HP Spectre x360 14 review - moorehonew1961

Ben Patterson/IDG

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Sizzlingly allegretto multi-core performance
Gorgeous 3:2 display
IR and fingerprint biostatistics
Natural photographic camera shutter

Cons

Feels a bit overweight at most trey pounds

Our Verdict

It's a midget connected the heavy side, only the HP Spook x360 14 delivers the goods when its comes to sheer performance and battery life story

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The luxurious HP Spectre x360 14 is back with some new bling—Intel's Tiger Lake CPU. The results are as impressive as we'd hoped, with some of the fastest multi-core bench mark scores we've ever seen.

The features bobble you as more than as the rush. With its roomy video display, regnant graphics, and exceptional battery life, the Spectre x360 14 will please productiveness mavens and content creators like. Facial and fingerprint recognition, a carnal camera shutter, and a Thunderbolt 4 port round out the perks.

This review is character of our current roundup of the best laptops. Go there for information on competitive products you bet we tested them.

Specifications

Let's take a look under the hood of the HP Spectre x360 model (1Q881AV) we reviewed, presently $1,590 along HP.com:

CPU: Quad-core Intel Burden i7-1165G7
Memory: 16GB
Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
Exhibit: 13.5-inch, 1920×1280 IPS touch
Webcam: 720p with bodily camera shutter
Connectivity: Thunderbolt 4, SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps Type-C, SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps Type-A, MicroSD memory poster reader
Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
Biostatistics: IR nervus facialis identification, fingerprint reader
Battery capacity: 66.5 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 11.75 x 8.67 x 0.67 inches
Measured weight: 3 pounds (laptop), 0.6 pounds (AC adapter)

Two other Spectre x360 14 SKUsRemove non-product unite are available on H.P..com. A less-expensive $1,300 version with a CORE i5-1135G7 processor, 8GB of RAM rather than 16GB, and a littler 256GB SSD with 16GB of Intel Optane memory. A pricier $1,960 manikin boasts the selfsame basic glasses as our review model keep open for a much bigger 2TB storage drive and the improver of HP's Sure View privacy expose. A fourth Spectre x360 version that's a Best Bargain exclusiveGet rid of non-product link comes with a 3000×2000-pixel OLED display and a 1TB SSD with 32GB of Optane memory.

Our midrange model misses exterior on some niceties, but it doesn't skimp on Aries or the CPU. Its Core i7-1165G7 processor and 16GB promising to deliver some serious horsepower. The integrated Intel Iris Atomic number 54 GPU will be a plus for mobile content creators, while the 3:2 ratio of the Spectre x360's 13.5-inch display (a forward for the Spectre series) wish create information technology easier to forg with lengthy Word documents or Stand out spreadsheets.

Bombshell 4 headlines the Spectre's solid connectivity options,. There's Wi-Fi 6 support for those with cutting-edge routers. In accession to the fingerprint and facial IR options, there's flatbottomed a rechargeable, MPP 2.0-compatible Horsepower Tilt Playpen included in the box.

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av thunderbolt 4 port.jpg — The Spectre x360 14 comes stocked with with a Thunderbolt 4 port, conveniantly situated connected its right-rear recession.

The Spectre x360 14 comes with HP's Control Rivet suite, which lets you handle how the laptop computer juggles its resources. Most importantly is Smart Sense: When your laptop's happening battery power, it optimizes performance supported your open applications. You can switch to more traditional "Balanced," "Cool," "Quiet," and "Power Saver" modes, while a "Carrying out" way lets you pull out the stops.

The Command Center also has a Network Booster that shoulders quality-of-service duties for bandwidth-intensive apps, while a Focussing Mode helps you hone in on the task at hand by dimming non-active windows. Rounding error out the Command Center's features is an Adaptive Coloring mode that adjusts the display's color temperature supported the close visible light. Video display Assure can tune the screen for color accuracy. Finally, a nifty "in-old bag spying" feature film optimizes the Spectre's power wasting disease and keeps it cool while it's posing in a bag or a backpack.

The Specte x360 14 bears Intel's Evo brand, import it's designed to certain specifications: 11th-gen Core i5 or Core i7 processors, a 12- to 15-edge display with a minimum full-HD resolution, a chassis no thicker than 15mm, and Intel's Slashing Tuning engineering science, which helps to optimize battery life history by intelligently reconciliation Central processing unit and GPU workloads.

Design

HP's Spectre x360 laptops have long been sleek, gorgeous creatures, and this new Spectre x360 14 is nary different. The Spectre's CNC-machined, precious stone-cut edges and metallic, logo-sealed hinges are as arresting as of all time. The laptop has a solid, superior feel.

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av rear view.jpg — The HP Spectre x360 14's key signature gem-cold shoulder design gives it a stylish, elegant looking at.

Naturally, "solid" is a overnice way of saying that the Spectre x360 14 feels a tad heavy. Having been spoiled by a series of lighter-weight systems over the by different weeks, I could feel the difference. Along the plus side, the Spectre's massiveness includes a generous 65 Watt-hour battery, and—as we'll see a trifle later—that pays big dividends off AC.

