HP Elite X2 1012 review: A business-class 2-in-1 Hybrid

HP's 11.6-inch Elite X2 1012 pays obvious homage to Microsoft's successful Surface Pro 4, and also competes with the recently reviewed Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet. With a starting price of £660 (ex. VAT, or £792 inc. VAT), including a basic Travel Keyboard, the Elite X2 1012 is competitively priced: Microsoft's entry-level Core m3/4GB/128GB Surface Pro 4 costs £749 (inc. VAT) -- but that's without a Type Cover keyboard, which adds another £110 (inc. VAT). That sounds like good value for money, but does it deliver?

 All of HP's Elite laptops and hybrids meet MIL-STD 810G levels of ruggedness, which should inspire confidence among mobile professionals. The X2 1012's detachable Travel Keyboard is exceptionally thin and light at just 5.4mm and 385g, and yet is solidly made.

I'm not a fan of the keyboard's felt-like backing material, though. It doesn't look great, is likely to get snagged by bag-detritus and stained by liquids in pretty short order, and doesn't do a particularly good job of stopping the keyboard slipping about on a desk.

The backing extends beyond the back of the keyboard to house the docking port for the tablet, whose magnets are strong enough to keep the two sections together very securely. An extra 30mm of the backing can be folded in on itself and adheres to the bottom screen bezel, again via magnets, to prop the keyboard up at a comfortable angle for typing.

 All of HP's Elite laptops and hybrids meet MIL-STD 810G levels of ruggedness, which should inspire confidence among mobile professionals. The X2 1012's detachable Travel Keyboard is exceptionally thin and light at just 5.4mm and 385g, and yet is solidly made.

I'm not a fan of the keyboard's felt-like backing material, though. It doesn't look great, is likely to get snagged by bag-detritus and stained by liquids in pretty short order, and doesn't do a particularly good job of stopping the keyboard slipping about on a desk.
The backing extends beyond the back of the keyboard to house the docking port for the tablet, whose magnets are strong enough to keep the two sections together very securely. An extra 30mm of the backing can be folded in on itself and adheres to the bottom screen bezel, again via magnets, to prop the keyboard up at a comfortable angle for typing.

 The tablet's large screen bezel is no surprise for a 2-in-1 device, but it does mean that the 11.6-inch display sits in a chassis that's perhaps a little large at 300mm wide by 213.5mm deep. With the Travel Keyboard attached, the Elite X2 1012's thickness rises from 8.05mm to 13.45mm, while the weight goes up from 820g to 1.2kg.

The rear-facing camera sits in a strip of black at the top that breaks up the tablet's otherwise entirely silver metal backing. The kickstand emerges from the back to prop the tablet on a desk for working. The stand's hinges are tight, so it takes a little effort to push it to its widest angl. You can tilt the screen back to around 150 degrees, which caters for a range of different use cases -- as long as they are desk-based. As with many kickstand-based designs, 'lappability' was a problem and I found it tricky to balance the Elite X2 1012 on my knees.