HP Elite x2 1012
A beautiful design, easy to manage and no hidden costs; such a shame about the battery life
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE keyboard and stylus
I£1,024 (£1,229 inc VAT),
includes
f there’s one thing we’ve always moaned about when it comes to buying tablet 2-in-1 devices, it’s that the headline price rarely reflects what you eventually pay – mainly because most manufacturers don’t include the keyboard in the price. That’s not the way HP works. The Elite x2’s price includes both the keyboard and an active, pressuresensitive stylus.
That makes it much easier to see where your money is going, but it doesn’t mean the Elite x2 is cheap. In fact, at £1,229 inc VAT for the Intel Core m7-6Y75 model tested here, which comes with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, it’s slightly more expensive than the closest equivalent Microsoft Surface Pro 4.
And that’s appropriate, because the Elite x2 is the spiritual successor to the Microsoft tablet, “borrowing” the design then adding its own, businessfocused spin. IT managers will most appreciate the three-year warranty and remote manageability offered by the vPro CPU.
As with the Surface Pro 4, the tablet part houses all the core components and connections, and has a built-in kickstand. The keyboard part attaches magnetically to the spine when you want to get some work done.
In general, HP’s tribute is a fine one. The aluminium-backed keyboard is stiffer than the Surface Pro 4’s. The keys rattle less and it’s more pleasant to type on. The touchpad is just as responsive and reliable, and the design of the tablet is more practical, too. Not only are there more ports here than on the Surface Pro 4 – HP includes USB 3, microSD, USB Type-C and a SIM card slot – but the tablet has been droptested, can be repaired more easily, and can even be secured to a desk via a Kensington lock.
Then we come to the stylus. Employing Wacom technology, it
“From a practical and ergonomic standpoint, the HP Elite x2 beats the Surface Pro hands down. Build quality is superior too”
works extremely well, with effective pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. The stylus is sturdy and feels luxurious in the hand. The only thing it lacks is a slot in the body of the x2 in which to stow it away. HP includes a couple of adhesive loops in the box, but that’s something to improve for the next iteration.
From a practical and ergonomic standpoint, the HP Elite x2 beats the Surface Pro 4 hands down. It’s the tablet I’d rather be using when faced with a large body of work, and generally, build quality is superior to the Microsoft device as well.
Performance is good. Processor options only go up to the 2.2GHz Core m7-6Y75, but backed by that 8GB of RAM and a super-fast 256GB Samsung NVMe SSD it proved a nippy performer. That SSD delivers sequential read and write speeds that are far faster than any other tablet in this Labs, for instance. Although it’s “only” a Core m7, its scores in the cross-platform CPU and graphics benchmarks are comparable with the Core i5 Surface Pro 4.
Battery life, on the other hand, is a big disappointment: the HP fell short of the Surface Pro 4 by around two hours. The screen, too, is a letdown. Although it’s perfectly acceptable – the 3:2 aspect ratio works well, the 1,920 x 1,280 resolution keeps things looking nice and sharp, and the brightness and viewing angles are excellent – it’s nowhere near as vibrant as the Surface Pro 4’s Pixel Sense display. It covers only 76% of the sRGB colour gamut, it isn’t as bright at 351cd/m2 , while contrast ratio again falls behind the Surface Pro 4.
That, in the final analysis, is what pushes the Elite x2 below the Surface Pro 4 in the pecking order. While IT managers may lean towards its more corporate-friendly manageability, everyone else should consider the Microsoft tablet first.