Showing

The HP Spectre x360 14 is the first of its family to come with a 3:2 aspect ratio happening its display. Yes, you'll see chunkier letterboxing piece you're watching full-CRT screen movies, but you'll follow scrolling less while working in lengthy documents or spreadsheets. That's a fair trade-off for mobile professionals.

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av tented.jpg — With its 2-in-1 design, the HP Spectre x360 14's display pot be swiveled completely the way close to for pad of paper use, or you can encamp it (as seen present) on a flat surface.

The Ghost x360 14's display is a pleasure to behold. IT offers razor-slim bezels and a 90.33-percent screen-to-body ratio, for level bes screening space. The video display supports 100 percent of the DCI-P2 color gamut, which, on top of the aforementioned Adaptive Color and color-truth modes, should keep creative types content. The IPS show boasts wide screening angles, but if information technology's seclusion you're after, you could forever opt for the Spectre SKU with HP's Sure View privacy sieve.

Keyboard, trackpad, speakers, webcam

The HP Specte x360 14's keyboard has a snappy, premium experience. Avid typists (I'm one of them) will get a drum out of the clicky keys. A laptop this size must hop on the numeric keypad, simply you do get a right-side column for the Delete, Home, Page Up/Down, and End keys.

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av keyboard.jpg — The HP Spectre x360 14's keyboard has a snappy, bounty feel.

The hotkey selection includes ones for the HP Command Center, keyboard backlighting (ii steps are available), and mic mute. Yet another hotkey engages the webcam's strong-arm photographic camera shutter. Speaking of the photographic camera shutter, the Spectre x360 14 actually gives you visual feedback when the shutter is closed, something we wish well more laptop computer vendors would implement.

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av camera shutter.jpg — The HP Phantasm x360 14's physical photographic camera shutter gives you visual feedback when the shutter is shut.

The Spectre x360 14's touchpad is about 13 percent larger than in premature Spectre models, and it allows for smooth, precise cursor control. Course, a larger trackpad can pull false inputs, but straight-grained when I measuredly mashed my palms connected the bottom corners of the touchpad, the cursor barely budged.

You get two methods of biometric authentication with the HP Spectre x360 14, and both worked well. Sitting in the keyboard adjacent to the satisfactory Alt fundamental is a fingerprint referee, which reliably read my swipes. An IR television camera for nervus facialis recognition is in the peak expose bezel. IT did much a good job of unlocking Windows practically the moment I looked at the screen, I used it about exclusively during my testing.

The Bang &ere; Olufsen-tuned speakers on the Spectre x360 14 are power-driven aside an array of quadruplet up-firing drivers. While the audio frequency is fine for Soar upwards calls and OK for music, don't get your hopes upbound. Listening to "The Ghost of Tom Joad," Bruce Springsteen's spare vocals sounded relatively elaborate, but the bass response was muted, even after fiddling with equalizer settings in the Bang & Olufsen audio app.

I was much impressed past the Spectre x360 14's 720p webcam. Videos still look characteristically grainy and blotchy, only the camera captures vivid tinge along with deep contrast, and the cam appears to be working overtime to prickteaser out As untold detail as possible. It will serve you well during Skype and Zoom calls.

Ports

The HP Spectre x360 14 comes with just a handful of ports, but they'atomic number 75 the right ones. As with previous Spectre laptops, there's an angled Thunderbolt port on the rear right nook, only this time we're talking Bombshell 4, which guarantees support for two 4K monitors or a idiosyncratic 8K display at 60Hz, docks with adequate four Thunderbolt 4 ports, and the ability to handle longer cable runs, including 50-meter modality cables.

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av left side.jpg — The left side of the HP Specter x360 14 has but a single USB SuperSpeed 5Gbps Type-A port, handy for connecting mice and printers with legacy USB-A connectors.

You also get SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps Type-C and Type-A ports for legacy devices, a microSD card reader, and a jazz group audio jack. Strangely, in that respect's atomic number 102 laptop computer security slot, soh recall twice ahead leaving this laptop unattended at Starbucks (remember expiration to Starbucks?).

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av right side.jpg — Connected the right, you get a microSD retentiveness card reader, a USB SuperSpeed 5Gbps Case-C port, a jazz band audio jack, and Thunderbolt 4 on the rear street corner.

Click here to read about the HP Spectre x360 14's performance

General performance

We ran our performance benchmarks twice for the HP Spectre x360 14: formerly using its nonpayment Smart Sense might mode, and a second time in Performance modality. Overall, we managed to wring impressive—and in some cases, stellar—results from the Spectre in Public presentation mood, particularly when information technology came to lengthy processor-intensive tasks. The laptop's Smart Sense mode is no slouch either, managing to scare ascending around solid scores while keeping the CPU's temperature down, quieting the cooling fans and extending barrage life.

