applicationswhileon

thego – andisbuyingon

thecompanytab.

Especiallyifyouwantthe

5Gmodelatmorethan£2,500.

Thedesigniscleverandwell

executedandthebuild quality

impressive.The16:10displaydoesn’t

letthe side down,nordoes thefine

speaker system,whilethecleverly

housedstylusisa realbonus.And

thenthere’sthatbattery life.The

questionyoumustaskisifyoucan

livewiththecompromisesof

Windows-on-ARMforthe17-hour

runtime.ALUNTAYLOR

BELOWTheclever

designfeelsasifit’s

builttolast

SPECIFICATIONS

8-core3GHzQualcommSnapdragon8c

Gen2ARMSoC8GBLPDDR44,266MHz

RAMAdreno 690 graphics13.5in

touchscreen,1,920x1,280resolution

256GBNVMeSSD720pwebcam2x2

Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5 optional5Gmodem

2xUSB-C 3 .1(data,PowerDelivery,

DisplayPort)3.5mmjack46Wh

batteryWindows 10 Pro(ARM)

299 x2 23 x16.1mm(WDH)1.3kg1yr

limitedwarranty

THROWINGSHAPES

Asthesephotosshow,theHPEliteFoliocanbefoldedintoavarietyofpositions

Shape1:theconventionallaptop,which
wesuspectwillstillbethemostcommonly
usedformfortheEliteFolio.

Shape3:thetablet,withthescreen

foldeddownflatsothatitsitsontop

ofthekeyboard.

Shape2:thetentmode,withthescreen

pulledforward,ishandyforwatching

filmsandduringpresentationstoclients.

Thisphotoshowsthedifferentanglesat

whichthescreencanbepositioned,with

magnetstokeepitlockedinplace.

1 2 3 4

ABOVEThekeyboard

issurprisingly

spaciousforsucha

lightweightmachine