LAS VEGAS – While many small businesses turn to consumer-class technology solutions, Hewlett-Packard Co. is showcasing four business-class products it says will drive real productivity gains for small and medium-sized businesses.
Addressing attendees at HP’s Global Partner Conference on Wednesday, Stacy Wolff, vice-president of industrial design for HP’s printing and personal systems group, showcased four products now available from HP that he claims will make a difference for businesses.
The first is Envy X2 convertible hybrid laptop/tablet. Running Windows 8, it’s a business class laptop that transitions into a tablet when the screen detaches with a click. It runs a 1.80 GHZ Dual Core Intel Atom processor with a 64GB SSD hard drive and an 11.6” HD display.
“HP is producing for you one of the best hybrids on the market today,” said Wolff. “We’ve taken tiny little magnets and put them into the hinge so it just fits home nicely. It’s a piece of art.”
In addition to the convertible offering, HP is also in the pure-play tablet market, but with a business-focused offering running Windows 8 in the HP ElitePad, rather than jumping back into the consumer tablet arena.
“How do you do a tablet better than the other guy? You have to be smarter, and you have to rethink it,” said Wolff. “We had to rethink the construction of this. People could drop these things. It’s designed for business.”
One way Wolff said HP rethought the design was to design it so it can be completely disassembled for servicing, while not sacrificing appearance and performance. Weighing just under 1.5lbs with a 9.2mm profile, it features 64GB of storage and a 10.1” multi-touch gorilla glass display, powered by a 1.80GHz Dual Core Intel Atom processor.
It’s more than just the tablet itself though, said Wolff, pointing to the HP ElitePad Productivity Jacket, which he says doubles the life of the battery.
“This is an all-day tablet I can take wherever I go,” said Wolff, noting it can also convert into a notebook format with an attachable Bluetooth keyboard.
Speaking of notebooks, Wolff said HP remains firmly committed to the notebook form factor and sees it being a key part of business productivity for some time.
“The notebook is still core to our business and its core to everything we do,” said Wolff. “Creation isn’t only going to happen on a tablet. It’s going to happen on a notebook too.”
With that in mind, Wolff points to two offerings. The first is the HP EliteBook Folio. A business class ultrabook, it’s ¾” thin and weighs 3.5lbs but boasts a 14” display. Users can choose from Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processor options, maxing out at 16GB of RAM and a range of hard drive options.
HP’s EliteBook Folio ultrabook.
Wolff said its aluminum and magnesium design is both sexy and durable, as it’s the glass touchpad. It also uses Flash Cache technology for quick boot-up.
“This is by far one of the best notebooks you will see and HP is producing it for you,” said Wolff.
Finally, he points to the EliteBook Revolve, a touch-enabled notebook with a display that twists around for a tablet-style form factor. The advantage here, said Wolff, is that you get all the processing power of a proper notebook in a tablet form factor.