I owned the HP Spectre x360 with the i7-7500U which was a dual core machine. I use my laptops for work, often with several large excel files, word files and other work products open at once. At times, you could definitely see slow downs as the dual cores tried to keep up, even with 16GB of RAM and a fast SSD drive. One of the most obvious slow downs was in web browsers. I knew that Whiskey Lake CPUs were coming, so I waited for a new HP model. Man, I was not disappointed. First of all, the machine is beautiful. In a room full of Apple lovers, I pulled out my Poseidon blue and brass accented laptop, and the room was filled with gasps. I plugged in the adapter for HDMI on the gem cut edge and more gasps... Other features everyone is blown away by; hardware kill switch for the cam, the built in privacy screen and the fact that it is a convertible unit with a touch screen. Overall, this is a solid machine. I leave the thermal setting to "balanced" and the fan rarely comes on when I am working. The quad core handles all applications like a champ and all components work fine - I use a logitech bluetooth mouse and headset and everything is smooth and functional. The 1920x1080 screen is "ok" - if you are into high res (4K) or viewing a lot of art/pics, etc., you probably want to go for the 4K version (but I think the privacy screen is only on the 1080p unit). I don't use the pen, but it works. I have the Samsung Note 9 and I don't use the pen on that either. Battery life is not 22 hours, but for standard use you can expect a full work day. Charging is pretty fast, and the charger is very small compared to the older chargers. HP machines have a lot of drain in sleep mode, and this machine has the same issue - so if you want the battery to last while you are traveling, you will be using hibernate mode. Other negatives include mediocre speakers (even though they are Bang & Olufsen) and a small fingerprint reader which is nowhere as good as my phone. The keyboard is very good with good travel and it is not "clicky" so I can type in meetings without everyone being distracted. The backlight is good but it turns off after 15 or so seconds until you touch it again, and there is not setting to change this. One the silver unit, in bright room light, the backlight is not needed, but because this keyboard is black, it is always needed. Regarding ports, I wish I had another USB 3, but the two Thunderbolt ports are great - it is very likely you will need a USB / other device hub...I bought the J5create with the HDMI and ethernet and really like it. I am not sure if I will ever use the microSD card port - unfortunately my phone's card is not very easy to pull out, so I will transfer stuff via cable for the most part. The synaptics mouse pad works fine and is nice and big. The improved wifi I am excited about, but I have not seen much in the real world in terms of benefit. The antennas seem to be sensitive, and on 5GHz I see full speed at home based on my service (200MB dpwn and 40 up). Wait for the laptop to be on sale - $1300 is the correct ASP. I am very happy with my purchase!

I had written a glowing review for this machine, and was about to post it, but after recent events I can whole-heartedly suggest you avoid HP Spectre laptops, in general. I had the previous model, ordered directly from HP, and both units had the keyboard backlight die on them. Several RMA's later... and I returned it. Then I got this one from HP, thinking it would be a different story. At first, it seemed so - the performance was great and everything was working as expected. Thermals were much improved over the previous generation. Unfortunately, after Best Buy's 30 day return period, this was not the case anymore. The battery barely lasts over 5 hours with minimal screen brightness on power saving mode, doing basic web browsing and not the 12 - 14 hours of mixed usage HP support reps are claiming here. Much less if I'm doing anything more demanding than watching netflix. If you complain to HP support, they'll tell you it's supposed to get around 4 - 6 hours. Which is it? The front right speaker has stopped working on several occasions, this time it seems for good. That B&O sound was nice before it got unbalanced by a broken speaker. On top of this, there is a known issue with intel's graphics driver for this display - it causes screen flickering that is at best annoying and at worst jarring and distracting. Overall, the screen leaves much to be desired, the privacy panel creates a cross-hatching pattern on the display that can be seen at all times, but especially when brightness is high. Also... The display doesn't really get that bright. The colors are nice, though, and the resolution is fine, but the viewing angles are poor for an IPS panel, likely due to the film under the display. There should really have been a disclaimer on this screen, or they shouldn't have offered it. Now I have to deal with HP's RMA system again and I am not pleased. They're nice, helpful, and courteous, but their only solution seems to be "send it in for repair" which takes over a week, and as a CS college student in my final semesters, I can't afford even a week without my laptop at this point in the semester. Not to mention, several of these issues are likely to persist even if my laptop was replaced with a brand new, tested one. There is a known driver issue, and HP's solution was to issue an old version of the driver, which is promptly replaced by Windows update. You'd have to disable windows update to stop the annoying screen flickering, which is not a solution. Overall, I am very dissatisfied with HP's poor quality control on this otherwise very thoughtfully designed machine. The build quality is great, but the constant issues I've experienced make the design moot if they can't deliver on it. HP - Are you listening? I wanted to write a glowing review for this machine, but now I need to advise other customers about the poor quality of this device. You may have a better experience, but I'm 0 for 4 at this point with HP, and I'm done.

