Hybrid workers are fed up with the tech tools they're using for remote meetings, according to research from Owl Labs, saying constant glitches are wasting their time.

Almost three quarters (74%) of UK employees say they would prefer to work in a hybrid model. And those that do are fiercely attached to it, with 93% insisting they'd take some form of action if they were forced to go into the office every day.

Yet despite a continued appetite for flexible working practices, Owl Labs found nearly three-quarters (74%) of employees are having difficulties in hybrid meetings.

Around eight-in-ten (79%) said they were losing time to technical difficulties, 78% reporting audio echo or distortion, and 74% saying they miss visual cues.

One of the biggest time-wasters is simply getting a meeting set up, which wastes an average of six-and-a-half minutes per meeting.

As a result, tech is now a top‑three workplace priority, with 89% of UK employees saying access to good technology is important – putting it just behind compensation (92%) and a supportive manager (91%).

The issue is a particular focus for workers in large businesses, where 93% of employees cite good technology as important, compared with 88% in medium-sized organizations and 84% in small businesses.

Younger workers are especially demanding when it comes to digital experiences, with more than half (54%) of Gen Z and Millennial employees rating good technology as “very important”, compared with just a third (35%) of Gen X and Boomers.

"Technology has moved from a support function to core hybrid infrastructure. When meeting technology fails, it doesn’t just cause mild annoyance, it undermines wellbeing and derails collaboration,” said Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs.

"Employers and employees alike can’t afford for their most important interactions to be held together by last-minute workarounds.”

Enterprises are investing in better office tech

Employers are doing their best to improve office tech, with 69% encouraging the use of AI and 87% of employees having already experimented with AI at work.

More than one-third (38%) have increased IT staff and support, while 35% have either installed or upgraded their meeting room video and/or audio equipment.

“The UK is at a turning point: organizations are investing heavily in AI and meeting technology, but the real value comes when those tools are intuitive, inclusive and trusted,” said Weishaupt.

“Smarter meeting technology can alleviate setup challenges, sharpen audio and video, and make it easier for everyone to participate, without resorting to intrusive monitoring. In the next phase of hybrid work, the organizations that rely on ever‑tighter monitoring will fall behind those that focus on smarter, more connected collaboration.”

Researchers have long been aware that online meetings are uniquely exhausting. The issue was exacerbated during the mass shift to remote working during the early days of the COVID pandemic.

Analysis from Microsoft at the time found remote calls were much more tiring that face-to-face meetings, with fatigue setting in after about 30 to 40 minutes.

Having a uniform background can help, as can basic etiquette like staying on mute until ready to talk, and using good-quality audio and video equipment.

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HSBC has told UK staff they risk bonuses unless they return to the office as the financial services giant cracks down on hybrid working policies.

According to reports from Bloomberg, HSBC told employees that those who don't come into the office at least three days a week could end up earning less money due to reduced bonus payouts.

As part of the move, HSBC reportedly told workers it would make use of internal attendance data when making future decisions about compensation.

Notably, the company isn't shifting to a full return to the office. Instead, the bank aims to enforce existing hybrid work policies introduced 18 months ago.

These policies require staff to spend 60% of their time in the office, or at a customer’s office.

HSBC UK refused to comment on the reports when approached by ITPro.

The return to office battle continues

HSBC is by no means the first financial services firm to implement more robust hybrid working policies. Lloyds said at the beginning of the year that in-office attendance would come into play when deciding bonuses for some senior staff, according to reports at the time.

Tying attendance to work benefits does raise some problems for those taking a stricter approach, however. Last year, Dell Technologies warned staff that they risked missing out on promotions if they failed to come into the office at least three days a week.

The move was met with a fierce backlash from staff at the tech giant, and prompted a nosedive in workforce morale, according to an internal survey conducted in the wake of the policy change.

RTO crackdowns vary in severity

While RTO mandates at most other companies tend to require a minimum of around three days in the office, some have taken a harder stance on the matter.

Amazon ordered staff back for the full five days a week, even though it lacked office space for everyone, while JP Morgan has also required all staff to return to the office five days a week.

Others are seeking to encourage rather than force employees to come back to the office - with Google dangling potential perks and benefits for staff.

Back in 2023, Google reportedly offered discounts at its Mountain View hotel in a bewildering move to help staff "re-transition" back to the office and also offered free e-scooters.

Similarly, other companies have offered perks including free lunches, raffles to win prizes such as a car, or even allowing pets to join their owners at corporate headquarters.

While surveys suggest perks do help — Robin's Return to Office research showed 44% of staff polled saw catered lunches, wellness events, and guest speakers as a real draw.

Broadly speaking, bosses remain keen to encourage staff back into the office, but employees overwhelmingly favour flexible working, with three-quarters saying they would turn down work that didn't offer at least a hybrid option.

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It feels like barely a month went by last year without some form of public spat between staff and employers over remote working policies.

Indeed, 2024 was the year of the return-to-office (RTO) mandate, with a host of big tech firms pulling the rug out from under staff and forcing them back to the office.

Chief among these RTO zealots was Dell Technologies and Amazon, with the latter having imposed a full return to the office five days a week. CEO Andy Jassy justified the move under the auspices of improving workforce collaboration and team synergy.

“When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Jassy wrote in a letter addressed to employees.

“I’ve previously explained these benefits, but in summary, we’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another.”

A long-winded justification complete with all the usual tropes from executives looking to return to a time long passed. They conveniently forget the record-breaking profits during a period of fully remote working.

Perhaps the lavish office spaces they’ve spent billions of dollars on are starting to get dusty.

Naturally, Amazon employees weren’t exactly delighted with the company-wide mandate. An anonymous survey signed by hundreds of staff showed widespread disapproval for the move, but the company is charging ahead full-steam nonetheless.

It’s this aspect of the RTO debate that’s so frustrating and will continue to sow discontent in 2025. Dell Technologies wasn’t dissuaded from its own plans despite clear pushback from employees and the impact it had on morale.

Executives want a return to the status-quo, so surefire in their belief that pre-pandemic working practices will be the key to eking out every last penny during what has been a challenging economic period.

A complete disregard for the myriad of readily available studies highlighting the perils of RTO mandates shows the clear disconnect between the average worker and those running the show. Any failure, stutter, or penny lost can’t possibly be due to the failings of leadership – instead we're told it’s down to Joe or Jane Bloggs in marketing working from their home office.

Eric Schmidt’s infamous Stanford University interview perfectly encapsulated this disconnect when claiming Google’s performance in the AI race was due to remote working practices. He retracted his comments, but his comments laid bare the views of many in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Staff at key competitors in the industry aren’t forced to adhere to rigid working policies, so what’s the secret to their continued productivity and success?

Ulterior motives

There are of course more underhand aspects of the RTO debate that need to be addressed; namely the attempt to push staff out to cut costs.

Big tech started 2023 with a horrendous wave of layoffs, with thousands of roles cut across the industry globally, and the year itself continued in that vein, eventually reaching several hundred thousand.

Most hoped that 2024 would be a calmer year, but it was far from it, with another wave of mass layoffs. While not quite at the scale seen in the year prior, the cuts this year have been very deep as enterprises look to continue shedding weight and reducing costs.

Efficiency and streamlining have been the key motivations behind layoffs, but they can only go on for so long before workforce morale plummets and, crucially, investor confidence dips. With that in mind, creating a working environment so frustrating and restrictive to staff seems like a great way to push them out and cut costs further.

It all sounds very tinfoil hat, I know, but research in October this year revealed that pushing staff out through RTO mandates has become a go-to practice among a concerningly large portion of business execs.

The study, from BambooHR, found 18% of HR professionals and 25% of VP and c-suite executives hoped RTO mandates would prompt voluntary turnover.

In the event that turnover didn’t reach satisfactory levels, more than one-third (37%) of directors, managers, and executives actively planned layoffs because fewer people than expected quit.

No light on the horizon, except for workers who jump ship

While 2024 was a troubling year for remote and hybrid workers the world over, next year will likely be worse. Business executives dipped their toes in the water this year, testing the limits of staff and their willingness to fight for more flexible working conditions.

Many tech employees put up a good fight, and more continue to do so. But with major brands charging ahead regardless and forcing staff back to the office, this will likely embolden other hesitant executives worried about causing a ruckus.

If they can do it, why can’t you? Go on, get them back to the office so you can get those creative juices flowing.

It will, research shows, likely come back to bite them. All that collaboration and team synergy will be rendered pointless when their top talent begins looking for alternative options that suit their needs.

Researchers at Stanford University recently found that firms with rigid RTO mandates typically lost their best-performing staff as a result. Senior employees and women were among those most likely to quit, the study noted.

Losing out on crucial talent while battling away in an increasingly competitive business landscape could be disastrous for many enterprises. But they’ve dug their own grave here in a bid to return to the glory days of the pre-pandemic grind.

AWS chief executive Matt Garman boldly suggested that employees unhappy with the company’s RTO mandate could always quit.

“There are other companies around,” he said. Many executives pushing for an RTO will learn that the hard way.

The concept of flexible working has surged in popularity in recent years amid changing perceptions of working practices in the wake of the COVID pandemic. 

The rapid shift to remote work during the early days of the pandemic was expected by some to fizzle out as restrictions eased - but that’s not been the case. 

Instead, many organizations have retained - at the very least - hybrid working practices and have come to realize the benefits of flexible working arrangements. 

Similarly, employees themselves have become increasingly vocal about the necessity of flexible working, according to the Achievers Workforce Institute. 

In a recent webinar entitled ‘Flexibility at Work: What's Working and What's Not’ Caitlin Nobes, lead analyst at the Institute said the definition of ‘flexibility’ has become a fluid concept for employees and employers alike. 

Prior to the pandemic, employees seeking alternative work opportunities typically looked elsewhere due to career progression goals. However, the focus has now changed toward a desire for increased flexibility and autonomy in their daily working lives. 

Nobes revealed that flexible working was identified as the top priority for employees for the first time in the five years that it has been running its annual survey, underlining the shift in focus for workers. 

“For the first five years that we ran this annual survey, career progression was the number one reason people said they were going to job hunt, but today it's flexibility,” said Nobes. “Most employees who can work from anywhere would like the option to at least sometimes work off site.”

The Institute’s analysis aligns closely with alternative research on the topic of workplace flexibility. A study by Gartner found that the “desire for flexibility” is very much here to stay. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of employees told the analyst firm that they expect to work remotely “at least once a week”. This comes in stark contrast to before the pandemic, when just 38% said they expected greater workplace flexibility. 

Flexible working and talent retention

This paradigm shift means that many employers now face adapting how they approach the future of work at their organization. 

In a survey of HR leaders, two-thirds told the Institute that they expect labor challenges to deteriorate further. Therefore, moving forward, organizations that embrace flexible working models can differentiate themselves and help retain critical talent. 

Gartner research shows that more than half (55%) of employees believe flexible work policies will directly affect their decision to stay at an organisation, highlighting flexible policies as a key benefit. 

The topic of flexible working was a key focal point of a recent webinar run by the Achievers Workforce Institute, featuring input from HR leaders at Blue Ivy Group and Amazon Canada. Watch the whole video embedded in this article. 

Alex Meers, director of employment brand and culture, Blu Ivy Group said this topic has now become “table stakes” for every company and that flexible working is often aligned with broader DEI and staff wellbeing goals. 

“It's probably no surprise that DEI has become table stakes now for every company,” he said in a webinar hosted by Achievers Workforce Institute. 

“Wellness has now become a core part of every HR strategy. It's the baseline expectation in every culture. And now we see flexibility shifting to that category from a ‘nice to have’ into a ‘need to have’ for many.”

Remote, hybrid, and flexible - what’s the difference?

In the post-pandemic era of work, there is a notable distinction between the terms ‘hybrid’ and ‘flexible’. However, the two are often conflated, leading to a degree of confusion among employers and employees alike. 

Hybrid work practices typically involve employees working in a combination of office-based and home-based patterns. While this offers them a greater degree of flexibility in terms of work-life balance, there are drawbacks. 

Typically, this is a company-ordained policy and can be rigid in nature, requiring staff to come to the office on set days of the week. A range of global brands currently operate hybrid work practices.  

Google, for example, introduced new policies this year requiring staff to work from the office a minimum of three days per week. 

Under this policy change, staff would be penalized for failing to attend in-office days regularly. This practice, by its very nature, is contradictory to the concept of ‘flexible’ working and may put pressure on employees to feel the need to conform to such policies even if it's not in the best interest.  

By contrast, flexible working provides employees with a far more fluid work setup, enabling them to still combine office and remote work practices, but on their terms. Under the true umbrella of flexible working, staff can also choose the hours they work based around their personal commitments, such as childcare, for example. 

Fundamentally, autonomy is crucial in any flexible working plan, according to Meers. 

“The conversation [on flexible working] is usually limited to where and when work is done, so leaders end up focusing on hybrid versus remote work. And in reality, employees are actually referring to more than that,” he said. 

“We're talking about flexibility in terms of how work is done, generally. And in some ways employees today want what they've always wanted, which is autonomy, trust, and agency to do their jobs in a way that works for them.”

Research from Gartner shows that granting employees and teams autonomy over how and where they work is highly beneficial in several ways, resulting in improved wellbeing and higher performance among staff. 

Employees granted greater autonomy and flexibility in their working patterns were found to be less fatigued and 2.3 times more likely to stay with their organization. 

Flexible working in action

Insurance giant Zurich is among a host of global organizations to have introduced flexible working plans for its employees in recent years. 

The firm first introduced flexible work options prior to the pandemic, enabling staff to request a host of flexible options, such as:

• Changing the days they work
• Changing the hours and/or times they work
• The ability to change to part-time, full-time, or to a job-share setup. 

Employee feedback shows that the initiative has been highly beneficial in terms of productivity, wellbeing, and ensuring a more reasonable work-life balance since its launch in 2019. 

Applications to the company were also boosted by two thirds (66%) since its launch, according to the firm, highlighting the appeal for jobseekers. 

Great expectations

Productivity improvements among staff are among the most notable benefits of flexible working, according to research. 

In Gartner’s 2021 Digital Worker Experience Survey, 43% of respondents said flexible working hours helped them achieve “greater productivity”.

Given the range of benefits offered by flexible working, organizations today can’t afford to lag behind on commitments to employees. 

Cultivating a more flexible, productive, and happy workforce could be the difference between weathering current economic conditions and losing vital talent during a precarious period in the global skills market. 

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) expects flexible working to persist in the coming years, meaning businesses have a prime opportunity to differentiate themselves and create a more efficient, distributed workforce. 

Tips for flexible working policies

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development offers a range of best practice tips and advice on how employers and employees can broach the topic of flexible working. 

Notable tips include: 

• Allowing staff to openly request flexible working from the onset of their employment
• Offer different types of flexible working, such as a four-day work week, flexible hours, and the ability to work from different locations
• Ensure consultation with staff when designing flexible or hybrid work practices
• Invest in relevant tools and technologies to support flexible working
• Consider inclusion and equality when embarking on a flexible working plan

At a time when enterprises are grappling with economic pressures while simultaneously managing the explosive growth of data, it’s critical for the channel to be flexible to the changing needs and demands of organizations.

But how can the channel respond when fundamental market shifts change enterprises’ business strategies and create new opportunities?  

Similarly, how can resellers and system integrators be profitable when technology trends are forcing end-user organizations to rethink their business and data management models?

Drivers of data mobilization

Take the transformation brought about by multi-cloud strategies and mobilization of enterprise data, for example. 

In recent years, we have seen the rise of multiple cloud offerings, mobile devices being deployed across entire workforces, and millions of sensors pumping out data in large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) applications, all of which have created massive data flows at the edge.

This mobilization of data has been further accelerated by hybrid working and re-engineering of supply chains to achieve resilience. 

If you add in the startling growth of unstructured data like images, designs – reckoned to be around 75% of data generated by 2025 - it can’t be stored in traditional databases, and there is scope for enterprises to achieve new levels of data intelligence and customer insight.

Trusted partnerships – four main characteristics

These sea changes in data’s generation and use have rapidly undermined the wisdom of tying enterprise data to on-premises data centers and storage infrastructures. 

As a result, vendors are placing emphasis on trusted strategic partnerships to help meet partners’ business goals and enterprise customers’ more sophisticated data needs in the multi-cloud era. 

The right channel partnership has four main characteristics: 

Building long-term trust

The first element of successful partnerships is a focus on strategic, long-term, relationships with trusted channel partners that deliver phased revenue growth. 

This should be a key focus, rather than resorting to short-term tactics such as widening distribution arrangements or rapidly appointing an abundance of untested partners. 

The most effective way to deliver these end customer goals is through establishing, investing in and nurturing strong and transparent partnerships with a core of proven UK partners. 

Calling upon expert knowledge

The second characteristic is partners’ expertise. UK organizations have understandably been buffeted by cost pressures and global upheavals. 

As such, they urgently require effective strategies for managing and liberating their unstructured data. 

Most of all, they want to better understand how they can leverage the cloud offerings for complete scalability across their business, achieve greater savings and simplicity, while protecting critical data against ever-growing cyber threats.

Revenue generation focus

Third, to help channel partners boost their knowledge and make money from multi-cloud opportunities, vendors need a sustained focus on developing joint revenue development strategies with their channel partners’ sales teams, with initiatives in various areas:

1. Investing in market development with each partner and securing strategic accounts using market intelligence and establishing joint sales opportunities.
2. Maintaining strong alliances with global providers to enable sales opportunities for large enterprises with an international footprint.
3. A continual focus on service excellence; continuously updating and supplying sales and technical training, face-to-face partner training and regular product development sessions for partners’ sales and technology delivery teams.

Joint innovation models

The fourth component of partnership success is agile innovation, such as capitalizing on the rise of open source and collaborating with modern technology – the joint innovation model. 

Vendors can also help channel partners enhance profitability, based on innovative approaches to alliance capabilities and by trailing and testing new profitability models. 

In the multi-cloud arena, vendors are continuing to invest in new capabilities in hybrid cloud storage which makes enterprises’ file data systems more agile, scalable and cost-effective for partners and end users alike. At the same time, cybersecurity continues to be an acute challenge that businesses are facing.

Over the last 12 months, 69% of large businesses in the UK say they have experienced a breach. As such, being ready for cyber-attacks like ransomware is critical for organizations. To help with this challenge, modern hybrid cloud platforms are now providing ransomware detection and recovery capabilities. 

These new features enable organizations that experience ransomware attacks to wind back to the precise moment before the attack and rapidly restore file systems at multiple edge points from there –  in a matter of minutes. 

This is a last line of defense for businesses, as they can mitigate and detect attacks with their hybrid cloud platform to further bolster security. 

Hybrid cloud providers are also providing open-source repositories to help partners capture potential ideas for new product developments from end-user interactions and challenges for personalized product development. 

The future of the channel relies on strong partnerships

The mobilization of enterprises’ data to edge applications and hybridized workplaces has posed questions for customer organizations and channel partners alike. 

They need to adapt and tackle the acute challenges presented by this acceleration of digitisation, including scaling existing solutions at a manageable cost for unprecedented data growth, while protecting files in a landscape of increasing cyber threat. 

But change brings opportunity with it, too. By building long-term channel strategies based on trusted relationships, collaborating with expert partners, a mutual focus on revenue generation, and a joint approach to innovation, vendors are helping partners grow and ensure successful business transformation in the cloud era.

Working in security operations means living with the quiet dread of a middle-of-the-night call saying your organization has been hit by the cyber attack you tried so hard to defend against. It means constantly wondering whether your work is enough to keep ransomware groups at bay. With the threat landscape growing every year and attackers’ tools becoming more sophisticated, the difficulty of keeping users and endpoints protected is increasing.

With most modern businesses operating with a hybrid cloud model, they need a security strategy that meets the requirements set by a hybrid world. As organizations place greater reliance on the cloud to keep their business-critical data secure, attackers are becoming increasingly wise to how they can inflict the most damage. Now more than ever, it's truly imperative to embrace a robust hybrid cloud security strategy to keep your business running and its data safe.

Cloud security landscape

According to Check Point Research’s figures, the number of cloud-based cyber attacks rose 48% in 2022. Similarly, CrowdStrike observed a near-threefold increase in the number of cloud-focused threat actors in its most recent data. The numbers lay bare the state of the threat organizations face and if the trends continue as they have over the past decade, attacks are likely to get worse.

Modern cyber attacks are continually evolving in capability and severity. While security has always been top of mind for IT leaders, it’s only recently that it’s become an important board room topic, as the consequences of a security incident have become more profound.

Two complementary ways of dealing with this situation include adopting an assumption of breach and zero trust. The former means working from the assumption that a malicious actor has already made their way through the organization’s defenses and refusing to trust any infrastructure until it has proven that it’s trustworthy and is free of intruders. Zero trust means any user or endpoint is granted access to systems on a case-by-case basis and also incorporates the principle of least privilege: Giving people and devices access only to the information and systems they need and no more. This severely restricts the lateral movement of anyone who has managed to gain access to the corporate network illicitly.

This dual approach is perfect in a hybrid cloud world as it protects data whether it’s on premises in the data center, in a private cloud, in a colo, or even in the public cloud.

HPE GreenLake’s approach to zero trust

According to the 2023 Global Study on Closing the IT Security Gap report by The Ponemon Institute, 83% of top-performing security teams have either already adopted zero trust models in their environments, or plan to in the next 12 months. This represents a significant shift in the approach to security for most organizations, but it’s a move in the right direction. The expertise of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) can help organizations design and implement a zero trust strategy that’s bespoke to their hybrid estate.

Trusting nothing and making every device, user, and application prove it has the right to access areas of the network, reduces the reliance on traditional ‘castle and moat’ style perimeter defenses like firewalls, private networks, virtual private networks, and virtual private clouds, which are based upon on the now-outdated assumption that everything inside the perimeter is already safe. 

Zero trust helps organizations protect their assets from insider threats, malware, and ransomware attacks from edge to cloud. It can even help combat attacks against lower-level infrastructure using tools such as rootkits and bootkits.

The HPE GreenLake zero trust strategy goes beyond the traditional approach, which applies zero trust only at the network level. Partnering with HPE can help organizations first understand why they need to implement zero trust and where it can be applied to extract the most value. From there, HPE Services can help each organization determine the correct zero trust strategy for all its applications, data, items of infrastructure, and workloads. Adopting zero trust with HPE GreenLake allows businesses to take a comprehensive, risk-based approach to security, and design bespoke policies for each layer of an IT environment that delivers zero trust security from edge to cloud.

Transforming hybrid cloud security

As an increasing number of organizations deploy hybrid cloud architectures, the need for a comprehensive zero trust strategy grows. The pace of change in the threat landscape means new attacks are continually being developed and no matter where a device is located, it can be targeted. With a unique mixture of physical and virtual components to protect, it's important that zero trust is applied to every layer so any user, device, or application - and any cyber criminal or malware payload – must be verified before it can access anything of value or do any damage.

In a hybrid cloud environment, zero trust’s inherent least-privilege access controls prevent all cloud applications and users that attempt to access an area of the network from being able to create backdoors into the wider IT estate or use compromised accounts to access the keys to the kingdom. It’s the way to go for the greatest peace of mind, knowing that even if an attacker were to target your organization, stringent zero trust controls would prevent them from verifying their access attempt, thwarting potential data theft, system compromise, or a ransomware incident.

