Notebook Hunter

The 13.3in HP Folio 13-1008tu is one of the nicer mid-range Ultrabooks we’ve handled, and for $1,245 it’s competitively priced as well. Everything about the exterior is sturdy, from the metal keyboard deck and screen backing to the soft-touch plastic coating the bottom. While most comparably specced Ultrabooks are lighter, at 1.5kg the Folio 13 is hardly immobile.

Of course one other trump card for this Ultrabook is port variety. It’s a step above what’s typical, with the major surprise being a Gigabit Ethernet port. There’s also a USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and HDMI port as well as an audio jack and an SD card reader. The screen is rather unremarkable in terms of vertical viewing angles, but the colour richness and horizontal viewing angles are fine.

See the special online here.

See a summary of the specs below.

Processor
The Folio 13 features a 2nd Gen Intel Core i5-2467M (1.6GHz), a mid-range low-voltage processor that can run productivity applications and some intensive software. It can burst up to 2.3GHz using Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology if a particularly demanding program is running.

Graphics
It comes with an integrated graphics solution called Intel HD Graphics 3000. It’s on par with a low-end dedicated graphics card, and is sufficient for modern games at the lowest settings.

RAM
4GB of RAM is enough to run several programs at once smoothly. It’s more than enough to ensure fluid overall system performance with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Storage
A 128GB solid state drive is small compared to a hard disk drive, but by SSD standards it’s about middle of the road. It does have very rapid response for both reading and writing data.

Screen
The Folio 13 sports a 13.3in (1,366 x 768 resolution) gloss screen. The viewing angles are good horizontally but average vertically.

Portability
The Folio 13 has exceptional portability, because it weighs 1.5kg and is 18mm thick. It’s more than light enough to be taken anywhere without any problems whatsoever.