Plus, being an HP business machine, the Elite x2 has been put through a battery of reliability torture tests. The kickstand, built from 7000-series aluminium, has been tested through 10,000 cycles. It’s been drop-tested from a height of 91cm onto wood and 51cm onto concrete, and the keyboard has been designed to withstand ten million keystrokes. The Elite x2 is also quite practical for a tablet-based 2-in-1, with both full-fat USB Type-C and standard USB 3 ports on the right edge, a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD and micro-SIM trays. Stereo speakers sensibly adorn the top edge and there’s a Kensington lock slot on the left edge, too. There’s plenty to like here.

HP’s detachable Travel Keyboard is also similar in many ways to Microsoft’s Type Cover. It clamps to the bottom spine of the tablet firmly, and has a pleat along its top edge so you can prop it up at an angle when you’re typing. And it’s at least as good to type on as the Surface Pro 4, if not more so.What HP has done here is to transplant the keyboard – key-tops, switches and all – directly from the Elitebook Folio 1020, backing it with a four-layer aluminium panel in the process. The result is typing ecstasy, with a key action that’s softly cushioned and yet has plenty of positive feedback, while the metal support tray provides a good solid base even with the keyboard tilted up. True, there’s still a touch of that shoebox feel, but it’s nowhere near as pronounced as on the Surface Pro 4 What isn’t all that different is the lack of, for want of a better word, "lappability”. This is something that affects all 2-in-1 detachables to a greater or lesser extent, and the HP Elite x2 is similarly afflicted. It doesn’t feel particularly stable on your lap, and those with short thighs won’t get on with it at all. At least typing isn’t too uncomfortable, though, aided by that thick aluminium keyboard base.

Naturally, as it runs Chrome OS, I couldn't run the normal Alphr benchmarks, but JetStream – the natural successor to the now defunct SunSpider benchmark – returned a score of 44. That actually outperformed my Dell XPS 13, powered by a Core i5 processor, which scored 42. JetStream is a web app-based benchmark only, but in this case it’s 100% relevant, because you’ll only be using web apps.Where this machine falls behind more luxurious machines like the XPS 13 – and even behind rival Chromebooks such as the Toshiba Chromebook 2 – is the screen. Its 11.6in diagonal holds 1,366 x 768 pixels and it looks perfectly sharp, but it uses cheap TN technology rather than IPS. That means viewing angles are poor and, in this case at least, the screen also looks slightly washed-out.Normally, that would prompt howls of derision in the Alphr office, but in this case it’s important to bear in mind both the price and the rest of the package. It’s a weak point, sure, but if all you want to do is browse the web and use apps such as Google Docs then it’s perfectly fine. However, movie watchers are likely to be disappointed.

Likewise, the keyboard. It’s nothing special at all, with a damp feel to each keystroke, but in use it’s easy to reach high typing speeds. Plus, the only keys with a compromised size are the cursor keys. The only mistake I found myself consistently making was hitting the power button when I was looking for Delete. There isn’t, in fact, a Delete key, only Backspace.The touchpad is a genuine plus as well. It’s unusually large for a Chromebook and reflects the screen ratio, which I found particularly helpful when navigating between Chrome tabs: run three fingers along it from left to right and it flicks between the open tabs. As with all Chromebooks, there’s no left- or right-click button: if you want to right-click, the easiest way is to press Alt at the same time as pressing down on the bottom of the pad.

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However, it’s not smart in the traditional sense. It won’t let you know when emails have arrived, or buy stuff in shops using contactless payment. It doesn’t have a display, and it doesn’t count your steps.The Neyya is different. It’s less smart, more remote control. This is, essentially, a piece of jewellery aimed at executives who can’t be arsed to reach out and tap the left button on their mouse.The flat top of the ring acts as a tiny touchpad, allowing you to swipe up, down, left and right to activate various functions on a laptop or smartphone. Think of it as a device for lazy businesspeople, or rather those so vain they couldn’t possibly be seen with something so ugly as a mouse in their hand.Whether you think this is truly smart (I’ll give you a clue – I don’t), there’s no denying the Neyya is attractive. It’s a bulky ring, but not hugely so, and in both the titanium- and gold-plated finishes, this stainless steel piece of smart jewellery looks rather nice. There, I said it. And I’m not the type to be easily won over by any old bauble.

