HP Spectre x360 14 review | Laptop Mag
Our Verdict
HP's strikingly gorgeous Spectre x360 14 combines elegance with powerful functioning, gorgeous visuals and long battery life.
For
- Striking, luxurious design
- Gorgeous OLED and FHD brandish options
- Long battery life
- Comfortable keyboard
- Large, responsive touchpad
Against
- Pricey
- Unwieldy equally a tablet
- RAM maxes out at 16GB
- Too much bloatware
Laptop Magazine Verdict
HP's strikingly gorgeous Spectre x360 fourteen combines elegance with powerful operation, gorgeous visuals and long battery life.
Pros
- +
Striking, luxurious blueprint
- +
Gorgeous OLED and FHD display options
- +
Long battery life
- +
Comfy keyboard
- +
Large, responsive touchpad
Cons
- -
Pricey
- -
Unwieldy as a tablet
- -
RAM maxes out at 16GB
- -
Too much bloatware
HP Spectre x360 14 specs
Price: $one,299 (starting); $1,619 (as reviewed)
CPU: Intel Core i7-1165G7
GPU: Iris Xe
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB
Display: 13.v-inch, 1920 ten 1280-pixels (IPS); 3000 ten 2000-pixel (OLED)
Bombardment: 12:xi
Size: 11.eight x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
Weight: 3 pounds
When did HP get the designer brand of laptops?
The company's Spectre models have e'er stood out against uninspired competitors, but the new Spectre x360 14 is downright luxurious. The newest edition to HP'due south premium two-in-one lineup combines a startlingly bonny chassis with gorgeous brandish options, fast operation and long bombardment life. It separates itself with a unique 3:2 aspect ratio and OLED console option, a pair of features capable of enhancing work and play.
Non but does the Spectre x360 14 blast the basics, but information technology as well comes with a USB-C rechargeable stylus and offers a decent option of ports (USB Type-A and microSD included). Add to that a clicky keyboard and a large, silky touchpad and the Spectre x360 14 is one of the virtually impressive laptops I've ever reviewed.
While it's true that in that location is no shortage of capable ii-in-1 laptops on the marketplace today, the new Spectre x360 14 is our acme option.
HP Spectre x360 14: Toll and configurations
With a starting cost of $1,329, the Spectre x360 14 is among HP's virtually expensive consumer products. If yous spend that much on the base version you'll get a 1920 x 1280-pixel (WUXGA+) display forth with an Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU with Iris Xe graphics, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.
If information technology were up to me, I'd spend $1,619 for our review unit of measurement, which has an FHD display, a Core i7-1165G7 CPU with 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Upgrading to an OLED brandish raises the price by only $90. Our OLED review unit costs $1809.99 and has an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.
Although at that place have been 13-inch and xv-inch versions of this PC, the Spectre x360 xiv is technically the outset of its kind, so allow's hope the price goes down a flake in futurity iterations. On a positive note, HP includes a rechargeable Tilt Pen stylus and a fancy laptop sleeve complimentary of charge.
HP Spectre x360 14: Design
OK HP, now y'all're just showing off. I've likened the company'south Spectre laptops to precious stones before; using that aforementioned analogy, the Spectre x360 14 is the crown precious stone — you know, the one encased in impenetrable glass for everyone to run across but non bear on.
I'm hardly exaggerating; the Spectre x360 14 is absolutely stunning. Stunning, every bit in, this is the most gorgeous laptop I've ever reviewed. But plenty of the superlatives, permit's get to the why. It starts with a Poseidon Bluish hue (seriously, get this colour option!), a dark hue that's somewhere between emerald and indigo. Our OLED model comes in Nightfall Black, which is even more than glamorous admitting less intriguing to my eyes.
Adding to the luxury is aureate trim in every place HP could put information technology — effectually the display, bordering the touchpad, on the gem-cut edges of the base, coating the stylish HP logo centered on the lid, and even on both hinges. It's a bold management that will appeal more than to those looking to stand out than blend in.
And so at that place are the tiny details you lot only notice upon shut inspection, like the triangular pattern making up the speaker grill to a higher place the keyboard, the big, unproblematic white font on the keys, and the aggressively angled corners and askew edges. Information technology'due south a meticulously crafted notebook that will make you forget about withal much you ended upwardly spending on information technology.
With a modernistic pattern, you lot get mod features, including an border-to-edge brandish. Aye, nosotros've seen this done amend on the XPS xiii, just the bezels around all four edges of the Spectre x360 14's console are sparse, assuasive you lot to immerse yourself in the 13.5-inch brandish.
