HP has launched a new 2-in-1 convertible at the all-digital CES 2021 expo which combines elements of a laptop, tablet and smartphone into a Snapdragon-powered notebook with a pull-forward display. The Elite Folio also promises long battery life and optional 5G connectivity.
The Elite Folio continues the display design of HP's Spectre Folio machine, where users can move from a clamshell style to a tent mode with a difference. Instead of flipping the lid around a 360-degree hinge like you would on other convertibles, the user pulls the display forward, coming to rest just before the trackpad and blocking out the keyboard, or moving on to a tablet-like mode where both trackpad and keyboard are hidden.
That display is a 13.5-inch, 3:2 aspect WUXGA (1.920 x 1.280) touch panel with an 88.3 percent screen-to-body ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 5. A pen stylus has been included for sketching or making notes onscreen, which docks and charges to the top of the keyboard area.
Inside, processing power comes courtesy of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G Compute platform that clocks in at up to 3.15 GHz while rocking a fanless design that should make for quiet operation. Up to 16 GB of RAM can be had, together with up to 512 GB of SSD storage. Connectivity shapes up as two USB-C ports, a 3.5-mm combo jack, one nano-SIM slot, Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth, with a Snapdragon 5G modem also cooked in.
HP reckons that video viewers could enjoy as much as 24.5 hours of onscreen entertainment before the notebook's battery needs to charge, though manufacturers do lean toward optimism in this department so we'd have to try one ourselves to see how that claim stacks up against real-world usage.
The Elite Folio is wrapped in an enclosure fashioned using 90 percent recycled magnesium and, like the Spectre before it, this notebook comes in a leather finish but this time around its vegan leather (or polyvinyl). The speaker enclosures also score some sustainability points by containing ocean-bound plastics.
The 298.6 x 229.6 x 15.95-mm (11.7 x 9 x 0.6-in) Elite Folio is due for release next month, though HP has not revealed pricing at this time.
Product page: Elite Folio
