HP Folio 13-1001TU: The best Ultrabook to date?

The Ultrabook is Intel's name for a new set of laptop standards:

    Thin – less than 21 mm (0.8 inch) thickness
    Lightweight – less than 1.4 kg (3.1 pounds)
    Long battery life – 5 to 8+ hours
    Mainstream pricing – around $1,000 USD
    May use flash-based SSDs
    Use CULV (17 W TDP) Intel Sandy Bridge mobile processors
        Core i5-2467M (1.6 GHz)
        Core i5-2557M (1.7 GHz)
        Core i7-2637M (1.7 GHz)
        Core i7-2677M (1.8 GHz)
    Use Intel's graphics sub-system HD Graphics 3000

Source: Wikipedia

HP Folio 13-1001TU

The 13.3-inch HP Folio 13-1001TU has an Intel Core i5-2467M processor, a healthy 4GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD for storage. The price is US$899, which is the same price as Acers S3 Ultrabook, but the HP Folio 13-1001TU cuts less corners. It has a SSD drive rather than using hybrid (SSD + Regular hard drive) for storage. It has a back lit keyboard.

Reviewers confirm it has an excellent keyboard and trackpad, and report no serious issues. It battery life has been tested at a real world 7 hours, a tad bit longer than the 13-inch MacBook Air.

The Downside - Not exactly up to specs. The HP Folio 13-1001TU is 22 mm thick and weighs in at 1.49 kgs. Meaning it is 1 mm thicker and 0.09 kgs heavier than Ultrabook standards. Our view. We really do not care. It is still terribly thin and reasonably light.

The Downside - Local pricing is high. The US$899 Acer S3 is sold locally for about Php44,990. The US$899 HP Folio 13-1001TU retails locally for Php55,990. 

Basically, it is overpriced in the Philippines at 56K price. Still it is 10K lower than 13.3-inch MacBook Air (128GB) at Php65,990.

At below 50K the HP Folio 13-1001TU could become a very popular product fro HP. At 56K, it is still a good choice, but there is that nagging feeling that you are still paying more than you should.