As a 2-in-one laptop, the Spectre x360 14 tin curve back into a tablet or be placed in tent fashion for viewing videos without a keyboard in the way. The hinges are easy to fold back but just potent enough to prevent the screen from moving much when tapped. I wish they were a bit stiffer, but it's not a major issue (for at present). Just go on in mind that the Spectre x360 14 feels unwieldy as a tablet. It's fine on a table or your lap but you won't want to concord this affair in ane mitt for very long.
Measuring 11.viii 10 8.vii x 0.7 inches and weighing in at 3 pounds, the HP Spectre x360 14 is less compact only well-nigh equally heavy as the 13.iv-inch Dell XPS 13 2-in-i (11.6 ten seven.eight ten 0.half dozen inches, two.9 pounds). The 14-inch Lenovo Yoga 9i (12.six x eight.5 x 0.6 inches, 3 pounds) matches the weight of the HP merely is a tad sleeker while the 15.6-inch Samsung Milky way Volume Flex 15 (14 x nine x 0.6, 3.five pounds) is understandably larger and heavier than the others.
HP Spectre x360 14: Security
It's all here. That is, all the features yous need to keep your sensitive files secure from snooping eyes. Taking the place of the correct Ctrl cardinal is a fingerprint sensor, which quickly and accurately recognized my unique print each time I used it to log in.
But I didn't use the sensor ofttimes because above the display is a webcam with an IR sensor for facial recognition login. It besides worked apace and accurately although there were a few times when information technology failed to recognize my face (similar when I was wearing glasses).
When y'all're not using the webcam, 1 tap of a shortcut key will cover the photographic camera, putting a shield between y'all and the lens.
HP Spectre x360 xiv: Ports
Laptops this thin don't always have USB Type-A ports so I was glad to meet ane located on the left side of the Spectre x360 xiv.
Information technology's the only port on that border of the laptop; on the correct side are two Thunderbolt 4 ports — one on the askew corner — a three.5mm headphone/mic jack and a microSD menu slot.
It's a pocket-sized complaint just I do wish HP had carve up the 2 USB-C ports so you could accuse from either side.
HP Spectre x360 fourteen: Display
New size, new attribute ratio. The 13.5-inch display on the Spectre x360 has an increasingly common 3:2 aspect ratio, meaning the screen is taller and more narrow than a standard 16:9 panel.
This lets you view more than content on the screen at once when you're browsing web pages, writing reports or scanning spreadsheets. The tradeoff is that larger black bars appear around videos, merely information technology's one I'm OK with.
At present, about the panels. HP was kind enough to send us both the 14-inch, 1920 x 1280-pixel (WUXGA+) IPS and 3000 x 2000-pixel (3K2K) OLED displays, and they are both not bad. As expected, the 3K2K OLED display offers a better film, exhibiting exceptionally vibrant colors, perfect black levels and unparalleled contrast. But don't rule out the 1920 x 1280-pixel screen, which is reasonably colorful and gets pretty vivid (non to mention, it'southward non nearly every bit power-hungry).
Glorious shades of sizzling orange and yellow erupted from the OLED panel, glistening off the indigo bounding main subsequently a plane laid waste to an oil rig in the trailer for 007: No Fourth dimension to Dice. I could see every contraction in Daniel Craig, ahem, James Bond's relaxed pose and the OLED magic made his sapphire eyes pop off his faintly rosy complexion. I could go along nearly this gorgeous console only the lower-res choice deserves some praise as well. The aforementioned fireball may not have burst off the screen in the same manner but what the FHD panel lacks in contrast it makes upwards for with decent colors, brightness and detail.
The Spectre x360 14's 1920 10 1280-resolution console covers 75% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, making it more colorful than the panel on the XPS thirteen ii-in-1 (lxx%) and about as vibrant as the Yoga 9i's (76%) 14-inch display. The competition is no match for the Spectre x360 14'southward 3K2K OLED brandish option, which covers an astonishing 140% and demolishes the category average (86%).
You lot shouldn't have any problems using either brandish outdoors although they could both stand up to be a bit brighter. And actually, the FHD screen, at 365 nits, outshines the OLED console (339 nits) forth with the Yoga 9i (334 nits). Just the XPS 13 2-in-i (488 nits) and the Galaxy Book Flex 15 (565 nits in outdoor mode) could meridian the Spectre and the category boilerplate (388 nits).
