Connect, create, communicate and collaborate. These are the 4Cs of a business as virtual workspaces replace physical offices. A fifth C—confidentiality remains all the more crucial, as remote working becomes the ‘new normal’. Not to mention, business continuity poses new challenges, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Business laptops are our new vista to the office world. Advanced data security, enhanced video-conferencing and lightweight design – a business notebook must perform and excel at all this and much more.
Speaking about challenges, as a large part of workforce functions from beyond the confines of an office space, the threat of data breach and hacking is real. A business notebook should empower the user to remain two steps (read: clicks) ahead of all this. As they say, think like a thief to catch one!
Hewlett Packard (HP) is creating not just lighter and faster devices, but it is also pushing the envelope in offering value when it comes to business use. Take, for instance, the HP EliteBook 800 Series, it offers HP Sure View Reflect screen-blocking feature, which makes the screen appear dark and unreadable when viewed from the side. Similarly, HP Privacy Camera physically blocks the lens of your camera when not in use. Add to the list, HP Sure Sense, AI malware protection that takes care of the most common and rarest attacks. Or for that matter, HP Sure Click that protects from bad websites and emails. Close the tab, the malware is gone.
Then there are features to protect a laptop BIOS, the system that starts first when a user turns on a laptop. HP EliteBook 800 Series offers BIOS protection Sure Start, for instance. Similarly, HP EliteBook 800 Series’ Sure Run keeps critical processes running, even if malware threatens to shut them down.
In an ideal office set up, collaboration required walking up to a colleague or a gentle tap on the cubicle sufficed to draw the attention of a co-worker. Now, it is all about virtual-meetings. Sometimes a dozen colleagues at one go. This often results in unwanted interruptions in the form of surrounding noise. World-facing microphone for enhanced noise cancellation is a prerequisite for a user who may be working from anywhere but the controlled environment of an office. HP Noise Cancellation minimizes ambient noise while you work in a noisy set-up or public area. HP Rechargeable Active Pen Gen3 is an additional tech tool to collaborate.
New connectivity options remain a priority, with business laptops prepping for 5G and Wi-Fi 6 capabilities. For example, HP is offering optional Gigabit-class 4G LTE wireless broadband technology with 4x4 antennas, and Bluetooth 5.0 for cleaner connections in its EliteBook 800 Series.
A user is likely to operate from various locations; durability remains a key feature among business laptops. Apart from lighter, business laptop manufacturers are offering ruggedised laptops, which are designed to withstand the furies of nature in the form of water, hard impacts and other rough treatment. A businessperson also needs to consider CPU, memory and whether the laptop has a solid state drive, which can speed up performance. For instance, HP EliteBook 800 Series have undergone Military-tested reliability making them built to last long and undergo the rigours of business.
Considering that the workforce remains largely mobile, business laptops that run on batteries for 24 hours without recharging are also a prerequisite. Earlier, 5-6 hours of battery life was the norm among laptops, models now exist which allow for 24 hours of operating from one charge. HP EliteBook 800 Series offer long-life batteries with HP Fast Charge.
The keyword, however, is that before investing in a device; consider whether the small business would benefit from the improvement in speed and latency these technologies provide. In this context, the latest HP EliteBook 800 Series, which are specifically designed to meet the needs of SMBs, allows the remote workforce to securely connect, create effortlessly and collaborate seamlessly.