The biggest question mark over the design remains its "lapability", as Microsoft has taken to calling it. As with the Surface Pro 3, the Surface Pro 4 is helped considerably by the stand’s ability to tilt the screen to a wide range of angles. While it’s now very steady, it's much longer than a conventional laptop on your lap, which means people who have shorter legs (like me) are likely to find it less comfortable.Although this is something that's raised again and again by journalists, how much of an issue it is in the real world is debatable. Most laptops in daily use are on tables – lap use tends to be a much rarer event for ordinary people than it is for journalists. If you’re someone who spends a lot of time using your laptop on your lap, the Surface Pro 4 will be less suitable for you. If on the other hand, you’re largely desk- or table-bound, it will be perfectly fine.

I didn’t hate the Surface Pro 3’s Type Cover. I could happily type on it for hours, but was always happy to get back to a proper keyboard. It wasn’t so much the size of the keys or the travel, but the slight feel of flexing that you got when you hit it.The good news is that Surface Pro 4’s Type Cover largely fixes this. Microsoft has added some much-needed rigidity to the cover – it’s actually hard to bend it now – which means the keyboard doesn’t bounce in quite the same way. The keys themselves are still a bit clicky, but it’s a nice experience, and I’d be more than happy to type on it all the time.The trackpad has also been improved. It’s now a little bigger, and topped with glass, with a much better feel. This has, thus, moved from the "I want a mouse now, please” category to "yeah, I can use this”. There are a few small nice extra touches here. For example, the function key now has a tiny light on it and acts as function-lock. The backlighting has also improved, although the keys still leak light in a way that will alarm those used to Apple keyboards, with their highly precise lighting.

There's also the snappily-named Surface Pro 4 Type Cover with Fingerprint ID. Although this accessory has been available in the US since the launch of the Surface Pro 4, it's only recently made it over to the UK and at £135 inc VAT it isn't cheap. I've now had the opportunity to try one out, however, and can confirm that it works very well indeed. Enrolling a fingerprint works in a similar manner to Touch ID on an iPad or iPhone, and once done you'll be able to tap the sensor - located just to the right of the touchpad - to instantly unlock the tablet, even directly from sleep.It's so good, in fact, that if you're considering buying a Surface for the first time I'd recommend seriously considering paying the extra £25 for the privilege. Also worth noting is that both versions of the Surface Pro 4 keyboard work with the Surface Pro 3 as well. So, if you have an older Pro, I’d definitely recommend running out and buying one as soon as you can.

As a company grows, individuals tend to develop specialist roles and knowledge. The result can be that vital data and experience ends up locked away on individual devices and in individual heads. A smart approach to collaboration can reduce the bottlenecks of knowledge and expertise in your business, and help your staff work more effectively."When you shift to more collaborative ways of working, the biggest thing you gain is time,” explained Pete Tomlinson, product director at Eclipse Internet, one of a handful of Office 365 partners. "Employees waste time reinventing the wheel, because they don’t know that someone else already has the solution.

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"The second thing is customer responsiveness. When a customer calls, you can give them a better, faster answer if you have access to all the information, rather than having to seek it out from a colleague.”"When you shift to more collaborative ways of working, the biggest thing you gain is time.” Chris Martin, CTO of conferencing specialist Powwownow, agrees. "If employees can learn from each other’s expertise, it makes their work, and their thoughts, more well rounded,” he said. "Campaigns can start to become more naturally integrated across the company.”In bigger businesses, collaboration can help with team co-ordination. "We do a lot of work in retail,” explained Tristan Rogers, CEO of collaboration consultancy and developer Concrete. "So a client might have head-office staff and store staff, and they don’t know what each other are doing. If they had visibility of each other’s requirements, they could organise themselves better.”

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