New Business Laptops, FORGE…and the Drop Test.

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Just because you have a laptop that’s ready to get the job done, doesn’t mean that it has to look the part. That’s the message that I received recently while chatting with HP’s Sarah Bussell. As manager of Business Notebook Product Marketing, she was on-hand to give a quick tour of the 10 newest laptops to sport the ProBook and EliteBook names, but we spent most of the time talking about design. Well, at least until I dropped the laptop.

The big buzz word lobbed around: “FORGE.” Is it metal-sounding because of the new magnesium-aluminum casing? Partially. It’s also because of the HP DisplaySafe frame that lines the lid, the quick-access buttons to key features and the battery lock to name a few. You know, rather than me yammer on about it, let’s check in with Sarah to get the full story. Just check the video – and stick around for my “test.”

There’s obviously a lot more to the stories of the individual laptops. They fall into three different classes: There’s the ProBook-S series that’s best-suited for the small-business crowd. The ProBook-B series is gear more toward the public sector, education and mid-sized companies. Then comes the EliteBook p series that claims high-end performance and being business-rugged as its calling cards. There are a bunch of stories up now on the 367 Addision Avenue blog that go into more detail about each of the laptop series updates.

Feel free to check those stories, but let’s hear it from you. What are you looking for in a business notebook? Form? Function? A little bit of both?