HP Folio 13

One is too steep and one 's too shallow , and it is the Achilles ' heel of the Ultrabooks . What's this ? Prices and keyboards , respectively , and HP goes a long way toward fixing them with the entry into the super- slim laptop sweepstakes , the HP Folio 13 - $ 899.99 with Windows 7 Home Premium or $ 1048.99 as tested with Windows 7 Professional , and equipped with one of the nicest keyboards in class .The HP Folio 13 is good in other ways , too , from the Ethernet port to its memory card slot . It is a few ounces heavier and a few ticks of the benchmark stopwatch slower than some competitors , but the more you use it the more you'll care for you : Ultrabooks are about comfort and productivity , and the folio 13 delivers so much the same that it squeaks Asus Zenbook UX31 - ago RSL8 ( $ 1,049 list , 4 stars ) to be our new editor's Choice ' category .

To $ 899.99 Win 7 Home Premium , the Folio is the second most affordable ultrabook with a very solid - state drive instead of a spinning hard drive with solid - state booster like the Acer Aspire S3 ( $ 899.99 direct , 3.5 stars ) . The most affordable , the Toshiba Portege Z835 - P330 ( $ 799.99 at Best Buy, 3.5 stars ) , makes do with a tepid Intel Core i3 processor versus the HP perkier Core i5 , as well as a more slender , more flex -prone screen and keyboard . The difference is worth $ 100, even upgrading to Win 7 Professional is pricey at $ 149 ( blame Microsoft , not HP ) .
DesignThough not carved out of an aluminum unibody like the Apple MacBook Air 13 - inch ( Thunderbolt ) ( $ 1,299 direct , 4 stars ) or Lenovo IdeaPad U300s ( $ 1,495 direct , 4 stars ) , the Folio 13 makes good use metal , the integration of a brushed aluminum lid and palm rest with a grippable , soft - touch plastic bottom . It offers a mix of matte and shiny finishes , with a non - reflective bezel around the mirror- finish display and a shiny tray under the matte key .
Between aluminum construction and large - for - the - category six - cell battery , the HP , while still relatively light , is heavy for an ultrabook - £ 3.25 PC Lab scale ' , compared to about 2.9 pounds for most rivals and 2.5 pounds for the Toshiba Z835 - P330 . The difference is barely noticeable : you can still lose 8.7 by 12.5 by 0.7 - inch large book in your briefcase and almost forget it's there . Meanwhile , the system will flex - , wiggle - and wobble - free , if already grasping the screen by the corners or typing it on your lap - something you can not say for many Ultrabooks .
The 13.3 - inch display offers the same 1366 by 768 resolution as most Ultrabooks ( trailing the 1,440 by 900 MacBook Air and 1600 by 900 Asus UX31 ) . It is good sharp and passably bright if you keep the backlight cranked up to its peak some settings , although white background is not washday - miracle white color and do not pop like they do in some competitive screen .
If the screen is only fair to good , however , the keyboard has a good to excellent , as long as you do not mind me having the Home , End , PgUp , and PgDn doubled up on the cursor arrows instead provided their own keys ( and one quirk : full - sized left and right arrows bracketing half- sized up and down keys ) . Travel - wise , ultrabook keyboards are by definition shallower than thicker laptop , but soft - touch keys are HP government to provide good tactile response without you - you - Keystroke - register some uncertainty rivals .
Keyboard is backlit , too ( the F5 key toggles the handy backlight ) , such as Toshiba and Apple and not like Asus ' , and do not owe you press the Fn key to access functions such as the screen brightness and audio and media controls assigned to F1 through F10 . It is accompanied by a touchpad which is silky - smooth gliding and tapping contrasts with the relatively stiff mouse buttons .