HP Spectre x360 review

The OLED screen is simply stunning, with rich, deep, vibrant colors and sharp contrast. White backgrounds are no longer dull, and contrast is outstanding. Even the finest details are sharp, pixel-free.

The HP Specter family is one of the best laptops you can find on the market. They are powerful, yet lightweight and elegantly designed. HP Specter x360 offers four modes of operation with its 360-degree hinge. Windows Ink allows you to write, draw, sketch, highlight and capture anything on the screen with the digital pen. The last time we reviewed one of HP’s high-end Specter x360 convertible notebooks, we were impressed with the style, powerful hardware and excellent keyboard.

But it was a 13-inch model. What if HP packed all these advantages into a huge 16-inch notebook? That’s what the company offers with the new Specter x360 16. It’s big. It’s gorgeous. And this time it features Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 GPU. If you are looking for a laptop with a big screen that can handle games and creative work, the x360 16 is a good choice. If you are looking for a convertible with a large screen, the HP Specter x360 16 is undoubtedly the best choice. And we’re not just saying that because convertibles with large screens are incredibly rare.

In fact, Dell once made an XPS 15 2-in-1. With this year’s Specter x360, HP made the screen even bigger, with a 16-inch panel in 16:10 format instead of a 15.6-inch display. Most importantly, the large display is OLED, at least in the high-end models. And if the screen is visually appealing, so is the casing. HP may have ditched the glossy edges of previous models, but the Specter x360 still has the best-looking design in its class. This is complemented by an excellent keyboard. Ultimately, it comes down to deciding whether you want a device like this. When it comes to 16-inch convertibles, you are in the right place.

Design

If you have ever seen an HP Specter x360 in person, you know that the design is eye-catching. The beveled, square gem-cut edges shine with a jewel-like luster. For some, however, this distinctive look may be a bit too intense. Based on this feedback, the design of the HP Specter x360 16 released last summer changed the look. The new Specter x360 13.5 gets the same treatment. Reminiscent of the soft corners and features of Lenovo’s Yoga line, this year’s 13.5-inch HP Specter x360 features more rounded edges around the lid and palm rest.

HP told me that this was a design choice to make the Specter more accessible to everyone, and we agreed with that. The Specter was very pleasant. When we pressed our hands against the edges to type, the device did not get stuck in our palms. With this 2-in-1, our hands felt quite relaxed even when switching from one mode of use to another. Apart from this subtle change, there is nothing new in terms of design this year. You can still find it in Nightfall Black with Pale Brass accents or Nocturne Blue with Celestial Blue or Natural Silver accents.

Keyboard and Touchpad

HP knows that the Spectre x360 13 has a great keyboard, which is why no changes were made from its predecessor. The respectable key travel and smooth switches make for a pleasant typing experience. In addition, the keys are a decent size, and none of the important keys have shrunk to fit on the compact plan. We also like that HP has placed video conferencing hotkeys, such as microphone on/off, on the hotkey row for easy access during zoom or group calls. If we want to be picky, assiduous typists might be annoyed by the transparent font of the keys, which does not stand out well against the silver surface.

Also, the arrow keys are not offset, so you cannot find them by touch, and the keys require a little more force than we would like. In 10fastfingers.com’s typing test, we typed 118 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy, beating my usual average of 109 words per minute at 95 percent. The 4.4 x 2.5-inch touchpad is large but short, so people with larger hands will have difficulty performing Windows 10 gestures with two or three fingers without bumping the surface. With Precision driver support, the touchpad responded quickly to swipes and presses. Zoom with pressure was easy, and switching between programs with three fingers worked well.

Display

For your new Specter x360 14 you can choose between a 1920 x 1280 FHD screen or a 3000 x 2000 OLED touchscreen. The Full HD screen is sufficient for most applications in the office or at home. HP claims it can offer up to 1000 nits of brightness depending on the customization options, which means you can watch videos or participate in virtual meetings and visual calls in almost any lit environment. In addition, it has incredibly wide viewing angles. The screen is bright enough for most settings, and in our tests we measured an average brightness of 365 nits across the entire display.

That’s on par with Apple’s latest MacBook Air (365 nits), but slightly lower than rivals such as the Dell XPS 13 (469 nits). Colors are also excellent: in our tests, the HP Specter x360 14 with 1920 x 1080 FHD display covered 105.3 percent of the sRGB color spectrum, beating the XPS 13 (97.9 percent) but falling behind the MacBook Air (114 percent). . We tested the test unit with YouTube and Hulu in both tablet and laptop modes, and colors remained vivid and true to life even at extreme side angles.

Audio

HP collaborated with Bang & Olufsen to put high-quality audio into this small notebook. The four-speaker array above the keyboard provides clear, clean sound in both laptop and tablet modes. While many laptop speakers have a “tinny” or “buzzing” sound at high volume, the Bang & Olufsen speakers sound surprisingly good even at full volume.

