A revolutionary hybrid laptop, the Spectre x360 is quite sleek and shiny with an aluminum design almost similar to a MacBook. Both the lid and the bottom are of aluminum and silver in color. This 2-in-1 measures 14.8 x 9.75 x 0.63 inches. This laptop is not only beautiful, it is also super thin and light making it very easy to carry. A 15-inch screen and very good performance.
Design:
The HP Spectre x360 has been built for endurance and quality. The laptop has a weight of only 1.4 kg. It can easily be carried around on the go. What’s fantastic about this laptop is the hinge. It has been cleverly manufactured and can flip 360 degrees such that the keyboard and screen are back to back effectively turning the laptop into a tablet. When in tablet mode, the keyboard keys are non-responsive so there are no worries about having them touch against the back of the screen. The thinnest of the device makes it also very easy to handle in tablet mode. Another method of using it in tablet mode is to have it placed in an angle with the keyboard acting as a stand. This is fantastic for watching trailers by placing it on top of a desk.
Display:
A 15-inch screen provide very bright images and vivid colors. About 246 nits of brightness more than average, the 2-in-1 will show perfectly outdoors or in direct sunlight. 2560 x 1440-pixel screen resolution. The pixel density is 221 ppi. Multi-touch, everything that a professional would be seeking to be able to undertake the most demanding types of activities. It has a high-end IPS with wide viewing angles. A glossy display is not very outstanding for convertibles but enough to make everything look sharp and nice. The screen has a great response time better than average.
A change that HP has introduced is in the graphic chip. The Intel HD graphic 520 is the successor of the 5500. The 520 allows to play flash games but hardly any intensive games. On the 3D graphics benchmark, it achieves a score of 64,632 which is adequate enough.
Keyboard:
The keyboard feels somewhat shallow. The keyboard is backlit and has a quite nice glow. The keys are full size like most of the laptops and have 1.5 mm of action. When pressed they feel like that of a high-end notebook, they are quite responsive and make sort of a click sound. The touchpad measures 5.5 x 2.6 and feels smooth. It has plenty of room for navigating with the mouse or performing swipe gestures. You would have no problems doing operations such as scrolling, pinching to zoom, etc.
Connectivity:
Included are plenty of ports. The latest version of USB, Type-C, which can also be converted and used as the power supply. On the left side can be found USB 3.0, the headphone/mic jack, an SD card reader while the right side are two other USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI and a mini display port for external monitors. A 1080p webcam can be found on the top of the screen that can be used for taking selfies or for social media. The quality of the pictures is quite good. Colors are bright and images appear sharp but slightly darker than in real life. Missing is an Ethernet port, but this could have been omitted because of the slim design. It has also been designed such as to rely mostly on Wi-Fi for connection to the internet than on wired connection.
With the Band & Olufen Speaker software, the audio is clear and loud.
Performance:
A 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5-6200U central processing unit powers this laptop. It has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage capacity other versions can be found with 16GB of RAM. This hybrid has enough performance and storage for performing any type of activity, office and multimedia. HP has provided a choice between two types of processors for the X360 series. The Intel Core i5 or the Intel Core i7-6500U. Both provide fantastic response time allowing for very comfortable work flow. Compared with its predecessors, HP has upgraded the hardware.
The maximum power consumption is between 28.7 -29.9 W which is lower than HP Broadwell model. The battery of HP Spectre x360 has a capacity of 56Wh and would last for about 8hours and 20 minute. It’s not the best between convertibles but considering the fact that it can be used for almost the entire day on the go is convenient.
Software:
The x360 uses Window 10 operating system which is the latest version of windows introduced by Microsoft. HP has introduced a lot of bloatware which if removed can increase storage capacity and performance. The Bang & Olefin Speaker software helps to adjust sound, the HP recovery manager can be used to reinstall drivers and applications and also troubleshoot. Beside those, there are many other apps on the menu some of which such as; Heart radio, Candy Crush soda Saga, Snapfish, Flipboard and others. Many can be uninstalled to increased performance. Microsoft also provide a one-month free trial of Microsoft office.
Pros & Cons:
Regardless, for those who have knowledge of computers, this laptop does not lack its pros can con and one needs to be an expert to actually find something terrible with the x360. If anything making comparison with competitors, it is not the most efficient but average. The hardware and software could be improved particularly with regards to the graphic. The keyboard is great but could use for more security measures like fingerprint or even a stylus could have been included. HP has almost provided quite a great hybrid that can appeal to many consumers. Generally, hybrid is very popular with the consumer as they can be used both as laptop and converted into tablets. The HP Spectre x360 is provided at an average price in the market which for the lack of certain elements such as stylus etc. is quite good.