Review: HP Folio 13
Category : Notebooks / Tablets
Published by Marc Büchel on 08.05.12
HP is one of the latecomers in the ultrabook market. Nevertheless the worlds largest PC manufacturer has an interesting alternative to the competitors models in its portfolio. With 1.49 kilogramm it isn't the lightest model available but therefore it comes with a unique and decent design. 
Having the box of the Folio 13 stand in front of you, you might expect everything, but not an Ultrabook. The reason for that is simple: the box is quite big. As soon as we opened it we saw there was a lot of space and there was only a small power adpator in the delivery which makes the first experience even more strange. Next to the very slim Ultrabook itself one can almost place an entire arm and pretend there is no hardware in the box.
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Preview
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Specifications / Chassis
| CPU | Intel Core i5-2467M (1.6 GHz Standard, 2.3 GHz Turbo) |
| Graphics card | Intel HD Graphics |
| Chipset | Intel QS67 Express Chipset |
| Memory | DDR3 1333MHz, 4 Gigabyte |
| Display | 13.3'' TFT, Glare-Type, LED Backlight |
| Hard drive / Drive | 128 Gigabyte SATA-III SSD |
| Video Camera | Webcam, 1.3 Megapixel |
| Keyboard | No backlight |
| Connectors | 1 x USB 3.0 1 x USB 2.0 HDMI Audio |
| Battery | 59 Wh, 6 Cells |
| Dimensions | 319 x 220 x 18 mm (W x D x H) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Professional |
| Weight | 1.49 kg |
Chassis / Design / Build quality
Already the first glance at the Folio 13 reveals that HP built a high quality Ultrabook. The materials they've used - aluminium and plastic in this case - have been exquisitely processed and the result is very good haptics. The aluminium used for the cover has been hairline brushed and give the Folio 13 it's HP typical looks whereas the trim list at the top edge shows some more HP understatement. The plastic, which frames the display and can also be found at the bottom of this ultrabook comes with a matte valvety finish, which is very comfortable and offers good grip. Going a step further and opening the lid reveals that it's possible to provide even such a slim design with good stiffness.
Looking at the connectors shows that HP hasn't been saving here. Wether or not a slim notebook where manufacturers have design ambitions should offer many connectors that's what people can argue about. But on the other hand there is the fact that a RJ45 connector, an HDMI port, one USB 2.0 as well as one USB 3.0 connector and a card reader are convinient no matter if you're at home, at work or on the go.
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Display / Input Devices
Display
For its Ultrabook HP uses a TN panel which comes from LG and offers 1366 x 768 pixels resolution. Isn't the notebook running, then it seems like there is an edge-to-edge display. Once it's running you see that the dispaly only partally fills the area. In our tests we determined a brightness level of 179 Candela per squaremeter, which really isn't ver much. For Ultrabooks the likelihood, that they're being use outside is very high and therefore maximum brightness should be at least 250 Candela per squaremeter. Luckily the dispaly offers good stability when you look at the viewing angle. The result is a solid 170 degree.
Input Devices
The keys can be come with the same matte valvety finish like the bottom area of the device. They're placed in a shiny black bed which also fits perfectly into the decent design. As soon as you place your hands and start typing you'll be surprise what a good keyboard HP used for their Ultrabook. Writing even longer articles (such as this review) is very comfortable. Even after hours your wrists wont start to hurt. The only thing which might need some time to get used to is concerns the arrow keys witch their custom layout.
HP decided to go for quite a big touchpad. In fact it's big enough that you
might ask yourself where it ends when you don't look at it. Once you're looking
for the buttons you'll be in for a surprise. The left as well as the right
button need quite a substantial amount of force until they release. For the left
click this can be solved by tapping the touchpad, which results in the same
gesture but for a right click you'll have to use the button in the bottom right
corner. Fortunately when steering the cursor over the display the touchpad is
very precise and there also is the possibility to use multitouch gestures.
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Test setup
Regarding our notebook reviews we use a practical approach. To get a detailed impresson of the device the tester uses it to work with. In case of gaming notebooks it replaces the testers gaming PC during the time of the test. These methods allow us to provide detailed user experience to you.Regarding performance benchmarks - which are listed below - we don't go very deep. What we do, is that we use benchmarking software which over the years have established as standards for reviewing purposes. Furthermore the specific game benchmarks give insight to the playability of recent games.