PCMark 8 Paid

Our first benchmark simulates much day-to-Day background duties Eastern Samoa web browsing, intelligence processing, spreadsheet tinkering, online shipping, and web chat. Because none of these single-core activities is especially taxing, CPUs with quaternion or more cores South Korean won't necessarily accept an advantage all over dual-core processors. A PCMark score over 2,000 means you can expect smooth Microsoft Office performance.

Unsurprisingly, the HP Ghost x360 14 cruised through our PCMark 8 prove without any trouble, basically tying with the similarly specification'd Acer Swift 5 and Dingle XPS 13 at the top of the chart. Given that all of the laptops in our comparison cleared the 3,000 mark, their relative rankings are debatable–each of these systems should be able to run Office without break a sweat. We're also not jiggered to find out the neck-and-neck results from the Phantasma's Smart Sense and Performance modes, although that will modify erstwhile we move on to our next benchmark.

HandBrake

Nada puts a strain on a C.P.U. quite like-minded video encoding does, which is why we enjoyment the free HandBrake utility to transcode a 30GB MKV file to a format suitable for Android tablets. Even with the fastest processors, the project can ingest an hour surgery more to complete, with Mainframe fans spinning furiously to compensate for soaring chip temperatures.

Well, hither we go. In Performance mode, the HP Spectre x360 14 shreds most of the competition, including the Porsche Design Acer Book PS, some other infatuated-fast Tiger Lake-powered system. Dialing lowered to Smart Sense power mode, the Spectre withal turns in a solid HandBrake performance, sitting comfortably in the middle of our chart. Lagging behind the rest is the dual-core Lenovo Yoga C640, which demonstrates the difference a quad-marrow operating room better CPU can make when it comes to video processing and other processor-intensive tasks.

Cinebench

If HandBrake is a Marathon, Cinebench is a sprint, tasking the CPU with rendering a 3D visualize in real time. Because it's finished so quickly, CPUs with the fastest boost pin clover tend to have got the advantage.

he HP Spectre x360T 14's 700 score in Performance fashion is upstanding, but the other Panthera tigris Lake-powered laptops in our chart all account north of 900. The Spectre x360 14 won't peel rubber like, say, the Acer Swift 5 does. On the other hand, IT scored a decisive win over the Swift 5 in our HandBrake test, significance the Horsepower is the faster laptop ended the long haul.

3DMark Sky Diver

Like the other Tiger Lake-powered laptops in our roundup, the HP Spectre x360 14 comes with an integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics core. Information technology won't yield silky-velvety gaming graphics (you'll have to tinkerer to wring anything higher than 30 fps even for older games, so much as Middle-earth: Phantasm of Mordor), but it should pack adequate horsepower to please content creators working with Adobe brick Premiere or Illustrator.

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av sky diver — Thanks to Intel's Iris Atomic number 54 GPU, integrated graphics aren't a jest at any longer.

Looking at our chart, the HP Spectre x360 14's outcome (with Performance mode enabled) lands pretty much where we expected it would, neck-and -neck with the Porsche Design Acer Book RS and a little behind the Acer Swift 5 and the Dell XPS 13. Notably, the Fleur-de-lis Xe-powered Spectre outdistanced the HP Begrudge 17, which boasts a separate GeForce MX330 graphics card. That just now goes to show how far integrated graphics technology has enter upon just a few short years, especially compared to Intel's lowly UHD integrated graphics effect.

Battery biography

We essa assault and battery life on laptops by looping a 4K television using the caudex Windows Movies &A; TV app, with screen brightness set to almost 250 nits and volume dialed to 50 percent, with headphones plugged in.

hp spectre x360 14 1q881av video rundown — The HP Spectre x360 14 might personify a little heavy, but baulk out that battery life.

With its tidy 65-Watt-hour electric battery, we're unsurprised at the strong viewing from the HP Spectre x360 14–more than 14 hours, beating every system in our chart economize for the two-fold-core, magnate-optimized Lenovo Yoga C640 and its 60-Watt-hour battery. (The nearly identical results on both Canny Gumption and Performance settings also aren't surprising, given that picture playback is a single-core task.

Our graph also illustrates the deal-off between battery life and weight unit. The sub-two-pound Dynabook Portege X30-L and its diminutive 41.5-Watt-time of day battery trails far fundament the heavier Shade x360 14. While the Dell XPS 13 and its 49.5-W-hour battery comes awfully close to the Spectre's electric battery life score, some bakshish the scales at close to three pounds to each one.

Fanny line

Yes IT's a little heavy, but the HP Spectre x360 14 delivers the goods when its comes to sheer performance and battery life, handling crushing CPU loads with ease while helping up every last-Day battery life. The Spectre's 3:2 display will also micturate your life easier while you're toiling in Government agency, and its biometric options and physical tv camera shutter help seal the administer.

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Ben has been writing more or less technology and consumer electronics for to a higher degree 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers smart speakers, soundbars, and other smart and dwelling house-theater devices.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/394081/hp-spectre-x360-14-review.html

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