HP Folio 13 review

I thought that the goal of Ultrabooks was to increase margins and deliver better quality products than what most brands have done with netbooks.

Seeing how aggressively priced the HP Folio 13 seems to be, I am wondering if HP still has not learnt anything from Apple at all. Am I really the only person who likes buying good quality hardware and design?

1 hour ago, giovanni wrote

I thought that the goal of Ultrabooks was to increase margins and deliver better quality products than what most brands have done with netbooks.

Seeing how aggressively priced the HP Folio 13 seems to be, I am wondering if HP still has not learnt anything from Apple at all. Am I really the only person who likes buying good quality hardware and design?

Do you mean "likes buying" good quality hardware and design or "willing to pay for" good quality hardware and design? Everybody is the former, if they can get it for cheap, but not everybody is the latter.

Intel's Ultrabook specification set a price range of "around $1000", but that was supposed to be the ceiling not the floor. However, since this is a fairly high-end specification to begin with, it presents an opportunity for manufacturers to price the devices to yield better margins, if they so choose. HP is simply choosing to price theirs more aggressively.

@cbae: I am simply afraid that manufacturers will start a race to the lowest price too soon instead of focussing on aestehtics and good materials/components. I know people don't always do what they say, but given how successful Apple has been with its beautiful yet expensive computers, I am pretty sure there are a good chunk of people willing to spend good money on good hardware.

I'd be curious to read what other poeple on this forum feel.

The issue, for me, is that if the device is expensive and high quality, it'll be just as obsolete as the cheaper device in a few years.  I'll pay for quality, to a point, but I'm not going to gold plate something just because it looks better.

What is worse than the actual product is the website for it. Take a look at this completely ugly page and url: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/321957-321957-64295-3740644-3955548-5210925.html

Seriously, look at that url for a moment. And, if I'm going to "chat live" with someone, why would they use a image of someone that just looks sad and has to wear a headset from 1992? It's not like they are going to talk to me, with their mouth.

-Josh

Everyone wants a piece of the premium market, but in the end of the day it's just another Windows PC.

@Bass: I'm not sure that crapy and Windows are interchangeable. Correlation does not imply causation, or does it? Anyways, you can't even find a computer that doesn't run WIndows. Dammed if it does, and dammed if it dosen't, if you ask me. If Apple didn't actively prevent OEMs from preloading Mac OS X, you would have crapy Macs too.

The problem isn't that Windows runs on crap, it's that people actually CHOOSE to purchase crap. Microsoft should offer people their money back, for Windows, if the computer that runs it doesn't meet some modest quality guidelines.

But alas, Windows 8 will run on the same crappy computer that can run Windows 7. Hurray for mediocrity! 

-Josh

@JoshRoss: Looks nice to me.

8 hours ago, JoshRoss wrote

@Bass: I'm not sure that crapy and Windows are interchangeable. Correlation does not imply causation, or does it? Anyways, you can't even find a computer that doesn't run WIndows. Dammed if it does, and dammed if it dosen't, if you ask me. If Apple didn't actively prevent OEMs from preloading Mac OS X, you would have crapy Macs too.

The problem isn't that Windows runs on crap, it's that people actually CHOOSE to purchase crap. Microsoft should offer people their money back, for Windows, if the computer that runs it doesn't meet some modest quality guidelines.

But alas, Windows 8 will run on the same crappy computer that can run Windows 7. Hurray for mediocrity! 

-Josh

I think people buy crappy hardware because the only argument manufacturers are good at is price, price, and price. And quite frankly, it isn't Microsoft fault if the pastic of my girlfriend HP laptop started to crack after a month of use...

@giovanni: Hence the race to the bottom.

@Ray7: Maybe there is hope:

http://www.vizio.com/ not bad for a newcomer, anyone has any experience with this brand? Unfortunately it is not available in Europe

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/hp-envy-14-spectre-announced/ a little better than the other one

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/dell-has-an-ultrabook-on-the-way-tomorrow/ another step in the right direction