Benchmarking Suite
- Futuremark PCMark 7
- Total Score
- Video playback and transcoding / Video playback Score
- Video playback and transcoding / Video transcoding - downscaling Score
- System storage - gaming / System storage - gaming Score
- Graphics - DirectX 9 / Graphics - DirectX 9 Score
- Image manipulation / Image manipulation Score
- System storage - importing pictures / System storage - importing pictures Score
- Web browsing and decrypting / Web browsing Score
- Web browsing and decrypting / Data decrypting Score
- System storage - Windows Defender / System storage - Windows Defender Score
- Total Score
- Cinebench
- 1 Core
- Multicore
- WinRAR
- Benchmarktest
- Battery Life
- Load
- WLAN and Browser
- Idle
- Noise Level
- Load
- Idle
- Temperature
- Load
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PCMark 7 - Video Playback / Downscaling / Transcoding / Storage
PCMark 7 is a benchmark suite which consists of 20 different workloads. The following results reflect the PCMark 7's standard selection, which provides a good insight regarding overall system performance. For a comfortable presentation we chose to split the results onto three different sites.| Futuremark PCMark 7 | Score |
| ASUS UX21E | 3'450 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 3'297 |
| MSI GT 780 | 3'805 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 3'720 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 3'074 |
| HP Folio 13 | 3'072 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 3'015 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 2'966 |
| ASUS G74SX | 2'500 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 2'261 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 1'693 |
| Video playback and transcoding / Video playback | fps |
| ASUS UX21E | 23.17 |
| HP Folio 13 | 23.13 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 23.08 |
| MSI GT 780 | 23.14 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 23.13 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 23.12 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 23.11 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 23.10 |
| ASUS G74SX | 23.04 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 23.01 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 22.62 |
| Video playback and transcoding / Video transcoding - downscaling | KByte/s |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 16'353 |
| ASUS UX21E | 15'227 |
| HP Folio 13 | 11'258 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 5'285 |
| ASUS G74SX | 5'251 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4'948 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 4'912 |
| MSI GT 780 | 4'905 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 4'923 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 4'870 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 2'472 |
| System storage - gaming / System storage - gaming | MByte/s |
| ASUS UX21E | 16.51 |
| HP Folio 13 | 13.35 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 12.56 |
| MSI GT 780 | 14.40 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 13.83 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 7.93 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 7.21 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 7.09 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4.46 |
| ASUS G74SX | 4.34 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 3.23 |
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DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures
| Graphics - DirectX 9 / Graphics - DirectX 9 | fps |
| MSI GT 780 | 50.55 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 50.37 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 49.74 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 47.51 |
| ASUS G74SX | 48.96 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 32.92 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 30.67 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 16.51 |
| ASUS UX21E | 14.00 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 12.61 |
| HP Folio 13 | 11.96 |
| Image manipulation / Image manipulation | Mpx/s |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 9.13 |
| MSI GT 780 | 9.04 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 8.88 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 8.86 |
| ASUS G74SX | 8.80 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 8.72 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 8.72 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 8.66 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 8.19 |
| ASUS UX21E | 6.63 |
| HP Folio 13 | 5.07 |
| System storage - importing pictures / System storage - importing pictures | MByte/s |
| ASUS UX21E | 29.39 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 10.50 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 23.94 |
| HP Folio 13 | 21.98 |
| MSI GT 780 | 21.06 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 11.08 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 9.75 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 9.55 |
| ASUS G74SX | 6.30 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 5.96 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 4.74 |
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Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
| Web browsing and decrypting / Web browsing | Pages/s |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 14.82 |
| MSI GT 780 | 14.08 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 13.36 |
| ASUS G74SX | 10.66 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 10.63 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 10.26 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 10.21 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 9.80 |
| HP Folio 13 | 8.33 |
| ASUS UX21E | 7.94 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 7.30 |
| Web browsing and decrypting / Data decryption | MByte/s |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 59.06 |
| ASUS G74SX | 55.94 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 54.14 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 48.14 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 47.63 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 47.22 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 47.20 |
| MSI GT 780 | 46.27 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 40.32 |
| HP Folio 13 | 39.58 |
| ASUS UX21E | 31.34 |
| System storage - Windows Defender / System storage - Windows Defender | MByte/s |
| ASUS UX21E | 5.38 |
| MSI GT 780 | 5.12 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 5.06 |
| HP Folio 13 | 4.99 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 4.65 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 3.29 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 3.22 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 3.11 |
| ASUS G74SX | 1.40 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 1.20 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 0.99 |
