HP offers a full year of 24/7/365 phone support, holidays included. HP touts its “concierge-level” support, and its reps acquitted themselves well in my test calls. Interestingly enough, the Folio delivered a higher PCMark 8 score than the X1 Carbon, despite the Lenovo’s slightly faster CPU and larger SSD. That option provides four USB 3.0 ports, RJ-45, VGA, and audio/video ports, but it costs $149 and weighs 1.7 pounds. HP includes its model F1H90AV Side Dock, which provides RJ45 and VGA ports, or you can pack HP’s complete docking station. That’s in line with the industry’s relentless effort to wring ounces and millimeters out of notebooks. Like many small notebook makers, HP has jettisoned VGA and ethernet ports from the Folio. Our eval unit’s wireless connections included Bluetooth 4.0, but Wi-Fi was limited to 802.11n (curious, considering 802.11ac is available as a no-cost option). The Folio has just two USB 3.0 ports (one of which provides always-on charging), DisplayPort, a headset jack, a Smart card slot (intended primarily for enterprise users), and a MicroSD card slot (useful for anyone who finds that a 128GB SSD is too small and cloud storage too inconvenient). The setup is fine for linking up with colleagues, but don’t plan to pitch clients with it. Audio was clear and strong up to four feet from the mic, then dropped off sharply as I moved farther away. The video yields a strong blue tint, the frame shows lots of areas of simultaneous over- and under-exposed areas, and my face looks grainy when shooting in less than full light. The Folio’s 720p webcam and mic are as basic as the rest of the specs, and it shows. Dedicated Home, End and Page keys are a bonus. The flat-topped, backlit keys offer just the right amount of friction and are spaced and sized well for my typing style with my large hands. It sounds a little clattery, but it feels comfortable and gives good tactile response. The keyboard is one of the best I’ve used recently-almost as good as those on Lenovo’s original X1 Carbon Touch and Dell’s XPS Ultrabooks. The Folio’s Notebook WorldBench 9 score falls short of both the Lenovo X1 Carbon’s and the Acer TravelMate Pro’s. It’s a little better at palm rejection than most, only occasionally causing my cursor to go AWOL. Despite its quirks, I use this trackpad more and more in place of keys. I have to remember to do the gesture just once and then wait. When I intentionally pinch-zoom, I often get slight delays in responses.
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