HP has been making some of the best computers and other peripherals such as printers for so many years now. With the era moving towards a more portable and stylish computers, HP has come up with their very own sexy looking convertible, the HP Spectre x360.
Design
Sexy may be an understatement to describe the gorgeous looks of the HP Spectre x360. It has sharp edges to go along with the thinness of the convertible, crafted from premium build materials. The convertible was made from aluminium using a CNC machine which gives it a gem-cut design and premium feel. Finished in Poseidon Blue and some gold accents around the edges, the convertible stands out even further. The premium looks and feels of the HP Spectre x360 will surely turn heads, and most definitely the wrong heads.
360
As most convertible, the HP Spectre x360 has few different modes. The first mode is the regular laptop mode with the backlight illuminating keyboard. There are two different levels to illuminate the keyboard. Typing on the keyboard is pretty satisfying considering the thin profile of the notebook. It may not be the best keyboard in a notebook but comparing it against the MacBook’s Butterfly switches, the HP Spectre x360 has more key travel and tactile feel. The touchpad is bigger in width but smaller in height. Overall, it is a small touchpad but the touch screen may come in handy. The second mode is the “flat” mode. In this mode, the screen is perfectly parallel to the keyboard. Next, the notebook can be further folded in an “A” shape, making the keyboard rather useless from this point forth. In this mode, the notebook can be used as a regular tablet but the sound from the speakers will be firing away from you. Last but not least, the convertible can be folded completely into a full swing tablet mode.
Core Power
The HP Spectre x360 is powered by the latest 8th generation Intel Core i7 8565U quad core processor. With a base clock speed of 1.8GHz and a turbo boost clock of up to 4.6GHz, the notebook is capable of switching between applications seamlessly. To avoid bottlenecking the CPU’s processing power, the notebook comes with 8GB of RAM and 512GB SSD storage. The SSD used in the HP Spectre x360 is an NVMe M.2 type, which has blazing fast read and write speeds. Our review unit has a 13.3 inch display with 1920 by 1080 FHD resolution and anti-glare technology. The display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass spans almost close to the edge of its frame, having an almost bezelless design. HP still managed to include a generous amount of ports despite the Spectre’s thin profile. The convertible notebook has a USB-A 3.0 port, two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, a micro SD card slot and an audio combo 3.5mm jack.
Privacy & Security
A premium looking laptop come a premium-like security. The HP Spectre x360 is equipped with a fingerprint scanner, HP’s Wide Vision FHD IR camera, a privacy screen and a privacy camera kill switch. For the ease of logging into Windows 10, the fingerprint scanner works well. Besides the fingerprint scanner, the IR camera works well with Windows Hello to easily log you in through Windows too. It works pretty well at automatically detecting your face so there is no delay in trying to log you into Windows. If you are worried of privacy breaching through the camera, the privacy camera kill switch can be toggled on to completely disable the camera from being accessed. What’s more is HP also has a privacy screen which can be enabled all with a push of a button. With this feature turned on, the screen appears white to people who tries to peek. However, the screen is only protected from prying eyes for viewing angle of more than 70 degrees.
Pedal to the Metal
HP definitely designed the HP Spectre x360 with portability in mind. Weighing from only 1.32kg, carrying the notebook around is never a challenge at all. It gets even better when using the notebook for hours without the need to charge or plugged in. The HP Spectre x360 is a very capable laptop which can provide juice up to 20 hours of regular usage. Gaming on this notebook is a challenge since it does not come with dedicated graphics. The quad speakers are tuned by Bang & Olufsen sound amazing, especially when watching John Wick 2. There isn’t much low end to the up firing speakers but the sound clarity is pretty crisp and doesn’t distort at max volume. Viewing angle of the screen is not too bad but since it has a touch display, smudges on the screen can interrupt the viewing experience. Colours from the display are vivid and appear natural enough for content editors to take advantage of the screen. With two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, you can easily extend the display to two external displays with a resolution of up to 5K.
Specifications
Processor: 8th Generation Intel i7 8565U
Memory: 8 GB DDR4
Storage: 512 GB NVMe SSD
Operating System: Windows 10
Display: 13.3 inch FHD touch display (1920×1080)
Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620
Dimensions (HxWxD): 30.88 x 21.79 x 1.45 cm
Weight: 1.32kg
Price: RM 6,499
Benchmark
PC Mark10 – 4091
3D Mark10 – 408