Security operations personnel can greatly benefit from a capable, unified approach to hybrid cloud security management. The HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform offers all this, as well as streamlined control with its dashboard delivering ‘single pane of glass’ management for every customer, facilitating faster identification and response to threats.

With HPE GreenLake’s zero trust-driven hybrid cloud security approach, you can reduce organizational risk and the potential for security breaches, while gaining better control of tools, increased quality of security alerts, and a greatly elevated user experience.

With all the security vulnerabilities impacting cloud environments, manually monitoring a hybrid cloud environment can be a difficult and lengthy task for even the most astute operations team. Partnering with HPE GreenLake can help gain full visibility and granular control over security, backed up by a built-in foundation for zero trust beyond just the network layer. Its experts can help guide businesses in developing a bespoke zero trust strategy that offers the most robust protection against the threats of today and tomorrow.

For more information, visit Secure your data with HPE GreenLake | HPE United Kingdom

Employee perceptions of workplace flexibility have changed dramatically in recent years due to the rise of remote and hybrid working, prompting many organizations to reconsider their approach to working practices. 

Research from the Achievers Workforce Institute shows that the definition of flexibility is becoming increasingly fluid for both employers and employees alike. 

Traditionally, the reasons for employees seeking opportunities elsewhere was due to career progression, but now it’s flexibility, according to Caitlin Nobles, lead analyst at the Institute.

“For the first five years that we ran this annual survey, career progression was the number one reason people said they were going to job hunt, but today it's flexibility,” said Nobles. “Most employees who can work from anywhere would like the option to at least sometimes work off site.”

This means that employers now face a critical choice amid what is a challenging period for the labor force. Two-thirds of HR leaders say that they expect labor challenges to worsen, so organizations that embrace flexible working models can differentiate themselves and help retain critical talent. 

Maintaining the flexibility status quo

Megan Woerlein, senior HR leader at Amazon Canada said that key elements within the workforce are pushing to maintain the ‘status quo’ of flexible working.

This is because many who have spent several years working remotely or in a hybrid capacity now view this as a beneficial aspect of their working life.

“I think right now there is a subset of the employee population that sees any sort of return to work mandate as something is being taken away from them,” she said. 

“I think there is this great want and push to maintain the status quo, which I think is hard for employers.”

The topic of flexible working will be the key focal point of a webinar run by the Achievers Workforce Institute on July 12, featuring input from HR leaders at Blue Ivy Group and Amazon Canada. 

Click here more information on how to register for the webinar.

Google is set to take a tougher approach to employee office attendance following changes to its hybrid work policies. 

Reports from CNBC suggest that Google plans to track office badge data to monitor attendance and will actively confront staff who continue to work remotely when scheduled to attend the office. 

Chief people officer Fiona Cicconi told staff in an email that the tech giant will continue its minimum attendance baseline of three days a week. However, office attendance metrics will be used in employee performance reviews moving forward. 

Workers who are consistently absent from the office will also be sent reminders to encourage attendance. 

Additional tracking of staff attendance for workers will rely on badge data when checking into the office.

At present, this appears to be limited to workers in the United States. However, internal documents viewed by the publication showed that executives are in the process of evaluating local legal requirements to expand the scheme in other countries. 

Cicconi said the firm’s new approach to office attendance aims to foster more collaborative ties among staff, noting that there is “no substitute for coming together in person”. 

“Of course, not everyone believes in ‘magic hallway conversations’, but there’s no question that working together in the same room makes a positive difference,” she told staff.

In her email, Cicconi added that “many of the products” unveiled at the I/O and Google Marketing Live conferences held last month were “conceived, developed, and built by teams working side by side”.

Fully remote workers at Google will also be asked to “reconsider” their working patterns, Cicconi said. 

CNBC revealed that separate internal documents showed pre-approved remote staff could be subject to re-evaluation. This could be dependent on a range of factors, including “material changes in business need” or team changes.

“For those who are remote and who live near a Google office, we hope you’ll consider switching to a hybrid work schedule,” Cicconi said. “Our offices are where you’ll be most connected to Google’s community.”

Hybrid work crackdown

This latest move from Google follows a lengthy drive to encourage staff back into the office at sites across the US and globally. 

The firm repeatedly delayed its return to the office during the COVID-19 pandemic due to rapidly evolving infection rates and the emergence of new variants. 

In 2021, Google faced intense backlash from staff after pushing for a return to the office. This prompted the firm to reconsider its remote working policies and allow a significant portion of staff to continue working from home. 

Staff have been required to attend the office at least three days a week since April 2022, however. 

Despite pushing for a larger pool of staff to return to the office, Google has been cutting its real estate footprint in recent months due to dwindling demand and rising costs. 

In February, staff at the tech giant’s cloud division were asked to begin sharing desks at several office locations across the US, including its New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Kirkland offices. 

The move formed part of a “real estate efficiency” drive from the firm and saw employees asked to pair up with colleagues and alternate in-office shift patterns. 

Google said at the time that the policy would enable it to “continue to invest in Cloud’s growth”. The firm noted that in the long term, the move could result in some offices being vacated. 

For over a decade, cloud computing has revolutionized the way we work, and public cloud services from hyperscalers, SaaS companies such as Dropbox, Salesforce, and more changed the way compute, storage and software were consumed. 

The use of SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and myriad other ‘as a service’ offerings has only grown since then, with organizations steadily testing and adopting more and more cloud services. In 2020, with the arrival of the global COVID-19 pandemic and shift to widespread remote working, businesses that had been lagging behind quickly took the plunge as well.

Yet for many, there remain nagging concerns around security. In the early days of public cloud, the phrase “shadow IT” came to encapsulate the worst fears of many IT decision makers: People working outside of the IT department were directly purchasing services such as cloud-based ERP systems or document storage for corporate use without involving IT . In doing so, the purchaser put potentially sensitive company data at risk and obscured it from any oversight and governance that had previously been put in place by the IT team. Costs could also quickly mount up, as this lack of transparency left the door open to duplicate purchases and less favorable terms than if the contracts were centrally managed.

While we hear less about shadow IT these days, the issue of data ending up where it shouldn’t and exposing businesses to security risks hasn’t gone away. Sensitive information – be it customer data, confidential financial documents, or intellectual property – can easily be leaked through a misconfigured public cloud storage service, for example.

The challenge for IT decision makers, then, is this: How to make best use of everything that hybrid cloud has to offer, all the way to the edge, without putting sensitive information at risk.

Hybrid: the winning strategy

Hybrid cloud, which allows for a mixture of on premises private cloud, public cloud and colocation, has come out on top as the best strategy for most enterprises. For non-sensitive data or documents, such as user guides, manuals or anything else that’s supposed to be accessed by those outside the business, public cloud is an obvious choice. Details of personnel, and sensitive business critical data on the other hand, are best kept as tightly guarded as possible on premises.

This may seem straightforward, but it’s not as simple a solution as it may first appear. One major hurdle is that data may need to move from where it’s generated to where it’s consumed. This could be from hot to warm to cold storage, from public cloud storage to private (or vice versa), between different public cloud providers, or any other strategic or business need. Navigating data between these environments and ensuring it’s secure in transit and at rest is something that can’t be taken for granted.

It’s also important not to overlook edge computing, where data is created, analyzed, and acted upon at a node on the edge of a network – such as a robot in a factory, sensors measuring performance of specialist industrial equipment, or even a remote worker’s laptop. These devices are generating huge volumes of data, while communicating with and sending data to other parts of this hybrid network, and it all needs to be secure and protected from cybersecurity threats.

Securing such a diverse environment can be incredibly complex, as each different element may need its own configurations, its own layers of security, user access and authentication, and its requirement for cyber skills sets that may not be easy to find. Consequently the cost, both in terms of money and time, can be high.

Zero Trust

HPE GreenLake is known for bringing the flexibility and agility of the public cloud to the data center, but it can also  help enterprises keep their data and environments secure in a hybrid world.

HPE takes a zero trust approach to security, which focuses on identity and access management (IAM). It starts from the assumption that anything or anyone trying to connect to the corporate environment hosted in HPE GreenLake – whether that be users, applications, devices or something else – is compromised. This removes the reliance on perimeter security systems, such as firewalls or VPNs, and instead puts the security of individual software systems front and center.

"Zero Trust is not about implementing one or another security or networking technology,” says Simon Leech, deputy director in HPE’s Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. “It's a completely new approach to the way you do security architecture."

This approach really takes into account the realities of modern business networks and the triumph of hybrid computing: Protecting your on-premises infrastructure is no longer enough when so many interactions have to take place outside the corporate firewall.

It also means that a single point of failure is no longer enough for a cyber attacker to gain access to your data – just because someone or something is connected to the network or has been in the past doesn’t mean it’s automatically trusted.

Security isn’t just about protecting data from attackers, though – it’s also about ensuring you have the right backup and recovery in place should the worst happen. Traditional backup and recovery systems are certainly better than nothing and have worked well for many years, however they are vulnerable to errors and attacks themselves. If your backup is unavailable when you need it, you may as well not have it at all.

HPE GreenLake offers continuous data protection (CDP), which delivers always-on data replication and detailed journaling. In a recovery situation, IT professionals can roll back to a particular point in time or even all the way to a backup in a known good state – a gold backup – if need be. It also uses spinning disk or SSD hardware to ensure restore processes are quicker than they could ever be with traditional tape media.

If you’re worried about the time and skills involved in setting up and managing all of these security systems, managed security offered through HPE GreenLake Management Services can help. Services such as security monitoring, vulnerability management, and assigned security officer to liaise between your organization and HPE, can help lift some of the burden of securing your growing data pool.

Managing and securing hybrid IT in a way that can adapt to the changing needs of your business can seem daunting. With the right tools and partnerships in place, however, it can be a pain free and productive experience.

Learn more about HPE GreenLake.

Considered one of the top global threats, ransomware has been rising year on year, with Forbes citing malware as the cause of more than ⅕ of cyber attacks in 2022. As businesses have evolved post-pandemic to adopt more hybrid ways of work, IT teams need to focus their security efforts on how their employees perform their roles, as well as improve security awareness among staff to mitigate threats.

This eBook dives into the true cost of malware and considers how much of a threat this poses organisations in 2023 so that you can be fully informed .

Download now to learn how to recognise when a malware attack could be affecting your business, how to respond, and how to recover from it.

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The global outbreak of COVID-19 saw businesses facing unparalleled challenges. IT departments had to think on their feet – particularly those where part of the workforce worked remotely, and the other part were back in the office. Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that remote working is here for the duration.

Some organisations struggle to adopt a long-term remote or hybrid working strategy; others struggle with the upgrades required to allow remote working, and more again struggle to ensure that employees can remain productive whilst at home.

Download this whitepaper to learn more about the role of SD-WAN in remote working, and it's benefits.

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As we transition through a new era of hybrid work, employees are becoming more discerning in the options available to them for flexible or remote work. As a result, IT professionals' roles are becoming increasingly important to provide the right infrastructure to enable secure, remote connectivity.

This white paper shares new ways of connecting employees through cloud-based services and addresses the challenges organisations can face with traditional virtual private networks (VPNs) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

Download this white paper to learn how Windows 365 and Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop can enhance your remote workers' productivity, and why this partnership is loved by users and trusted by IT teams.

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Over a few short years, the business world was torn asunder thanks to COVID-19 before settling into a ‘new normal’. This state of play, however, is still being shaped. Organisations are transitioning from predominantly office-based work to a landscape in which time is divided across locations, employee choice is prioritised, and there’s a greater impetus on the work-life balance. Everyone agrees we can’t return to the previous model, but hybrid work isn’t foolproof and fresh concerns have arisen, particularly over hardware choice.

Despite the added freedom and flexibility, workers are encountering challenges in areas like connectivity and networking, as well as maintaining productivity. Choosing the right devices for the hybrid workforce is paramount to making hybrid work arrangements a success. As such, opting for devices that are more versatile, more portable and more functional than ever – and that encourage ultramobility – is essential.

Looking at the always-on, always-connected PCs (ACPCs) on the market on a surface level, however, won’t cut it; those factors are crucial in making a success of hybrid work. Devices embedded with Snapdragon® compute platforms are a great way to guarantee your hardware is fit for the modern age, offering your hybrid workforce the capabilities to make hybrid working work for them, and letting them flourish.

Facing the challenges of hybrid work

When the worst of the pandemic receded, nobody quite knew what this meant for working arrangements going forward. The initial wave of hope and optimism of the hybrid work era – with freedom and flexibility at its heart – has given way to a number of other issues regarding how to manage and support remote workers. These questions range from ensuring inclusion and networking opportunities to – critically for this discussion – supplying your workforce with the devices they need to be productive regardless of locale.

One of the most important aspects in choosing hardware for the typical hybrid worker is to ensure the device itself is portable and versatile – with ultramobility as a key consideration. This means deploying lightweight hardware that workers darting between homes, offices and other sites can carry without straining their backs. An adaptable form factor, like a 2-in-1, also means users can adjust the device to their particular needs, on-demand. Many devices businesses tended to favour pre-pandemic might not fit the bill, including laptops with oversized displays, or those with an unnecessary array of ports. Compatibility, too, with the latest systems like Windows 11 is essential for long-term reliability.

The need for an always-on, always-connected device is strong, with many hybrid workers moving between sites frequently. One may have once enjoyed continuous power and reliable Wi-Fi when working in one location – like the home or the office – but the networking infrastructure may not be present in external sites. It’s particularly daunting for workers who chose to work in more remote locations. Working on-the-go, too, means strong battery life is more important than ever. Multi-day battery life is just as important as enjoying a continuous internet connection in the modern era, and only the devices embedded with innovative and cutting-edge components – like Snapdragon compute platforms – are capable of rising to the challenges facing the hybrid workforce.

Peering beneath the bonnet

The plethora of business hardware available to hybrid workers means it can be difficult to choose which kind of device is best suited for all kinds of employees and their working preferences. A good guide to finding hardware suitable for the hybrid work era is to look for devices specifically built with Snapdragon compute platforms.

Better known perhaps for the Snapdragon mobile platforms that power some of the world’s leading smartphones, Qualcomm Technologies is also at the heart of creating an array of leading components for more sophisticated enterprise hardware. It’s also this history of excelling in manufacturing mobile processors that makes Qualcomm Technologies finely suited to developing components for hybrid-friendly devices, where ultramobility is a necessity.

When purchasing equipment either for yourself, as a remote worker, or on behalf of other employees as part of broad hardware acquisition programmes, keep an eye out for devices powered by components such as the Qualcomm® Kryo™ CPUs and powerful Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPUs.

Giving hybrid workers the tools they need

A Kryo CPU combined with an Adreno GPU comprises a key pillar of the Snapdragon compute platform, delivering powerful performance in a lightweight and sleek package. The Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, for instance, is fitted with the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 platform, which offers a heady mixture of power and practicality in a portable, fanless design. For a more versatile form factor, the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 – embedded with a 5G-equipped SQ3 customised Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 platform – gives users the option to choose between using the device as a tablet or standard laptop.

Many of these devices, including the Surface Pro 9, are powered by platforms that ease connectivity with 5G functionality, so they can connect to public networks while in transit, or where strong and reliable Wi-Fi is difficult to nail down. Thanks to Snapdragon components integrated with modern-RF systems, these devices provide lightning-speed connectivity with 4G LTE as well as 5G data.

ACPCs built with Snapdragon compute platforms are also designed for productivity, and can support multiple applications at once, ranging from videoconferencing systems to graphic work like using Photoshop and InDesign. This, finally, comes alongside a propensity for these devices to support multi-day battery life, in light of the power efficiency of Snapdragon platforms. These machines, thanks to Snapdragon compute platforms, last approximately twice as long as the typical device, which is ideal for those who work on-the-go as well as digital nomads, who wish to be productive and improve their skills while travelling.

Across the board, Snapdragon compute platforms are revolutionising hardware in the new hybrid era by priming devices to become always-on, always-connected PCs. Although legacy hardware may have suited the world of analogue work, the hybrid era demands a new breed of devices built with ultramobility in mind – not just in terms of the form factor or shell design – but the components powering these units.

Learn more about Snapdragon compute platform

Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Employee expectations have evolved in the last few years, with new research from IDC showing how organisations are adapting to keep pace:

• 45% said that remote and hybrid work models are now an embedded part of accepted work practices.
• 42% of organisations say that intelligent digital workplaces are no longer optional, but a business necessity

By meeting employee expectations for remote work, organisations can deliver the employee experience required to attract and retain talent while improving productivity. The research uncovered that a key factor for delivering a winning employee experience is to leverage outside resources for IT services.

Download this resource to understand the more you can outsource and consolidate your IT services with a single partner, the more you can leverage efficiencies that result in a better employee experience.

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Multi-cloud data integration helps ensure that the right data gets to the right people at the right time. But this is only possible when the right tools are in place.

This whitepaper reviews the growing complexity of hybrid cloud environments alongside multi-cloud data integration building blocks such as data virtualisation, replication, cataloguing and automation which can help tame the sprawl.

Download now to learn how multi-cloud data integration and the data fabric are related alongside real-world examples.

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The nature of work had barely changed over the last half-century before COVID-19, despite an influx of new technologies. Remote working was only slowly gaining traction across various industries until businesses were forced to drastically change their working arrangements overnight. Two years on, with the dust settling, the genie is out of the bottle.

Most organisations have crystallised drastic changes to working arrangements, agreeing some form of hybrid working model – combining office-based work with remote working – is the way forward. What this doesn’t mean, however, is that companies that rolled out a strategy for COVID-19 can simply lift-and-shift this strategy into a post-pandemic landscape.

Although small businesses might have the core functionality in place to enable hybrid working, they need to ensure their strategies and tools are optimised to support this as an ongoing facet of their IT approach, rather than a stop-gap solution. Studies have shown that poor or substandard tech is one of the main causes of employee dissatisfaction. Businesses, therefore, should carefully consider whether their workers’ needs have changed as a result of increased hybrid working – and if their devices are meeting those needs.

1. Addressing the ‘where’ of hybrid work

While small businesses may have once been able to fall back on a ‘one size fits most’ approach to devices, the nature of hybrid working means that’s no longer the case. Every worker will have their own preferences and needs. Some may prefer mostly home-working, while others prefer mostly commuting into the office. Among us, too, are those who fancy themselves as digital nomads – those who travel the world while staying connected.

This diversity in approaches to hybrid work must be met with an entire suite of devices that can engage all employees and make them feel they have the right tools to do their work as efficiently as they can. Choosing a hardware partner like ASUS Business, with the variety and flexibility to suit multiple roles and requirements, is an excellent starting point.

Those working purely from home usually need less portability, but there are trade-offs in not having quick access to on-site IT support, which means their devices should prioritise performance and reliability to prevent downtime. For those regularly commuting, though, carrying a 2kg slab of machinery back and forth becomes tiring. For this contingent, highly portable devices that aren’t limited in terms of functionality are ideal. For a better experience, devices like the ASUS ExpertBook B9 are ultra-thin and lightweight for maximum portability, while still offering large, HD displays and a precision-engineered typing experience.The ExpertBook B3, too, is a prime example of how device versatility can complement workers who are always on the go, with the device’s detachable nature designed to be used as an ultrabook or tablet depending on the circumstance.

2. Enabling an always-connected workforce

It’s important, in an always-online world, for your workforce, too, to be always connected. Many employees may choose to work in remote and rural parts of the country, for instance, while a swathe of workers might opt to work on the go and migrate from location to location as part of their role. Either way, access to fast internet connectivity through Ethernet or Wi-Fi may not be guaranteed, especially in certain conference centres or in the event of outages.

Investing in devices capable of 5G connectivity can help to circumvent these issues and enable a truly always-connected environment. The higher bandwidth with 5G means that data-intensive activities, such as conference calls, aren’t interrupted, with video streams beamed in HD. This also helps to bring colleagues much closer together while working geographically apart. By supporting 5G data, it means users will rely less on potentially insecure public Wi-Fi networks too.

The ASUS ExpertBook B7 Flip is an ideal option – a versatile and highly portable device capable of 5G connectivity out of the box. For those who do rely on stable Wi-Fi connections, meanwhile, the optimised Wi-Fi 6 2x2 160MHz antenna in the ExpertBook series offers 300 metres of range alongside maximum speeds of 2.4 Gbps.

3. Giving workers the versatility to meet their needs

In our hybrid working environment, workers will all have different requirements of their devices – and ones that can change from day to day. The form factor is often just as important as connectivity to peripherals. Docking capabilities might be essential for workers on the go, particularly those working or moving between client offices or event spaces. The ability to quickly connect to power, data, display and peripheral devices with a single USB-C cable provides maximum flexibility, for instance. Ensuring devices include more established ports such as HDMI and USB Type-A, however, ensures staff won’t get caught out by older equipment.

For home-workers, desktop devices, like the ASUS ExpertCenter E5 are more advantageous. Part of the ASUS Business portfolio, this powerful all-in-one includes a comprehensive range of ports, a large monitor and an integrated webcam, in a small footprint to allow employees to integrate their home and work spaces more conveniently. For those favouring a more portable package, the ExpertBook B5 Flip comes packaged with an array of ports and tools, including a garaged stylus. For digital nomads, meanwhile, power and connectivity are key. Due to the lack of a permanent base, they need versatile devices with all-day battery life that is present on all ASUS Expertbooks, alongside military-grade build quality and LTE connectivity to be always-online. Many tend to be creatives, so elements like a touchscreen and stylus capability might come as a plus.

4. Staying secure in an increasingly public world

For any small business investing in hardware, security is paramount and among the most important things to consider, especially with a more distributed hybrid workforce that lacks the protection of being exposed only to internal personnel and internet connections. ASUS ExpertBook devices have a number of built-in safeguards against outside threats that ensure critical files, passwords and data are protected, regardless of the location of work.

ASUS Private View, for example, darkens the screen for those not directly facing the display, which keeps confidential information hidden from shoulder surfers while employees are working in more public settings. Using Windows Hello, with the built-in IR camera and fingerprint scanner, ensures users can get into their devices through safe and secure biometric authentication. Finally, a webcam privacy shield, which simply slides over the webcam when not in use, offers peace of mind when working in sensitive environments.

5. Maximising productivity

The key to many businesses in a post-pandemic environment is maintaining productivity – or even improving on this. Naturally, offering the hybrid workforce the exact tools they need, specifically, to get work done will lend itself well to boosting productivity. However, moving away from the office environment does not always have to mean less access to productivity tools. Within the suite of devices offered by the ASUS Business portfolio, too, are features that intend to boost productivity for all workers, regardless of where they’re working.

Cutting-edge features in the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo, for instance, are on the frontline of boosting productivity, with a second display built into the laptop providing additional bandwidth to complete tasks. The fingertip navigation wheel in the ProArt Studiobook Pro 16 OLED, meanwhile, has been engineered to complement creative software like the Adobe suite – including Photoshop and Premiere Pro. The ExpertBook series, too, offers at least 10hrs battery life – in excess of a full working day – on a full charge, so you don’t have to worry about power sources while on-the-go. The nature of the design of ASUS Business devices, too, lends well to productivity, with design features including the anti-glare display and an LED-illuminated number pad giving users additional reassurance and intuitive experiences previously limited to desktop setups.

