The elephant in the room when light, powerful, and durable laptop computers has been the MacBook Air.

Useful, in the limited way that Apple Macs are, that device had grown both real, and illusory powers, that the rumors about it had reached mythical proportions.

I couldn’t shout “Gimmie a break!” loud enough, and openly prayed for someone – for me, that means HP! – to deliver a device that would knock not just that device, but it’s countless proponents off their maybe deserved perch!

Well, I worry no more.

A few seconds ago at their annual HP Discover Barcelona exposition, HP’s Chairman (Chairperson? Chairwoman?) & CEO, Meg Whitman, publicly announced a device I have had for a while now, and that I have been dropping veiled hints about: the new HP EliteBook Folio 1020.

I believe that this device which has the chops to be the MacBook Air killer, has, like the proverbial eagle, landed.

The HP EliteBook Folio is new, sports the very latest Intel Broadwell CPUs, it is completely without any moving parts.

None whatsoever.

Look at that gorgeous screenshot!

It has a MacBook Air-thrashing touchscreen with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, has solid state drives, and ships with a fingerprint reader, a vastly improved keyboard with backlighting, Intel vPro and TPM support.

Additionally, as an EliteBook, it gets to use a discrete and enhanced technical support route within HP.

It comes with twin charging USB ports, and an integral HDMI port for collaboration.

Aesthetically, this device also rocks, as the case is made of Mg-Li and reusable carbon fiber.

So Far
In testing, the device is responsive, the new keyboard is superb, and the integrated touchpad is the most comfortable I have used in a very long while.

It is light. Very light, in fact.

Best of all, it runs Microsoft Windows.

For years, the ne plus ultra when it comes to business-class notebooks has been the Apple MacBook Air.

No longer.

This device has the specs, and moxie, to be the New Leader in notebook computers.

In fact, I will put my money where my mouth is, and purchase an Apple MacBook Air to test this device against once a GA copy is laid on me.

© 2002 – 2014, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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