Customer Ratings & Reviews

The HP Spectre x360 is an incredible notebook, and I would recommend it to just about anyone in the market for a convertible or even a conventional laptop. I did end up swapping out my first unit for a new one, but even with the minor issues that led to that decision, I would have given it 4.5 stars. Read on for excruciating detail, or jump to the end for the tl;dr. I did end up exchanging the first one I bought because of two very minor quibbles that I imagine most people would not even have noticed. On the first unit I bought, the trackpad made a very slight noise when tapped—not clicked, which I expect to make noise, but just lightly tapped. I was originally told that this was a feature rather than a bug, but the second system I got has a trackpad that is essentially silent when tapped—except of course the all but imperceptible sound of your finger making contact with the trackpad. This was not a big issue in the grand scheme of things, but my hearing is pretty acute and I'm very Type A. If you happen to get a unit where the trackpad makes unexpected noise when tapped and this bothers you, you might want to swap it out. The other reason I swapped it out was, again, a very minor noise—specifically, a slight coil noise. I understand that, with very rare exception, just about any computer known to humanity will make some amount of noise at least some of the time. What I noticed with my first Spectre, is that it made a very slight coil noise when in low CPU-usage states; even scrolling on a webpage or moving the cursor was enough to use more CPU horsepower in a manner that silenced the coil noise. Again, I will note, though, that this was really, really quiet coil noise—the sort that only a person like me (a detail-obsessed perfectionist with canine ears) would normally detect. And even then, I could only hear it when my apartment was effectively silent; my refrigerator running, a car going by outside, or even a shifting on the couch were generally enough to mask it. My boyfriend though I was crazy for worrying about it so much. The new unit made the same minute amount of coil noise, so I figured I'd just get over it and hope for the high-frequency hearing loss that comes with age. I'm happy to say that two months later, I rarely even notice it anymore and it's never bothered anyone else, even in super-quiet settings like libraries. With that out of the way, I will say that this is overall the best notebook computer I've ever used. It's not as powerful as my gaming/GIS system, but I wouldn't expect that from a system that strives to balance performance, battery life, and a slender profile. The Spectre runs smooth and fast, with startup and shutdown times that seem like witchcraft. Whether it's streaming video, typing in Word, or flying around in the new Google maps, this system is up to the task—and often three or more others at the same time. Using the Power Saving setting for the battery will cut the performance a bit, but this is to be expected. I've found the HP Recommended setting to offer a fine balance between performance and battery life when on the go. The system's physical components all seem to be good or great. The speakers aren't going to give you a thumpin' dance party, but they're fairly impressive for their and the system's size. The large trackpad and lack of separate "physical" buttons took some getting used to, but multi-touch gestures like two-finger tap to right-click have been a revelation for me. Going back to standard trackpads is really difficult after having experienced the luxury of so much trackpad real estate. The screen has a terrific range of brightness, renders colors beautifully, and is very crisp with good viewing angles. The keyboard is comfortable and offers a good amount of key travel. It would be nice if the keyboard backlight were more adjustable and if you could disable the permanently lit key that toggles the keyboard backlight, but neither of these issues is a big deal. Although the permanently lit keyboard backlight toggle is bothersome at times, it's also extremely helpful at those moments when you realize you don't have night vision and need an assist to get your keyboard a-glowin'. I have also not really had the problem some people have mentioned where the keyboard backlight makes it harder to see in dim light. I can see how this would be the case under very specific conditions; but in the vast majority of cases, a room will either be bright enough to see the keys on their own or dark enough for the backlight to offer good contrast. The fan doesn't come on all that often, but when it does the noise is neither too loud nor too harsh. Finally, the fact that the system has three USB 3.0 ports, a full-size HDMI port, a mini-display port, and an SD card reader has been awesome. The mini-display port is great for converting to VGA for older projectors, monitors, or televisions. Although I haven't used tablet mode quite as much as I imagined, presentation and tent modes are respectively awesome for watching videos in bed and propping up the computer while you cook or do dishes. I have now also had the opportunity to use this thing on an airplane, and it was incredibly convenient. Using tent mode and a wireless mouse, I was able to be surprisingly productive while creating simple presentation graphics in PowerPoint. (I was too busy doing work to attempt watching a movie, but I'm sure it would have done just fine.) Battery life has been excellent, as advertised. I haven't really pushed the system to its absolute limit, but based on my overall experience, I would not be surprised to get 6 hours out of it at high performance, 8 to 10 at moderate performance, and maybe even 12, if I turn on power-saving mode and turn the brightness down almost all the way. A lot of people were very skeptical when I explained that I had gotten a Window's 8 machine, but I'm happy to say that the transition from Windows 7 has been all but seamless for me. Windows 8.1 seems to have addressed most of the issues that occurred with Windows 8. As many reviews have also mentioned, there is a surprisingly small amount of preinstalled bloatware. I'm a bit nervous to rock the operating system boat on my computer, but I suspect that upgrading to Windows 10 when it comes out might turn out to be even better. tl;dr Excellent build quality, impressive performance, wildly adaptable form factor, highly portable, great battery life, stunning screen, spacious and responsive trackpad, good key travel, acceptable keyboard backlight, ample ports, above-average speakers, Windows 8.1 is surprisingly nice to use.