Hybrid working may have come upon us quickly, but it’s clearly here for the long haul. By ensuring that your devices meet the needs of your employees, you can ensure that the new ways of working will be a benefit and not a hindrance to your business.

Explore the full Asus Business range

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our digital environments have become more dynamic – and more complex – than ever before. While the mass shift to remote and hybrid working has enabled employees to enjoy enhanced flexibility and a better work-life balance, having workers stationed in different locations has multiplied the number of networks, applications, and user interfaces through which data is accessed.

At the same time, the pandemic has fuelled a major cybercrime wave. There has been a huge rise in spoofing and spear-phishing attempts, ransomware has become more prevalent than ever, and there seems to be a new high-profile data breach on an almost daily basis.

No organisation is immune to this evolving threat landscape. This means IT teams must rethink their approach to cybersecurity as hybrid working presents a new, unknown challenge.

The foundations of the new hybrid workplace lay on technology solutions like modern devices and cloud-based collaboration tools, grounded on security solutions that keep endpoints, data and identities secure.

With that in mind, it might be time to rethink your organisation’s hardware strategy. Devices, such as laptops, are used by employees across a number of mission-critical scenarios, from collaborating on sensitive documents in Microsoft Office to catching up with far-flung colleagues on Microsoft Teams. Providing robust protection against the latest malware and ransomware is a critical priority as organisations expect these devices and data to withstand common attacks.

Hardware-level security

Laptops equipped with an AMD Ryzen™ 6000 PRO Series CPU make helping to ensure the security of corporate devices easier than ever. While legacy devices will commonly provide gateways for cybercriminals to enter, AMD Ryzen™ PRO 6000 Series processor-based laptops offer enterprise-grade security features at a hardware level which is designed to protect against the most sophisticated of attacks.

That’s thanks, in part, to the inclusion of the Microsoft Pluton security chip. Although developed in collaboration with AMD, Intel and Qualcomm, the Ryzen™ 6000 PRO Series is the first to integrate Microsoft’s security processor architecture*, which was pioneered in Xbox and Azure Sphere and is designed to store sensitive data, such as encryption keys, with hardware that is integrated into a device's CPU.

Microsoft Pluton builds on ideas from the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip, which helps to improve security by preventing attackers from tampering with low-level firmware that could lead to an attack on data stored on the PC. It also enables security features such as BitLocker disk encryption, and better security for your biometric data used with Windows Hello.

However, thanks to the growing popularity of the TPM, attackers have begun to innovate ways to attack it, particularly in situations where an attacker can steal or temporarily gain physical access to a PC.

The Pluton design removes the potential for that communication channel to be attacked by building security directly into the CPU, helping to protect credentials, user identities, encryption keys and personal data.

With an AMD Ryzen™ PRO 6000 Series processor, you’re also gaining access to cutting-edge security features such as ‘Shadow Stack’ hardware protection against control-flow attacks, its own secure processor, and ‘Memory Guard’ real-time system memory encryption against physical attacks on lost or stolen laptops.

Invest in employee training

Human error is the number one cause of cyberattacks, which is why phishing attacks are constantly on the rise. While hardware-based security features will help to reduce the risk of attackers compromising your home office-based employees, cybersecurity awareness training is critical if you want to reduce the risk that employee errors pose.

Educating employees on topics such as cybersecurity best practices, personal device usage policies, and common threats and how to identify them can go a long way towards ensuring sensitive corporate data doesn’t fall into the hands of cybercriminals.

With a robust plan in place, businesses can be prepared to mitigate risk and respond to threats before they prove to be costly.

Managing and securing remote devices

Mobile Device Management (MDM) enables an employee to remotely manage and monitor an employee’s personal device. For example, it offers features such as remote wiping and location tracking if a laptop gets lost or stolen, and ‘sandboxing’ for creating a secure section on the device to be used exclusively for corporate tasks.

As a result of hybrid working, MDM has evolved from perimeter-based thinking, and IT admins must ensure they now have a comprehensive solution that enables them to manage and secure devices being used both inside and outside of the office while ensuring no loss of productivity as a result.

AMD Ryzen™ PRO 6000 Series processor-based laptops make this easier than ever. The processors feature an integrated AMD Manageability processor, which offers simplified deployment and management that is compatible with an organisation’s current infrastructure, which means no major infrastructure investments are required. You’ll be able to deploy hardware easily thanks to the AMD Ryzen™ PRO 6000 Series processor’s support for cloud-based tools such as Windows Autopilot, you’ll have flexibility thanks to the processor’s open standards and features, and management at scale with be easier than ever thanks to AMD Ryzen™ PRO 6000 Series processor’s support for modern management solutions, such as Windows Endpoint Manager.

Securing your hybrid workforce

Security must always be a priority for businesses, and with the rise in remote and hybrid workspaces, challenges and complexities will continue to grow as businesses constantly evolve to keep up with these challenges.

While ensuring your employees are clued up on the latest threats and the best practices, it’s also important that organisations look to embrace a hardware solution that will protect employees against sophisticated attacks and corporate data from being stolen.

*As of January 2022, only AMD Ryzen™ 6000 Series processors include the Microsoft Pluton security processor, while AMD Ryzen™ 5000 Series processors and Intel's latest 11th and 12th Gen processors do not. RMB-24. Microsoft Pluton is a technology owned by Microsoft and licensed to AMD. Microsoft Pluton is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Learn more at https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2020/11/17/meet-the-microsoft-pluton-processor-the-security-chip-designed-for-the-future-of-windows-pcs/

© 2022 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Ryzen, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied. GD-98

For years, most organisations viewed a physical office as the best place to work. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to reimagine how their employees worked, resulting in an increase in remote work and untraditional hours.

Many employees now realise benefits from this newfound flexibility and most report that they prefer a mix of home and office work. Executives are seeing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset work using a hybrid model — one that, if implemented correctly, will allow employees to make their work lives more purposeful, productive, agile and flexible.

Lynda Gratton, a professor at London Business School, leads this HBR webinar highlighting critical elements for an effective hybrid model, discussing:

• Considerations of 'place' and 'time' in designing an effective hybrid work model
• How a hybrid work model affects different jobs and roles in unique ways
• Why you should engage employees to understand what they really want and need
• The challenges and benefits of reorganising projects and workflows
• How you can build a culture of fairness and inclusion in a hybrid work setting

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With high performance computing (HPC) becoming more mainstream as organisations demand more sophisticated data analysis from AI and machine learning, IT teams need to get to grips with how they can also incorporate the cloud to ensure further business success.

This study by Forrester Consulting evaluates the use of cloud for HPC and AI workloads, surveying global IT decision makers across different industries to understand how companies are progressing in their deployment of the cloud, and how they’re optimising performance.

Download this study now to understand how AI and HPC in the cloud will benefit your infrastructure, efficiency, and scalability as your business grows.

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The work space “norm” has changed for good, with the introduction of remote and hybrid working, showing that productive work can be done from anywhere. And despite hybrid workers achieving sufficiently with their laptop, staff need additional tools in order to feel like they have a proper workspace.

This comes down to IT teams supplying their staff with the right business tools and technology to do their work, however, with the different devices, dongles, cables, headsets and webcams, the disorder can be the cause of distraction and negatively impact creativity.

Download this resource to discover the technology solutions that can mitigate this clutter and boost productivity.

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In this guide, you’ll learn the value of a secure cloud and how it can help your business meet its technical and business goals.

Get a better understanding of the importance of security in the hybrid cloud environment and how the IBM Z platform and its services play an important role for enterprises.

Download now to learn more about:

• IBM Z as a secure cloud platform
• Creating agile software on the cloud through DevOps
• Making your secure cloud a data and application hub

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Nutanix has announced several enhancements to its cloud platform to address enterprises’ data storage needs.

Most notably, Nutanix Cloud Platform now supports unstructured data tiering between on-premises and the cloud, with up to a two-fold increase in database storage performance and a three-fold increase in big data performance.

Data processing speeds are up to three times faster with the platform's new replication factor storage mode. Integrated Intel Optane technology and Nutanix's preferential data placement further reduce latency in storage.

Nutanix Objects, Nutanix’s S3-compatible object storage solution, now supports high-performance petabyte-scale storage for building data lakes. Improvements to Nutanix Era include one-click storage scaling and rich role-based access control for database management across hybrid multi-cloud environments.

“Customers require a variety of ways to store data—both structured and unstructured—and are looking for ways to simplify management without needing to rely on different vendors to do so,” said Rajiv Mirani, Nutanix CTO.

Mirani added, “The new features in the Nutanix Cloud Platform extend our data-centric innovation to high-performance applications to deliver a unified platform with comprehensive data services for all workloads and all variety of data.”

Through 1-min Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and self-service restore, customers can conveniently recover lost Nutanix Files.

The firm also announced its new unstructured data governance service Nutanix Data Lens. In addition to providing a global view into unstructured data stored on Nutanix unified storage, Nutanix Data Lens helps customers thwart ransomware attacks by detecting malicious files and automating alerts for suspicious activity.

“Enterprises are looking for ways to more efficiently and securely manage the rapid growth of size, velocity, and variety of data, as well as simplify the operations across on-premises and cloud,” said Eric Burgener, research vice president of infrastructure systems, platforms and technologies group at IDC.

“Nutanix is taking important steps to deliver comprehensive data services across both structured and unstructured data on a single platform with a common management interface that stretches across on-premises and cloud.”

As video surveillance becomes more common—not only in law enforcement or public safety situations, but also in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, banking, education, government, and more—the pressure put on existing infrastructure can become critical and stretch staff members and budgets past the breaking point.

Right now, many organizations simply continue to use what they’re familiar with: on-premises storage and a video management system. Others have already ventured into the emerging realm of video storage based completely in the cloud

For everyone else, the answer might lie somewhere in between—and that means a hybrid solution.

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IBM has unveiled a suite of new and enhanced services to help organizations manage their cloud security strategy, policies, and controls across hybrid cloud environments.

Available within IBM Security Services for Cloud, the services will enable enterprises to adopt a consistent and unified security approach across IBM, cloud-native, and third-party technology ecosystems.

“Cloud security can appear daunting, with defenders facing an expansive attack surface, shared responsibility models and rapidly evolving cloud platforms and tools," said Vikram Chhabra, global director of offering management and strategy at IBM Security Services.

"We cannot assume that legacy approaches for security will work in this new operating model – instead, security should be modernized specifically for the hybrid cloud era, with a strategy based on zero trust principles that bring together context, collaboration and visibility across any cloud environment."

IBM Security Services for Cloud also features built-in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation capabilities, allowing enterprises to identify and prioritize risks, and respond to potential threats across cloud environments. Additionally, the platform connects intelligent data with broader security operations and on-premises systems.

“The services can support clients in any stage of their cloud security journey; from advising organizations on how to move data, users and workloads to the cloud, to providing continual risk monitoring and threat management of their existing hybrid cloud architecture,” said IBM.

Enhanced IBM Security Services for Cloud’s notable features include advisory and managed security support for reducing the risk of cloud misconfigurations; cloud security posture management (CSPM) solution to address governance and compliance across cloud service providers; security for clients' container environments; and recommendations to manage risks and vulnerabilities.

Seamlessly integrated with IBM Security X-Force Red vulnerability management solution, the platform can also identify, analyze, and rank thousands of container-related vulnerabilities within client environments.

IBM and Samsung have announced plans to develop open hybrid cloud solutions that enable enterprises to use 5G and edge computing to process large amounts of data from edge computing workloads.

The collaboration will combine Samsung’s Galaxy 5G mobile devices and advanced end-to-end enterprise network solutions with IBM’s network management, hybrid cloud, and edge computing offerings. It’ll also include IBM’s industry solutions that integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and Red Hat’s open architecture.

IBM and Samsung said the goal is to develop “open, hybrid cloud solutions that enable enterprises to draw greater insights from data at the edge – from the factory floor to an oil rig or a regular office space – to improve operational performance, increase worker safety, and minimize downtime.”

The companies are also looking to help enterprises use 5G in public and private networks through cross collaborations with global mobile operators. Earlier this year, Samsung announced a project with IBM, the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority, and telecom provider M1 to showcase Smart Factory advancements, including 5G-enabled AI analytics and AR capabilities.

Additionally, Samsung and IBM’s collaboration in private 5G networks will enable enterprises to adopt emerging technologies crucial to Industry 4.0, such as the internet of things (IoT), AI, cloud, edge computing, and augmented reality (AR). It’ll also introduce innovations across businesses that can enable employees to identify faults in manufacturing lines using AI-powered image recognition, employ thousands of sensors to build smart agriculture solutions, or facilitate employee training and productivity using AR.

As part of this collaboration, Samsung, IBM, and Red Hat plan to deliver AI-powered solutions for industry using 5G devices, cloud-native 5G networks, and edge computing platforms. Specifically, the companies intend to explore Samsung hardware and software’s interoperability and integration with IBM Edge Application Manager, which runs on Red Hat OpenShift and AI to enable computing workloads to be managed and deployed to Samsung’s portfolio of mobile devices at an industrial scale.

Steve Canepa, global GM and managing director, communications sector at IBM said the communication networks’ transition from proprietary architecture to intelligent, software-defined hybrid cloud platforms enables the creation of enormous new value in the 5G and edge era.

“5G devices and network solutions from Samsung, along with IBM and Red Hat’s open, hybrid cloud capabilities, can help organizations across all industries accelerate their transformation and solve real business problems while unlocking the true power of 5G and edge,” Canepa added.

The latest iteration of the Asus ZenBook Flip S is the first laptop we’ve seen with one of Intel’s new Tiger Lake processors – but the 11th Gen silicon isn’t the only thing to notice on this hybrid. It’s got a superb 4K screen, a keen sense of design and several future-proofed features.

The ZenBook costs £1,499 exc VAT, which certainly isn’t bad when compared to its rivals – machines like the Dell XPS 13, its hybrid variant and the Apple MacBook Air are all more expensive when specified with equivalent components, while the HP Spectre x360 has an identical price. But does this affordable price equate to good value?

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Design

The ZenBook is easily stylish enough to turn heads. Its body deftly combines dark aluminium alloy with copper-coloured accents, and the letters on the keyboard are finished in a matching shade. Build quality is good too: the ZenBook’s screen is one of the sturdiest we’ve used on a small laptop, and there’s barely any movement in the base unless you use serious force. It’s not exactly chunky, either – the Flip weighs 1.2kg and is 14mm thick.

The impressive build quality is bolstered by smooth movement; the 360-degree hinges feel robust and the ZenBook is easy to switch between laptop, tablet and tent positions. The only slight issue here is that the machine can’t be opened using a single fingertip.

The Asus undercuts rivals – it’s slimmer, lighter and just as sturdy as the more expensive machines above. The only way you’ll get something lighter is by opting for a machine like the Asus ExpertBook B9450F, but you lose the 2-in-1 functionality and stunning design.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Keyboard and trackpad

The Asus has a sunken keyboard with a reasonable 1.4mm of travel. The buttons are wide, if a little short, and the copper text is augmented by a white backlight. It’s only got a single-height Return key, but the keyboard does have an extra row of function buttons on its right-hand edge.

The short buttons take a little getting used to, but the keyboard is excellent. It’s quiet, consistent and comfortable, with impressive speed and a great balance between crispness and softness. Apple’s MacBook Air has shallower keys that are similarly satisfying, while Dell’s buttons are shallow but with a firmer feel. These keyboards are all fantastic, however – it’s just about picking your preference.

The trackpad is incredibly wide, and its surface is precise and smooth. Its in-built buttons are fast, and it has an extra trick up its sleeve: tapping the top-right corner of the pad superimposes a virtual numberpad over the top of the glass. It’s a cool feature, and one that will appeal to those bemoaning the lack of a physical equivalent.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Display

The ZenBook is kitted out with a 13.3in 4K OLED touchscreen with a matte finish. When it comes to screen technology, that’s top-notch. The Asus has a fantastic density level of 331ppi, and it means that this panel is incredibly sharp, looking bolder and more luxurious than any IPS display.

The OLED technology delivers perfect contrast – black shades have depth that can only be matched by other OLED panels, and the peak brightness of 502cd/m2 delivers huge punch and impact. The colour temperature of 6,622K is great, and the panel rendered 100% of the sRGB gamut, 95.8% of the Adobe RGB space and 98.4% of the DCI-P3 colour space. Uniformity is superb, and the panel’s brightness only deviated by a maximum of 8%. The only downside is the Delta E of 3.57, which is good rather than great.

The vibrancy, contrast and colour temperature combine with those gamut levels to ensure that this display can be used to work inside the sRGB, Adobe RGB and HDR colour spaces. The Delta E is the only issue, and that’s only going to put off the most demanding creatives – and most of those people will be working on true mobile workstations anyway.

The display compares well to rivals. The XPS 13 has poorer brightness and sRGB coverage, while Dell’s 2-in-1 is brighter but with poorer contrast, and the Apple has a lesser resolution. The HP Spectre uses AMOLED, but it’s not as bright as the Asus’ panel.

The speakers are tremendous – loud and clear, with mid-range clarity, loads of depth and surprising bass. They’re plenty good enough for media and music and easily the match of any rival.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Hardware & Performance

The Core i7-1165G7 is one of Intel’s new Tiger Lake processors. This updated architecture brings plenty to the table – at least on paper – when compared to Ice Lake CPUs. The move to a better 10nm manufacturing process promises faster clock speeds, and elsewhere there’s better integrated graphics cores, support for LPDDR4x memory and PCIe 4.0 and native support for WiFi 6 and Thunderbolt 4.

The i7-1165G7 has four Hyper-Threaded cores, and the new architecture gives Intel more clock speed versatility. This chip can run at anywhere between 1.2GHz and 2.8GHz, and it’s got a solid peak Turbo speed of 4.7GHz. The improved versatility can be seen clearly in the TDP, which can vary from 12W to 28W.

On paper, this chip compares favourably to the Core i7-1065G7, which had more rigid base and boost speeds of 1.3GHz and 4.9GHz and a TDP of 15W. In testing, though, it becomes clear that the ZenBook doesn’t make use of the CPU’s abilities. In our benchmarks it scored 83, including 66 in the multi-tasking test. That’s not bad, but those figures sit behind both Dell XPS 13 machines, which were tested with the Core i7-1065G7.

Delving into Geekbench 5 gives more indication about what’s going on. Initially the ZenBook scored 1,545 and 5,006 in the single- and multi-core tests, but over multiple runs the latter score dropped by around 1,000 points, while the former result barely changed. The CPU is clearly throttled when it comes to multi-core performance. It’s not a terrible situation – the older Core i7 chip is still a little slower in both tests – but it does show that the Tiger Lake CPU is not being used to its full potential.

Nevertheless, the i7-1165G7 handled web-browsing, Office applications and mainstream photo-editing without any problems. The CPU’s great single-threaded performance has an impact, and the superb SSD read and write speeds of 3,200MB/sec and 2,836MB/sec keep the machine responsive. You’re only going to run into trouble if you try to run high-level, multi-threaded applications. When that happens, the base of the machine gets uncomfortably hot, too – so you’ll at least have some warning. Happily though, the Asus is always quiet.

Intel’s new integrated graphics core scored 9,523 points in 3D Mark Sky Diver. That’s a solid gain over older iGPUs, which hovered at around 7,000 points. It’ll help a little in photo-editing and when playing casual games, but it’s not a transformative result.

The ZenBook did get a decent result in our video playback test, lasting for 11hrs 3mins. That’s better than the Dell XPS, its hybrid variant, the HP Spectre and the Apple MacBook Air. Better longevity can be found elsewhere, though – the Asus ExpertBook B9450F doubled the ZenBook’s lifespan. Still, there’s enough ability here to handle a working day away from the mains alongside a decent commute.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Ports and Features

On the left-hand side are two USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 4, which means a huge maximum bandwidth of 40Gb/sec. There are no Thunderbolt 4 devices that can make use of that speed right now, but it’s a welcome, future-proofed addition. On the right-hand side is a full-size USB 3.2 Gen 1 port that peaks at a more pedestrian 5Gb/sec.

Elsewhere, the Asus has an HDMI port, dual-band WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, and its internal specification is rounded out by 16GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. The 720p webcam supports Windows Hello, and on the inside the ZenBook has TPM 2.0.

The ZenBook doesn’t have a headphone jack, though – an odd thing to ditch given their tiny size. At least a USB-C-to-audio adapter is included in the box alongside a USB-to-Ethernet adapter and a stylus. This machine has no card or fingerprint readers, and the webcam doesn’t have a physical privacy shutter – although it does include a shortcut on the keyboard to disable the camera.

The Asus has more features than Apple’s machines, but the HP Spectre and Dell’s systems are arguably more useful thanks to their fingerprint sensors and microSD slots.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Verdict

The ZenBook’s 4K OLED screen has great quality and it's crisper than the Walkers factory, the design is stylish and sturdy, and it serves up good battery life and reasonable performance. The keyboard and trackpad impress, too. It’s cheaper than most rivals with equivalent hardware: the Dell XPS 13 costs £1,624 exc VAT and £1,708 exc VAT in its laptop and hybrid guises and the MacBook arrives at £1,540 exc VAT. Only the Asus ExpertBook costs less, but it’s hindered by its poorer screen.

That said, the ZenBook is not without fault. The CPU doesn’t deliver any significant advantage over last-gen chips, and it’s missing some features that would have made working life easier. If you need those, Dell and HP’s machines are better.

For many people, though, the Asus’ issues will be acceptable compromises when so much else is impressive. This is a good-looking, effective, and versatile hybrid.

BY: Mike Jennings

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 specifications

IBM and R3 are working together to provide clients with new options to scale blockchain technology while ensuring performance, compliance, and data privacy.

R3 launched an open beta program to bring Corda Enterprise, its enterprise blockchain platform, to IBM LinuxONE across the hybrid cloud via IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services. Starting on November 2 2020, the program will be available on IBM Cloud and on-premises, with general availability expected in the first quarter of 2021.

Enterprises in regulated industries seek to build blockchain solutions that provide performance, advanced security and data privacy. IBM LinuxONE and IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services provide Confidential Computing capabilities, including “Keep Your Own Key” workload isolation encryption capabilities, tamper protection from privileged user access and data encryption.

"Bringing R3 to IBM LinuxONE is another exciting example of leveraging our highly secured Confidential Computing capabilities to help our clients of all sizes, across any industry, protect their most sensitive data across the hybrid cloud," said Ross Mauri, general manager at IBM Z.

"This announcement builds on the exciting work over the last several months to welcome new workloads to LinuxONE and IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services in emerging areas like blockchain and digital asset custody – and we're looking forward to taking this next step with R3 to build on this momentum with clients of all sizes from early stage startups to the largest global enterprises."

IBM Services is expanding its Corda capabilities with an R3 center of excellence. It’ll provide services to clients planning to adopt R3 solutions. This includes Corda-certified solution architects, strategy and design consultants, subject matter experts and a delivery pool to help clients advance network and solution deployment.

"This center of excellence is being designed to innovate and incubate client-requested ideas and use cases leveraging IBM's deep expertise in developing and standing up commercially available production grade blockchain networks," said Jason Kelley, general manager, IBM Blockchain Services.

"We will use IBM methods, including design thinking, to focus efforts on developing interoperability solutions for disparate blockchain networks, digital assets and currencies and industry-focused use cases."

IBM will work with clients across industry and hybrid ecosystems, using IBM LinuxOne’s openness and security, to advance a network of networks to a hybrid of hybrids.

