Customer Ratings & Reviews

Best laptop I have bought so far. Highly recommended!

Right now the only issue I have with the laptop is that it seems to freeze frequently; especially when I'm connecting to a new Wi-Fi. Takes a day to fully adjust and not freeze up every time you try to do something on it. Otherwise I like it.

This is a great computer with a lot of capability.

Beautiful laptop that met all my criteria. Sadly, within a month the touch pad & keyboard began to fail. Spent ~4 hours on phone 2x with HP support, no luck. Not worth it to me to send out for repair & be without a laptop 4-6 weeks. BB Sales tech said she'd heard about this issue, HP support website had frozen keyboard as #1 hit on troubleshooting search so my guess is this is a hardware issue. Returned & replaced with an Asus.

Love this laptop! It's exactly what I need for work.

I love my new computer. It is small and very light.

I purchased the laptop for a birthday present. The laptop seemed very nice, solid, glass screen and used the windows ink, i7 processor, lots of ram, good size hard drive for SSD The problem is the computer was not charging, we tried both charge ports, neither would light up. It froze a few times when doing the initial setup. So we took it back and they exchanged with no issues. We were going to try another one to see if maybe it was just that one but they didn’t have any in stock.

I rarely write reviews, but this device practically demands one. Here’s my thoughts on it so far. Weight & Balance: 5/5 Let me get the obvious out the way first, this laptop is a solidly crafted, precision machined work of technological art. The all metal chassis feels extremely sturdy, and it doesn't have flex in the base when holding it with one hand in the open laptop mode. The weight is good, it isn't heavy, but it isn't overly light either which isn't necessarily a bad thing. On my Surface Book for example, it is a terribly unbalanced arrangement with the bulk of the weight in the tablet half. Since this laptop does not need to detach to become a tablet, the weight is properly balanced and it never feels unstable. Hinge: 5/5 The hinge is superior to all of the other devices I’ve owned or experimented with. It smoothly rotates all the way around without excessive effort, yet it retains its position well once placed there. When using the laptop reaching up to poke at the screen will induce a slight wobble but no more than it would with any laptop touchscreen or not. For example, compared with my Surface Book, you might as well be comparing a Honda and a Ferrari. There is no denying that Apple has long been known for its amazing design and engineering feats, but honestly HP’s recent company split and the products that have emerged since then easily give Apple a run for their money and in many ways they have left Apple in the dust. Display: 5/5 The display is nothing short of amazing. It is absurdly clear, sharp, and able to reproduce brilliant colors. The touchscreen is accurate and responsive, which was a concern I initially had as I went through two of the previous generation’s 15” version which had constant touchscreen and pen issues. This device has a different pen technology however, sharing the n-trig system used by the Surface, and while the pen from my Surface does work on it the included HP pen is quite a bit nicer and has a better balance to it (though it does lack the “eraser” end). There is a downside to the display which is not the fault of the device but a major failure on the part of Windows, as higher resolution displays from any manufacturer have problems with scaling and this device is no different. If you don’t want to have that concern, I would recommend going with a lower resolution model with a “conventional” 1920px display to avoid the issue entirely. Power: 5/5 It has very good power, however for my use a 10hr work day far exceeds its ability. You might be able to swing more than 10 with the screen dimmed all the way down as you surf the internet, but in practice I’ve found 8hrs is really pushing it. While I am using resource intensive applications like Visual Studio, Photoshop, and Sketchbook among others, that’s sort of the point of having an i7 with 16GB of memory. All that said, I can’t say I would fault the device at all, the amount of run time I get is superior to most of my other machines and when they say it can quick charge, they are not kidding, which is why I still give the power rating a 5/5. Keyboard: 5/5 The keyboard is fantastic and does not ever feel awkward or cramped. HP has nailed it with this critical aspect of the device. I have a 2016 12” Macbook which is a great little machine, but the practically zero throw to the keys just doesn’t work very well. You can adjust but it isn’t the same, and going back and forth from a regular keyboard to the Macbook requires constant adjusting and error correction. With this laptop however the throw on the keys is excellent, and while I don’t know the exact travel it isn’t far off from in feel from an Apple desktop keyboard. Touchpad: 4/5 It has no resistance, and it is very responsive. A slight downside is that it is crazy wide, and I have a tendency for my right palm to hit it. To me this is a two part issue, one is the operator, since I need to adjust my positioning better for a smaller device, but the other is the design. For such a well thought out machine I can’t figure out why the gigantic touchpad, especially on a device with a touchscreen. Muscle & utility: 5/5 I won’t throw benchmarks around you can find those in a conventional review, but the machine has plenty of power to handle my needs as developer and graphic artist. Flipping the screen back works well, and honestly it is its form factor and the active pen that really sells it for me. I can be in the middle of developing in Visual Studio, hit alt+tab, pick it up and flip it over and do graphics work with the pen while holding the device in tablet mode, save the graphic asset, flip it back into laptop mode and start using it. The transition is as effortless as picking it up off the desk and putting it back down, I’ve tried and owned a list of devices finding various combinations of them to work acceptably but this is the first which can provide enough of everything I need with minimal compromise. Being able to have a seamless transition in my workflow is priceless. Ports: 5/5 Thankfully HP has some designers and engineers that live here on earth with the rest of us normal people who still have 98% of their devices requiring a conventional USB connection. I get that it is “forward thinking” to ditch USB-A, but abandoning backwards compatibility just seems like a bad idea. The fact that the laptop has a conventional port and more than one USB-C is a huge bonus. Downsides: My one complaint about the machine, is that the fan kicks in too often and it is loud. To be fair, I put a heavy toll on it, but not all the time and the noise does get old fast. My other complaint is more of a minor annoyance in that I really wish it had a memory card slot as it would make moving photos around a lot easier. Even a microsd card slot would be nice, maybe in the next iteration. It is hard to believe, but all in all this machine is nearly the perfect productivity device. It is light and portable without sacrificing computing power with a cut down processor, and the ability to flip it into a tablet combined with the active pen makes it the most useful computer I’ve ever owned. Most devices in this form factor make heavy compromises where this one does not. I would recommend this laptop to anyone, and I would insist digital artists and media creators give it a hard look before laying out money on something else.