After buying 4 other laptops that all had major problems (including a Mac), I had all but given up on finding a laptop to replace my 5 year old Sony that had never given me any issue. Then I found the Spectre. I love love this laptop (though I don't believe in giving 5 stars until I see how long it lasts). The pros: beautiful display, super fast start up, great sound, the 360 movement is super cool (and also helps when the computer starts to get hot, you can flip it around and give the base some air), fast processor, touch screen option, solid state drive, backlit keys, good battery life, perfect amount of USB ports, giant touchpad The cons: Battery life is nowhere near 12 hours, it still lasts a reasonable amount of time but about 2.5 weeks in my WiFi stopped working because there was a setting in Devices that was turning it off. Once I deactivated that, the battery life severely decreased (but the WiFi did start functioning again). If you take it somewhere though and don't want to take the charger, you can play with the power settings to make it last longer. It's lighter than my 5 year old Sony but for a 13.3" it's still a little on the heavy side. The touchpad involves a little finesse sometimes. With old touchpads you had to press kind of hard sometimes but this one actually requires a little more of a gentle touch Really happy with this purchase. I definitely should have just come to Best Buy first to get a new laptop and maybe that would have saved me the effort of buying/returning the other 4.

I originally wanted a new Dell XPS 13 because I wanted a high end laptop with great features and all aluminum construction. Just because I'm not an Apple fan doesn't mean I don't want a really nice laptop. I was waiting for the Dell to come available on BB.COM and it wasn't happening quick enough. Well thankfully it didn't because I saw the HP Spectre for $1,149.00. The features and build for the price was enough to sell me. I could not be happier. It is solid, well constructed, fast to boot and works incredibly well! The keyboard and trackpad are topnotch as is the screen and touch features. I'm a highly tech savvy user and have waited a while for a great non-Apple. BUY!

I thoroughly enjoy the feel of this laptop. It's very light and feels compact. The I7 and 8 gb memory make this laptop real handy and enjoyable to use. Big issue is the overheating. I can not put it on my lab at all. Minor internet browsing and word are enough to get this laptop to really heat up enough. Another issue is the fact that speakers are under the laptop! not the most idea place to put a speaker if you ask me. The battery lasting 12 hours? Nope, 7-8 hours is the max I got with minor usage. I would have asked to return this laptop just because of the overheating issue, but, I am about to start my school and I really needed it. I bought it because of how it feels and looks, and that's what I got. I would advice again it though.

I needed to upgrade my 2011 Samsung laptop and wanted something light-weight, long battery life, fast, and stylish. This also features a beautiful screen, and the ability to flip the screen 360 degrees to convert into a tablet! I've played some Steam games (Typing of the Dead, Plague Inc Evolved) on it with no problems being an i7 core processor. It's definitely future-proofed.