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Cinebench R10
| 1 CPU | sec |
| Intel Core i7 990X | 170 |
| Intel Core i7 2600K | 145 |
| Intel Core i5 2410M | 195 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM | 193 |
| Intel Core i7 2630QM | 199 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 205 |
| ASUS UX21E | 246 |
| HP Folio 13 | 253 |
| X CPU | sec |
| Intel Core i7 990X | 30 |
| Intel Core i7 2600K | 37 |
| Intel Core i5 2410M | 94 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM | 52 |
| Intel Core i7 2630QM | 52 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 105 |
| ASUS UX21E | 121 |
| HP Folio 13 | 123 |
WinRAR
| Integer Test | KByte/sec |
| Intel Core i7 990X | 4'131 |
| Intel Core i7 2600K | 4'108 |
| Intel Core i7 2630QM | 3'656 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM | 3'638 |
| Intel Core i5 2410M | 2'318 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 2'152 |
| HP Folio 13 | 1'981 |
| ASUS UX21E | 1'907 |
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Battery Life / Power Consumption
| Battery life in load | Time |
| HP Folio 13 | 2h 48min |
| ASUS UX21E | 2h 26min |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 2h 03min |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 1h 50min |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 1h 48min |
| MSI GT 780 | 1h 04min |
| ASUS G74SX | 1h 02min |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 1h 02min |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 1h 01min |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 0h 37min |
| Battery life browsing web on the WLAN | [en]Time |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 5h 19min |
| HP Folio 13 | 5h 14min |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 4h 32min |
| ASUS UX21E | 3h 41min |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 3h 11min |
| MSI GT 780 | 2h 46min |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 2h 24min |
| ASUS G74SX | 2h 12min |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 2h 08min |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 1h 39min |
| Battery life when idle | Time |
| HP Folio 13 | 9h 42min |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 9h 17min |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 8h 46min |
| ASUS UX21E | 6h 40min |
| MSI GT 780 | 5h 26min |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4h 33min |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 3h 35min |
| ASUS G74SX | 3h 33min |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 2h 51min |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 2h 13min |
| Power Consumption Load | Watt |
| HP Folio 13 | 39 |
| ASUS UX21E | 64 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 76 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 81 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 116 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 128 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 139 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 143 |
| ASUS G74SX | 145 |
| MSI GT 780 | 148 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 150 |
| Power Consumption Idle | Watt |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 12 |
| HP Folio 13 | 14 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 17 |
| ASUS UX21E | 19 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 20 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 30 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 37 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 40 |
| ASUS G74SX | 42 |
| MSI GT 780 | 46 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 55 |
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Noise Level
| Load | dBa |
| ASUS G74SX | 39.2 dBa |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 40.0 dBa |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 40.1 dBa |
| HP Folio 13 | 40.9 dBa |
| MSI GT 780 | 41.0 dBa |
| ASUS UX21E | 43.6 dBa |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 44.1 dBa |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 45.3 dBa |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 45.9 dBa |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 49.0 dBa |
| Idle | dBa |
| ASUS UX21E | 31.7 dBa |
| MSI GT 780 | 31.9 dBa |
| HP Folio 13 | 32.6 dBa |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 33.2 dBa |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 33.4 dBa |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 33.5 dBa |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 34.0 dBa |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 35.3 dBa |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 35.4 dBa |
| ASUS G74SX | 36.4 dBa |
Temperatures
The following picture shows nine different temperatures from the bottom side of the notebook.
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| An elegant case, good battery life and decent design. Those are the three thing the HP Folio 13 excels. Furthermore the is a very low noise level (if you choose to partially disable the fan in the BIOS). On the Contra side there is touchpad which has a left and right button that need way too much force until they release. Another thing that could be improved is the display, which doens't offer enough brightness to use the device outside when the sun is shining. | - Case
- Design - Weight - SSD |
- Display - Touchpad keys | |
| Display / Input devices | + | - | |
| HP equipped its 13.3 inch Ultrabook with a display that
definitely isn't above average. The TN panel doens't offer enough
brightness to use the device outside when the sun is shining.
Fortunately there is good stability concerning the viewing angle (170
degree). Another thing that could be improved concerns the touchpads left and right key. You need way too much force until they release, which really is a pity. Because the touchpad is very precise and it also supports multitouch gestures. |
- Keyboard - Touchpad precision |
- Display Brightness - Touchpad click | |
| Performance / Battery Life | + | - | |
| Equipped with a Core i5-2467M
dual core CPU that has four threads, clocked at 1.6 GHz and Intels
integrated graphics chip, the Folio 13 isn't the fastest notebook
we've ever tested. But that's also not what it's been built
for. Thanks to a quick SSD it feels very responsive. Looking at battery life shows that the Folio 13 really has some stamina. It take more than five hours and ten minutes until the device is going to shut down when you browse the web via using the integrated WiFi module. |
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Desktop-Performance - SSD - Battery Life |
||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you should be looking for a light-weight and very good looking Ultrabook, the HP Folio 13 is a good choice. | - Ultra portable | ||
| Rating | |||
| We give the Folio 13 from HP good four out of five stars. | |||
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