12-inch MacBook Vs. HP EliteBook Folio 1020 Review: Bang For The Buck

Both the 12-inch MacBook and Hewlett-Packard EliteBook Folio 1020 are excellent laptops with tablet-like portability. So, which delivers the best bang for the buck?

Apple 12-inch MacBook with Retina display: nutshell: a novel design that combines extreme portability (2 pounds) with productivity. Quality/usability: I used the 12-inch MacBook (1.1 GHz) full time for a month and a half and found it to be almost flawless -- at least for my tastes. It is fast enough for the tasks that most people do, has one the best high-resolution (2,304-by-1,440) displays out there, and comes with an innovative, ultra-thin keyboard that I came to like a lot. The much-maligned single USB-C port isn't the deal-killer it's made out to be if you pick up Apple's Digital AV Multiport Adapter ($79), which provides a charging port, standard USB connector, and HDMI port for an external display. I got the adapter and easily connected the MacBook to a Dell 2,560-by-1,440 display while simultaneously being plugged into a wall outlet and connecting to USB devices. Bang for the buck: Until some very recent select sales, the 12-inch MacBook had been out of reach for a lot of consumers -- starting at $1,299 for the entry-level model with a 1.1GHz "Broadwell" 5th Generation Intel Core M processor (a lower-performance processor built for "fanless" designs), 8GB of RAM, and 256GB solid-state drive. Bump that up to 1.2GHz with a 512GB SSD and you're talking $1,599, even further out of reach. But  Best Buy appears to be feeling the pain of slow sales and is now in its second week (as of Friday, March 11) of discounting the entry-level model to $999.99 and the 512GB model to $1,299.99. At the regular price (starting at $1,299) it's a hard sell. At $999, it's easy to recommend if you're looking for a laptop that is as totable as an iPad but delivers the productivity of a laptop.

HP EliteBook Folio 1020: nutshell: this is one of the highest quality and lightest Windows laptops I've ever used. Quality/usability: beyond the build quality (MIL-SPEC aluminum and magnesium alloy), the 2.7-pound 1020 is offered with business-friendly features like a fingerprint reader, NFC, and a 2,560-by-1440 anti-glare 12.5-inch touch display. It also has one of the best keyboards I’ve used on a Windows laptop. Below the keyboard is a Synaptics’ ForcePad -- a clickless, pressure sensitive glass trackpad that takes a little getting used to but ultimately worked fine for me. Bang for the buck: being a laptop aimed at business (particularly large corporate) clientele, it’s pricey at the high end. If you opt for the EliteBook Folio 1020 Bang & Olufsen model, it's priced at $1,399 on HP’s site. That comes with Windows 10 Pro 64, the 2,560-by-1440 anti-glare touch display (cited above), an Intel Core M 1.2GHz Broadwell processor, 8GB SDRAM, and a 512GB SSD (though, inexplicably, non-Bang & Olufsen 256GB variants can be more expensive). Because the Bang & Olufsen 1020 comes with a 512GB SSD, it beats the 512GB MacBook’s bang-for-the-buck at the latter’s regular (non-sale) price of $1,599. HP also offers an entry-level model for $999 with a 1.1GHz Core M chip, 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, and an anti-glare 1,920-by-1,080 non-touch display. If you get a 12-inch MacBook on sale, that’s a better deal. However, sans the MacBook sale price, the $999 EliteBook is a great deal and I would recommend it without reservation. It comes with two USB 3.0 charging ports, HDMI, docking connector, and headphone/microphone combo.