However, this Ultrabook lacks two ports many businesses want: a Kensington Lock slot for securing the device and VGA-out for connecting to many monitors and projectors. The Folio 13 also has two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone/mic jack, HDMI out, and an SD card reader. Unless you're standing far away from the notebook or using it to show a presentation to a giant room full of people, you'll probably want to keep it at half volume or lower.Ĭlick to EnlargeThe Folio 13 is one of the only Ultrabooks that features a full-size Ethernet port for connecting to wired networks, something a lot of business users will do at the office. When we listened to the R&B song "Forget Me Nots" on Rhapsody, the bass was accurate and strong, even a bit rich, and the maximum volume sound was so loud it could fill a large office space. The MacBook Air brings the light with a fairly bright 285 lux screen.Ĭlick to EnlargeThe HP Folio 13's Dolby Advanced sound system provides some of the loudest and most accurate audio we've experienced on a notebook this size. Viewing angles from the side were fine, but we had to push the lid back a bit to get the best picture.Ī light meter confirmed that the Folio has the dimmest screen of any Ultrabook we've tested, clocking in at just 139 lux, way short of the Toshiba Portege's 260 lux, the ASUS ZenBook UX31's 360, and even the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s's 162 lux score. When we watched a 1080p QuickTime trailer for The Avengers at full brightness, the video was crisp and free from noise, though colors like the red in Thor's cape or the blue in Captain America's shield were muted and a little whitewashed. All of these worked smoothly.Ĭlick to EnlargeThe Folio's 13.3-inch, 1366 x 768 screen produced images that were sharp, but relatively dim. On the plus side, the Folio 13's touchpad supports a myriad of multitouch gestures, including pinch-to-zoom, rotation, three-finger tap to open a browser, three-finger flick to move between photos in a photo gallery, and four-finger swipe to bring up the Windows 7's 3D task menu. Though the cursor wasn't jumpy as it has been on competitors such as the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s and ASUS ZenBook UX31, we found our cursor often getting stuck mid-stroke, forcing us to pick up our finger and stroke again. Pushing down on the pad required a fair amount of force to activate-enough to be annoying but not a deal breaker. At times, the space bar was a little stiffer than we prefer.Ĭlick to EnlargeLike so many others that eschew discrete buttons in favor of making the pad itself clickable, the Folio 13's touchpad sacrifices comfort and accuracy in favor of aesthetics. We were able to achieve a decent score of 80 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing test, but our error rate was three percent instead of our typical one percent. The keys were a few millimeters narrower than those on the ASUS ZenBook UX31, but they provided snappy tactile feedback. They're made from a comfortable soft-touch material that managed to keep them feeling relatively comfortable to the touch-even when the base below them got a bit warm. However, when doing simple tasks such as typing in a word processor and web surfing, the system stayed cool.Ĭlick to EnlargeThe Folio 13's island-style, backlit keyboard has well-spaced keys. Perhaps because of their soft-touch surface, the keyboard's rubbery keys felt warm rather than scorching hot, but we consider any temperature above 95 degrees on the top surface uncomfortable and any temperature above 100 degrees on the bottom unpleasant. After we streamed a Netflix video for 15 minutes at full screen, the touchpad was a cool 82.5 degrees Fahrenheit, but the middle of the keyboard measured 98 degrees and the bottom surface was as high as 105 degrees. Despite HP CoolSense technology that's designed to help its notebooks stay chilly, the Folio 13 can get a little toasty when performing intensive tasks.
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