IBM Services will support its blockchain services and offerings to provide more options in the market. IBM Blockchain Services will enable companies to accelerate their growth through access to new channels, strategic partnerships and resources.

"Corda Enterprise and IBM LinuxONE bring together IBM's best security, efficiency and scalability features in blockchain and hybrid cloud," said David E. Rutter, CEO of R3

"Blockchain is fast emerging as the technology of choice to drive digital transformation and R3 and IBM will provide access to the privacy and security inherent in blockchain technology underpinned by IBM LinuxONE. This combined with the deeply knowledgeable team within IBM Services' new R3 center of excellence, can empower customers to level up their digital transformation drive."

Although the rise of 2-in-1, hybrid and convertible devices was originally dismissed as a fad, laptops like Microsoft's Surface Pro have gradually crept into both the home and the workplace, changing the way we use our technology.

While they haven't supplanted the traditional clamshell form-factor just yet, laptop-tablet hybrids have enabled people to be more flexible, more productive and more efficient. If you want to get in on the action, we've rounded up the best 2-in-1 laptops in the business.

Microsoft Surface Pro 6

The sixth iteration of Microsoft's category-reshaping convertible may not add much in the way of new features or design tweaks, but it's still one of the most capable and polished hybrid devices on the market today. If you've got a last-gen Surface Pro you can safely skip it, but otherwise it's an excellent investment.

Price when reviewed: 958 (exc VAT)

Read our full Microsoft Surface Pro 6 review for more information.

HP Spectre Folio 13-ak0001na

This lush, leather-clad laptop has a lot going for it. Aside from its elegant appearance, it's also got an astonishing 17hr battery life and an amazing screen. It compromises in other areas, of course - most notably in its use of a slightly underpowered dual-core processor - but as a general-purpose ultraportable, it's hard to beat.

Price when reviewed: 1,249 (exc VAT)

Read our full HP Spectre Folio 13-ak0001na review for more information.

Lenovo Yoga 730 15in

2-in-1s are often on the smaller side, designed to be stowed easily in a bag. Not so for this 15in behemoth, which focuses on power and performance rather than portability. Featuring a quad-core 8th-gen Core i7 with an Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU and a 4K display, this convertible is definitely no slouch when it comes to speed.

Price when reviewed: 1,250 (exc VAT)

Read our full Lenovo Yoga 730 15in review for more information.

Microsoft Surface Go

Although it's technically the more affordable, lower-powered sibling to the Surface Pro 6, Microsoft's teeny 10in tablet actually ends up being a more versatile device than its bigger brother, mainly by virtue of the fact that it features a USB-C port. Battery life is disappointing and performance is only so-so, but it's still an absolutely superb device, and our pick of the Surface range.

Price when reviewed: 424 (exc VAT)

Read our full Microsoft Surface Go review for more information.

Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

Dell's reputation for high-quality devices hasn't come from nowhere, and its flagship 15in convertible is testament to why the company's laptops are so beloved. It offers outstanding performance and a very creditable battery life combined with a high-quality touchscreen display, all wrapped in a chassis that showcases Dell's long-established design prowess.

Price when reviewed: 1,415 (exc VAT)

Read our full Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 review for more information.

Lenovo Yoga 920

Not only one of the better-looking convertibles on this list, it's also one of the most powerful. Lenovo's Yoga 920 has so many great things going for it: a beautiful look, superb internal hardware, and an elegant hinge design that makes it stand out among rivals. Only an average at best screen holds the Yoga 920 back from true greatness, although its high asking price may also be a deal-breaker.

Price when reviewed: 1,124 (exc VAT)

Read our full Lenovo Yoga 920 review for more information

When it comes to kitting out an office or workplace, the best business laptop is the right tool for the job at hand. This doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive, the newest, or even the most powerful. It's about picking the right machine for the role.

Do you need all-day battery life? A powerful dedicated GPU? A color-accurate display? Are you a Windows or macOS organization? Would you consider a Windows on ARM device? What's your policy on Copilot buttons? There are lots of key purchasing decisions to make – and, thankfully, lots of great laptops to choose from.

In this article, you'll discover our top picks for the best business laptops in every major category. IT Pro's team of laptop-reviewing experts has decades of experience in laptop reviewing, and in the past 12 months, we've rigorously tested and reviewed a broad selection of laptops from Apple, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and more.

What to look for in a business laptop

It's been another stellar year for laptops. The ARM-based competition from Qualcomm and Apple has given the x86 chips from both AMD and Intel some much-needed competition, and the result is that the latest generation of chips provides a more potent cocktail of application performance, graphics power, and battery life than ever before.

This is great news for buyers: whether you want an affordable everyday business laptop, a long-lasting ultraportable, or a mobile workstation, there's plenty of great hardware out there to fit every use case, both in x86 and ARM-based flavours. You want a powerful, portable laptop and all-day battery life? Your wish has been granted.

AI remains on everyone's lips – and it also remains on their laptops. The neural processors (NPUs) in laptop chips are steadily increasing in power, and both Apple and Microsoft are harnessing that new resource to deploy a range of AI-powered features in their operating systems. These features aim to both boost productivity, power local large language (LLM) models, and shift battery-sapping video, image, and audio processing onto the NPU for more power-efficient operation.

Oftentimes, though, it's the far more basic, physical aspects of a laptop's design which elevate it above the competition: the display, keyboard and touchpad, the connectivity, the upgradability – or lack of it. These are the crucial factors in laptop design that you can only evaluate with proper hands-on testing. And that's why all of the laptops we recommend here have been tested by experts who use these devices for day-to-day work, and benchmark and test every key aspect of their performance.

Read on, and you'll discover our pick of the best laptops that have crossed our desks in recent times. Whether it's an affordable everyday laptop, a high-end ultraportable, or a heavyweight workstation, you'll find something for every desk.

Best business laptops

The Asus ExpertBook Ultra borrows a little glitz from the consumer-focused ZenBook range and brings some much-needed glamour to the business portable. It's also a potent demonstration of just how dramatically Intel's latest Panther Lake generation has caught up with the competition.

The hardware is luxurious. A stunningly bright, vivacious OLED touchscreen takes centre stage, and despite the 14-inch 2,880 x 1,880 panel, Asus has somehow kept the kerb weight down to an impossibly slight 0.99kg.

It's not delicate, though: the featherlight shell is built from magnesium alloy with a 'Nano-Ceramic' coating and has a MIL-STD-810H accreditation for toughness. A matte layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus shields the OLED screen from damage, too. You'd expect an 11mm-thick laptop to feel delicate, but the ExpertBook Ultra is anything but.

Nor is it poorly connected. You get two Thunderbolt 4-equipped USB-C ports, one on each edge, and also a further two USB-A ports, which reach USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 are included, too – although it's worth noting that there's no physical Ethernet socket.

The advances made by Intel's Panther Lake chips are transformative. The result is a laptop which is able to balance quite formidable power – both in applications and gaming – with excellent power efficiency. The 70Wh battery kept going for almost 21 hours in our tests.

For more information, check out our full Asus ExpertBook Ultra review.

Sometimes you just need a good everyday laptop. A simple balance of sturdy build, ample performance, and good battery life. The Omnibook 5 delivers exactly that for a retail price of around £900 – and far less if you shop around.

Bear in mind, though, that this is a Windows on ARM device. If that doesn't immediately rule it out for your business – software compatibility issues can be a dealbreaker – then Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus chip offers a good balance of stamina and performance. It's around 25% slower than its Elite cousins, but we've found performance to be more than ample for everyday browser-based work. It consistently lasts a full day of work with some left in the tank.

Only GPU performance disappoints. Qualcomm is behind the competition here, and the modest Adreno X1-45 GPU limits it to very casual gaming.

Most buyers are unlikely to care. The 14in chassis is finished in a nicely solid-feeling aluminium chassis that's around 13mm thick and weighs in at 1.3kg. Pop open the display, and you're faced with a comfy-feeling keyboard and a decent-sized mechanical touchpad. The only complaints are minor: the half-height Enter key is one, the touchpad's loose, rattly feel is the other.

The presence of a decent OLED screen really sweetens the deal. Color accuracy is good, brightness reaches an ample 300 nits, and it covers around 99% of DCI-P3. That's impressive for the money.

For more information, check out our full HP Omnibook 5 review.

If it's desktop-adjacent power you crave, then the Pro Max 16 Plus is a superb investment. The specification is highly customisable, the chassis handles high-power CPU and GPU combinations, and the design is rock-solid. Only the cramped keyboard really irks.

The beauty of the Pro Max 16 Plus is that you can build it to your specification. If your use case needs a powerful CPU, no GPU, and a fancy OLED touchscreen that is just burning your IT budget, then you can keep the price under £1,500. If, however, you want a top-end CPU, 128GB of CAMM2 RAM, up to three PCIe 5.0 SSDs, and one of Nvidia's high-end RTX Pro chips, you can relieve a big chunk of your IT budget with ease.

We tested a fully stacked model with a Core 9 Ultra 285HX, RTX Pro 5000, 128GB of LPCAMM2 memory, and a 2TB PCIe Gen 5 SSD; the bill totted up to over £7,000. Around £500 of that was due to the stunning 3,840 x 2,400 OLED touchscreen – and we can confirm that its DisplayHDR 1000 True Black certification is well deserved.

Connectivity is a highlight. You get drop-jaw 2.5GbE Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, two USB-C Thunderbolt 5 ports, a single USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, two 5Gbps USB-A ports, a 3.5mm headset port, and a full-sized SD card slot. There are optional extras, too: a smartcard reader, Bluetooth, and WWAN.

Bear in mind that the 'mobile' in mobile workstation is relative. Even the most basic specification tips the scales over 2.5kg, and that's before you've considered the extra bulk of a big, brick-sized power supply. You'll need a big, sturdy bag, and you'll get a workout thrown in for free.

For more information, check out our full Dell Pro Max 16 Plus review.

Chromebooks are not always championed when it comes to laptops – even in this Chromebook Plus era. They're often seen as the last resort of IT stock, the machine you take when your Mac or your Surface machine is out of commission. But the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is different and doesn't deserve to be tarred with that brush.

For starters, it's genuinely brilliant – not 'brilliant for a Chromebook' but actually, surprisingly good. The i5 model we tested proved to be the fastest Chromebook from 2024, with a Geekbench 6 multithreaded score of 7608 – that put it ahead of the excellent Asus ExpertBook CX54.

The integration of Google's Gemini AI into Chrome OS is also a big shot in the arm for Chromebooks and, what's more, there is an argument to make about it being more useful than some of Microsoft's more flashy Copilot+ features.

While employees might want Apple Macs, or the flashest Windows devices, IT teams should go against the grain and look at Samsung's Chromebooks. From as little as £649, your employees can have a stunning slimline laptop with a lovely OLED screen. One that is fast, lean, efficient, and easy to manage for small businesses or larger enterprises.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review here

Squeezing the sort of hardware that keeps hardcore creatives or power-users satisfied into a 13.3in laptop is no easy feat but Asus has managed it and with some aplomb with the new ProArt PX13. Inside this compact laptop, you'll find a 100W Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU, AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and 2TB of storage. And there's a 360-degree lid thrown into the bargain for true convertible flexibility.

Made from matt-black aluminium the ProArt PX13 isn't the lightest 13.3in laptop on the market at just shy of 1.4Kg but the 360-degree hinge accounts for some of that and the whole package is MIL-STD 810H-rated so it should prove every bit as robust as it feels.

Connectivity is bang on point with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 on the wireless side along with two Thunderbolt 4 and a single 10Gbps USB-A port, an HDMI 2.1 video output, an SD card reader, and a dedicated DC-in jack so you don't have to sacrifice a Type-C port to charging duties.

Performance from the new 'Strix Point' AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX370 is impressive but it's the graphics performance from the 100W TGP RTX 4070 GPU that marks the ProArt PX13 out from the herd. To find a better performer you'll need to invest in a larger and more expensive high-end gaming laptop.

The 2.8K OLED screen covers 99.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and recorded a Delta-E variance of just 0.48 which is outstanding. All-in-all It's a great display for creative work and media consumption: HDR content looks particularly impressive. The 60Hz refresh rate rather limits the ProArt PX13 when it comes to motion fidelity and gaming but it's hardly a deal-breaker.

The keyboard is of very high quality and the touchpad is surprisingly large given that this is quite a small laptop. Built into the upper left part of the touchpad is Asus' DialPad, a virtual scroll-wheel that provides granular access to tools in several creativity apps though its real strength is its deep integration with Adobe's creative apps.

Read our full Asus ProArt PX13 review here

Apple hasn't reimagined the MacBook Pro for the arrival of the M5, but then it didn't need to. The 14in model is the smaller of the two Pros, and it's a beautiful thing both inside and out.

The design is simple and elegant and the 1.55kg aluminium body is tough. It's not just a looker, though. The keyboard and touchpad remain top of the heap, with a lovely crisp feel to the keys and a haptic touchpad which doesn't put a foot – well, finger – wrong. It's still the benchmark by which laptop touchpads should be judged and demonstrates the benefit of tight hardware and OS integration.

Connectivity is eminently sensible compared to some rival laptops, too. You get three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, HDMI 2.1, a full-sized SD card reader, and – yes – a 3.5mm headphone socket.

The move from M4 to M5 is quiet evolution rather than revolution, adding a little more single core power and some neural AI processing chops, but if you can pick up an M4 model on the cheap, then do – it's more than good enough. Bear in mind that, at the time of writing, buying direct from Apple only gives you the choice of M5, M4 Pro or M4 Max. For power users, the previous generation Pro and Max chips still outmuscle the M5.

The 14in Liquid Retina display is a typical highlight. The 3,024 x 1,964 resolution is sharp, the 120Hz refresh rate is slick and the Mini LED backlighting pushes brightness over the 1,000 nit mark with ease. You'll need to pay an extra £150 for the matte Nano-texture screen finish if anti-glare coatings are top of your wantlist, though.

Unfortunately, UK and EU buyers won't get a charger in the box. The EU push to reduce e-waste means you'll be paying an extra £59 for the privilege of charging your new MacBook. US buyers can gloat quietly.

For more information, check out our full Apple MacBook Pro M5 review.

The Acer Aspire Vero 16 is a solid 16in business laptop that costs a little less than most. For well under £1,000, you're looking at a 16-inch laptop with a capable all-round specification and good design. Throw in MIL-STD-810H certification for toughness, and you have a recipe for affordable laptop success.

At the time of writing, we're seeing the Vero 16 down to as little as £750 at some retailers – for that money, it's very easy to forgive the all-plastic build. Not that you'll mind: the base feels taut and well-constructed, and there's only a little give in the lid. The 1.8kg weight is modest, and you can remove the base and replace the battery or SSD as required.

There's no skimping on connectivity. You get two Thunderbolt 4-equipped USB-C ports, a pair of 5Gbps USB-A sockets, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm headphone output. Ethernet is absent, but fast onboard Wi-Fi 7 offers some consolation.

The 16:10 panel is a welcome sight: the 1,920 x 1,200 resolution makes the Windows desktop feel more roomy than on a standard Full HD panel. That's not the highest resolution, but the quality is superb. Color accuracy is good, and the panel covers 99.8% of the sRGB color gamut and 82% of DCI-P3.

Performance is also good across the board thanks to the Lunar Lake chips. NPU performance is low at 13 TOPS, but everyday applications – and even games – run incredibly well thanks to the Core Ultra 7 255H in our review sample. For GPU-based duties, the display's modest resolution is more a blessing than a curse. Efficiency is excellent, too, with an impressive 17-hour-plus runtime.

For more information, check out our full Acer Aspire Vero 16 review.

HP's big-screen convertible is a consumer model, but it gets a lot right. The 360-degree hinge allows it to transform from a standard laptop into tent mode and through into tablet mode. The USB-C stylus adds some welcome inking support, too.

It's another good-looking laptop from the HP camp. The chassis is clad in plates of aluminium, which add a nice, sturdy feel, and it weighs a reasonable 1.88kg. The all-important 36-degree hinges feel reassuringly solid, too.

Connectivity hits the spot. There's one full-sized USB-A port on either flank, and two USB-C ports, one of which supports Thunderbolt 4. Full-sized HDMI 2.1 and a 3.5mm headphone socket are welcome, too. Networking is solely wireless: you get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

The OLED panel has a crisp 2,880 x 1,800 resolution, and peak brightness reaches 520cd/m2 in HDR mode. Color accuracy is great, and it also covers 100% of DCI-P3 and 95% of Adobe RGB. Impressive stuff.

Given the gloriously bright OLED display, the 15-hour battery life comes as some surprise. Performance from the Intel Lunar Lake chip is good, but we'd steer buyers towards a 32GB model, as the on-chip RAM is not upgradeable.

The only slight issue is that the integrated GPU struggles with the display's native resolution – you'll need to use Intel's XeSS upscaling to get playable framerates.

For more information, check out our full HP OmniBook X Flip 16 review.

FAQs

Why are business laptops more expensive?

You may have noticed that laptops which are specifically aimed at business buyers tend to be noticeably more expensive than those which are mostly consumer-focused. Although this is partially attributable to the fact that businesses can usually afford to drop a little more cash on their purchases, there are several good reasons why business laptops are more expensive.

For one thing, they’ll often come with AMD Ryzen Pro or Intel vPro chips. These special professional-grade components don’t confer any additional performance advantages, but they include extra security and manageability features designed to make it easier for IT admins to manage large fleet deployments.

Business machines are also more likely to have a wider range of ports and connectivity options, as many offices still rely on older connections like HDMI or even VGA for connecting to projectors and other peripherals. Other additional features like biometric security and better access to internal components for the purposes of repair and upgrade are a more common sight on business devices, too.

How long do business laptops last?

Another factor in why business laptops tend to command higher price tags is that they last longer than personal machines. The manufacturer’s warranty will generally cover a standard consumer laptop for a year, but business machines often come with a three year warranty.

Even beyond that, the typical device refresh cycle for most companies tends to be around five years - which means that business laptops will need to last for at least that long with no major problems in order to avoid unhappy customers. In fact, some companies can sweat their laptops for as much as ten years before replacing them – although they may upgrade certain components such as storage and RAM every so often.

Should I buy a convertible business laptop?

Convertible laptops allow users to seamlessly flip between tablet-style operations and the more traditional laptop form-factor. In theory, this offers increased flexibility and greater productivity, but while it can be a convenient way to display your screen for an informal presentation to colleagues, you may find its workplace utility to be somewhat limited unless you’re a big fan of taking handwritten notes or doing digital illustration.

The Dell XPS is a stalwart in the tech giant's laptop arsenal and its 13in 'Plus' variation is one of its very best. A refreshed design, smaller, portable size, and innovative keyboard design make the 13 Plus a laptop for the modern worker.

The keyboard design, known as 'zero-lattice', runs from edge to edge to house larger keys. The benefit here is that even the most inaccurate of typists can pick up a decent speed. The travel is good too, as it allows for a nice clean typing action across largely silent keys.

However, the real innovative part is the always-on illuminated symbols that run along the top of the keyboard. This appears to be Dell's take on Apple's ill-fated touch bar but with a more useful layout, with shortcuts for functions like print screen, volume dials, display controls play, and pause buttons.

You can also tap the Fn key and have the middle 13 of these symbols vanish to be replaced with backlit F1 to F12 icons. You can use the Fn-Lock to have the function key icons rather than the symbols as the default. Magic.

How we test

When we review a laptop, there are a number of tests that we use to determine its capabilities. To measure the quality of the display, we use the open-source DisplayCal app and a dedicated colorimeter to determine the maximum brightness, the contrast ratio and how much of the sRGB color gamut it covers (as well as the DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB gamuts where applicable) – which determines the range of colors the screen can reproduce. We also measure the average Delta-E rating, which indicates how accurately those colors are displayed.

Performance is tested by running it through our own in-house benchmarks, which consist of three tests: an image conversion test, which gives an indication of single-threaded speeds, a video encoding test, which makes greater use of multi-core processing, and a multitasking test which runs both processes simultaneously while also playing a video. This test is the most strenuous and is designed to push processors to their limits. These tests give us individual scores, as well as an overall result.

We'll also run the Geekbench 5 performance test to confirm the accuracy of these results, as well as assessing its performance in day-to-day tasks throughout our evaluation period. Storage is tested using the AS SSD benchmark.

In order to measure battery life, we'll charge the battery fully, then set the display brightness as close to 170cd/m2 as possible using a color calibrator, turn on flight mode and play a looped video until the battery dies. This gives us a consistent figure to compare the battery life of different models, although it may not necessarily give us an indication of real-world battery life. For this, we assess how long the battery lasts over several days of actual use, subjecting it to a range of workloads and activities.

This review was first published on 15/06/2017 but has since been updated

Microsoft's flagship hardware, the Surface Pro, comes in many guises but the series can be a bit hit and miss with the critics. However, the fifth generation of Surface Pro not only did great upon release in 2017, but it has also held up well over the last five years. Despite a Surface Pro 6, Pro 7 and Pro X, the Pro 5 still holds a precious place in the hearts of consumers.

It probably didn't help that the Surface Pro 6 appeared to be an unashamed hardware refresh, with very few changes to the formula, so no real reason to upgrade. What's more, the upgraded Intel Core i5 Kaby Lake processor only translated to a slight performance boost - the Pro 6 only scored slightly higher than the 5 in GeekBench tests. Battery life also went the wrong way, with the Pro 6 lasting just eight hours in our looped video test, far off the 11 hours and 30-plus minutes with the Surface Pro 5.

Just like all those people that used Windows 7 until the last minute, some love the Surface Pro 5 and no matter what is presented as an upgrade will change their minds. This is why the device is almost earning a sort of cult-like status within the laptop world.

The original review continues below

If there's one product line that has done more to popularise 2-in-1 devices than any other, it's Microsoft's Surface Pro family. The sleek, shiny detachables have made the historically unpopular category appealing almost single-handedly, thanks to an elegant aesthetic combined with impressive performance.

Now we have the latest addition to the line, simply dubbed the Surface Pro. The successor to the Surface Pro 4 has big shoes to fill though; that device was not just one of our favourite hybrids of 2015, but one of our favourite laptops overall. Matching its combination of speed and portability is no mean feat.

Thankfully, it appears that Microsoft has changed very little with its latest hybrid, keeping the same look and feel as its predecessor with only minor tweaks to its features and functionality. The exception to this is some rather beefy upgrades to the internal hardware, which combined with the classic design looks like a recipe for success.

Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) review: Specs and performance

Although it's now been surpassed by Intel's 8th-generation Coffee Lake chips, the Surface Pro's Kaby Lake processor is still frighteningly fast. Our Core i7 review unit, paired with 16GB of RAM, racked up an astounding overall score of 102. Not only is that considerably better than any other Microsoft device to date, but it's also beating out pretty much all of its competition from the likes of HP and Dell. In fact, that's approaching the kind of speeds we'd expect from a desktop PC.

Convertible devices are sometimes a little lacking in the battery department, but that's not the case here. In our battery tests, the Surface Pro lasted more than 11 and a half hours. That's an absolutely stonking result - especially given the amount of performance on display - and you can count on Microsoft's new hybrid to power you through even the most demanding workdays, and then some.

Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) review: Display

As you can probably guess, the display is also excellent. The quality of the 12.3in PixelSense screen is immediately evident, underlining how Microsoft has built this device for graphic designers. Brightness is blazing, and the levels of deep contrast ensure it is great for office work as well as watching films.

This display should be perfect for photo editing as it covers almost 95% of the sRGB colour spectrum and the gorgeous 2736 x 1824 screen means that both video and pictures will look super sharp and full of detail.

Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) review: TypeCover keyboard

Microsoft has also updated the Surface Pro’s TypeCover keyboard. However, you might find it hard to tell the difference as hardly anything has changed from the Surface Pro 4’s keyboard. This isn’t a bad thing as the former TypeCover was truly excellent. It wasn’t only one of the best laptop keyboards around, but also the best detachable laptop keyboard we’d ever seen.

The new TypeCover, thankfully, retains this achievement, and the small additions that Microsoft has made, a water-resistant Alcantara covering and a slightly increased travel distance on the keys, have only helped to make it better. It may still be beaten by the keyboard on the latest MacBook Pro, but not by much.

Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) review: Design and appearance

When it comes to the device’s actual design, not much has changed compared to the Surface Pro 4. Microsoft has discovered the perfect design for a detachable hybrid device, as we can see from the legions of organisations that have copied it, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The new device is slightly thinner and lighter than the Pro 4 and the hinge has been slightly improved, but apart from that, it’s business as usual.

This is good as the Surface Pro is absolutely lovely. It is thin, light, has an attractive matte-finished chassis, and is by far one of the most eye-catching devices on the market - and that’s taking Apple’s range of devices into account too.

Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) review: Ports and features

Another touch that will please creatives and digital artists is the new Surface Pen, which has been upgraded from last generation's model. Microsoft has more than quadrupled the level of pressure sensitivity and added tilt shading to make it even more like using a real pencil.

If there's one flaw, it's in Microsoft's choice of ports. The Surface Pro has just one USB 3.0 port and a mini DisplayPort and doesn't support the emerging USB-C standard. The main benefit of using USB-C is that one port can do everything - it allows you to charge your device, connect peripherals like keyboards, mice and displays and even connect to wired internet networks. It's great for agile working because you don't need to spend five minutes unplugging everything if you need to duck out of the office in a hurry.

It's a shame that the Surface Pro doesn't support this, as it's the only thing holding it back from being the best business device on the market today.

Taking it on the go is also made much easier and more convenient by the addition of an LTE-enabled model, which allows you to stay connected even without a Wi-Fi signal, either via an e-SIM or by popping in a nano-SIM.

Microsoft claims that the device will still retain around 90% of its battery life even when using it exclusively on a mobile connection, although we haven't had an opportunity to test this out. LTE speeds are capped at 450Mbps, unfortunately, which is a shame considering Gigabit LTE is on the horizon.

Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) review: Verdict

So there are some flaws with the Surface Pro 5, and let's be honest, newer models have a better spec sheet, but this model is still an excellent 2-in-1. It's compact, well built and, still, extremely powerful.

You can also get the Pro 5 relatively cheaply - £434.99 on Amazon for an i5 model with 8GB of RAM. There used to be options for higher spec versions that would take you above £2,000, but it doesn't appear to be available now with Microsoft keen to move consumers on to its newer machines.

Those newer models may be a bit flashier and offer the latest and greatest tech around, but there is something to be said for the Pro 5 and its evergreen feel. It is a great Windows hybrid laptop, certainly for the price.

It's not often these days we see an innovative convertible laptop. Bar the Microsoft Surface Pro, which is perhaps the closest we've come to perfection in the 2-in-1 market, we're still awaiting something to really wow us.

The flip-style ultrabook market has certainly become a little lacklustre, but the Lenovo Yoga 920 is trying to break away and make its mark in an area of computing that's become a little tired.

In the Yoga 920 we have a device that certainly fits the part, with a pretty sleek design and impressive internals. But what makes it crash back down to earth is its price.

At 1300, there are a lot of better-performing, lighter-weight laptops on the market that could be snapped up for a whole lot less. The question, then, is whether the Yoga 920 is worth that extra cash, or should you stick to the tried and tested Surface range?

Lenovo Yoga 920: Design & connectivity

The Yoga 920's overall looks are pretty striking, with a hinge design not seen anywhere else on the market. It does feel premium, with a solid metal frame and build quality at the top of its game. It's pretty heavy at 1.4kg because of the metal chassis probably and measures 14mm thick, which fits alongside its rivals.

Lenovo has packed in as many premium materials as possible while maintaining the slim profile you want from an ultrabook.

The 920's most unique feature is the 360-degree watchband-style hinge, which upon first impressions felt a little flimsy, as if such an intricate design would surely break under strain. However, after a few uses, it quickly became clear that the hinge is far stronger than it looks, and is able to comfortably support the screen at any angle. The hinge is a wonderfully elegant solution that shares many similarities to the hinge on the Surface Book range, except with 360-degree support.

Convertibles have a bit of an identity crisis in today's market. They inevitably make sacrifices to land somewhere between an ultrabook and a detachable 2-in-1 hybrid, yet with so many compelling examples of both the former and latter available today, compromise can be a difficult sell. 2-in-1s in particular usually do a better job at delivering a tablet experience, as the need to lug around a keyboard often makes a device far too cumbersome.

The Yoga 920 solves this issue in part thanks to a slim frame and a low profile keyboard, and holding it in its tablet form feels more comfortable than you might expect. Its superb hinge makes it easy to transition between modes, however, being slightly heavier than the average ultrabook, using it as a tablet for extended periods of time can be a little uncomfortable. Also, given that pressing your hand against a keyboard instead of a smooth back is far from an elegant solution, the Yoga 920 is, like any other convertible, very much a laptop first and a tablet second.

Given its thin profile, it's unsurprising to see that port options are fairly limited. The good news is that you get two USB type-C ports and one USB 3.0 port, offering some choice when it comes to peripherals. Unfortunately, that's all you get. There are no extra ports for different display adapters, no SD slots or networking options, and one of the USB C ports will often be reserved for charging.

Lenovo Yoga 920: Keyboard & trackpad

Lenovo has clearly understood that for a convertible to work effectively, its keyboard needs to be as unobtrusive as possible. As such, the keyboard is very thin and light, and a super low profile means there's barely any travel time to the keys.

If you're a fan of Lenovo's ThinkPad range, particularly the X1 Carbon with its chunky keys, you're almost certainly not going to enjoy typing on the Yoga 920. Yet for those used to, say, the MacBook Pro's ultra-svelte keyboard, you'll feel right at home. However, typing differs slightly to the MacBook Pro, as the Yoga has a slightly spongier feel with each key press, creating just a tad more feedback while typing.

It's also very difficult to fault its trackpad, which provides a smooth, non-stick surface, is incredibly easy to use and is big enough to comfortably perform Windows multi-touch gestures. If we were being picky, we'd say the left and right click sounds were just a tad too loud, but that's entirely forgivable.

Lenovo Yoga 920: Display

While the Yoga's 1080p screen certainly looks impressive, it's raw performance is a little underwhelming, which is disappointing given its asking price.

Lenovo has opted for the ultra-thin bezels that are becoming a mainstay for ultrabooks looking for that premium feel, and as a result, you get a truly gorgeous looking screen. Unfortunately, with a maximum brightness of just 289cd/m2 and a colour range of 84%, there's little here to help it stand out. For example, the much cheaper Acer Spin 7 has a 95% coverage and 321cd/m2 max brightness.

However, the Yoga's 1403:1 contrast ratio was surprisingly good given the fairly lacklustre scores, ensuring bright whites and deep blacks are beautifully recreated. Unfortunately, it's something that's quite lost on that fairly dull screen. Overall, it's a perfectly usable screen for day to day tasks, just don't expect it to hold up too well in direct sunlight or in an especially well-lit office.

Lenovo Yoga 920: Hardware & performance

While the display is average at best, the Yoga's raw performance is anything but, and was able to deliver some truly impressive results in our benchmark tests. The Yoga achieved an excellent overall score of 90, which puts it on par with some of the top-end ultrabooks and 2-in-1s. For example, a top-of-the-line Microsoft Surface Pro, priced at over 2,000, scored 102 in our benchmark tests.

In fact, it's one of the fastest convertibles we've ever tested, and is more than capable of handling most daily business tasks, whether it be word processing or multi-tab browsing. It will even stand up well to slightly more demanding tasks like image editing or working across multiple screens, which is not something we can say that often about ultra-slim convertibles.

That performance is thanks to the inclusion of Intel's eighth-generation Core i7-8550U processor clocked at 1.8GHz, which offers substantially higher power output than the Y series that's found in many rival machines. What's more, you're also getting 8GB of RAM and a particularly generous 512GB SSD.

While many ultrabooks sacrifice longevity for raw power, the Yoga 920 is one of those few devices that's able to maintain both, which is especially surprising in this price range. With a score of 12hrs and 29mins, it managed to last two hours longer than the new Surface Pro and almost four hours longer than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. That's staggering given that, in the case of the Surface Pro, you're getting a machine that's more than a match for a market leading device, but for more than 700 less.

Lenovo Yoga 920: Verdict

Lenovo's Yoga 920 truly earns its place as one of the better convertibles on the market today. While its asking price is a little above the average, we feel it's worth it given the superb package your getting. Not only is it one of the more visually striking devices on the market, it's also one of the most powerful, with a battery that will last all day. That's not something you'd generally expect from a 2-in-1 device.

Had more attention been given to the Yoga's display, the 920 could've been a serious game changer, but as it stands, there are still some cheaper rivals that could entice customers away from the Yoga's steep price.

For those looking for a machine that looks and feels premium, and willing to fork out that little bit extra, look no further than the Yoga 920.

Verdict

A rare example of a convertible that strikes the perfect balance between striking looks and raw power, the Yoga 920 is one of the best devices of its kind on the market. Only a fairly mediocre screen and a steep asking price tarnish what would be convertible gold.

Some enterprise laptops prize functionality and power over looks, leaving employees with a capable but unattractive slab of a machine that they're forced to lug around. The HP Elitebook X360, however, is most certainly not one of those. Not only is it packed with a rather formidable array of components and features, it's also one of the most gorgeous business devices we've come across.

Looking at the Elitebook X360, it's easy to see why HP has such a great reputation for computing devices in general and enterprise devices in particular. Featuring a fully rotatable 360-degree hinge, a touchscreen and a full complement of business ports and features, it's an excellent option for those that want the power of an ultrabook with the added versatility of a convertible.

HP Elitebook X360 1030 G2: Design

Like most of HP's premium notebooks, the Elitebook X360 oozes quality. The aluminium unibody is accented with diamond-cut edges, it has an understated, professional aesthetic and the whole thing is deeply attractive without being garish.

Despite its sleek looks, there's an air of sturdiness to it that instils a sense of confidence in its ability to stand up to a bit of punishment. It's well-deserved, too - the X360 is designed to pass the MIL STD 810G tests that certify a device as rugged enough for use by the US military.

At 1.27kg with a 14mm thickness, the Elitebook X360 is a little on the chunky side when compared to other convertibles, which tend to be less than a kilogram. However, the X360 includes an excellent full-size keyboard, powerful internal components and a healthy allocation of ports, so it's easy to forgive.

As a convertible, the X360 is fully reversible, so you can flip the screen over and use it as a tablet, or stand it up in tent mode. It's a little too heavy to use comfortably as a tablet in day-to-day operations, but it's well suited to occasional use. For example, it's perfect for meetings where you need to refer to notes, but don't want to be awkwardly toting around a traditional clamshell.

We're still not 100% sold on the utility of convertible devices for office workers versus traditional laptops, but the X360 has gone some way to convince us.

We found ourselves actually using the additional functions like tent and tablet mode quite a bit, and they actually did encourage us to be more agile in the way we worked.For example, it turned out to be much more convenient to proof-read documents in a coffee shop with the X360 folded over and held like a clipboard than it was to simply use it in a traditional form-factor.

HP Elitebook X360 1030 G2: Keyboard and trackpad

The Elitebook X360's keyboard is similarly polished. Typing feels satisfying, and the backlit keys offer excellent travel depth and feedback, with no sign of the mushiness exhibited by cheaper keyboards.

The touchpad is also great; large enough to capably navigate the screen, whiile clicking offers a firm response. It's really nicely-finished too, and your finger glides over the touchpad's surface with ease.

While not quite as satisfying to use as the MacBook or Surface Laptop's keyboard, the HP Elitebook X360 is certainly one of the better notebooks we've used for typing, and we had absolutely no issues with it.

HP Elitebook X360 1030 G2: Performance

As a business-grade device, you'd assume a certain level of hardware capability from the X360, and it delivers. HP hasn't yet updated it to Intel's newest 8th-gen CPUs, but the 7th-gen Kaby Lake chips it uses still perform very admirably indeed. It's available with either a Core i5-7200U processor or a Core i7-7600U processor and either 4GB, 8GB or 16GB of RAM.

Our review unit used a Core i5 chip and 8GB, but despite this mid-level spec, it coped with our benchmarks well, racking up an overall score of 53 in our performance tests. This puts it behind newer laptops with more recent chips, but slightly ahead of the Surface Laptop and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and it means it's more than capable of keeping up with demanding professional applications.

The battery life is excellent for a convertible, too - especially one that uses a full-fat Kaby Lake processor. With a measured battery life of 10hrs 46mins, it's more than capable of powering you through a full day of work with juice to spare.

Even better, it supports Thunderbolt 3 in addition to using a traditional charger. This flexibility means that you needn't sacrifice port space in order to juice it up but also ensures you won't be caught short in the event that you leave your adaptor at the office.

HP Elitebook X360 1030 G2: Display

Unfortunately, the X360's 13.3in screen is a little bit of a letdown. For starters, it's only available in the UK with a 1080p resolution, as opposed to other territories where it comes with an optional 4K panel. While 1080p isn't sub-par, it would have been nice to have to option of increased visual fidelity, particularly for those who may be looking to use the X360 for photo editing tasks.

The colour accuracy is a little disappointing too, covering a markedly lower percentage of the sRGB spectrum than Dell's XPS 13 or the Surface range, according to our tests. This isn't a major issue for most users - colours are still punchy and vivid - but again, it's not ideal for graphic designers or photography professionals. The X360's maximum brightness is below the average, too.

It's not enough of a problem to put us off the device or to spoil our experience, and movies, images and documents are still represented well. It is a shame, however, particularly since HP's displays are often excellent.

HP Elitebook X360 1030 G2: Ports & features

One of the most striking things about the Elitebook X360 is just how many ports HP has managed to cram into it. Most convertibles make do with one or two, but the X360 has two full-sized USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C port, a HDMI output, a microSD card slot and even a security card reader. This is a very healthy complement, and ensures that you'll never need a dongle or adaptor again.

HP included with the Elitebook X360 the company's Active Pen (which is sold separately), and while it's perfectly functional, it still doesn't feel quite as intuitive or as pleasant to use as the Surface Pen. HP also hasn't included any way of attaching the pen to the X360.

This is a real bugbear of ours - if you're going to include a stylus with your product, then include some way of keeping them together, too - otherwise, it inevitably ends up getting lost. The Surface Pro's magnetic pen holder is the perfect blueprint for how to do this right, and it's frustrating that more companies haven't followed Microsoft's lead.

Unsurprisingly for a business-class device, the X360 is packed to the gunnells with enterprise security and management features, including Sure Start Gen3 BIOS protections and the aforementioned smart card reader. Elsewhere, there's Windows Hello biometric authentication, including both facial recognition and a fingerprint reader.

HP Elitebook X360 1030 G2: Verdict

HP's business ultrabooks are generally superb, and the Elitebook X360 is no exception to this trend. Sleek, attractive, and dripping with power and functionality, this machine is a mightily capable enterprise powerhouse.

It's also one of the most versatile and well-rounded convertible laptops we've seen. It's got all the ports you could wish for and more than enough raw horsepower to handle just about anything you can throw at it without sacrificing its thin, lightweight design.

It's not perfect - the screen is somewhat disappointing, and the Active Pen feels a tad superfluous - but it's one of the best business laptops around. For organisations that want to maximise the productivity and flexibility of their workers, the HP Elitebook X360 is a must-buy.

Verdict

Despite being let down by a somewhat disappointing screen, the HP Elitebook X360 is a phenomenal business-class hybrid. It's got plenty of power, a plethora of ports and a sharp, elegant aesthetic to ensure that you'll stand out at your next client meeting, making it a very worthwhile investment indeed.

Cisco has revealed an update to its HyperFlex platform, prepping businesses for a multi-cloud future, with support for Microsoft Hyper-V, stretch clusters and containers.

It's the biggest update Cisco has made to its hyperconverged platform since it launched a few years ago, and it makes running the platform a much better fit for businesses running a hybrid infrastructure.

AppDynamics and Cisco Workload Optimization Manager are both included in the update, offering monitoring and management of hybrid applications and automated analysis and workload placement to help businesses keep on top of their app management.

Although Hyperflex has always supported VMWare's ESXi hypervisor, the HyperFlex 3.0 takes this one step forward, with support for Microsoft Hyper-V, meaning businesses now have a choice between vendors.

Another new addition is a FlexVolume driver, which allows organisations to offer storage for Kubernetes-managed containers. This means cloud-native applications can be developed and deployed on Hyperflex, breaking down the barriers for businesses that have moved away from on-premise completely (or even just for some workloads).

Cisco is also offering enhanced application migration tools in the form of workload profiling and sizing tools within HyperFlex 3.0. This includes new design and deployment guides for mission critical databases, analytics and ERP applications - including Oracle, SQL, SAP, Microsoft Exchange, and Splunk on top of its Virtual Server Infrastructure (VSI) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

For those using clusters, HyperFlex has extended support to 64 nodes with fully-automated availability nodes for greater resiliency. The latest iteration can also be configured into stretch clusters to span campuses or areas for businesses with multiple locations.

2017 has been an excellent year for technology and hardware. Consumers have been wowed by the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and a list of redesigned Apple products, while businesses have been able to take advantage of unparalleled processing power thanks to servers from companies like HPE and Dell.

With such a wealth to choose from, it's hard to pick which products have been most impressive, but with some careful thought, we've sifted through the year's launches to bring you IT Pro's top products of the year.

Best laptop

Winner - Apple MacBook Pro

Apple's top-end MacBook models are widely regarded as the gold standard in business-class notebooks, and with good reason. Combining a sleek and stylish design with nigh-unbeatable performance thanks to 2017's upgraded Kaby Lake model, the MacBook Pro is an absolute powerhouse for everyone from developers to designers.

It's not entirely without problems - we wish Apple had included a couple of ports besides Thunderbolt 3, for example, and the Touch Bar version has some battery life problems - but features like the ultra-shallow keyboard and mammoth trackpad set it apart from its competition.

Highly commended - Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Another heavyweight in the enterprise hardware space, Lenovo's venerable ThinkPad range has a sterling pedigree. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is sturdy, reliable and well-suited to tasks of all stripes, with a truly excellent keyboard and finely-tuned features for businesses.

Best tablet

Winner - Apple iPad Pro

Apple has thoroughly dominated the tablet computing category this year - and not just because it's been one of the only companies to release a premium tablet. The company's devices have been sophisticated, powerful and portable, and the iPad Pro is the perfect combination of all three.

The Apple Pencil support made it an excellent choice for designers and artists, but now that Apple has introduced a file manager and a suite of proper multi-tasking capabilities, the iPad Pro can genuinely be considered as a laptop replacement. Showcasing the very best of Apple's design abilities, both the 10.5in and 12.9in iPad Pro models are the pinnacle of tablet design.

Highly commended - Apple iPad

If you can't quite bear to part with the 620 starting price of the iPad Pro, Apple's entry-level iPad makes a handy compromise. While it doesn't have the full range of productivity features seen on the Pro range, the basic iPad is still sleek and speedy enough for day-to-day use.

Best 2-in-1

Winner - Microsoft Surface Pro

One look at how many companies have aped the design of Microsoft's flagship convertible should give you a good indication of how popular the Surface Pro is. The kickstand design is elegant and intuitive, and the keyboard is one of the most satisfying typing experiences we've had, whilst also being amazingly thin and light.

There's no compromise on components, either; the 12.3in screen is pin-sharp and absolutely gorgeous to boot, and one of Intel's seventh-generation processors provides a serious amount of oomph. Forget compromise; this 2-in-1 does everything a laptop can, and then some.

Highly commended - HP Elite X2 Folio

While it's definitely borrowing some design inspiration from the Surface Pro, the HP Elite X2 Folio brings a few things to the table that Microsoft's device doesn't. It's user-upgradeable, for example, which could end up saving corporate IT departments a whole heap of time and money in the long term.

Best Chromebook

Winner - Google Pixelbook

Chromebooks aren't just cheap and cheerful laptops for schools, and Google's out to prove it with the Pixelbook. A razor-thin body and eye-catching design is backed up by surprisingly powerful internal hardware and all the AI-powered software features you'd expect from a flagship Google product.

What's more, improvements to Chrome OS and the ability to run Android apps mean that the Pixelbook is (very nearly) as versatile and capable as a standard Windows laptop. It's expensive, but it's liable to inspire serious notebook envy wherever you go.

Highly commended - HP Chromebook 13

At around 600, the HP Chromebook 13 is much more affordable than the pricey Pixelbook, without making too much of a compromise on design or performance. Like most Chromebooks, it'll struggle with seriously heavy-duty workloads, but for general tasks, this lightweight machine should perform very well indeed.

Best smartphone

Winner - Samsung Galaxy S8

2017 has been a truly excellent year for smartphones, and the Samsung Galaxy S8 has been firmly leading the charge. The first major smartphone out of the gate with an edge-to-edge OLED display, the S8 set an example followed by companies like OnePlus, Honor and even Apple.

Combine this with one of the best smartphone cameras we've ever seen, super-quick internals and a very capable battery life, and it all adds up to a device that's very attractive indeed. Move over, iPhone; there's a new king in town.

Highly commended - Google Pixel 2

The follow up to last year's surprise hit, the Google Pixel 2 is a deeply impressive piece of technology powered by intelligent AI features and smart UI design. Its real selling-point is an absolutely world-class camera, which has yet to be beaten by any other smartphone. Were it not for a slightly underwhelming screen, the Pixel 2 would be topping our list this year.

Best 1U server

Winner - Dell EMC PowerEdge R640

The Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 is part of the company's recently-launched 14th generation of servers, and Dell has pulled out all the stops to cram this space-efficient 1U rack server full of storage and power. Not only does it have full support for Intel's Xeon Scalable processors, it's also got some mightily impressive storage options.

On top of that, Dell's iDRAC9 management console is a smash hit, offering a comprehensive overview of operational information, security-centric features and outstanding remote management and administration capabilities. It's every bit the equal of HPE's superb iLO5 controller.

Highly commended - Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630

Expansion potential is the name of the game here, with Lenovo's ThinkSystem SR630 offering plenty of internal space for further upgrades, despite a compact 1U form factor, and Xeon Scalable processor support for improved performance. More importantly, the XClarity Controller will make remote management a breeze.

Best 2U server

Winner - Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd

The first server in Dell EMC's 14th-generation PowerEdge line, the PowerEdge R740xd is an excellent example of what customers can expect from the company now that the merger between Dell and EMC has been completed. Remote management capabilities have been improved, and EMC's expertise has been put to use with a superb array of storage features.