HP Spectre x 360 14: Keyboard, touchpad and stylus
It'due south a familiar feeling tapping away at the Chiclet-mode keys on the Spectre x360 fourteen. This is the same keyboard found on previous Spectre and Envy notebooks except with a few tricks upward its sleeve.
Those come up in the style of multimedia buttons that allow you apace toggle certain functions. I institute myself regularly using the mute and webcam shutter keys during video conferences, and the aforementioned fingerprint scanner key to log in to the arrangement.
This "all-in-one keyboard" puts the power key in the height-correct corner of the deck. It avoids the infuriating key placement I've written about previously by being positioned to the left of the "delete" central. I prefer dedicated power buttons located away from the keyboard as they're easier to locate but at least I didn't inadvertently put the Spectre x360 to sleep each fourth dimension I needed to right a typo from front to back.
Every bit for the typing feel, it's rather expert. The keys, though shallow, are snappy and boisterous. While I frequently bottomed out, the keyboard was comfortable enough to where I didn't feel the demand to use that precious USB Type-A port to connect my mechanical gaming keyboard. And those with larger easily volition capeesh the keys' large size and generous spacing.
The low key travel combined with a snappy mechanism allowed me to type at 112 words per infinitesimal with a 96% accuracy on the 10fastfingers.com typing exam; both results crush my 109-wpm at 95% accuracy averages.
At present, this is a proper touchpad. Expanded by 16.half dozen% compared to those on previous Spectre models, the large four.five x two.8-inch surface can easily arrange all 5 fingers. The smooth, buttery glass touchpad responded swiftly to my swipes, taps and Windows 10 gestures, which included 3-finger swipes to switch between windows and the handy pinch-to-zoom.
HP throws in the Rechargeable 2.0 MPP Tilt Pen with your purchase of the laptop. It'due south pretty standard stuff here; the pen has two reprogrammable buttons, it supports tilt for line variation, and gets 30 hours of battery life after which yous can recharge it via a hidden USB-C port on the side.
HP Spectre x360 14: Audio
Expert things happen when luxury brand Bang & Olufsen meets a quad-speaker setup.
HP's B&O-tuned top and bottom-firing speakers delivered a sonic punch when I listened to LEISURE's "Lonely Nights," a funky alternative-popular vocal. There was a overnice depth to the pulsate hits and a clear sizzle to each tap of the hi-hat. The vocals were crisp but overshadowed, and some of the treble tones of the electric guitar were peaky.
The plentiful trebles in The White Stripes' "Disgusting Thump" were sharp but at least this Spectre doesn't suffer from the same hissing static I've noticed in previous models. The vocals in this lively rock song were clear and present but the speakers struggled to juggle the cacophony of electric tunes existence strummed from every angle.
HP Spectre x360 fourteen: Performance
Armed with an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM, the Spectre x360 14 handled my dizzying workload without argument. Firing upwardly dozens of Chrome tabs didn't induce burnout; the Spectre kept running along like a well-trained marathoner. Graphics and text blinked onto the folio the moment I pressed Enter, even when ii 1080p YouTube videos and a pair of Twitch streams were running in the groundwork.
Scoring a 5,004 on the Geekbench 5.0 benchmark test, the Spectre x360 14 lagged behind the XPS 13 2-in-1 (5,639, Core i7-1165G7) and Yoga 9i (5,440, Core i7-1185G7) merely fared much improve confronting the Galaxy Volume Flex 15 (four,144, Core i7-1065G7) and the category average (4,178).
The Spectre needed 17 minutes and two seconds to convert a 4K video into 1080p resolution, a decent effect though slower than the XPS 13 2-in-i (fifteen:52) and the Yoga 9i (xiv:24). The Spectre landed right around the category average (17:13) and finished several minutes before the Galaxy Book Flex 15 (22:18).
Needing simply xxx seconds to duplicate 25GB of multimedia files, the 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD in the Spectre x360 14 transfers data at an expeditious 764 megabytes per second. That is quicker than the Yoga 9i (692.ii MBps, 512GB SSD), the XPS 13 2-in-1 (503.1 MBps) and the category average (581.1 MBps).
HP Spectre x360 14: Graphics
Decent gaming functioning from integrated graphics? Yeah, this is the strange new world nosotros alive in.
The Intel Iris Xe graphics employed by the Spectre x360 14 reached a respectable 4,229 in the 3DMark Burn Strike benchmark, topping the XPS 13 2-in-1 (iii,847) and Galaxy Book Flex 15 (2,215) only falling just curt of the Yoga 9i (5,014) and the category average (4,488).