It was heating up initially even with ssd.... Always loved HP

I had a MacBook and decided to switch to Windows. Picked what I thought was going to be a faster computer goin the from 8gb of ram to 16gb but I was totally disappointed. Experienced lock screens, slow processing speed. After 2 weeks ended up exchanging it back to another macbook

I researched 13-15" Ultrabooks for 2 solid days before deciding to buy this one. I strongly recommend typing on any laptop you intend to buy. Open Wordpad, and type a paragraph to see how many mistakes you make. I tried the 15" version of this specific model, and it didn't work for me - the keys were too far apart, and I kept having to move my palms. After agonizing for hours over the pros and cons of several different high-end 13-14" Ultrabooks, I came up with a list of "must have" features. This Ultrabook met or exceeded all of them! I considered buying a Dell Inspiron 7378 for $900 less, but I'm really glad I went with this one. The closest competitor is the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, and you can find lots of comparison videos on the web. I'd ruled out the HP Spectre because until a few months ago, only the silver interior and keyboard were available. This Charcoal/Ash model is gorgeous, with no distracting "bling" when you're working. The 4k display is perfect, and a few YouTube 4k videos sold me. I was worried that text would be too small (I'm 53), but it's perfect with 350% scaling, which seems to be the max for Windows 10. I'm typing this on my lap with the screen about 2 feet from my eyes. Of course you can scale up text in most apps with reverse-pinch. The screen is just a tad less bright than my iPad Air 2, but it's very usable in the shade on a sunny day. I'm very picky about keyboards. The keyboard "island" layout is perfect, and it actually feels nicer than the Lenovo X1 Carbon this is replacing. I have no problems with the trackpad. Boot time is very fast. With Windows Hello, I'm up and running in less than 15 seconds. Build quality is excellent overall. The hinges have just the right amount of give. I haven't used the 1080p webcam, but that and the legacy USB slot are both a big advantage over the Dell XPS13. The Dell's main advantage is that it's fanless, but the only time the fan bothered me was when I had the unit heavily loaded while using it in bed. The only negative so far is that the battery life is less than 8 hours. I bought a 20,000 mah external battery to offset that. Bottom line, I highly recommend this Ultrabook. I think it's the best you can get right now, unless you simply must have iOS. In that case, be prepared to give up touch, tablet and tent modes, and several hundred more dollars.

>Don't buy. Screen flickers constantly to the point where it sometimes goes completely black. It is a beautiful machine and it works well when It does work... but this issue would make me purchase a different machine if I had the choice again today. HP tech support diagnosed a hardware issue and will take 2 weeks to fix leaving me empty handed after spending $1600 on this. Please google before purchasing, many threads are mentioned it. I should have researched further than the Best Buy reviews.

Purchased September 2017. Since purchase had annoying issues of losing the cursor in keyboard mode and fan running hot. Just past warranty period, began Blue Screen indicating HP and Window repair modes. Now PC is non-functional - hear fan at start up, but no keyboard, display or peripherals. Expected a $1500 computer would work longer than 16 months. Mother board replacement is $800 +.

Seemed like a good laptop but failed after Tuesday weeks. I returned it and bought a different model.

Picked up this computer 24 hours ago ran like it should have. Then after less then 24 hours one of the cooling fans malfunctioned and computer temps reached unsafe levels so I shut down the computer. Not especially happy with this computer because of such promising reviews and will absolutely be returning it.

Geek squad couldn't repair it, management suggested that I purchase another laptop, after emailing corporate, and hp, they refunded my money.

Ran out of memory too fast. Useless. Couldn't do anything with it.

Shows defects on the 2 units i bought. Poorly made

Pros: Keyboard is one of the best I have used. HP put effort here, and it shows. U-series Intel 7th Generation Kaby Lake is very robust and energy efficient. I've had some personal experience with Dell's new XPS 13 2-in-1 running a Y-series processor - and it just didn't just have the sustained power to tackle anything but light usage. 4K screen offers amazing resolution and color saturation. Some scaling issues, but overall really good. Battery - I've gotten 6 or 7 hours easily with heavy use at 75% screen lighting. It will last the better part of a workday on a single charge. Ports - 2 USB C, and a much appreciated USB 3.0 and headphone jack meet most of my needs without requiring a dongle. Cons: Trackpad . . . the one major flaw on the Spectre. The trackpad is laggy and sloppy. It's a 2 or 3 star trackpad on an otherwise 5 star machine. HP's bloatware - the Spectre comes fully loaded, but a clean install of Windows 10 takes care of that. Overall, I really like this ultrabook. It was an upgrade for me from an old Surface Pro3 - and I'm glad I made the purchase. A bluetooth mouse is enough to make me forget the only real flaw in the Spectre.

Best Laptop I've had in Years! Very well made, light weight, and very quiet. 4K display is sharp and touch screen and pen works as expected. Keyboard gives nice feedback with just the right amount of resistance. Overall very pleased with product, glad I waited for the dark ash version to return!