Let me preface by saying upon unboxing it appeared my unit had been dropped from a significant height as the bottom of the box had been crushed by the weight of the laptop on-edge. I later came to find a capacitor whine that ultimately caused me to return this unit and I didn't have time to wait for a replacement as my store had none in stock; I'm typing this review from a new Dell XPS13 purchased at the Microsoft store. I was highly impressed with the unboxing experience. HP definitely has taken a step in the right direction here as the unit was ensconced in a matte black box a la Apple products, and it was lined with a protective foam on top, however not anywhere else it should have been. There was a black neoprene sleeve in between the shipping box and the actual product box, why the machine wasn't *in* this sleeve to begin with is puzzling. Besides a charger and a few leaflets, the sleeve is the only accessory in the boxes, don't dig too hard for an ethernet adapter or HDMI to DVI or VGA, or restore disks of any sort. At the price I really wish the ethernet dongle were included at a minimum; there are plenty of people out there who are going to get this home and be left high and dry without it. Build quality is incredible. Until you get to hold this machine in your hands you don't realize how solid it is. The hinges are smooth but tight enough to inspire confidence. You'll come to find they're not quite tight enough though, some angles will allow the screen to start falling slowly, annoying, but not a real problem. The keyboard is a great size, very responsive and with the backlight on, very bright and easily readable. I have fairly large hands and had no problems. The screen is gorgeous. Bright, clear and vivid. 1080p never looked so good. I'm not sure what it was, but I had trouble getting text to look sharp though; it always looked kind of fuzzy, no matter what I did with the scaling or cleartype settings. Compared to the Dell I'm working on currently, this was a huge failure, though without comparison I think it's a livable issue. Wifi connected quickly and was very reliable, speeds were great, maxing out my top-tier cable internet plan with no problems. Streaming music and videos was buttery smooth. Never any hiccups from the wifi or the machine. Fan noises were a little quirky, but once you got used to them, not overly loud, especially for a laptop this size. The unit never got "hot" per se, though you could tell the cooling system was working its little heart out to keep it that way. My only real problem with the unit came with the responsiveness of the both the track pad and the touch screen. The trackpad is huge and inviting, smooth, but just didn't seem to like to register taps, while at the same time not ignoring my fat palms when I typed, even with the appropriate settings tuned to the extremes. Tapping the screen was a similar issue, just a lack of response; you had to try to be pretty accurate hitting links or aiming at targets in touch-games in tablet mode. These are things I hope they can fix with firmware and driver updates, but as I only had the machine about a week I probably won't come to find out. If not for the apparent drop issue, I probably would have been happy to hang on to this machine for a long time. My last HP was a much larger plastic unit that survived a couple falls and kept up with me for 5 years before succumbing to heat related problems; with the build quality of this new unit and its apparent cooling efficiencies, I expect it would have lasted me another 5 years at least. Between this and the Dell it's quite a toss up. If the tablet mode is important the HP wins out, however if not you'll have to go with your guy and pick one, they're similarly spec'd and finding a clear winner is tough.

Great speed, love the sturdy build yet light weight. I wanted to love this one. This is the second HP I have tried in 2 weeks and both had intermittent wireless connection issues. My older computers has no problem w connecting. When the touch pad works it is great but has failed too many times. Dependability is number one with me. Repeated loss of connection and periodic failure of touch pad is the reason I will return this one.

I am using this computer for medical research, presentations, and record keeping. I love the beautiful fit and finish. The FHD display is gorgeous. I don't think the difference in the QHD screen is worth the sacrifice of 2-3 hours of battery life. I enjoy using this keyboard. I find it easier to type on than the Surface Pro type cover. And the track pad- wow! Sleek and responsive, I simply do not understand the critics who don't like the large pad. I have zero difficulty in getting the right click to work every time. Please don't forget that pen input is not only possible but is quite elegant. There is a Synaptics digitizer built into the display, and the pen from Dell works wonderfully with this machine; I like to put the device in "presentation" mode and scribble away with the pen. I could imagine that this would be a very good computer for a student who could benefit from writing notes as well as typing notes. My experience with the Spectre has been thoroughly positive so far, and I think that a machine made this well should last many years.

