HP Announces Yet Another Mobile Product That Will Fail

The HP Elite X3 measures just 7.8mm thick, weighs 190 grams (0.42lbs) and features a military-grade MIL-STD-810 rating for 1-foot drop protection. Remember when people said the Motorola Atrix and its Laptop Doc were ahead of their time? HP is jumping into the Windows 10 Mobile ecosystem and it’s doing so with a bang. The device will also support “Windows Hello” by incorporating a fingerprint scanner and an Iris (retina) scanner. In the December quarter Windows phones were just 6.3 per cent of sales, according to the latest Kantar World CommTech figures.

“The end-to-end thinking by HP that went into the Elite x3 is innovative”, said Tom Richards, chief executive officer, CDW.

In betting on Continuum, Microsoft’s software for making smartphones work like PCs when plugged into a dock, HP is entering little-known territory. One of the docking stations allows you to plug a large keyboard, monitor, Ethernet and so on into the phablet-sized smartphone.

Ports include a USB 3.0 Type-C connector, and Pogo pins to be used for connecting accessory sleeves for industries such as retail point-of-sale. No data is stored on the Mobile Extender for additional security and all of the apps, passwords and files are managed and stored from the Elite x3. But it’s light and small, with a 12.5-inch display and a 48Wh battery, which HP says should get you through a couple of days with a single charge. The Elite x3 docks in portrait mode at a comfortable viewing angle when sitting at a desk.

It’s certainly a speedy phone, although that’s to be expected with the sort of power that lies inside.

“What the market doesn’t quite understand yet about Windows 10”, said Park, “is that this is the first time, and the first vendor, that has fully integrated the underlying kernel”.

Continuum running on the Lumia 950.

The HP Elite x3 will be powered by Windows 10 and will launch this summer, with the target customer being business consumers who would be interested in using it as their only work device, eliminating the need for cumbersome desktop or laptops.

Security has also been bolstered to business-worthy levels, and the operating system’s standard hardware encryption is complemented by secure boot, anti-roll back and image encryption features, as well as VPN-SSL support and a Trusted Platform Module microprocessor. With those guts and that exterior, the Elite X3 could be a victor. It packs everything but the kitchen sink and it’s probably what many users had hoped the Lumia 950 XL to be. Get it in your hand, however, and it’s distinctly underwhelming.

The Elite x3, which was designed in conjunction with audio specialist B&O, looks sleeker than your average business-class device: the slim chassis has a predominantly graphite finish, with a metal section at the bottom containing the grille for the front-facing speakers. The rest of the handset is fairly typical: a plastic slab, with slightly curved sides and a flat back. The phone is paired with the laptop via either WiFi or USB-C. There’s a microSD card expansion slot too, and all this is hidden beneath a beastly 5.93-inch quad HD screen.

One spec that stood out head-and-shoulders above the rest was the battery.

The battery in the Elite x3 is a 4,150mAh unit – the biggest capacity we’ve seen to date (the previous biggest being the 4,000mAh battery in Huawei’s Mate 8). Palm almost tried it with the Palm Folio until Engadget talked the company down. Maybe – but I wouldn’t count on it. HP Inc’s big Windows phablet bet is a risky one that’s by no means assured of success. The advantages of using Windows productivity apps across different form factors with Continuum might lure some enterprise users already familiar with Office apps, but that might not be enough apps for the broad array of software that workers need.