- HP has given a complete revamp
to their Spectre X360 laptop
and I spent the last few weeks with it.
Here's what I think.
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The HP Spectre for late 2016 brings a ton of improvements
to what was already an excellent device.
Let's first talk about the redesign.
Thankfully, the Spectre keeps the same
all-metal uni-body frame.
HP has also made the laptop thinner,
at just 13.8 millimeters,
and lighter, weighing in at just under three pounds.
More over,
the display bezel now is just 3.4 millimeters on the sides.
A 77% reduction from the previous iteration.
The thin bezel also means the keyboard
is now edge to edge too.
There is still some bezel at the top and bottom,
but that's okay because HP is keeping the full HD
web camera at the top,
instead of shoehorning it near the bottom.
Speaking of that web camera,
it can also now be used to log into Windows 10,
through facial recognition and Windows Hello.
HP stepped it up at two IR lights
to assist in all lighting conditions.
It works perfectly.
The Windows Hello experience is as good if not better
than the Surface Book.
Being all silver, the Spectre is great
at hiding fingerprint and dirt too.
While the laptop is very cool to the touch,
you don't have to worry about wiping it down.
I think of all the current Ultra books on the market,
the Spectre X360 is the nicest looking.
It's nearly perfect.
The glossy display is now just full HD
at 1920 by 1080 resolution.
HP used to offer a QHD variant,
but that is no longer the case.
I'm fine with full HD on a 13 inch laptop.
It's a beautiful screen and you get longer battery life too.
Color reproduction is excellent,
the screen is evenly lit and bright,
and the contrasting viewing angles are fantastic.
The edge to edge design is also elegant.
Let's talk about the keyboard.
Like the HP lapdock for the Elite X3,
I'm getting some Surface Pro four vibes with its design.
That's a good thing,
with large square metal keys
that have ample space in between them,
I think that is one of my favorite typing experiences
on any device.
Key travel is good without being mushy
and it just feels right.
This is just an excellent keyboard.
Being that the keys are silver and metal,
how they are backlit can be problematic.
After all, white lights and silver keys
do not offer much for contrast.
That was an issue on the older Specter,
but it's much better on this new version.
The track pad, however, is a bit different.
HP insists on using synaptics instead of
Microsoft's Precision configuration.
To be fair,
this is one of the best synaptics trackpads I have used.
It is very smooth, and your fingers just glide over it.
I do find some delays with the Windows 10 gestures,
due to the synaptics layer,
but it's not a deal breaker.
The size of the trackpad is famously wide on this laptop,
and that has not changed.
Thankfully, you can enlarge the right click area.
The click is also even and satisfying.
For sound, HP has jammed in four B&O tune speakers.
Two on the top and two on the bottom,
for when you use it on tablet mode.
The speakers can get ridiculously loud,
and you can tune the sound with B&O's included software.
The quality is very crisp, but it does lack bass.
I think that should be expected for a very thin machine,
but would still like some more resonance.
For voice, it's great.
But for music, while it gets surprisingly loud,
it has a bit too much in the highs for my taste.
Speaking of convertibles, the Spectre X360 is also a tablet.
This feature reminds me of the Surface Book.
It's there as an option
but you can just buy the Spectre and use it as a laptop.
You'd never know it becomes a tablet
by flipping the display around.
While I'm not a huge convertible fan,
I have to admit, this is the first tune one
that I did enjoy using as a tablet.
HP's hinge is relatively stiff and steady,
and it looks less gaudy than Lenovo's.
With the thin design, metal body, and somewhat light frame,
the Spectre X360 is a well balanced convertible.
For performance, this review unit is sporting a seventh Gen
Intel Kaby Lake Core i7 dual processor.
You can also get a Core i5 variant.
Performance is excellent,
it's Kaby helps out a bit with video decoding
and minor performance improvements.
The real benefit to Kaby Lake is lower thermals
and better battery life.
The Spectre can get warm,
partially due to the conductivity of the metal chassis.
It can get a bit warm on the bottom, but not hot.
You're also going to feel the temperature
as it hits 115 degrees during gaming.
The fan is also more audible
and frequent than the Dell XPS 13.
It's not loud or annoying,
but you can hear it under a light load.
It doesn't bother me,
but when setting up the computer for the first time,
you should expect an audible fan run a few times
during those OS updates.
Regarding battery life, you can get a real world usage
of six to eight hours out of this device.
And it may not be the most impressive in this category,
but considering its size and its thinness,
I'm actually very impressed with that.
You can definitely leave the AC charger home for the day.
That's with WIFI on, display at 50%,
and using it for Web, light gaming, writing, and social.
For such a thin and light machine, I think that's fantastic.
Even better, the Spectre has a petite AC charger
that is easy to pack if you need it.
Plus it supports type-c fast charge,
meaning you can get at 90% charge in under two hours.
Finally, the Spectre has two type-c thunderbolt ports
for charging and data, one USB type-a for legacy use.
There is no SD card slot or HDMI out,
which seems okay for a non-pro machine,
but your needs may vary.
It's a minimal design,
but I think HP struck the right balance here.
So here's the deal with the Spectre.
Between design and features,
this is the most well-balanced Windows laptop around.
While it doesn't have a crazy high resolution display,
or pack any gimmicky features,
it does everything that it's supposed to do.
It's a joy to use.
Let's talk about value.
I think the Spectre X360 is one of the best laptops
you can get for its price.
Maxed out for 1,299,
and even on sale for cheaper than that,
you can get 16 gigs of RAM,
512 gigabytes of storage and a Core i7 processor,
that's pretty amazing.
Going down to a Core I five with eight gigs
of RAM and 256 SSD,
you're talking 1,000 bucks.
Not only do you get a great specs going to 2016,
but it comes with an arguably
the best looking design in its class.
For value, design, features, and performance,
the HP Spectre X360 for late 2016
is the ultra book to be.
So that's my review, the Spectre X360 laptop.
Remember, you can head to Windows Central
for the full review, including benchmarks and HD videos.
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Thanks for watching, take care everybody.
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