It's also a powerful showcase of Intel's relatively new enterprise-grade Skylake-SP Xeon processors. The R740xd supports the whole family, all the way up to Intel's 28-core Platinum Xeon monster, and its sheer processing power is tough to beat. Blue-chip vendors, take note: this is how it's done.

Highly commended - HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10

Like the PowerEdge, HPE's tenth-generation flagship 2U server features Xeon Scalable processor support and extensive storage options. It's an improvement over the previous iteration in just about every way, and it's got the huge room for expansion too, making it a great option for growing businesses.

Best tower server

Winner - HPE ProLiant ML110 Gen10

Smaller businesses on a tighter budget may think that cutting-edge Xeon Scalable servers are out of their reach, but not anymore. The 10th-generation update to HPE's ProLiant ML110 tower server brings SMBs excellent performance coupled with generous expansion options.

It also comes with HPE's outstanding iLO5 management controller, providing plenty of remote management, monitoring, and security features. For smaller organisations that want a heavyweight server without the top-end price tag, this is an excellent choice.

Highly commended - Fujitsu Server Primergy TX1320 M3

If you're tight on space, Fujitsu's smallest-ever tower server will be right up your street. Not only that, but it's also great value. Combine that with beefy Xeon processors and heaps of clever design features to make the most of the limited internal space, and you've got a very capable package.

Best security appliance

Winner - WatchGuard Firebox T70

The biggest thing that the WatchGuard Firebox T70 has going for it is its virtually unbeatable price. Not only is it extremely competitive, it's also one of the highest-performing desktop appliances we've ever seen, with 4GBits/sec firewall throughput.

It's bundled with a year's subscription to WatchGuard's enterprise-class software suite too, including anti-spam, anti-virus and web-content filtering, as well as a Gold-level support subscription. Lastly, it has top-notch monitoring features for ultimate peace of mind.

Highly commended - Kerio Control NG300W

The Kerio Control NG300W is one sturdy UTM appliance, with four Gigabit Ethernet ports, a 2.4GHz Intel Atom CPU, and an inbuilt heatsink. It doesn't fall down on security features either, offering a comprehensive and well-rounded package. The only absence is anti-spam features, but otherwise, it's an excellent security appliance.

Best storage array

Winner - HPE MSA 2052 Storage

HPE has raised the bar with its 5th-gen MSA 2052 storage appliance, doubling the performance of an already-excellent array whilst keeping it at the same wallet-friendly price as its predecessor.

Performance is accordingly excellent, and it's twinned with a load of powerful features to make virtualisation, deployment, and recovery as easy as possible. Considering that it includes HPE's full suite of data tiering capabilities as well, it's a steal.

Highly commended - Broadberry CyberStore 224S-WSS rack

Despite going up against titans like HPE, Dell EMC, and Fujitsu, Broadberry was first out of the gate with a Windows Storage Server 2016 appliance - and for a very attractive price, too. On top of that, the Broadberry CyberServe 224S-WSS comes with 26 hot-swap SFF drive bays, heaps of network connection options, twin Intel Xeon E5-2620 v4 processors and 64GB of RAM.

Best NAS drive

Winner - Qnap TS-1685 desktop

For those that want high-volume desktop storage capabilities, it's hard to beat Qnap's TS-1685. Not only does it feature 16 hot-swap drive bays, it's also got blazing network performance thanks to its four 10GbE Ethernet ports, and support for expansion via additional PCIe cards.

You'll be hard-pressed to match its performance in terms of disk read and write speeds as well. Add in a whole heap of backup and storage features, and the TS-1685 is a superb addition to any small office setup.

Highly commended - Netgear ReadyNAS RN426

Data protection is top of the priority list for this SMB-friendly NAS drive. Backup performance is excellent, with cloud sharing, disaster recovery and snapshot features aplenty. It's also nice and hardy, thanks to its rock-solid steel construction.

Best printer

Winner - Xerox VersaLink C400DN

The first thing that's likely to attract SMBs Xerox's VersaLink C400DN is the low price, but one of the most useful features is the large variety of onboard apps available for it, including heaps of cloud and network printing tools. It's also one of the rare printers that supports wired and wireless networking simultaneously.

Print quality is absolutely superb, delivering razor-sharp and detail-packed pictures and documents at exceptional speeds. As if that wasn't enough Xerox offers a lifetime on-site warranty - all you have to do is buy a toner pack in the last 60 days of your warranty period, and the company will renew it for another year. Can't say fairer than that.

Highly commended - Brother MFC-L8900CDW MFP

Although its initial purchase price isn't as attractive as some of its rivals, this A4 laser printer makes up for it with a battery of excellent cloud and security features, combined with speedy, high-quality prints. Running costs are reasonable, too, so TCO shouldn't be a problem later down the line.

Hybrid laptops have risen to become a popular fixture of the PC landscape, thanks in no small part to Microsoft's excellent Surface Pro range, which proved that 2-in-1s can be both portable and powerful.

You may be tempted to think that HP's Elite X2 1012 is just another Surface Pro knock-off, given the marked similarities between the two devices. Look under the surface, however, and you'll find a machine that's more than worthy of any business's time.

Design

The design of Microsoft's Surface Pro range has inspired many copycat devices over the past few years, and HP's Elite X2 1012 is quite clearly one of them. Like the Surface Pro, it has a detachable metal keyboard and a fold-out kickstand to turn it from a tablet to a laptop and back again.

Surface Pro clones don't always offer the same rewarding experience as Microsoft's original tablet, but thankfully one of the things that HP has borrowed from Microsoft is a sleek and professional design sensibility. It's built from aluminium with a matte finish, and shares the Surface Pro's attractive and streamlined look, with a casing that also promises sturdiness and reliability.

As with all of its enterprise-grade machines, HP has put those promises of build quality to the test. The Elite X2 has been put through a huge range of trials to ensure that it can withstand a creditable amount of punishment; the kickstand can be opened and shut ten thousand times, the keyboard has been rated for ten million keystrokes and the device itself has been drop-tested from a height of more than half a metre onto concrete.

At 820g heavy minus the keyboard, it's a touch bulkier than the most recent Surface Pro. However, it's still far from unwieldy, and it's absolutely no trouble to cart around for the duration of a working day. In fact, it's even a touch thinner, at 8.2mm.

The biggest aesthetic difference between the Elite X2 and the Surface Pro is that the X2 uses a cut-out frame for its kickstand, rather than the full plate version used by Microsoft. While this could be slightly more versatile than the Surface Pro, we'd worry that it doesn't offer the same stability and structural integrity as a full plate version, and that it'd break more easily.

HP does have an ace up its sleeve, though, and that's user upgradeability. Pop out a couple of screws and you can get at the internal hardware, allowing you to replace components like the RAM, storage and screen.

This is a real selling-point for businesses that will be issuing large numbers of devices; many manufacturers don't make it easy to access the internal workings of their hardware, and if you need to send a machine back to the manufacturer every time an individual component fails, that can quickly become expensive. It's much cheaper to have simple component changes done by your in-house IT team if your corporate devices support it.

Display

Unsurprisingly, the Elite X2's 12.3in screen is another high point; HP generally has a good reputation with regards to its display technology, and that reputation is upheld here. The colour accuracy was very good indeed, covering a whopping 91.5% of the sRGB colour spectrum, and the maximum brightness of 388cd/m2 and 2736 x 1824 display resolution are similarly hard to fault. It's made from Gorilla Glass 4 too, so you can be confident that it won't shatter easily.

If there's one fault with the screen, it's that it doesn't feature any form of matte anti-glare coating. This feature has been cropping up on more and more laptops, and it makes working under tricky lighting conditions much more manageable. However, given that we've yet to see an anti-glare coating combined with Corning's excellent Gorilla Glass, we're happy to make a minor compromise on convenience for the sake of strength and stability.

Keyboard

You'd be forgiven for thinking that HP would struggle to match up to the exceptionally high standards set by Microsoft's TypeCover keyboards, but you'd be wrong. The Elite X2's folio keyboard is an absolute delight to use. it's effectively the same keyboard that we saw in HP's Elitebook Folio 1020, and it's no less impressive here. The aluminium keyboard frame ensures that the keyboard is solid and stable while you're typing, with the added benefit that it adds an air of sophisticated professionalism that Microsoft's colourful keyboards sometimes lack.

The actual typing action is lovely too, offering crisp, defined feedback and an impressive travel depth, considering the relative slimness of the keyboard. Rattling off long passages of text using the X2's keyboard is an absolute breeze, and although we very slightly prefer the Surface Pro's keyboard, there really isn't that much in it.

It uses magnetic detachment, as is pretty much standard for this type of hybrid, and slots home with a satisfying thunk. The trackpad is nice too. It's not quite as large as we would have liked, but it's smooth, fluid and supports multitouch gestures.

In addition to the usual input methods, the X2 also supports HP's Active Pen. It's not quite as polished an experience as rival styluses like Microsoft's Surface Pen or the Apple Pencil, but writing with it feels fluid and natural enough to cope with basic drawing or note-taking, if not detailed artistic tasks.

Performance and battery life

Gone are the days when having a hybrid device meant compromising on performance. Although Intel still produces lower-powered chips designed for 2-in-1s and other highly mobile devices, they're no longer hobbled, substandard chips in the vein of the old Core M processors - the company's U-series processors can absolutely hold their own.

For proof of this, look no further than the Elite X2, which carries an Intel Core i7-7600U and knows how to use it. Coupled with 16GB of RAM, it racked up a score of 53 in our benchmark tests, which is speedy indeed, considering the similarly priced, and specced, Asus Transformer Pro 2-in-1 hit just 39.

While it's still lagging a little bit behind the Surface Pro, it's more than capable of keeping up with most other 2-in-1s and even some ultrabooks, and will happily handle intense workloads and multitasking without a hint of complaint.

Battery life is a less impressive story, unfortunately. In our tests, it managed just 6hrs 32mins, which isn't as lengthy as we'd like. In fact, it's probably not going to see you through a full working day unless you're judicious about limiting your power consumption. This is a shame, as it limits the versatility of an otherwise excellent hybrid.

Ports and features

As one of HP's business devices, the Elite X2 is more generous than most Surface Pro-type devices when it comes to ports. Along with a USB 3.0 port, there's a Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C port allowing it to be connected to a powered dock for data, power and display transfer. It also has a MicroSD card slot for expanding the storage beyond the capacity of the 512GB SSD and a SIM tray for adding 4G data connectivity.

There's a depth-sensing camera offering Windows Hello biometric login support, and the X2 also comes with Windows 10 Pro as standard, offering a range of enterprise management functions. HP has included several of its own business management tools as well, including third-generation Sure Start BIOS protection and the HP Manageability Integration Kit.

Verdict

The HP Elite X2 1012 is a sterling example of how to do a business hybrid right. It may take a substantial amount of inspiration from Microsoft's Surface Pro range, but HP hasn't fallen into the trap that many manufacturers fall into by only borrowing the design and forgetting about the impressive performance that makes the Pro line so beloved. On top of that, the company has also added some business-friendly features, such as a raft of management tools and the ability to upgrade parts, that will make IT admins and CIOs very happy indeed.

Granted, the X2 lags very slightly behind the Surface Pro in terms of its technical performance, but we're inclined to forgive that on the basis that the X2 is almost 400 cheaper than Microsoft's product. All in all, the HP Elite X2 1012 is a wonderful hybrid device, and makes an excellent addition to any businesses device portfolio.

With the iPad Pro, Apple has spent years trying to convince the world that a tablet can act as a genuine replacement for your laptop. Previous iterations never quite managed to convince us that an iPad could function as well as a laptop, particularly for business users.

That may have changed with the latest generation of iPad Pro, however. Apple has overhauled the display, fitted it with a powerful new processor and promised some seriously impressive productivity and functionality upgrades when iOS 11 hits devices. But can the new and improved iPad Pro family really cut it as a fully-fledged laptop replacement?

Who uses the iPad Pro?

Before we delve into the details of the product, it's worth thinking about how the iPad range has been deployed in the enterprise. There's essentially two scenarios: one where an iPad acts as a secondary device - a 'carry around' - when the user has a bigger laptop or desktop computer; and one where the iPad acts as the user's sole device. This latter scenario sounds like it's less common, but Apple has actually had some success in pitching the iPad Pro as a device for field workers and certain office-based employees.

As a secondary device, the iPad Pro's main competition is probably from high-end Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. However, in the latter scenario the competition is mainly from Windows convertibles like Microsoft's own Surface Pro series.

So with this in mind, how does the latest iPad Pro fare against both these kinds of competition, and in both scenarios? Let's look at how the device shapes up.

iPad Pro: Design, display and specs

If you're expecting a radical redesign of the iPad with the latest models in the Pro range, you'll be disappointed. They're very much still iPads, and follow the same design formula that we're all familiar with. The iPad design is iconic, which is partly why it hasn't really changed since the iPad Air.

The only slight variations to the previous generation of iPad Pro are some minor adjustments to weight, thickness and the size of the screen bezels - all of which are practically negligible. The 10.5in model is a couple of millimetres thicker and around 30g heavier than the 9.7in version it replaces (which is to be expected, given the larger footprint and screen size), while the bigger 12.9in version is around 30g lighter than its predecessor.

Both devices still feel light and comfortable to use, and are excellently-balanced in the hand. The 12.9in version can be slightly unwieldy due to the sheer size of it, but this is easily fixed by pairing it with a stand or folio case.

The real improvements aren't cosmetic though - they're under the hood. Apple has updated all the key elements of the tablet, starting with the screen. The TrueTone display on the iPad Pro 9.7in was already the best screen we'd seen on any device, but Apple hasn't been content to rest on its laurels. Instead, it's ramped up the refresh rate to a maximum of 120Hz, which makes things like scrolling much more responsive. It's also introduced a feature that it's calling ProMotion, which allows it to run the screen at a lower refresh rate if fast motion isn't happening on screen.

ProMotion sounds a little gimmicky, but it's not: it's probably the best thing to happen to mobile screens since the dawn of the retina era. It makes that much difference to how smooth everything looks on screen. There's none of the lag you associate with swiping around on cheaper screens.

This faster refresh rate also contributes to a more responsive experience with the Apple Pencil, which now has a response time of just 20ms - a whole millisecond less than the latest iteration of the Surface Pen. Also contributing to this is some smart code behind the scenes which uses machine learning to predict where the Pencil will move next, and literally "draw ahead" by a millisecond or two. A trained artist we asked for an opinion described the Pencil as easily the most responsive on-screen drawing experience they had ever used, and the first which came close to paper.

If that was all Apple had done, it would be a decent upgrade. But there's more: a lot more. The processor has been updated to the new Apple A10X Fusion ARM chip, which, as we'll see, pushes performance even further. The 32GB configuration is gone, with the range now running 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB, something which sounds crazy for a tablet but which makes complete sense if you're considering the iPad as a genuine laptop replacement.

And of course, Apple being Apple, it had to update the camera too, which is now the same 12MP unit as on the current iPhone 7, widely regarded as amongst the best phone cameras in the world. You might only ever use this for scanning documents - and in conjunction with apps like Office Lens the iPad makes a great document scanner - but you'll get some really good results.

iPad Pro: Performance and battery life

The iPad Pro series were already the fastest tablets we've seen, and the introduction of the A10X Fusion chip pushes this even further. Our Geekbench 4 CPU test delivered scores of 9380 for multi-core and 3,930 for single core. That's just under double the multi-core performance of the device the 10.5in iPad Pro replaces, and more than double the 4,208 scored by the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. Effectively, the iPad Pro now offers more than twice the multi-core performance of its nearest Android competitor.

Put that into a wider context and it's even more impressive. The Core m3 version of the new Surface Pro scores 5,342 on the same Geekbench multi-core test. The Core i5 version scores 7,544. The iPad Pro 10.5in isn't just scoring "good for a tablet" numbers: it's outperforming the latest desktop processors.

And it's doing this without compromising on the all-day battery life which iPad users want. In our tests, the 10.5in model delivered 12hrs 59mins, which is a significant improvement on the iPad Pro 9.7in's 8hrs 56mins, and easily beats the Galaxy Tab S3's 11hrs 43mins. The larger 12.9in model saw this score drop slightly to 12hrs 18mins, but considering the mammoth size of the display, this is neither a surprise nor a disappointment.

iPad Pro: Pricing and comparison

If you're expecting low-cost tablet prices from the iPad Pro, you can look away now: these devices are priced to compete at the high end, not the low end. When they were first launched, the cheapest iPad Pro - the 10.5in version with 256GB of storage and no 4G connectivity - cost 709 including VAT, with the most expensive configuration setting you back more than 1,100.

However, Apple has now increased the prices, it would seem and now the 256GB Wi-Fi-only iPad Pro costs 769, while other iPad Pros have seen a price increase of around 60 too according to Ars Technica.

Although Apple hasn't officially said why it has increased prices or in fact issued a formal statement highlighting the price shift, 9to5Mac has speculated the company has been forced to increase its prices because of the rising cost of NAND storage. According to analysts, the type of storage the iPad Pro uses is in short supply and as a result suppliers have had to up their prices. This gets filtered down to the customer - you - and unfortunately means the iPad Pro is a lot more expensive to buy.

"Average contract prices of client-grade SSDs in the PC-OEM market are rising this first quarter because not only PC clients are aggressively stocking up their inventories, smartphone clients are also maintaining strong demand for storage components," senior research manager of DRAMeXchange Alan Chen said back in March.

"At the same time, the industry-wide transition to 3D-NAND and 2D-NAND TLC production has sharply reduced the supply of Flash memory of the 2D-NAND MLC type. Thus, the price increase of MLC-based SSDs is outpacing that of TLC-based SSDs."

This was referenced by Apple CFO Luca Maestri on an earnings call in its second quarter earnings call, although he didn't specify the company would need to put its prices up.

But this does make the iPad Pro eye-wateringly expensive. It's worth remembering though that the iPad Pro is outperforming most high-end laptops in terms of display quality, battery life and performance. Considering that Microsoft's latest Surface Pro range starts at almost 800, the iPad actually isn't all that expensive for what you're getting.

iPad Pro: Software

Of course, there's an objection to that point: the iPad Pro runs iOS 10, where the Surface Pro runs Windows 10. And there's no doubt that Windows 10 is, at present, a much more powerful operating system in terms of the richness of applications built on top of it and what you can do with it.

However, Apple is releasing iOS 11 in the autumn and this will add features which some enterprise users will welcome. First, multi-tasking support has been extended and cleaned up, making it easier to have persistent workspaces with two or three applications on screen. Second, drag and drop support has been added, making what you can do with multiple apps on screen more powerful. And finally there's a single Files app which houses all your documents, local and in Apple and third-party cloud services, which is going to make the iPad a much more PC-like' experience.

Conclusions

Apple is to be congratulated for continuing to push the iPad forward. It would have been easy for the company to rest on its laurels and carry on making tablets in the same way as everyone else, as relatively simple devices with lower performance than PCs.

With the iPad Pro series, Apple is demonstrating that it's determined to create tablets which get ever-closer to laptop performance, and under some circumstances exceed it.

From an enterprise perspective, whether the iPad is right for you depends on your workforce. For anyone in the field, particularly those whose primary application is some kind of SaaS system accessed through a dashboard (Salesforce, Oracle, and so on), giving them an iPad rather than a laptop increases agility, delivers better ease of use and deployment, and they're getting a high-end machine which will make them happier and last between four and five years.

For office-bound workers who spend all day staring at their screens, this iPad is less of a good fit - at least until iOS 11 is released, at which point it may be appropriate for more types of user. For these staff, the laptop is still king of the hill - but with this iPad Pro, Apple has definitely made a much more compelling argument for the tablet as your only business machine.

Verdict

A screen upgrade would have been enough to net the new iPad Pro a perfect score, but the fact that Apple has stuffed in a host of additional upgrades means it's impossible not to recommend it. It's definitely top of the tree, easily the best product in its category and arguably one of the best products all-round that Apple has ever made.

Although Microsoft continues to assert its dominance in the 2-in-1 market, that hasn't stopped potential upstarts from undercutting the leader with value-for-money devices. Samsung's latest Galaxy Book is just that; a spiritual successor to the the Tab Pro S that offers a both a keyboard and stylus for 150 less than the entry-level Surface Pro.

The 10.6in Galaxy Book is looking to attract a buyer that is put off by the 1,000+ prices of premium rivals. It's lightweight, sleek-looking, and features an excellent screen for the price range, and works great with Windows 10. Unfortunately, cost-cutting results in a noticeable drop in quality, particularly with the keyboard, which holds it back from being a genuine Surface Pro alternative.

Design & connectivity

The Galaxy Book follows a very similar design format to Samsung's Galaxy TabPro S, although the extra internal horsepower gives it a chunkier 8.9mm frame. However, the most important thing to know is that the Galaxy Book is framed in plastic, despite attempts to appear like it's built from aluminium.

That's particularly galling for a device that starts at a retail price of 649, and while it feels well built, it doesn't exactly scream 'premium'. It's also a tad heavier than we'd like at 640g, almost 200g more than the new 10.5in iPad Pro, which makes it a little cumbersome to hold in one hand.

Much like the Acer Switch 5, the Galaxy Book comes bundled with a keyboard, which is always great to see at this price range. Yet for a device that's pitching itself as a detachable, its smaller 10.6in screen and curved frame suggest it's very much still a tablet. Think more iPad Pro with a keyboard attached, rather than the true hybrid approach of the Surface Pro.

That tablet-first approach is also evident in its selection of ports, which is woefully limited. You do get a USB-C port and a microSD slot - but that's it. It lacks the extra USB slot found on the Acer Switch 5, or any additional display connectors, such as the mini DisplayPort of the Surface Pro. You'll likely have to pick and choose what device you have connected, or rely on a cumbersome and costly array of dongles.

Keyboard, trackpad & stylus

As a device that aims to double as a business workhorse, keyboard quality is everything - but unfortunately, this is one of the Galaxy Book's weakest attributes.

The keyboard case itself is well built, and offers a soft-touch rubberised coating that feels great on your palms while typing. You can also shape the case for three different viewing angles, making use of some magnetic strips built into the rear of the device, which is a little more generous than typical case-reliant stands.

It even features a stylus loop so you can store your S Pen next to the keyboard. This seems like a less elegant solution than the Surface Pro's magnetised pen holder, but in reality it's far more practical. It's a robust, functional, and easy-to-clean case, so it's a shame that the typing experience is subpar.

Even though the keys have a satisfying feedback and decent travel time to them, they're tiny, in some cases too small to touch-type effectively. The top row of keys, including the function set, are all barely the size of a fingertip, and the caps lock and tab keys are difficult to instinctively locate. What also irritated to no end was the incredibly pressure sensitive space bar, which would produce gaps in text whenever I rested my hands on the keys.

Given the tablet is only 10.6in in size, it's reasonable to expect a fairly cramped keyboard, but still, the reality of a smaller screen means typing will always suffer. It's perfectly usable for day to day browsing and light tasks, but extensive writing sessions are going to be fairly laborious and full of errors.

The trackpad, however, performs admirably given its smaller size. It's coated in the same soft-touch material found on the rest of the board, making it easy to perform gestures, and it worked beautifully with the built-in Windows 10 multi-touch commands.

