The Spectre X360 14 appears to be a serious 2-in-1. Depending on the specification you choose, there are also silver, blue, and black finishes available. The silver variant has bronze chassis edges and hinges, while the blue variant has silver ones. Another excellent 2-in-1 laptop from HP in their range of high-end convertibles is the Spectre x360 14. It combines the greatest elements of work laptops and tablets to create one all-around powerhouse. The 4:3 display, strong productivity capabilities, fantastic keyboard and trackpad, and rounded all-metal chassis of this laptop are impressive. With the Spectre 14, HP delivers on your needs for a great stylus experience, a multimedia feast for the eyes and ears, or the ideal writing companion for coffee shops.
HP Spectre X360 14 review: Design
The Spectre x360 14 featured HP’s striking gem-cut design, which included notches carved into the corners of the chassis and the rear display as well as sharply pointed edges. The 2-in-1’s aesthetic was one of a stunning laptop that stood out from the crowd with its rose gold or copper highlights. With the Spectre x360 13.5 and the Spectre x360 16, HP reduced the size of that design by rounded, slimming, and toning down the extravagance. The 3.5mm audio jack is located in the left chassis notch, and a USB-C port is located in the right one to keep the charging cable out of the way. The end effect is a more sophisticated appearance that is still lovely and distinctive but is not as overt. Additionally, the rounded sides are a little more pleasant to grip in tablet mode than the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 7’s even more rounded edges, though not by much. Our test device was painted Nightfall Black with brass accents; additional colour options included Natural Silver and Nocturne Blue with matching edges. Each time, the keyboard coordinates with the main hue. The Yoga 9i Gen 7 and Yoga 7i Gen 7 feature rounded and sculpted chassis that are each equally attractive in their own way, but they are the only two 14-inch 2-in-1s that can match the Spectre x360 13.5’s aesthetic appeal. While none of the other machines in the field are dull per se, these three are more appealing. The Spectre x360 13.5 is made of CNC-machined recyclable aluminum and is incredibly sturdy, with no bending, flexing, or twisting in the lid, keyboard deck, or bottom chassis. It joins the best-built laptops, including the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 7 and the Dell XPS 13. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 is the only laptop we’ve handled that actually feels more sturdy, and the difference is slight. The Spectre x360 13.5 is included in the 14-inch category, but it may just as easily be grouped with 13.3-inch laptops. However, because of the taller display, it feels more like a 14-inch device, so we’re going to approach it as such. The 90% screen-to-body ratio and small bezels make the Spectre x360 13.5 a portable device. The HP is almost an inch narrower and half an inch shallower than the Yoga 9i Gen 7, and it is 0.67 inches thick and 3.01 pounds heavier than the Yoga, which is 0.60 inches and 3.09 pounds.
Keyboard and Touchpad
It feels great to type on the chiclet-style keyboard’s ultra-low profile, but if you’re used to mechanical or optical switch keyboards, it might feel a little “mushy” at first. You can turn off the backlight completely in bright rooms or when it would be a distraction, such as during a meeting, and it has two levels of backlighting to make it easy to type in almost any situation. Both the display and the trackpad support simple gesture controls; you can pinch to zoom, swipe, and tap on the display, and you can pinch to zoom and quickly scroll on the trackpad. The Tilt Pen’s note-taking experience is very similar to writing with a traditional pen and paper, and even if you have terrible handwriting like we do, the programme that converts handwriting into digitized text does a great job of identifying words and letters.
Display
The 13.5-inch touchscreen’s 3:2 aspect ratio is what makes it stand out the most. This makes it 13% taller than the 16:9 aspect ratio used on the majority of modern laptop screens, monitors, and TVs. Microsoft’s Surface Go and Surface notebooks, which invented the 3:2 format, are notable exceptions. In practice, this translates to larger black bars when watching movies, but more of, say, a web page is visible before scrolling down. Depending on what you use a laptop for and your personal preferences, you may prefer a 3:2 or 16:9 aspect ratio. However, in general, you’re more likely to profit if you’re working on things that are productivity-focused, whereas if you want to watch a lot of movies and TV shows, it could be a little annoying. For instance, when I watched Ready Player One, the movie only occupied 57% of the screen. You can pick between three displays based on how much money you wish to spend. The entry-level model has a touchscreen IPS display with Full HD (1920 x 1280) resolution. However, our more expensive review model had a 3000 x 2000 OLED panel, which is as close to 4K as you can get. And it has to be among the nicest screens we’ve ever seen. Blacks and whites in particular were alluring, with the colors being deep and rich. The light levels were sufficient for use both inside and outside, and details were razor-sharp.
Audio
HP and Bang & Olufsen collaborated to incorporate premium audio into this small, sleek laptop. In both laptop and tablet modes, the four speakers array positioned above the keyboard produces crisp, clear sound. The Bang & Olufsen speakers sound fantastic even at maximum volume, unlike many laptop speakers which can sound “tinny” or have a “buzz” at high volumes. also you can read our article on HP Spectre X360 14 review. Industrial noise rock and techno as well as speech from movies and television shows all sound clear and distinct. While performing housework, we listened to some podcasts and personal playlists and could hear everything clearly, even in other rooms throughout the house. You can design personalized audio mixers to suit your musical preferences using the HP Audio Boost software that comes with the laptop, and you can quickly and easily switch between several presets when you’re in the mood for something different.
HP Spectre X360 14 review: Graphics
Integrated graphics with respectable game performance? Yes, this is the novel and odd world we now inhabit. The 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark showed that the Intel Iris Xe graphics used by the Spectre x360 14 achieved a respectable 4,229, beating the XPS 13 2-in-1 (3,847) and Galaxy Book Flex 15 (2,215) but falling just short of the Yoga 9i (5,014) and the category average. In actual playback tests, the x360 14 failed to maintain a frame rate of 30 or more while playing Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p). Once more, it was outperformed by the Galaxy Book Flex but fell short of the average (28 nits) and Yoga 9i (25 fps).
