Customer Ratings & Reviews

Overall this is a great laptop, its fast, quiet, light weight, and the battery is amazing...However I did have to exchange it TWICE until I got a version that didn't have any issues.... The first two that I purchased / exchanged had an issue with the monitor. The first had an overwhelming yellowish tint to it...see the attached image (laptop on the left is this model, and the laptop on the right is my other / older hp laptop) After exchanging that one for another one, I noticed that the second one had a similar issue but only on the left side off the screen. The right side started out normal, and transitioned to a darker / more yellowish tint as you went to the left. I decided to give an exchange one last shot, since BestBuy had received a new batch, and luckily this one had no issues.

The HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 is a premium looking and performing laptop. It has an eye-catching design, and solid specs to back it up. It comes loaded with a 4K touchscreen, NVME SSD storage, and an 8th gen Intel i7. Specs CPU – Intel (8th Gen) i7-8565U Quad Core 1.80 GHz processor w/ integrated Intel 620 graphics Memory – 16GB DDR4-2400 Graphics – Nvidia GeForce MX150 2GB Screen – 15.6” 3840 x 2160p UHD (4K) IPS w/ anti-glare Storage – 512GB NVME SSD Ports – 1X USB C / 1X Thunderbolt / 1X USB 3.0 / 1X HDMI 2.0 / 1X microSD Slot / TRRS 3.5mm Jack (headphone and mic support) Audio – Bang & Olufsen quad speakers Webcam – 1080P with dual microphone Dimensions – 14.21 x 9.84 x 0.76”; 4.78lb Other – Fingerprint Reader / HP Digital Pen / Leather Carrying Pouch Design The design of the Spectre x360 2-in1 is stunning. The packaging that the laptop came in was elegant, and well designed. I was impressed before I even slid the cover of the box to reveal the laptop. Pulling the laptop from its packaging reveals a sturdy feeling heft – it feels expensive. The shell is metal (aluminum I’d assume) with a sandblasted finish that resists smudges. The finish looks dark grey with bronze-chrome accents on the sides and hinges. Overall the design looks really sharp and professional. Opening the laptop, you are greeted by the same color scheme as the outside. The bronze-chrome shows up around the edge of the trackpad and around the entire screen lid. Sticking with the sandblasted metal inside, it again completely resists smudges and fingerprints. The conversion from laptop to tablet is seamless. Like other HP 2-1 products I have used, the hinge provides the right amount of resistance to allow the main body and screen to be used at any number of angles and configurations. The keyboard and trackpad are disabled early enough in the transition to keep errant clicks and button pushes from happening. In tablet mode, the thickness of the machine increases to 0.79” at its thickest points (furthest from the hinges). Sometimes 2-in-1’s take time to figure out how you want to hold them – clicking keys, covering speakers, etc.The Spectre x360 didn’t seem as bad though. The off-center trackpad helped with the initial clumsiness, and the speaker locations aren’t easy covered up. I was initially a bit dismayed by the lack of storage location for the pen. I honestly found the magnetic areas for it while measuring the thickness of the laptop in tablet mode with my calipers. The locations are on either side of the palm rest below the control key (on the left) and the enter key on the number pad. It would have been nice to have a location on the side of the laptop (like the Surface Book) for when the laptop is closed. The leather carrying pouch has a pocket to store the pen, which is better than nothing. The ports have an OK layout. The USB’s, Thunderbolt, and microSD are all located on the right side of the body. The HDMI, AC port, and 3.5mm port are on the left. I would have liked to see some additional USB ports located on the other side – 1) for more ports and 2) for flexibility on plugging things in. I am sad that a networking port was not included – instead I will have to pick up a USB C/Thunderbolt to ethernet dongle at some point. Performance The quad core i7 is a fast, and efficient processor. At only 15W TDP, it is kind to the battery life of the system while still getting the job done quickly. I didn’t notice too much of a performance bottleneck from the processor or the GPU under normal browser/productivity-based activities. Switching programs was seamless, and I never felt any hesitation from the computer to complete a task. The only way I could make the computer feel loaded down was with several tabs in Firefox running Youtube videos, while installing a game from Steam. This is a pretty bogus workload just to get it to feel slow. If you installed some heavy productivity software, or graphic design/modeling software, you could slow it up but that’s about it. In all reality the Spectre x360 has plenty of power and speed thanks to the 16 GB of RAM, and its NVME SSD. The GPU is on the low end, but it is better than the on-die Intel 620 graphics. The MX150 is akin to a GTX 1030 in terms of power, which is still enough to watch/stream 4K Netflix. I tried some limited gaming. I loaded up DiRT Rally (circa 2017) from my Steam library. With the MX150 I had to knock the settings down to low with the resolution set to 1080p (V-Sync off). I was able to get a playable 57/74/100 (min/avg/max) fps with these settings. The x360 should be able to play most games low-med settings and dialed back resolutions. I do have to mention that this was achieved while plugged into AC power. On battery my minimum frames plunged to 25fps and made it unplayable. This version of the Spectre x360 