Hewlett-Packard has formed an alliance with Microsoft, and with the help of engineers from the Windows team they released the Spectre x360.
HP’s Spectre x360 is the company’s new flagship notebook, and boy, isn’t it beautiful – premium design, high-performance, comfortable keyboard, stunning screen, and a battery-life that is to die for. Also, it starts at $899!
Borrowing the best things from its competitors!
HP’s new device borrows all the best things from Apple, and Lenovo. The beautiful design inspires me to think of a MacBook and the hinge mechanism is actually from Lenovo – they even call the mechanism the same way as Lenovo’s Yoga line. This ain’t a bad thing at all, and it’s not like they stole trademarked words.
The Spectre x360 is designed almost like a MacBook air – a unibody CNC-machined aluminum, and it’s specific wedge shape. But even though the resemblance is uncanny, it feels like a different kind of beast all together. For example the hinge – you poses full control over it, and it feels smoother, it folds into itself.
It weighs about 3.26 pounds, that is 1.47 kg, and measuring 0.63-inch, 15.9mm, is one of the thinnest notebooks out there. The machine keeps its thickness in tablet mode, or when its folded shut – a minor feat, but a good one whatsoever. The Quad HD model is a little bit lighter than the 3.26 pound full HD one, and it stands at 3.17 pounds – 1.43 kg – you can’t even sense the difference.
Even though the Spectre x360 is one of the thinnest notebooks out there, it still feels a little bit clunky, and on heavy on the side. You won’t get tired carrying it in a tote bag on your shoulder, or a backpack, but you will feel its weight when you use it in tablet mode. I recommend restin the device in your lap – unless you go to the gym daily, then by all means, do a biceps routine with it too.
Let’s talk ports, sockets, and what you can connect to it. It sports three USB 3.0 connections, a HDMI socket, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD card slot, a headphone jack and a volume rocker – that is designed especially for tablet mode. If you’re looking for adapters, you should know that HP sells Ethernet and HDMI to VGA adapters for $30 a piece.
A comfortable keyboard, and a new track pad!
The keyboard and track pad are made from scratch by HP, and in all fairness they seem better than what’s on the market at the moment. It’s a little bit shocking that the team behind Spectre x360 didn’t implement Microsoft’s Precision touch pads, and it went with one from Synaptics. The track pad feels like HP’s last generation flagship notebook, the Spectre 13 – it’s a wide click pad, elongated so that Windows 8 users can perform specific gestures on either end of the track pad’s touch zones. It’s really helpful when swiping to expose the Charms Bar, but that feature will go away in Windows 10, and Microsoft’s new OS will be released in a few months.
All in all, the touch pad is comfortable and you won’t get frustrated when you use it – and I think that’s the most important part.
The standard model of the Spectre x360 comes with a 1080p display, but for a few hundred bucks extra you can upgrade it to a 2560×1440 one. The full HD display, as the Quad HD one, is perfect for watching movies, and I can surely compare its quality with the new 13-inch MacBook Pro – you can read a full review of Apple’s latest gadget right here.
The dual audio speakers branded on the laptop’s bottom side are somehow incomprehensible, visually I mean, but they are on par with what the competitors are offering.
When it comes to reading, and writing speeds, it doesn’t shine in any way – at least, not compared with Apple’s latest MacBook Pro Retina that has whooping speeds of up to 1.6/GBs. They are not bad, it’s just that they aren’t something you buy the Spectre x360 specifically for. It stands at 555 MB/s (reads), and 270 MB/s (writes).
Intel’s fifth generation processors make the x360 a beast!
Intels’ fifth generation Core processors aren’t staying away from HP’s latest device, and it will come paired with their new Broadwell processors. To quote myself from another article regarding their name – ” It has a nice ring to it, somewhere on the lines of what I would expect to see in a James Bond movie – Mission Broadwell, or commonly known in spy communities as The Life Ender.” – with a notebook like this, of course my social life will die as soon as Mortal Kombat X, The Witcher 3 and GTA V will hit stores.
It ranks pretty great in benchmark tests – PCMARK7 – 4,965; 3DMARK06 – 8,810; 3DMARK11 – E1,667 / P932 / X265; for the HP Spectre x360 2015, 2.2GHz Intel Core i5-5200U, Intel HD 5500, 8 GB RAM version.
Battery life expectancy is top-notch!