Although it seems generous of Samsung to include its S Pen in the bundle, it's important to note that this can't quite match the performance of the Surface Pro stylus. It features 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity, almost half that of the Surface and iPad pens, although it's lighter than previous S Pens and no longer needs a battery to function. The main issue is that it's made from plastic, and while it is easy to use and feels nice and light in the hand, it screams 'budget'.

Display

True to form, Samsung doesn't disappoint when it comes to the screen. Of course, it can't quite match the performance of the Galaxy S8's QHD OLED screen, but it's certainly impressive for a 1,920 x 1,260 LCD display.

It does particularly well with colour reproduction, covering 92% of the sRGB gamut, which is just shy of the coverage levels of the Surface Pro and iPad Pro. It also has a maximum brightness of 387cd/m2 and a 928:1 contrast ratio, both of which are significantly higher than the Switch 5's 341cd/m2 and 845:1 respective scores.

While not the most impressive screen around, it does its job well, and offers decent viewing angles and a brightness that is good enough for outdoor use.

Hardware & performance

The 10.6in version of the Galaxy Book features a 1.GHz 7th-gen Core m3 processor with a 2.6GHz turbo boost, supported by 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC storage. The 12in model comes with a Core i5 processor, with 4GB or 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB storage options.

While 1.0GHz doesn't sound like a lot, it's perfectly suitable for daily tasks, such as web browsing and word processing, and Windows 10 feels smooth and responsive. It's also capable of boosting itself to 2.6GHz during intense periods, such as opening a bunch of webpages or programs.

In our benchmark tests it achieved an overall score of 25, which puts it on par with the Surface Pro's m3 variant, but vastly behind the powerhouse 10.5in iPad Pro. In reality, that means it's going to be perfectly suitable for web browsing and light work tasks such as word processing, but will buckle if you try to multitask too many programs at once. However, that modest spec and fanless design does mean it's whisper-quiet as a result.

The main issue is the battery life. It managed just 7hrs and 18mins in our benchmarks, which should be enough to get you through a working day, but is disappointing given the weak output of the CPU. That's significantly behind the iPad Pro 10.5in's score of 12hrs 59mins, but more than the slightly cheaper Acer Switch 5, which got a result of 5hrs 51mins.

Verdict

The Galaxy Book is aimed squarely at those customers who want a Windows 2-in-1 experience at a price that's a little easier to stomach than the Surface Pro range. It's main selling point is the inclusion of a keyboard and stylus for 649, a full 150 less than the price of the lowest-end Surface Pro, even without accessories.

In that respect, the 10.6in Galaxy Book offers a complete Windows 2-in-1 package. The issue is that quality suffers as a result. With a plastic frame and a keyboard that is near-unusable for fast typists, it's not quite the steal it first appears.

If you're fixed on Windows 10, there are some better value for money alternatives. For 100 more you can get Acer's Switch 5, which offers a higher-quality tablet, keyboard and stylus package, only with a far superior processor and liquid cooling. If you're open to different operating systems and want something with a little more power, the iPad Pro 10.5in blows the Galaxy Book out of the water for the same price. There are simply more compelling alternatives on the market.

Verdict

An affordable Windows 10 2-in-1 that offers decent screen performance for the price. However, it's held back a inadequate keyboard that makes it difficult to use as a workplace detachable device. More compelling machines are available on the market, at a similarly affordable price point.

Dell has paid attention to criticisms of its previous laptops and hybrids, and decided to present a solution to those problems through this nifty device. The company has produced a versatile, portable and impressive hybrid which is certain to garner the attention of rivals such as HP and Toshiba.

A number of buyers will be tempted by how easy it is to take this hybrid with you when you're on the move but ultimately there is a let down when it comes down to its performance. It is a gorgeous 2-in-1 laptop, no doubt about it, but does it live up to its bigger sibling, the Dell XPS 13, and is it worth buying?

Design

The XPS 13 2-in-1 is sleek, light and smooth to the touch. It highly resembles its mainstream sibling, the XPS 13, although there are a number of design differences such as the camera placement, fingerprint reader and hinges.

It has a dual lens Windows Hello camera on the bottom of the screen which you can use for biometric log in, or, if you prefer, you can use the fingerprint reader.

For users who may not notice this straight away, to turn the laptop on there is a small button on the right hand side, next to the microSD card slot, which lights up once the device is running. We liked the small light located under the touchpad - a nice addition - as well as the standard keyboard backlighting.

The 2-in-1 is the thinnest XPS ever made, coming in at 13.7mm at its thickest and 8mm at its thinnest. It weighs just over 1.2kg, which is heavier than most other hybrids, but it's still easy enough to carry around with you and store in your bag.

There are no full size USB slots on this XPS; instead Dell has tried to make up for it by giving you two USB-C ports on either side of the laptop. Of course, it's worth remembering you'll be using one of them to charge the device.

Performance and battery life

Our review unit was comprised of a dual-core Kaby Lake Core i7 processor, as well as 8GB of RAM. The laptop features one of Intel's new low-powered chips which are designed to manage energy efficiency and heat. This means it doesn't need a cooling fan, making it a sleek and silent machine.

Perhaps because of this chip, we found it was placed towards the lower end of our performance charts, with an overall benchmark score of 31. That's behind the regular XPS 13, which scored a respectable 50 thanks to its full-power Core i5 processor.

That being said, this device works well for your usual desktop and browser-based applications, including Word and Google Docs. You might want to keep your hopes low if you decide to do something a bit more processor-intensive, though.

Technically, the low-powered chip should aid its battery life. The XPS 13 2-in-1 lasted 7 hours and 54 minutes in our continuous video playback test, which means it should give you a full day's conservative use without needing to stop and recharge.

However, its sibling, the XPS 13, was only eight minutes behind, so it's not clear whether it's worth opting for the lower-powered chip. This still doesn't come near the HP Elitebook X360, which had a battery life of 10hrs 46mins, which will be able to power you through a full working day with some battery to spare.

Display

Dell's award-winning display technicians have impressed us once again. The XPS 13 2-in-1 has a 13.3in InfinityEdge touch display and is very enjoyable to use. It provides a clear and sharp image on the 1920x1080 screen we were reviewing, and looks even better once you flip the screen over to tablet mode.

Similar to the XPS 13, it also has ultra thin bezels which make it extremely attractive. This gives it a certain aesthetic edge over devices like the Toshiba Portg X20W, which have good screens but larger bezels.

The device comes in a QHD 3200x1800 version, but this means paying an extra couple of hundred pounds on top of the base price of 1,299, as they're only availbe on the higher SKUs. The model we were testing costs 1,429, which is only 50 cheaper than the next model up. If your jaw has dropped because of the prices at this point, then you've probably figured out that it's not the cheapest laptop available on the market.

During our display tests, the Full HD display covered 85.4% of the sRGB colour gamut, with a contrast of 1206:1. It's only a slight dip compared to the latest XPS 13, which scored 91.9% coverage, which means you shouldn't notice it. Still, it's disappointing that the 2-in-1 couldn't match up to its stablemate.

The maximum screen brightness was slightly below the XPS 13's 289cd/m2 output as well, although its score of 253cd/m2 isn't bad. It's slightly behind the XPS 13, but that's not much of a criticism, considering that it was one of the more impressive laptop displays we've tested. It's a beautiful display which is mesmerising to look at, but you might want to avoid using it in very bright sunlight.

Keyboard and touchpad

Just like the XPS 13, the keyboard is great to use and the design has hardly been changed from its sibling; the keys are spaced out well, and they're firm and responsive. You can even adjust the brightness of the keyboard backlighting depending on what kind of conditions you're operating in.

There's also a good-sized touchpad with plenty of room on either side for your hands to rest on. The Windows 10 multi-touch gestures worked well - it's simple to hop between windows. The pad gives a resounding and strong click too, meaning that you won't necessarily need to use an external mouse.

Verdict

Dell has reflected on the problems of past hybrids it's created and found solutions for them in this new device. Even though its performance is slightly lacking compared to Dell's sandard clamshell notebooks, the XPS 13 2-in-1 is great to use and highlights exactly what the advantages of having a convertible are.

The device is lightweight, extremely handy and very business-friendly. It's got a solid keyboard, a beautiful display and a sleek design which will leave onlookers curious.

It's let down by its performance and disappointing battery life, however, not to mention the price. The entry-level XPS 13 is available for 1,149 and includes a Kaby Lake Core i5, which makes it hard to determine why you would pay an extra 200 for extra versatility.

If you have the money and want a nifty hybrid for day-to-day use, however, then you will be more than happy with this one. Those who are worried about its battery and performance may want to look at other hybrids like the HP Elitebook X360 or Toshiba Portege X20W, or even at standard laptops such as the Dell XPS 13.

Buyers who want to go all out and pay for one of the higher tiers of hybrid might want to consider the Microsoft Surface Pro, a truly astounding hybrid which is worth paying more for, as it produces an astounding performance and even has a fairly long battery life for a hybrid. If that doesn't convince you, then take a look at the best 2-in-1 laptops that we recommend and compare them to see which suits you best.

Verdict

If you're interested in a hybrid for light, everyday use, this is a great option, but your wallet won't thank you for it.

HPE CEO Meg Whitman has talked up the potential of hybrid IT and edge computing to handle the increasing amounts of data being created by business IT systems and IoT devices.

Speaking at the opening keynote of HPE Discover Europe 2016, which is taking place in London this week, Whitman said that IoT devices are becoming increasingly powerful, describing connected cars as computers "with four wheels and a cockpit".

With these sensors and devices creating ever more data and requiring ever more responsive feedback, Whitman said, bringing computing power to the edge (i.e. as close to the sensors themselves, rather than residing in the data centre) has never been more important.

The "intelligent edge", as she described it, reduces latency by extending compute, storage and, most importantly, analytics as close as possible to the connected devices to improve their performance.

As for HPE's role in this, the company will provide businesses with both infrastructure and analytical capabilities to help them make the most of the "exploding" volume of data being generated.

"As I like to say, HPE is going to be the IT in IoT," Whitman said.

In addition to talking about the power of edge computing for the IoT, the HPE CEO also took time to reaffirm the company's hybrid IT message.

"For us, hybrid IT means finding the right mix for you," she said. This mix will inevitably include apps that reside exclusively on a company's data, at least in some cases, as well as data held on private clouds, managed services like Salesforce and Workday, and public cloud, she claimed.

Whitman added that this mix must be flexible and able to evolve as companies' needs change.

"Our goal," she said, "is to make Hybrid IT simple."

HPE Discover runs from 29 November 1 December at London's Earl's Court. Stay tuned for more from the event.

If you have trouble telling HP's various hybrids apart purely by name, then you're not alone. It's difficult to distinguish the similar sounding Spectre X2, Elite X2 and Spectre X360 from each other. There is some logic to it though X2' models are tablets with completely detachable keyboards, while X360' models are laptops with flexible hinged screens. Spectres are ostensibly aimed at consumers while Elites are intended for businesses.

The Spectre X2 stands out from its siblings if only because of its obvious resemblance to the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. This Windows 10 tablet has a pop-out kickstand and a detachable fabric-covered keyboard and screen cover both obvious homages to Microsoft's original design.

But there are just as many differences as there are similarities at 649 inc VAT (541 ex VAT), the Spectre X2 is 100 cheaper than a similarly configured Surface Pro 4. It's worth remembering that at this price, the X2 comes with its keyboard in the box. With the Surface Pro 4, that's another 110 on top. Yet the X2 comes with a 256GB SSD instead of the Surface Pro's meagre 128GB.

Flip out and take a stand

The Spectre X2 is well made and sturdy (albeit not as rigid as the Surface Pro 4), but it's not really lightweight which is no surprise for a 12in Windows tablet made out of metal. At 820g rising to 1.2kg with its keyboard screen cover attached, it's more likely to spend its time resting on your lap then held single handed or in both hands while out and about.

Despite its weight, it is slender but this involves its own set of trade-offs. It doesn't have a full-size USB port, but it does have two USB Type-C ports. These are used for charging and video-out, as well as for connecting wired peripherals, but you'll need to buy appropriate adapters for anything other than charging.

Unlike the Surface Pro 4, you need to pop a latch to release the kickstand. Although marginally inconvenient, it's hardly a disadvantage. The keyboard attaches magnetically and can be propped up at a slight angle an adjustment which makes typing more comfortable for some.

Despite the slenderness of the U-shaped kickstand, the Spectre X2 proved to be remarkably stable when used on a lap. It even coped reasonably well when we crossed our legs or ankles common usage scenarios which can literally trip up other hybrids.

It's has ergonomic problems of its own though. The thick angular edges of the kickstand felt uncomfortably and conspicuously weighty on our legs. Getting a viewing angle on your lap that feels just right can be a little tricky too.

At least typing was fast and comfortable. The large keys have plenty of travel and feedback plus they're backlit too. The huge touchpad also worked well, accurately and smoothly tracking our finger movement and swipes.

Noteworthy

If you'd rather write and scribble than type, you can use the included stylus. Although not quite as precise as the stylus for the Surface Pro 4, it's not far off drawing and writing felt natural and accurate.

The screen has a 3:2 aspect ratio which helps make sketching and note taking feel less awkward and cramped than it does on a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio display.

The 1080p resolution is high enough for reasonably sharp text, while brightness and contrast are both respectably high. It's not the best display for serious graphic design work though. But colours look washed out and faded this so-so colour accuracy is disappointing.

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

Although both the rear and forward-facing cameras are only just good enough for basic document scanning and video conferencing in good lighting, the forward facing camera does have the benefit of being a RealSense camera. In conjunction with the Windows Hello feature in Windows 10, it can recognise you by your face and log you in to Windows without the need for a password. It worked consistently well in our experience.

It's worth remembering that the Spectre X2 comes with the Home edition of Windows 10 preinstalled. This is less than ideal for most medium to large businesses as you can't opt out of Windows updates and you lose out on fine-grained MDM and Active Directory controls in the Enterprise edition.

Performance and battery life

The Spectre X2 comes equipped with a Skylake-class Intel Core m3 processor and 4GB of memory. It's by no means a speed demon and isn't suited for very demanding tasks, such as crunching huge databases or RAW photos. Even so, apart from occasional jitteriness in the Windows 10 interface, it was more than fast enough for everyday office work.

It also has the benefit of being power efficient enough to not need a cooling fan. The benefit of being able to work without the intrusive distraction of a noisy fan shouldn't be overlooked.

Battery life was merely satisfactory rather than exemplary. The battery lasted just under seven hours when playing video on a loop in our tablet battery life test. When scrolling through a long text document, the battery lasted just under 12 and a half hours. Neither of these scores are bad, but the best of the competition, whether laptop, tablet or hybrid, can last even longer.

Conclusions

Overall, the HP Spectre X2 isn't as good as the Surface Pro 4. From weight to wired connectivity and screen quality, it's good enough but nonetheless falls behind Microsoft's flagship tablet. None of this may matter though given how much cheaper the X2 is, especially once you include its keyboard/screen cover. The 200 effective cost saving is significant especially if you're deploying a large number of computers across your business.

Even then, we'd carefully consider whether you really want the X2 at all. Its combination of stylus and keyboard will make it suitable for those that flit between the field and their desks. But its weight and keyboard design means it's not as well suited for frequent business travellers and others who need to jot down notes while standing for long periods or those who'll find themselves needing to type on their laps.

Despite HP's promises then, this 2-in-1 isn't the no compromise do everything computer for everyone.

Verdict

Cheaper than a similarly configured Surface Pro 4, but one too many compromises have been made to achieve its low price

Huawei has entered into the competitive 2-in-1 hybrid market, taking on the likes of the iPad Pro and Microsoft Surface Pro 4 with is brand-new MateBook. Although Huawei isn't known for making client devices aimed at businesses, the Windows 10-powered, 12in device is clearly aimed at office workers.

As is customary with Huawei, all the focus on the MateBook was initially on its physical appearance. However, we're not convinced that the plain silver, slightly tapering edges on the rear of the tablet are really anything to shout about. The super thin bezels around the edge of the device do give it the feel of a smaller laptop and not one with a 12in screen. The tablet portion weighs just 640g, which Huawei was keen to point out is less than both the Surface and the iPad Pro. At 6.9mm thick, it's very svelte.

This is a machine untouched by messy ports: on the side there's a single USB3, Type-C connector. This can be used for both charging and data transfer, but you'll probably want to buy a dock. Handily enough, Huawei also introduced the MateDock, which costs $89 and includes extra USB, Ethernet and display output connectors.

Also on the side is a fingerprint reader, which integrates with Windows Hello, allowing you to log in simply with a touch. You can assign different accounts to different fingerprints, too. I wasn't able to test this feature, however, but Huawei's smartphone fingerprint scanners have always been very good so that bodes well.

The screen is a 12in, 2,160x1,440 IPS panel with a maximum brightness of 400cd/m2. The real interest here isn't the resolution, however, it's the claimed 85% NTSC colour gamut coverage. If this turns out to be accurate - and I have no reason to believe otherwise - this will eclipse both the Surface Pro 4 and iPad Pro in this area. Of course, NTSC is only used by visual professionals so this won't mean a huge amount to your everyday consumer, but Huawei doesn't appear to be targeting the everyday client.

This is clear from the MateBook's MatePen. A fairly conventional stylus, albeit with 2048 levels of sensitivity, I had some time to draw a few doodles on the MateBook using Fresh Paint. The stylus itself is actually fairly good, although I can imagine some more free-handed artists will feel a little constrained by the rather grippy nib. I also had problems with palm rejection; there were multiple occasions where the side of my hand was interpreted as a pen press.

The pen also has three buttons, including one that activates eraser functions and another that acts as a right-click. In presentation software these will act as back and forward buttons. The third activates a laser pointer that shines its red beam out of the top of the pen.

If art isn't your thing and you want to get written work done, the $129 keyboard is essential. The keyboard also acts as a screen cover, protecting the screen with faux leather (brown, orange, black and beige available). The MateBook attaches via a single connector using magnets, so you can detach at any time without having to mess around with other buttons. The keys themselves are fine with lots of travel, but the structural integrity of the keyboard is a greater concern. It didn't sit properly flush with the desk and there's a lot of bouncing around as the keyboard flexes with each press.

With the keyboard cover attached you can angle the tablet at either 52 degrees or 67 degrees; you switch between these two angles by sliding the dock back and forth up the rear of the tablet.

There's also a touchpad on the keyboard dock and this, for me, was the highlight. It's very sensitive and I felt very much in touch with what was going on on-screen. Windows 10 gestures worked well, although it does not appear to support either of the swiping in from the left or right gestures.

In terms of speeds and feeds, Huawei will be offering various combinations of the following: Intel Core m3, m5 and m7 processors, 4GB or 8GB of RAM and 128, 256 and 512GB of SSD storage. It felt fast enough, and we've long been fans of the Core M line of processors, but we'll have to get one in for review before we can give a full verdict on how this device performs. With such low-power processing, Huawei claims 10 hours of battery life under normal use.

UK pricing and availability haven't been confirmed, but we expect the MateBook to appear on store shelves in the next three months. We do have US pricing, however, which will give us a reasonable idea of how much it'll cost in the UK. Pricing starts at $699 for the 4GB, Core m3, 128GB storage model and goes all the way up to $1599 for the 8GB, Core m7, 512GB edition. These prices exclude the accessories though.

Huawei is better known for networking equipment and smartphones than it is for Windows hybrids. If Huawei can sort out the keyboard though, the MateBook could open up a whole new market to the company where it could outrun complacent incumbent manufacturers just as it has in the smartphone market.

In a surprise move, HP Inc has re-entered the smartphone market with the Elite X3. Powered by Windows 10 Mobile, the HP Elite X3 is aimed very specifically at businesses rather than consumers. Like Microsoft's 950-series Lumias, the X3 can be used as a basic desktop PC with the right adapters. It has extra tricks up its sleeve though - it can also transform into a laptop.

Apart from an attractive irregular pattern on its speaker grill, the X3 has a plain black appearance with curved edges. The casing is apparently IP67 and MIL-STD-810-G compliant, so it should be water and dust resistant as well as capable of surviving falls from around four feet up.

The massive 6in screen has a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, which is driven by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 eight-core processor and 4GB of memory. In a first for a Windows 10 phone, it has a fingerprint reader in addition to iris recognition powered by the eight-megapixel front-facing camera. The fingerprint reader appeared to be absent from the pre-production model we saw though.

The X3 doesn't just depend on dual biometric authentication for its business appeal. The presence of a USB-C port means that you can use Continuum - connect the phone to a monitor and you can use Windows Universal apps in a desktop-style interface with a keyboard and mouse. HP will sell its own USB-C-based Desk Dock for this purpose equipped with a pair of full-size USB3 ports alongside DisplayPort and Ethernet connectors as well as a Kensington security slot.

Unusually, HP will also sell a battery-powered mobile dock, the Mobile Extender. It's essentially a 1kg 12.5in laptop that's dependent on the X3 for its processing power. The phone is paired with the laptop via either WiFi or USB-C. Although we weren't able to try this out as HP's sole Mobile Extender pre-production unit wasn't completely functional, we do hope that the build quality of the laptop dock will be improved. The plastic casing was surprisingly creaky, bending under pressure loudly and extremely easily. The keyboard, while large with plenty of travel, felt a bit rattly.

The Continuum experience, which we've found to be somewhat restrictive as it's limited to running a single app at any one time, will need fine-tuning to run smoothly on the X3. Despite the octa-core Snapdragon 820, the general smoothness and responsiveness of the Windows 10 Mobile interface was laggy and sluggish - whether on the phone's touchscreen or when controlled using a keyboard and mouse on an external monitor.

HP Inc has added an extra dimension to Continuum with the HP Workspace app. This allows you to run virtualised desktop apps hosted off a server on the X3 when the phablet is in Continuum mode. However, it's currently not clear if it will work with all popular hypervisors or only some of them.

HP Inc has also added app-level VPN-support to Windows 10 Mobile. The X3 will also come with Salesforce apps pre-installed, although these won't be Universal Apps at first so they won't run in Continuum.

We weren't expecting much from the rear-facing camera, but we were still shocked by the psychedlically unrealistic colours and incredibly noisy graininess at all ISO levels. Admittedly, HP's exhibition space had particularly bad lighting, but it struggled far more than our iPhone 6s Plus. Even autofocussing was a struggle.

The HP Elite X3 (originally code-named the HP Falcon) will also support dual SIMs, have dual front-facing speakers, a micro SD slot that supports cards up to 2TB and have Cat 6 LTE as well as 2x2 802.11ac WiFi. The five-pin pogo connector will support third-party accessories from battery cases to add-ons capable of processing credit card payments.

Pricing for the X3 and all its various docking accessories has yet to be confirmed. HP Inc wasn't able to provide an exact release date, but it should be out by mid to late summer of this year. Although this gap is apparently there to allow HP Inc to solicit feedback from potential bulk buy customers, it also risks losing valuable momentum. HP has been out of the smartphone business for years and Windows 10 Mobile has thus far shown little sign of rejuvenating Microsoft's smartphone fortunes. The massed Universal apps need to help make Continuum a really attractive feature are thin on the ground. HP Inc's big Windows phablet bet is a risky one that's by no means assured of success.

Windows PC manufacturers have been falling over themselves with new laptop-tablet hybrids coming out seemingly every other week. While Lenovo has been setting the pace for consumer hybrids with its Yoga series, practically defining the idea of hybrids in most people's minds with its 360-degree hinged screens, it's been far more sedate when it comes to its vaunted ThinkPad business line. There have been relatively few ThinkPad-branded hybrids.