I'll start by saying I don't write reviews that often and I'm a heavy mac user. While I love windows machines, it seemed impossible until now to find a windows laptop that had as nice of a keyboard and trackpad to say, a macbook air. I can say that this laptops trackpad is finally good enough for me to use without wanting to just throw it out the window like most windows laptops. Pros: Full core i7 (not the cheap/slow Core M they are putting in the yoga 3/new macbook air) 8gb ram PCI Express SSD. this SSD is crazy fast, much faster than most laptops I've tested. Awesome IPS screen. The viewing angles are perfect, brightness is higher than most battery life is awesome....in the windows projected battery life meter I can see 6-8hrs even with the screen at full brightness which is awesome....about the same as macbook air 13s I've tested. Cons: I really haven't found any yet. This is the best windows ultrabook I've seen so far. I was comparing this to the new dell XPS, and I chose this because the specs were slightly better for the price, and this has an IPS screen vs non ips on dell, and this also has a PCIE SSD.....and tablet mode if I ever want it.

Although this wasn't on my list when it came to laptop since I was looking at the Dell XPS, which has one of the thinnest bezels out there and the smaller chassis for a laptop. Unfortunately the price did not match up with the hardware of the laptop nor did the battery life on it. This laptop is just right for the price that it is set at. With mixed use, I am getting around 10-13 hours on the HP recommended battery option and even more if I go into even more power savings. Not only that, but the integrated GPU in the CPU can handle some small games such as LoL, Smite, DOTA, CSGO, on low-medium settings, which is quite respectable on something that is as thin as a macbook, if not thinner.

I think this laptop is great. Zero connection issues, like I read on other reviews. My only knock is the touchpad.....it is a little large for me, and takes some adjustment to make work. You get used to it though. Battery, design, and speed??? A++

My 1 year old MacBook Pro Retina "top of the line" died. No warning; just dead. I needed an immediate replacement, so checked to see what was available. The Spectre stood out far beyond anything else in stock, so I bought it on the spot. I am diffficult to please, but am so happy with this choice that I can't praise it highly enough. I LOVE the Solid State Drive, the INSTANT boot time, the FEATHER light weight and the ability to set it on the table next to my hospital bed and binge-watch Netflix & Prime... for two months straight. Also great for keeping up with 25 open tabs in Chrome while running 3 other demanding programs. Super-wide camera lens; ideal for showcasing your very messy living room! ~Perfectly Happy (Sickie) Picky Person

Board crashed beyond repair. Very disappointing!!!

motherboard died at 14 months--2 months after warranty ended

I pre-ordered this laptop the, HP - Spectre x360 2-in-1 13.3" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 8GB Memory - 256GB Solid State Drive, it is powerful enough to run WOW on ultra graphics and multitask with other programs. I really like how thin it is, it fits into a 13'' Incase laptop bag just fine. The only complaint is it gets quite hot while on my lap, but so does my ipad and any other computer that is this thin. I still haven't tried the wireless display yet. I like it a lot better than my old HP envy i7, it seems a lot faster. For 1,149.00 it should be!

Bought a yoga pro 2 based off good reviews of lenovo products, returned it after two days keyboard and trackpad would only work intermittently. Bought the spectre, seems much more durable and with a lot less junk apps preloaded. As I only use IE and Microsoft office both computers were pretty comparable in speed. Very happy with this purchase

I don't ever write reviews but I am very pleased with this 2 in 1. It exceeds my expectations and is worth the price. I've had it for a week now and the experience has been very smooth. Downloaded all the latest drivers. I hope that HP continues to produce devices like this in the future.