I've really enjoyed using this laptop. As a Systems Administrator, I deal with a lot of different computers, and this one in my opinion is one of the best. Now if you are looking for something with a big screen, as a desktop replacement, or using it for graphic intense programs it may not be for you. What I Like The screen is nice and bright. I used to not think this was a big deal until I started dealing with ultrabooks. They tend to not be as bright to save some precious battery. Not the case with this one. It's actually a 1 watt screen, most are 2 watt, for the 1080 and still puts out almost 400 nits. The keyboard is nice and clicky, the trackpad is responsive, and the fingerprint reader works well. The ports are exactly what I wanted. The USB-A is there if I'm away from my desk and need to use a thumb drive. Then it has two thunderbolt USB-C ports. I use one for an external monitor, and the other for a hub that goes to the third monitor, power delivery, and has 3 additional USB-A ports. What I don't like While the angled edges make this laptop so stunning, when you plug something into the USB-C ports they don't meet flush. This allows vertical wiggle room, and may get damaged easier if a cord were pulled from the computer. I decided this wasn't a big enough deal. The second thing is an annoyance. The backlit keyboard turns off after about 20 seconds after you stop typing. So if you are web browsing in the dark it is going on and off often. Other models allow you to change this setting in the BIOS, but the option isn't there for me. Just a small sacrifice for such an otherwise great laptop. I would definitely buy again. Plus the blue is so awesome.

This was my first PC in over 10 years after owning 2 Macbook Pros, and a Macbook air. I did lots of research and came across this HP as being one of the really good options on the market, currently. I have had it for just about a month now, and have noticed some not so great things about it. The main issues being a completely terrible touchpad experience, and also inconsistent, unreliable Wifi connectivity. The touchpad issues are the most glaring problem with this device. Every other time I boot the computer up the touchpad gestures just won't work at all. I have to restart it, sometimes multiple times in order for them to work again. I have downgraded the driver, as I found that to be a solution via scouring the internet. That will work, but then the touchpad will go back to not working, and I again will have to reboot. The Wifi functionality and connectivity is an issue as well, where it will just remove itself from my network and need to be restarted to get back on it. Or it just won't connect to it at as if it had never connected to it before. One more minor thing is the screen seems a bit dim for what I would expect in an upgraded display, and for what I am used to even on an older model Macbook Pro. The pen and touch screen functionality seems to be pretty good and smooth. I've already utilized it for some documents I needed to doctor via Adobe. It runs pretty fast and the finger print scanner as a means to log in is very convenient. Keyboard it nice and feels good to type on. All in all I do feel that I should have maybe gone with another option for my crossing back over into the PC universe. Hopefully HP will come out with a fix for the touchpad issues. Seems to be prevalent with their laptops.

I was looking at a Lenovo product that is similar to this laptop, and I changed my mind due to my experiences with Lenovo laptops in my profession. This Spectre laptop is small and portable, and that is exactly what I need for carrying it around with another laptop associated with my job. Small is necessary as I expect to be using it in managing care for a lot of people. I upgraded to the I7 processor to give this laptop a longer life, and 256 GB is too small of a hard drive since Windows operating system will grow over time with updates, etc., and you won't have a lot of space left in 2 years. I suggest using the HP Update Assistant to update BIOS and other components right away. Then, make sure you check for Windows updates. This laptop will get warm at times since it's an I7, but HP provides an application named Command Center (I think) that allows you to switch to a mode that will run the fan a little more rigorously, and it will adjust performance. I have not noticed a significant drop in performance yet when using this mode. My only issue is that the Intel Chipset updates that HP has available won't install. It fails every time I use the HP Update Assistant, and the error message says I canceled the install. It's still a good laptop, and probably worth spending a little extra money if you're already in the $1000 range.

the laptop is one of the best devices I had my hands on. its looks amazing and specs are top notch. but here is where things go down side. it has a coil whine issue, most likely the entire product line. brought an HP specter x360 two weeks back. I am having a persistent coil whine issue with my laptop. I tried everything to fix it. 1) have the latest bios and other software 2) it's not an issue with the speaker. 3) and everything else which people on tech forums recommended me to do so. many of HP laptop users are facing this issue for many years in many different laptop product lines and HP does not seem to care to FIX this issue. it's a hardware issue and its result of poor quality control . here is the youtube link to see how it sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIrkcDZn1G8 even if I return this laptop to get a new device from HP, there is no guarantee that this issue won't appear in that device. this one is a poorly engineered device.

A quick glance at this laptop, and you will be awe struck by it's design. Upon picking up the laptop you will appreciate it's craftsmanship. Much like a Swiss watch the design, beauty, and craftsmanship coalesce in to one of the best Ultrabooks made. I originally purchased the HP Spectre without the UHD display when it was on sale for 1249.99. Twelve days later the UHD display model was on sale for 1249.99, and the Non-UHD display went up to 1499.99. I quickly exchanged the machines for the UHD model. Both are same in form, and function. I really don't find any negatives with the machine. I enjoy the upgraded i7 Whiskey Lake's raw power, and battery sipping architecture. The 16GB of RAM is a much needed upgraded from my previous machines 8GB. I love the speedy SSD drive, and was pleasantly surprised this machine ships with 512GB. The only negative I can really mention is the lack of ports, but even then it's competition suffers from the same problem. The HP Spectre adds one additional port in the form of microSD which the Lenovo's are missing. The other issue is the palm rest loves to leave smudges. The HP Spectre even comes with a cheap sleeve, which is a nice touch. Just make sure to grab it out of the bigger box the laptop comes in, as I almost missed it and threw it out.

I returned it the same day I bought it because of 2 different reasons. 1. There were two big slightly dark spots on the lower left side of the display that seemed like screen burn-in. 2. The hinges were misaligned to each other. The left hinge seemed to stick out more than the one on the right. I bought this laptop largely because of my need for a better display and 2-in-1 design that was also heavily advertised HP. At the end of the day after spending hours to configure the laptop, I had to do the hard reset on it, pack it up and then drive up to Best Buy to return it. Very disappointed.