The just-announced HP EliteBook Folio 9470m lends a bit of HP's business acumen to the company's Folio ultrabook line. Sporting a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 resolution display, it measures in at a (relatively) scant 0.75 inches thick. It's a bit heavier than the consumer model it mimics — 3.6 pounds, as compared to the Folio 13's 3.3 — but a far cry from the business centric juggernauts of yore. Honestly, you might be hard pressed to tell them apart: they share a similar aesthetic in their aluminum shells and hard plastic undersides, as well as serving up a generous assortment of connectors — the EliteBook Folio offers USB 3.0 and a full-size Ethernet jack, as well as DisplayPort and VGA inputs.

Dig a bit deeper, and the business-savvy starts to shine through. The underside of the machine offers a docking port that's compatible with existing HP docking stations. The notebook will support up to 16GB of RAM, and while HP is playing coy with the processor specifications, we do know that the EliteBook Folio will be sporting Intel's third-generation Ivy Bridge processors. You’ll also find up to 500GB of hard drive space to couple with an optional mSATA cache solid state drive (up to 32GB), or a 256GB solid state drive if you budget allows. HP will also be bundling in their standard business PC toolset, including an integrated smart card reader, a TPM security chip, and the HP Protect Tools security suite.

We couldn't do much in the way of a hands-on as HP only had a mock-up available, but the EliteBook will offer SRS Pro Audio software, a webcam (with an optional 720p HD upgrade), and wide array of mobile connectivity options, including LTE. We weren't given battery life estimates, but HP told us we could purchase an optional slice battery to eke a bit more life out of the machine.

The HP EliteBook Folio 9740m will be available in October — though there's no word on pricing yet.