HP EliteBook Revolve 810 G2 Tablet 11.6″ Touchscreen Business Laptop Computer, Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

Description

Click to EnlargeThe HP EliteBook Revolve 810 is bound to turn heads. The sleek magnesium and aluminum chassis is coated in a soft-touch finish, which is not only comfortable while carrying the notebook, but when using it as well. As an added benefit, the chassis hides fingerprints. With the exception of the bottom, which is matte black, all the surfaces have a silver-aluminum color. We like that the top of the lid is beveled slightly around the edges.

But this notebook’s design provides more than just looks. The Revolve, which is 30 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than its predecessor, the EliteBook, passed seven MIL SPEC-810G tests, including those for drops (26 drops on every corner from 30 inches), vibration, dust, altitude and temperature (140 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 20 degrees).

At 11.2 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches and weighing 3 pounds, the Revolve 810 is light for a notebook, but on the heavy side for a tablet. Still, this convertible is lighter than the 12.5 x 8.5 x 0.6-0.8 inch Dell XPS 12,

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Along the right side of the Revolve is a volume rocker, a sliding power switch and a rotation lock switch. The bottom of the notebook is divided into two panels, one for the battery and the other for easy access to components such as the hard drive and RAM.

Display

Click to EnlargeThe 11.6-inch touch screen on the Revolve has a resolution of 1366 x 768; while that’s the same as the ThinkPad Twist, we wish it came with a 1080p panel, as on the XPS 12. Still, the resolution is more than suitable for most tasks, and we especially like the wide viewing angles, which help when the Revolve is in tablet mode. Business users will also appreciate the fact that the display is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 2, which will help protect it in tablet mode.

When watching a 1080p trailer for “Skyfall,” dark scenes were deep with no artifacts, and bright colors, such as the bomb going off in M’s office, were bright and vivid. We could make out the individual hairs in Daniel Craig’s stubble.

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Averaging 376 lux, the Revolve’s screen crushed the ultraportable notebook category average of 227 lux and the ThinkPad Twist (206 lux), but falls short of the XPS 12 (434 lux).

The touch screen, which supports up to 10 fingers simultaneously, was highly responsive when executing Windows 8 gestures.

Audio

Powered by DTS Studio Sound, the EliteBook 810’s stereo speakers sound good considering the notebook’s size, but audio suffered from a lack of bass. The vocals in Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” came through clearly, but the high hat sounded slightly tinny, and we could barely hear the bass line. The speakers were able to fill our office, but just barely.

Keyboard

Click to EnlargeTyping on the Revolve 810 was a delight. Despite the smaller chassis, the island-style keys are large and well-spaced, and the slightly gritty texture on the top kept our fingers in place. Its backlighting was evenly lit, and bright enough for us to type comfortably in a darkened room. We also like that the keyboard is spill-resistant; a drain in the bottom funnels any liquid safely through the chassis, and presumably onto your desk or pants.

The 3.5 x 1.9-inch Alps GlidePoint clickpad proved a little trickier. When we first started using the Revolve, we moved the cursor accidentally more than once while typing this review. We had to change the TouchGuard setting in the mouse control panel to the second-most sensitive setting to alleviate this palm rejection problem.