The Spectre x360 amazes when it comes to battery life expectancy – HP states it has a runtime of 12 hours and 30 minutes, but of course it depends on your configuration a.i. the lowest res model will definitely last longer. In a continuous video loop test I got to the half-day mark, but not with much – it lasted 12 hours and 13 minutes. I turned Wifi off, but brightness was set to the 40 percent mark. It can last this long due to the fact that Microsoft and HP shut down certain parts of the system when not in use – like the hinge sensors that tell the device in what mode it is in. Their low fan noise also conserves energy.
Regarding its state in the software department, the Spectre x360 is fully optimized for Windows 8.1. After all, it was built with the help from Microsoft’s Windows team. But it’s not just fully optimized for Windows 8.1, it’s better optimized than its competitors. The notebook will, of course, be shipped with Windows 8.1, but it’s a clean version, so you don’t have to worry about bloatware. It comes built in with HP’s own apps like Connected Photo, but you also get Netflix, The Weather Channel, and Hearts Deluxe. McAfee comes paired with the device – not just a trial version, but a one year free subscription to their LiveSafe service.
With Windows 10 coming out in just a few months from now, you’ll have nothing to worry about when you’ll be able to upgrade, for free, your copy of Windows 8.1. Right after shipping of the Spectre x360, both HP and Microsoft have stated that one of their primary focus is to shift engineers to the Windows 10 architecture so the new device can run smoothly when it comes out.
You can choose from 3 configurations!
If you want to buy HP’s newest flagship notebook, you should know that you have to choose from 3 configurations.
The standard model is $899 for Core i5-5200U processor, 4GB of RAM and a 1080p touchscreen. It’s the only one fully customizable – meaning you can double the RAM for $50, add a Quad HD screen for $100, upgrade the processor to a dual-core i7 processor for $150, and even change the 128GB standard storage space for a 256GB, and 512GB disks – $50, to $200.
The $1,150 model consists of a 1920×1080 display, a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage.
The last model in their roster, and the best one also, will make you cough up $1,400 for a higher-res 2560×1440 screen and a 512GB SSD – it has the same processor as the mid-level $1,150 model.
But before you settle down and buy this marvellous beast, take a look at what the competition has to offer!
The Competition
- Dell XPS 13
It comes with a 13-inch display, weighing in at 2.6 pounds, that is 1.1 kg, and with a superb Ultrabook design that we have been accustomed to with Dell – it was also nominated for one of the finalists positions in 2015’s Best of CES awards. It comes paired with a Mini DisplayPort, a headphone jack, 2 USB 3.0 connections, a Kensington lock slot, and a full-sized SD card reader.
When it comes to battery life it falls short – only 8 hours of runtime.
The 13-inch display has a 1080p resolution, but you can upgrade it too to 3200×1800.
The standard model will make you dig in your pockets for $800 and it consists of an Intel Core i3-5010U Broadwell processor, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, Intel HD 5500 Graphics and a matte 1920×1080 screen. You can upgrade the RAM up to 8GB, processors to i5, and i7, and also its storage space. If you want the high-performance device it will cost you $1,900!
- MacBook Pro Retina
This one is the most expensive of the bunch, but it offers incredible quality, and a battery life on par with the Spectre’s – 11 hours and 23 minutes isn’t bad at all. But Apple’s device truly shines when it comes to their new PCIe-based SSDs – it can reach speeds of 1.6 GB/s and max sequential write speeds of 1.5 GB/s. It leaves the Spectre way behind with it’s 555 MB/s (reads), and 270 MB/s (writes) speeds.
The standard model is a whooping $1,299 and its bundled with a 2.7GHz fifth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Intel Iris Graphics 6100, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB PCIe-based solid-state drive. For $100 more you can get a 2.9GHz Core i5 processor. For the 3.1GHz Core i7 CPU version it will cost you $300 more. You can double the RAM to 16GB for $200. Upgrade the storage space to 256GB, or 512GB SSD. There is also a 1TB version in the works, and rumours have it it will cost up to $1,799.
For more detailed information, I highly recommend you to read the MacBook Pro Retina 2015 Review right here.
The Conclusion
HP’s Spectre x360 is a really great laptop. No, it isn’t the best one on the market, but for $899 it’s a tough cookie. Your other options consist of Dell’s XPS 13, but it’s battery life just makes me want hurl it into a river, and Apple’s MacBook Pro Retina which is the most expensive one.
You decide. What are you inclined to buy? Tell us in the comments section below!
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