In real-earth testing, the x360 14 struggled to play Sid Meier'southward Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p), averaging 20 frames per second, or well below our 30-fps threshold. Again, it lost to the Yoga 9i (25 fps) and the average (28 nits) but topped the Galaxy Book Flex (16 fps).
HP Spectre x360 xiv: Bombardment life
When equipped with a 1920 x 1280-pixel display, the Spectre x360 xiv achieved splendid battery life of 12 hours and 11 minutes on our examination, which involves continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. That beats the XPS 13 two-in-1 (10:52), the Yoga 9i (xi:15) and the premium laptop average (9:58). Simply the Galaxy Book Flex fifteen (15:44) put up a amend time.
Opt for the 3K2K OLED brandish and, as yous might expect, y'all'll cede several hours of runtime. The upgraded console dropped the Spectre x360 fourteen's bombardment life to 7 hours and 14 minutes.
That'south an OK runtime given the loftier-res OLED panel, but a few hours short of what we consider acceptable for an ultra-slim laptop. If you're a content creator needing the very all-time display while on-the-go, get the OLED. Otherwise, save some cash and go the lower-res panel.
HP Spectre x360 fourteen: Webcam
Laptop webcams have set a low bar and the 720p photographic camera on the Spectre x360 xiv only does enough to run into it. That's to say that the images and videos taken from this laptop look poor. A selfie I snapped in my role was shrouded in tiny dots of visual racket, enough to obscure my beard into a dark completeness. My naturally rosy complexion was blanched to a sickly stake while my green eyes were more seaweed than emerald.
It'll exercise in a pinch but exercise yourself, and everyone on the other side of the briefing telephone call a favor, and buy one of the best external webcams like the Logitech HD Pro C920.
HP Spectre x360 xiv: Heat
Taxing the Spectre x360 14 with a heavy workload can crusade the bottom panel to get warm, simply not troublingly hot.
After playing a 15-infinitesimal, 1080p video, the underside of this convertible, nearly the vent, reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit. That's considerably hotter than our 95-degree condolement threshold, and then consider buying a cooling pad.
Fortunately, the areas your fingers will touch remained absurd with the keyboard reaching 85 degrees and the touchpad warming to only 80 degrees.
HP Spectre x360 14: Software and warranty
I'll continue harping on this until information technology'southward resolved: HP, please bundle your apps into a single one-stop-shop program. There are too many icons bottleneck my Taskbar. And by "too many" I mean 11 of them counting only those starting with "HP." Such elegant hardware needs more refined software.
That's not to say these OEM apps are bloatware. HP's Support Assistant gives you all the diagnostics you need to know about your specific system, from its battery health to the remaining warranty. Here, you'll find the latest software and drivers. Command Center, which has its own dedicated keyboard key, lets y'all change the cooling mode and prioritize your network to give high-priority apps the fastest bandwidth.
There are also some basic display modes, an app for assigning the stylus buttons, and some privacy settings. This laundry list of apps is accompanied past a number of tertiary-party programs, including ExpressVPN, LastPass, and McAfee Personal Security — all of which should exist left to the customer to download (or ignore).
As is standard, the Spectre x360 14 ships with a one-year warranty. Run into how HP fared on our Best and Worst Brands and Tech Back up Showdown special reports.
Bottom line
I think I'chiliad in dear. And allow me simply say, this was love at first sight.
The Spectre x360 14's edgy even so sophisticated chassis drew me in while the fantabulous 1920 x 1280-pixel and 3K2K OLED display options told me this one was a keeper. The relationship got even ameliorate once I realized the Spectre x360 14'due south brilliance isn't but skin deep; equipped with an 11th Gen Intel CPU, the Spectre x360 flew through my rigorous real-world testing and our benchmarks alike. Moreover, the keyboard is clicky, the large touchpad is silky and all the latest security features are hither to proceed you protected and brand logging in a breeze.
Is the Spectre 14 perfect? Well-nigh, but no, information technology isn't. Its large size makes information technology unwieldy as a tablet, at that place are too many pre-installed apps, the hinge could be stronger, and you're stuck at 16GB of RAM. Oh, so in that location is the loftier sticker price. But if you lot have the budget, and demand a portable solution, those few drawbacks are piece of cake to ignore for a device that does and then much correct.
If you lot're looking for the best 2-in-i laptop on the market, information technology's the Spectre x360 fourteen — a caput-turning laptop capable of running anything you throw at information technology, and looking damn good while doing it.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/hp-spectre-x360-14
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