Before I buy something, I do as much research as I can. I researched this laptop and saw it was getting rave reviews, mostly how good the battery life was, track pad, and that it has 2 internet antennas or whatever you call them. I replaced a Dell XPS Laptop with the HP X360 Spectre. The HP has many of the same problems that the Dell had. For starters, Battery Life. HP, and non customer reviews, are touting it's outstanding battery life. I've found it to be average at best, maybe 3-4 hours. Next is the Track Pad. It often sticks, so, as you drag it across the screen it opens stuff you don't intend to open. The scroll bar (I don't know the technical name for it, but, it's often hard to grab to pull down a page and if you go to the bottom of the bar, it's often hard to click on it). My HP Spectre fails to connect to my internet at least 3 times a week and I have top speed home internet service with a top router. Thank you for the built in 2X2 high-speed wireless, it's terrible. Each time this happens, a wizard opens up and reconnects the computer in about 2-3 minutes. Windows 8 is the worst operating system ever. If you're relying on that being user friendly, you may want to consider a Microsoft Computer. Overall, this laptop is functional, it's just not as good as advertised.

This is first time buying HP laptop and 2 in 1. I will give this a 3.5 (above avg, but cannot call it good, i.e. 4 rated) I was looking at a lightweight, fast and decent battery life laptop with possible SSD. I will give a summary of what I looked at and why I choose this machine. Asus Zenbook (light weight and great reviews everywhere), but lot of complains of M processor being slow and causing performance issues. Dell Inspiron 13.3 i7. This has 4.0 rating and was decent choice. The bad reviews always mentioned harddrive clicking sound (its 500 GB non SSD) and heating. In Bestbuy store testing, I used crude method of measuring boot up time on both Dell 13.3 and HP spectre. Spectre with SSD came at 24 sec, vs Dell at 1 min 27sec. Browsing: ON both the machines felt fast. Heat: The floor models, both were turning warm during my trials, but I couldnt discern any HDD spinning sound on Dell. Screen: Defnitely the Spectre has a brighter display for those who care. Due to the SSD and slight weight advantage over Dell 13.3 (3.3 lb vs 3.6lb) I went for HP Spectre also the promised battery life of 12 hrs vs 8 hr was tempting. At Home testing for about week: Testing at home for while now, the build is fantastic, liking the keyboard and find no issue migrating from my old Lenovo. The tent mode/ tablet mode both are nice, the speakers work well, as well as any laptop! HP Spectre been running warm for first two days, while I installed updates, Office etc. This may get better, but for SSD machine, I thought it would run very cool. Boot up still very fast with Anti virus etc installed, I do not see any noticeable delays. Battery life though has been ~ 5.5 hrs which is turning me off. I use it for mostly powerpoint, excel and light browsing. At given time I have browser, 2 Office apps and maybe a mail client open, def not heavy usage, all at 60% brightness. But I cannot get whole days work done without plugging in. For comparison, colleagues HP Envy 360 machine also gives about same battery life (i5 with 15.6 in screen). This one has 1 TB normal drive and runs as warm as mine. Regarding battery, the Spectre shows only % battery left, not the actual time you may get. This has been issue with this machine, reported by other users as well. HP has apparently avoided a fix, lest people find out that the estimates are of 4.5 to 5 hrs. Sometimes even connected to wifi, the built in email clients take foreever to update/ sync mail. No such issue with Gmail open in browser. I have not figured why this is the case. Another thing is the F5 key which turns off backlight keyboard, stays on all the time. Yes that LED would not turn off, so you 1 lighted ley even during day when you dont want to see it. A Bios update is supposed to fix this, but I have not tried. Finally the using a Pen on the screen has been very annoying, with touches being barely registered. Use of finger to write has been easier (while in meeting etc). These small annoyances + the avg battery life makes me wonder if this machine needs to be returned.

Pros: thin and light, elegant design, good computational performance, free upgrade to windows 10, 360 flip and fold, excellent mix of the peripherical set (3 USB + HDMI + Media cards) Cons: color of case (it's a matter of tastes) and few ruggedized (more focus for home/business usage) I bought it open-box and Geek Squad Certified; everything has gone excellent. 100% recommended