Everything from dialogue from movies and series to industrial noise rock and techno could be heard clearly. We played some podcasts and personal playlists while doing household chores and were able to hear everything clearly, even in other rooms of the house. With the HP Audio Boost software that comes with the notebook, you can create custom audio mixers based on your musical tastes and quickly and easily switch between presets when you feel like something different.

Graphics

We test Windows PC graphics with two DirectX 12 game simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Night Raid and Time Spy. We also run two tests from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which requires both low-level routines such as texturing and high-level image rendering such as games.

The “Aztec Ruins” (1440p) and “Car Chase” (1080p) tests, which are rendered off-screen to account for different screen resolutions, train the graphics and compute shaders using the OpenGL programming interface and hardware tessellation, respectively. The more frames per second, the better. The GeForce RTX 3050 ranks a few rungs lower on Nvidia’s GPU ladder. Although suited for content creation applications, the HP is better suited for casual gaming than the latest AAA adventures or the fastest shooters.

Performance

The Spectre x360 14 managed to keep up with or even outperform rivals such as the Lenovo Yoga 9i, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and even the HP Envy x360 13. However, it fell a bit behind in other tests, including video rendering and file copying. Despite the increase in shared system memory that HP allocates to Intel Iris Xe graphics with the upgrade, gaming performance was below average in some tests.

Photoshop performance was best, and this is where the Spectre shines as a notebook and as a tablet, best used with the included stylus. Testers found that the quad-core Core i7 runs cool and without slowdown for most tasks, even as the notebook heats up under heavy workloads. For illustration programs, streaming and Web browsing, the Spectre offers more than enough performance for everyday use.

Battery Life

HP claims a battery life of up to 10 hours and 30 minutes, in line with our experience. We spent several full work days on battery power alone, playing videos, listening to music, using applications such as Microsoft Office and Google Docs, and all the daily web browsing, e-mail, and social media activities that bother you. In general, the HP Specter 14 lasted 8.5 to 9.5 hours to complete these activities. If this is not enough for your workday, we admire your work ethic.

Meanwhile, the Specter stayed alive for a full 11 hours and 8 minutes in our standard test of repeated playback of a movie downloaded from Netflix. Now for the not-so-positive news. Connectivity is often limited in thin laptops, and the HP Specter x360 14 is certainly not spoiled for choice when it comes to ports. However, it is nice to see that there is at least one USB-A slot on the left, while on the right are two USB-C ports, both usable for charging, and a pair of headphone/microphone jacks in the middle.

Heat

A power-saving mode can extend battery life in case of charging problems. In-bag detection also uses Intel Dynamic Tuning technology to adjust CPU performance to avoid overheating or battery drain in the bag. The Adaptive Battery Optimizer can also monitor temperature, charging status, and battery usage to preserve battery life. Finally, Smart Sense can optimize performance, temperature, and more based on the applications being used.

Price and Availability

The HP Spectre x360 is available in different configurations and prices. Prices start at $1,149.99 in the United States for a model with an Intel Core i5 -1135G7 processor, 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD drive. In the UK, the base model with Intel Core i5 -1135G7 processor, 8 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD drive costs £1,199.99. Then there is a version with Intel Core i7 -1165G7 processor, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD drive, which this review is about. There is also a model with the same CPU and RAM, but with a 1 TB SSD drive and a 4K OLED screen priced at 1,699.99 euros.

In addition, the Spectre x360 is available in different screen sizes: 13 inches, 15 inches, and 13.5 inches. As for the UK and US models, there are numerous configurations available, including models with 14- and 15-inch screens. As you can see, there is plenty of choice for those who want to buy a new HP Spectre x360, but we would hesitate to say that there is a model for every budget. Even the cost of the basic models exceeds that of many other laptops. This is a high-end laptop, so it has to work hard to justify its high price.

Final Words

It is difficult to improve on a winning formula, but the HP Specter x360 has succeeded. It has raised the bar on what you can expect from these laptops, as it now has Intel Evo certification. To meet Intel’s standards, HP had to improve not only the notebook’s performance, but also its design and battery life. In our PCMark 10 battery life test, the device lasted for almost 13 hours.

This makes the Specter x360 refresh one of the best laptops around and builds on everything we enjoyed in our review of the HP Specter x360. Whether you’re concerned about battery life and looking for something that can survive long days of working with Chromebooks and MacBooks, whether you need something portable that you can easily take with you, or whether you’re looking for something powerful, the HP will satisfy just about anyone.

John Brister
John Brister
Meet John Brister, the prolific content writer renowned for his perceptive comparison articles on Bollyinside. Specializing in topics ranging from TVs to headphones and other accessories, John's knack for breaking down intricate details into reader-friendly insights has garnered him a dedicated following. Beyond his literary pursuits, John is an avid swimmer and equally passionate about tracking, often exploring new trails and routes, feeding his sense of adventure.

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The HP Specter family is one of the best laptops on the market. They are powerful, yet lightweight and elegantly designed. HP Specter x360 offers four modes of operation thanks to its 360-degree hinge.HP Spectre x360 review