Connectivity
the less uplifting news now Connectivity on tiny laptops is frequently constrained, and the HP Spectre x360 14 isn’t exactly a port snob. Having said that, it’s fantastic to see there is at least one USB-A port on the left, while there are two USB-C ports on the right that can both be used for charging, with a headphone/mic connection in the middle. Although one of the USB-C ports being on the laptop’s diagonal edge didn’t actually offer any practical problems, it does look a little odd. But the fact that you can’t charge the laptop from the left side is really unfortunate. Our preference would have been to divide the USB-Cs between the left and right, and we are baffled by how HP designed its ports.
Performance
When it comes to the Intel Core i7-performance, 1165G7’s there are basically no surprises. Instead of the newest 12th Gen technology from Intel, it uses a classic 11th Gen chip. For a thin and light rig like the Spectre, it’s a good quad-core alternative. The boost clock of up to 4.7GHz, as indicated by the GeekBench single-core result of 1,418 points, contributes to respectable single-threaded performance. A 12th generation processor would indeed be preferable. However, they are not currently offered in this chassis. It is inevitable that the quad-core architecture has limitations in terms of multi-threaded performance. The 16GB of RAM in this configuration may also be a little sparse for extremely demanding workloads. But the Spectre does a good job of importing large quantities of RAW photographs, in part because of the inventive 512GB SSD + 32GB Optane drive combination. Just be aware that the reviewed arrangement isn’t ideal if you frequently work with extremely large photo batches. Even more so when it comes to video editing. The older Intel quad-core chip simply lacks the multi-threading capabilities in this situation. It isn’t even comparable to Apple’s M1 Pro and Max chips or a higher-end Intel 12th Gen CPU. However, HP isn’t promoting this as a portable editing device. But what about that game-changing OLED display? It far outperforms all LCD panels in terms of responsiveness, contrast, and viewing angles. It’s a truly amazing display that gives the impression of a portal into a different reality rather than one that is being simulated on a screen. You won’t want to go back once you’ve switched to OLED. It is not flawless, though. One thing is that black details are somewhat crushed in all modes. If you look extremely closely, you can also detect some image graining. Uncertainty exists as to whether this is a result of the touchscreen digitizer’s implementation or the OLED panel’s subpixel structure. It is barely discernible at typical viewing distances. But it is barely discernible. The list of other considerations includes audio quality. Though relatively loud for a tiny laptop, it eventually comes across as harsh and thin. A MacBook Air boasts much better dynamic range and a little bit more volume when compared to other thin and light displays. The HP Spectre x360 14 OLED scored 12 and a half hours in our 1080p movie playback test, which is a definite plus for battery life.
Battery life
Long battery life is one of the biggest quality of life enhancements Intel is pushing with its Intel Evo platform, and the HP Spectre x360 doesn’t fall short in this regard. In our own battery life test, which loops a 1080p video file at 50% brightness until the battery dies, it performed admirably for 11 hours and 22 minutes. In this test, the previous HP Spectre x360 did well as well, scoring 10 hours and 55 minutes. The extra half-hour is appreciated, though, and it shows that the more potent parts didn’t come at the expense of battery life. On the laptop, we also performed the rigorous PCMark 10 battery life test, which simulates daily activities like online browsing and video calling. Here, the Spectre x360 managed approximately 13 hours, which is again a highly outstanding accomplishment and a significant improvement over the four-hour result of the prior model (on PCMark 8). Because of this, the battery on the Spectre x360 is nicely balanced and can function equally well under light and medium use conditions. This laptop is a fantastic tool for business users who are looking for a device that offers superb performance, fantastic looks, and won’t need to be plugged in until they return home. You can easily get through a full work day on it.
HP Spectre X360 14 review: Heat
When the Spectre x360 14 is under a lot of stress, the bottom panel may become warm but not too hot. The underside of this convertible, near the vent, hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit after playing a 15-minute, 1080p video. That’s much hotter than our comfort threshold of 95 degrees, so think about getting a cooling pad. Fortunately, the surfaces your fingers will touch stayed cool, with the touchpad warming up to only 80 degrees and the keyboard reaching 85 degrees.
Configuration options
As was already noted, the price of this laptop’s amazing power and stunning design is exorbitant. It is equivalent in price to laptops like the Core i7 Dell XPS 13 ($1,259) and the MacBook Pro 13 ($1,299) with a starting price of $1,369, for example. You may get one from the official HP store, the Intel website, or, if you’re expecting to strike it rich with a sweet discount or sale pricing, you can try your luck at big retailers. We evaluated the $1,669.99 model, which included a 14-inch FHD touchscreen display, an Intel Core i7-1165G7 2.8GHz quad-core processor (which can be overclocked to 4.7GHz), a 512GB solid-state drive, 16GB of RAM, and integrated Intel Xe graphics. you will check our article on HP Spectre X360 14 review.
Conclusion
For a while now, convertible laptops have been the craze. However, you can only pack so much power into a “ultraportable” chassis before it begins to perspire, as any intelligent person would inform you. There are other annoyances as well, one of which is the often subpar port selection. In other words, what truly distinguishes a great machine from the competition is striking the appropriate balance between style and substance. Take the HP Spectre x360 14, for instance. The HP Spectre x360 14 has a tone of positive qualities, but its ability to rotate 360 degrees is what makes it stand out. That actually works wonderfully well in practice—as long as you use it. But not everybody does. Therefore, if all you want is a “normal” laptop, you might do better with a non-rotating competitor like the Dell XPS 13.