That's all changed with the ThinkPad Yoga 260, the first in a new burst of business hybrids from the company for 2016. The Yoga 260 (which sounds misnamed given its 360 degree rotating screen hinge) isn't Lenovo's really ambitious and peculiar hybrid - that's the still unreleased ThinkPad X1 Tablet.

ThinkPad tablet

The 260 is a much more conventional laptop with a screen that can fold back flat to be used as a tablet. Alternatively you can orient the screen and stand it on end like a tent or position the screen so the upturned keyboard acts as its base.

We're still not convinced that anyone wants to use a tablet this thick and heavy - 1.3kg is light for a laptop, but hefty for a tablet. A thickness of almost 2cm makes for uncomfortable holding over long periods of time. Still, the other flexible screen orientations are useful, especially when combined with Windows 10 which switches more seamlessly between laptop and tablet use than Windows 8 ever did.

A silver variant will also be available

The touchscreen itself was smooth and responsive, just as we expected. It just doesn't rely on this for appeal though - it also comes with a small stylus which can be tucked away in a nook when not in use. It's no Surface Pen or Apple Pencil, but it's sensitive enough and has good enough palm rejection that it's perfectly usable for jotting down notes, signing contracts and basic drawing too.

Command and control

Of course, no ThinkPad would be complete without the legendary IBM-descended keyboard and touchstick. Although we still prefer the classic ThinkPad keyboards of the IBM era with their unmatched travel, the keys here are still very good. Large with lots travel and feedback, they make for one of most comfortable, natural-feeling and accurate typing experiences we've come across on a laptop. It's also better than the keyboards on Lenovo's consumer-class laptops.

You'll either love or hate the touchstick and its soft-feeling, deep-travel buttons. If you hate it, then there's no need to worry as there's a large touchpad with its own clicky buttons built into the bottom of the pad itself. While its tracking and its gestures don't feel as smooth or as accurate as the best MacBook touchpads, it's still noticeably better than much of the Windows competition.

Black is the new black

Although some might deride ThinkPads for their boxy black plastic casings, we think there's a lot to like here. Not only does it feel rigid and sturdy, especially the adjustable hinge, it looks timelessly elegant and minimalist too. The only dashes of colour, apart from the backlit keyboard, are the odd dashes of red such as the lit-up i' in the lid's ThinkPad logo.

As befits a laptop aimed at business, the Yoga 260 has a smartcard slot and a connector for docking stations and port replicators. On configurations with a built-in 4G modem, the micro SD tray also doubles as SIM card tray. You'll need a straightened paper clip, or something equally prong-y, to extract the tray from its crevice though. There's no Ethernet port though.

Unlike the Yoga 2 Pro, and subsequent Lenovo consumer laptops that have adopted its design, the underside of the Yoga 260 never became uncomfortably hot. This is due to the cooling fan which does, however, become noticeably loud with an irritating whirring that was audible over the hum of the IT Pro Labs' air conditioning. Its aggressive cooling may help keep the laptop cool, which is appreciated, but its its tendency to come on during light work such as web browsing was annoying.

Performance and battery life

The fan is necessary to keep the Intel Core i7 6500 dual core processor running cool. Paired with 8GB of memory and a 512GB SSD, it's fast enough that this laptop could easily be your main workhorse computer. Plus, with some effort, you can upgrade the RAM to a maximum of 16GB although you have to junk the 8GB stick already present. Although cheaper versions of the Yoga 260 are available, the slower processors, less memory and smaller SSDs means the trade-off isn't worth it.

Battery life wasn't as lengthy as other similarly priced ultra portable laptops, but it's still long enough to get you through most working days. It lasted 5h41m under moderate use and just under ten hours in light use.

Display

Although some will be disappointed that the Yoga 260 doesn't have a high pixel density 4K screen, we're not among them. The 1920x1080 resolution is more than high enough for crisp text and detailed images in laptop mode. If anything it's a little too high for a 12.5in screen when used in laptop mode - if you have failing eyesight then you'll need to fiddle with Windows' display scaling options to get text at an optimal size.

The 1080p resolution does admittedly fall down somewhat in tablet mode where, when held close to your face, it looks somewhat coarse. We don't think this is a huge concern though as we think most people will use this computer primarily as a laptop.

The screen's glossy finish doesn't suffer too much from glare caused by overhead reflections, no doubt helped by its very high brightness levels. Contrast is good too, but colour accuracy falls far behind other ultra portable laptops at this price. It's good enough if you're not concerned about colour accurate photo work and other graphic design and art tasks though.

Conclusions

The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 260 is a somewhat flawed hybrid with its tablet mode compromised, as expected, by undesirable weight and thickness while the screen resolution isn't quite right for either tablet or laptop use. It's not all bad though - the comfortable keyboard, excellent build quality and useful business features such as a smartcard slot are all worthwhile. It's a touch pricey compared to some other ultra portable laptops and it's surprisingly lacking in biometric security options, but it gets enough right to make it a desirable business laptop for the road and office alike.

Verdict

Unsurprisingly, the ThinkPad Yoga 260 is a very good laptop but, at best, an imperfect tablet

HP Inc has unveiled the Elite X2 1012, a Skylake-powered hybrid aimed at businesses that bears more than a passing resemblance to Microsoft's Surface Pro flagship.

The silver-coloured chiselled metal of the X2 1012 felt very rigid and sturdy in the hand, even in its pre-production state. Like the Surface Pro, the tablet will come with a Wacom-powered stylus while a magnetic keyboard and screen cover will be sold separately. By itself, the tablet will weigh 840g and the combined weight is unlikely to be much more than this.

As HP has chosen to go with the yet-to-be released Skylake-based Core m3, m5 and m7 processors, the X2 1012 will be fanless. The battery, rated for ten hours of use, will be recharged via USB Type-C. This port will also be used for peripherals as well as video-out using adapters.

Although the easel-like multi-angle stand looks fragile, it felt sturdy enough during our brief encounter. HP claims that the stand has been designed so, in the event it should ever be irretrievably damaged in an accident, it will detach cleanly and easily so you can fit a replacement yourself. The SSD and memory in this hybrid will also be easily accessible.

The optional 109 keyboard-screen cover is where the X2 1012 most closely resembles the Microsoft Surface Pro range. From the fabric cover to the magnetic connector, it's a dead ringer for Redmond's accessory. It can even be attached at a slight angle, raising the keyboard upwards which some will find more comfortable to use.

Where it differs is that the keys are essentially indistinguishable from those of a good laptop - large with plenty of feedback and just the right amount of travel and resistance. Plus the keys are backlit too. A more expensive 159 keyboard cover is identical with the addition of a SmartCard slot. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be anywhere to stow or attach the stylus on either keyboard cover.

From first impressions the keyboard cover appears to be rigid enough for use on a lap with lap use further helped along by the multi-angle stand. We'll have to wait until we get our hands on a final review unit before coming to a firm conclusion, but early signs are positive.

Oddly, the fingerprint reader on the back of the tablet doesn't appear to be Windows Hello compatible but it can be used as part of a two-factor authentication scheme. Other business features include HP's SureStart automatically restorable BIOS, optional built-in 4G, vPro and compatibility with WiGig wireless docking stations and port replicators.

The HP X2 1012 is due out in January starting at 749 including a stylus but excluding the keyboard cover.

Being a successful mobile worker isn't just about wafer-thin laptops and the latest oversized "phablet" smartphone. Making sure you can be as productive as possible in all the different locations and situations you might find yourself in involves appropriate extra paraphernalia as well. Here are some tips about the essential accessories and services for the battle-winning road warrior.

A good basis for mobile work is still an appropriate place to start, however, and that means choosing the right primary device. Whilst super-thin Ultrabooks now offer decent power and excellent battery life, the usage patterns of mobile workers have changed over the last few years. Many now wish to use tablets for activities that primarily involve consumption of information - browsing the Web, reading documentation, sorting through a jam-packed inbox, and so on. However, a physical keyboard remains the best choice if you do need to enter a considerable amount of text.

For those who have gone fully down the tablet route, a wireless keyboard is a vital accessory. But if you need to use full desktop applications, a crossover device between a tablet and notebook makes a lot of sense. There are notebooks with screens that flip over to make tablets, but these can be a little cumbersome. A detachable tablet-screen is a much more viable option, such as is provided by the HP Elite x2 1011. Pull off the screen and you have an 11.6in Windows 8.1 or 10 tablet. But reunite screen and keyboard, and the combination behaves exactly like any other Ultrabook. If lightness and portability are essential, the HP Elite x2 1011 also has an optional, lighter protective keyboard and case, although this comes without the secondary battery of the regular keyboard, so time away from the power socket will be reduced.

When you do return to your desk, either at the office or at home, greater productivity can be had from switching to more ergonomic desktop components, whilst continuing to use the same core device. A larger screen, mouse, and desktop keyboard can all make computer usage more comfortable and speedy. But you don't want to have to plug all these things in separately every time, making a docking station for each of your more permanent desk spaces a sensible purchase. These can be actual docks that the mobile device slips into, or a single connection cable that breaks out into all the necessary ports that can be left connected to peripherals. Perhaps the easiest option is a wireless version, such as the Advanced Wireless Docking Station, which works with the HP Elite x2 1011 and integrates DisplayPort, VGA, LAN, USB and audio. After a one-time onscreen set up, everything attached to the Station will be available whenever the HP Elite x2 1011 is within range.

There are many sundry items that will ease your work on the road. There is nothing more annoying than someone having a Skype conversation on their notebook right next to you without the use of headphones. For best results, a headset with built-in microphone will mean nobody needs to hear the person you are talking to, and you won't have to speak loudly for them to hear you either. Another service worth considering for sole traders or freelances who tend to work mostly on the move is a virtual landline. This gives callers a non-mobile number to call and makes a business look like it is physically located when you are actually usually on the road.

Battery power is a blessing and a curse for the mobile worker. Being able to work away from cables is a massive liberation, but only lasts as long as the Watt-hours in the mobile device's power pack. As the intensity of the tasks we perform on the road grows, batteries are increasingly falling short of requirement, since their technology has not kept pace with other developments. It's incredible that most smartphones still last scarcely a day between charges. Always travel with your smartphone's USB cable, and it's generally advisable to add a separate battery pack and universal plug adapter to your bag as well. Another sensible addition to the road warrior's bag of tricks is a car-compatible charging cable, both for phone and notebook, if available. That way a taxi journey could provide a vital power boost.

The clichd image of the mobile worker has them sitting with a laptop, quaffing an overpriced cappuccino in the local name-brand coffee shop. But in reality mobile workers are now being catered for by dedicated spaces aimed specifically at their needs. One of the fastest growing providers in this area is WeWork, which arrived in London in October 2014, and has been valued at $5 billion after just five years of activity. The company now has three locations in London, and spaces all over the US, in Israel, and in Amsterdam. The existence, and growing importance, of flexible co-working spaces such as these shows just how mobile our work patterns have become, and how important it is to have the right equipment with you on the road.

1. Use a password, stupid

It sounds so obvious, so why some people often don't take this simple precaution is beyond us: make sure you have a password activated on your laptop. Don't make it too simple either. All it takes is for someone to be looking over your shoulder and they have access to all your files and possibly your company network.

2. Security at your fingertips

If you want to go a step further, buy a laptop that includes a fingerprint reader. Using this extra layer of protection you can use it on its own or, in Windows 10, double up your defences by using both the fingerprint reader and a password to log in means you'll have the safest laptop around.

3. Lock up your files

If you use sensitive files, whether that's customer data or information critical to your business, then encrypt them. Ideally, encrypt your whole drive. You can use third-party tools like BestCrypt, but the best option is a laptop with a TPM chip inside this stands for Trusted Platform Module, and you'll only find them in professional grade rather than consumer laptops which you can then tie in with BitLocker. It's only available with certain versions of Windows, so speak to your IT department about it.

4. Label it, track it

If you lost your laptop, would you even know its serial code? At the very least take a note of this basic information, but also consider using asset labels. Not only do they put off thieves, some are even trackable so that if the worst does happen, you might just be able to reclaim it.

5. Keep your laptop updated

We know it's tempting to switch off automatic updates, but they often include security features that plug the inevitable holes. And why not go the whole hog: If you're currently using a Windows 7 or 8 machine, Windows 10's security updates alone are a good reason to upgrade.

6. Stop nosy neighbours

If you want to work on secure information when on the move, but you don't want your fellow train passengers to read about it when they get bored of The Telegraph's financial pages, consider a screen protector that doubles as a privacy filter. 3M's range is probably the best known, and are available for most sizes of laptop.

7. Beware the inside job

Many thefts happen in the safety of your own office, so if you can then take your laptop with you (and yes, that's an excellent argument for buying a new light laptop, particularly if it has a detachable screen that you can then use as a tablet). If you can't, consider locking it down using the Kensington slot.

8. Stay aware of your surroundings

Like moths drawn to a monetary flame, thieves operate in all the public places you like to work in. They love to grab bags in particular, so always keep yours in view and be aware that the person asking you for the time might be working in tandem with someone else stealing your bag.

9. Don't forget your phone

If you lost your phone, what would you do? It might have basic password protection, but that's easy to break. Suddenly, all your company data, your emails, your photos, are there for people to see. Keeping it safe means not only beefed-up passwords but having the ability to remote wipe it if things go wrong. Every model is different but remote-wipe protection is available for all modern phones, so find out how to enforce this on your phone before it's too late.

10. Buy a laptop with professional security features

Ultimately, you need a laptop that's fully protected and that means something designed for use in business rather than the living room. That's why new HP laptops such as the HP Elite x2 1011 pack in a huge number of security features quite aside from the fact that it looks great and even has a detachable screen, making it a true 2-in-1 device.

This can be particularly useful for meetings. Need to have all the info to hand and want to share it with your boss? Detach the screen and use it as a tablet. It's instant and means the HP Elite x2 is always with you, safe from harm.

If you buy the power keyboard which has a built-in battery to extend life there's extra protection thanks to the fingerprint reader and smart card reader. Thanks to a soldered-in TPM chip, you can also encrypt it fully using BitLocker. For extra simplicity, if you opt for the HP Elite x2 with an SED (self-encrypting drive) at time of purchase then everything is done for you.

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the HP Elite x2's security features. Find out more by visiting HP's website. And to keep up to date with all HP's latest news, head to HP Business Now.

We've come a long way since the days when the command line ruled the world of personal computing. MS-DOS and similar text-based operating systems came with a steep learning curve and not everyone possessed the visualisation skills needed to understand the abstract concepts that underpinned them.

So it's no surprise that the more familiar notion of a Desktop with icons and folders proved much more popular. So popular, in fact, that computers have been using this model in one form or another for more than 30 years.

For most users, that means Microsoft Windows and it's remarkable just how long the core ideas of Windows have lasted. Windows 3.1 may have launched in 1992, but it's still clearly recognisable as the precursor to the many versions that followed and by far the most popular PC operating system today.

When one interface isn't enough

The problem is that a user interface designed to be controlled by a mouse isn't much use when a computer doesn't have one. And the mouse, along with all other traditional' pointing devices, is one PC accessory that's falling by the wayside as tablets take hold. So what's the solution?

One thing is certain. An operating system with an interface that stays the same no matter what device it's used on isn't it. The functional requirements of an operating system differ greatly according to its host device, which means adapting to suit the screen size and even the most appropriate input method. So while tablets are increasingly popular in business, for example, a multi-touch display isn't the best option when there's a long document to be written and a user interface should be sympathetic to that.

Now it's straightforward enough to address such a diverse array of needs by deploying an equally diverse array of operating systems, but supporting more than one with everything from training to technical support is something few businesses are equipped to do. What's really needed is a single cross-platform operating system that's sophisticated enough to adapt to different hardware, while retaining enough consistency to makes it as easy to use on a smartphone as it is on a tablet or notebook PC. And that's where Windows 10 comes in.

Why Windows 10 matters for mobile

Designed from the start to suit a wide range of different hardware, Windows 10 combines the best features from the Windows that business users know inside out on the desktop with finger-friendly features that make it so easy to use on a touch-screen device. So not only will users feel right at home with Windows 10 on a notebook PC, but the interface feels equally familiar on a tablet.

Windows 10 runs the wide range of standard software that's vital to any business, all accessed from the familiar Desktop and Start menu. So there's next to no learning curve for anyone who's used a Windows PC at any time over the last couple of decades and with a 2-in-1 device like the HP Elite x2 1011, there's no need to abandon the keyboard and mouse when it comes to getting some serious work done.

Not everyone sits at a desk each day, of course, and mobile professionals need a PC that's as portable as it is powerful. That's where Windows 10 with the HP Elite x2 1011 also comes into its own. Simply detach the keyboard and it becomes a slim and lightweight tablet, but one with all the same essential Windows features and one that still runs the same essential software.

One device for wherever your business takes you

The key is that with the HP Elite x2 1011 undocked, Windows 10 switches automatically to tablet' mode, complete with a user interface that's much more suitable for multi-touch display control. The Start menu's Live Tiles expand to fill the screen for easy at-a-glance updates for everything from email and social media to the latest headline news, while full-screen universal' apps focus on what's important when you're on the move.

But here's the really important point. This experience isn't dictated by the kind of device you're using or its hardware features, and you're free to use Windows 10 in whichever mode you prefer at any time. A simple tap turns on tablet mode when the HP Elite x2 1011 is docked to its keyboard, for example, while universal apps can be run in resizable windows and even tiled side-by-side using multi-touch no mouse or trackpad required.

It's this adaptability that makes Windows such a winning formula for business, but it takes a PC with all the flexibility of the HP Elite x2 1011 to make the most of it. Whether docked in notebook mode or detached as a tablet, it's the one device you need for wherever your business takes you.

The portable computer wasn't made possible by any single technology, but a whole host that developed in parallel over time. The gradual shift from valves to transistors to integrated circuits helped shrink computers from room-sized cabinets into something that could sit on a desk, for example, but it took leaps and bounds in battery and display technology before one could fit into something that was smaller than a suitcase.

Even so, prioritising size always meant that portable computers were much less powerful than their desktop counterparts. The need to keep cases small and light enough to carry meant big batteries were out of the question, which in turn meant so were the latest power-hungry processors unless you didn't mind being near-permanently tethered to a power outlet, that is. Even storage space lagged behind because notebook-size hard drives couldn't match the capacity of a 3.5in desktop drive. The list of compromises goes on and on.

Dealing with heat

But one other design constraint that's often overlooked is the need to keep components cool. Desktop PCs can deploy huge heatsinks and large, rapidly spinning fans to keep cool air circulating, with any components that run red hot kept safely separated in a generously proportioned case. Not so with a notebook.

Cooling fans can be used in a compact PC designed for use on the move, but there's seldom room for ones much larger than a 50p piece and they can't spin too quickly if noise is to be kept within tolerable levels. That means heat needs to be dissipated through the case, but no one wants a notebook that warms their hands or burns their thighs when they're working. So it's back to square one, with slower components that don't generate as much heat and don't need much in the way of cooling.

Why Moore's Law matters

This situation started to change as the limits of Moore's Law came into view. In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore anticipated that the number of transistors making up a processor would double every 12 months.

The law' has so far stood, but the schedule has been gradually stretched in the 50-year interim and now stands at something like every two years, not least because the laws of physics are starting to limit the number of transistors that can be crammed onto a tiny slice of silicon.

So rather than try to make processors do more with more, chip designers have long since adopted the alternative approach of doing more with less. The quest to shrink transistors ever smaller is far from over, but processor architecture is now as much about increasing efficiency as anything else and this has some important implications for mobile PCs.

But efficiency matters more

Key among these is the reduced reliance on clock speed for performance. High GHz ratings used to be the best measure for how powerful a PC was, but the advent of processors with multiple cores and even single cores that can seemingly do two things at once have dramatically reduced its relevance. And with lower clock speeds come lower operating temperatures, so cooling requirements are reduced accordingly.

Better onboard power management also means a little battery goes a very long way, which has obvious benefits for portable computers that spend extended spells away from power sockets, but processors aren't the only component to consider. All of the above also applies to graphics chips, which in some cases are even incorporated into the main processor for even greater energy efficiency, and storage has seen similar improvements.

For example, the gradual shift from power-hungry hard drives to solid-state storage with no moving parts not only benefits battery life, but also physical design. Even a 2.5in portable hard drive needs a similar size drive bay to sit in, while the handful of tiny chips that comprise a solid-state drive can be hidden almost anywhere.

Portability without compromise

Notebook PCs have been getting thinner and lighter for a few years thanks to these kinds of improvements, but now the same kind of compromise-free performance can be squeezed into a tablet.

The 5th Generation Intel Core M that powers the HP Elite x2 1011, for instance, contains two processor cores and some 1.3 billion transistors, but it's still no larger than a fingernail. There's up to 512GB of fast solid-state storage, too, not to mention Intel HD Graphics 5300 that make everything from presentations to rather less productive pursuits run smoothly.

So despite being just 10.7mm thick and weighing a mere 780g when detached from its keyboard dock in tablet mode, the HP Elite x2 1011 still packs the power of a full PC. Windows 10 also runs all of your essential business software, so you won't be left in the lurch just because you want to travel light. And with HP's leading security and manageability features, the HP Elite x2 1011 will deliver peace of mind, too.

The tablet market in the UK has plateaued, but hybrid devices incorporating keyboards appear to be gaining ground, according to a YouGov survey.

The research found that 55 per cent of the adult population owns a tablet and that figure has stalled over the last year. The study also found that 10 per cent of the public plan to buy a tablet in the future, most of them (57 per cent) are people who already own one of the devices and are either looking to buy a replacement one or an additional one.

While tablet sales appear to have stagnated, the research found that hybrid devices that combine a tablet screen and removable keyboard are getting more popular. While just two per cent of the adult population (around one million) currently owns a 2-in1, the study shows that 8 per cent (around 4 million) are now in the market for one. This means that new devices, such as the iPad Pro and Google's Pixel C tablets which sport keyboards, stand to benefit from the trend.

The research firm said that these hybrid devices were holding their own against the iPad and Android tablets among so-called "tablet virgins" first-time buyers those that own neither a 2-in-1 nor a tablet.

This group (that own neither device) accounts for 44 per cent of the population and represents the territory into which device manufacturers have to make inroads if they are to increase market share, according to the research outfit. YouGov's latest research shows that 8 per cent of this group plans to get a 2-in-1, the same proportion that plan to get a tablet.

Russell Feldman, Director of Digital, Media and Technology at YouGov said: "Our research has shown a continued stagnation in the tablet market over the past year. While the number of tablets in circulation continues to increase this is because multiple device ownership means that the pool is getting deeper without ever getting any wider. Laptops do things such as edit documents that most tablet owners don't do on their devices meaning they are never going to end the laptop's market dominance.

"Instead, I believe tablets are a stop-gap technology, like the minidisc, and should eventually be overtaken by a more comprehensive and feature rich-device like the 2-in-1. We spotted this trend last year when we noticed an increasing number of people creating "home-made hybrids" creating 2-in-1s by adding a keyboard to a tablet and using it as they would a laptop. As more brands launch and market 2-in-1s to market I would expect the device's market share to grow steadily over the next few years."