comes with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVME drive for its primary (and only) storage. The 16GB of RAM should be plenty (it can go up to 32, but it is not easily accessible to swap out). The NVME drive is very fast – sequential read/write is 3122.7 / 529.4 Mbs in CrystalDiskMark with 5s intervals and 16GB test file size. 512GB may not be a large enough drive size for some but it should be adequate for the vast majority. If you need more space go for an external drive that can connect via the Thunderbolt port or use cloud storage. Display The 15.6” 3840 X 2160p UHD IPS touchscreen display looks great. It has a high gloss finish like you would expect in today’s touchscreens. HP lists it as an anti-glare screen as well, which I don’t fully agree with. The screen is glossy enough that you can see the reflection of the keyboard in the screen if the background is dark. The screen is beautiful. This is my first 4K screen period, but I was amazed at how good everything looked. I loaded up several 4K shows on Netflix (Altered Carbon, Planet Earth 2, Blue Planet 2), and they looked great. The screen images were very sharp, colors looked great, and the refresh rate didn’t induce any motion blurring. Even at laptop viewing distance I could not discern individual pixels (282.42 PPI for this screen). The multipoint touchscreen is very responsive, and easy to use. Whether using my finger or the pen, I had no problem interfacing with the OS via the touchscreen. The touch locations were accurate, and it didn’t have any difficulty responding to my inputs. I let my kids have a go at it with a few touchscreen games (Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds), and it didn’t have a problem with their frantic swiping. Keyboard and Trackpad The keyboard is a ten-key design (number pad included – Hooray!) with body color match keys. The keys have a white backlight (adjustable high/low/off). The backlight times out after 30 seconds, even on AC power - this is somewhat annoying and would be nice if I could force it to stay on. The keys have a relatively short throw with a full travel length of 0.04” and low to mid force requirement. The key actuation is soft with the actuation point is right in the middle of the key travel. My HP Chromebook has a similar keyboard setup, but its actuation felt closer to the top of the key travel. Either way, the Spectre’s keyboard felt a little more fluid to type on and was nice to use. The trackpad is one of the better ones I have used – and I usually dislike trackpads. It is also body color matched with a satin surface texture, so your fingers glide across it. The multipoint touch was accurate, and the trackpad was responsive. HP Digital Pen I don’t have a ton of use for the digital pen, but I can see its usefulness. I mostly used it to doodle in MS Paint to draw pictures for my kids. The pen was very easy to use. The included software lets you customize the 2 side buttons to perform whatever action you choose. The pen itself was very accurate – I could sign my name and it would look like my signature on paper. I can see how this pen would be great if you are a teacher grading (digital) papers, an editor marking up a manuscript, etc. For my use simple doodles are fine, and my kids have fun drawing me pictures and saving them (it’s a nice keepsake I guess). Also, 2 extra pen tips are included in the pen box – don’t lose them! Sound The sound from the B&O quad speakers is great. Like all laptops there is no bass or real low end. The mids and highs were bright and clear, and the speakers had enough sound to fill a room. Dialog sounds clear as well, so watching Netflix or listening to music isn’t a problem. The speakers radiate from the top (above the keyboard) and bottom front (L & R). The bottom front speakers keep the sound pumping out in tablet mode, so obscuring the speakers with your lap won’t be an issue. Webcam I thought the webcam in the Spectre would be similar to the one in my x360 Chromebook, but this is an improvement. In my x360 CB, the webcam was good in bright lighting but not so much in low light. The Spectre’s webcam is quite a bit better. The sensor is 1080p (FHD), and it performs well in a wide range of lighting. I was able to use it with just the backlight of the screen as the only light source. The mics are also a little better, but still a bit tinny. I can live with that since the picture quality is pretty good. Also, no need to put tape over the lens for privacy since there is a switch on the right side of the laptop that disables the camera. Overall I am impressed by the Spectre x360. It has plenty of speed and power. The Intel i7-8565U is a great current gen processor that should be able to keep up for years to come. The 512GB NVME drive is seriously quick. The 4K screen is very sharp, and the touch screen is precise. The design of the machine is very eye catching and professional looking. For The majority of use cases this laptop will be perfect and should not disappoint. Gaming is its only weak spot, so be prepared to crank the settings down.

Ok I've had this laptop for maybe a month...and I'm torn. Its beautiful...literally one of the sleekest, it looks good and I want to want it...but I've had at least 4 episodes where it couldn't find my sound drivers....literally they detect 0 issue, but there's no sound. If I restart it's fine but how annoying to have to do that I've already had a blue screen shut down ... I work from home and I run an awful lot of things at once... I love this laptop but I'm not sure it's the one...I would think it's amazing but I forgot to mention I'm just coming off a mac...no comparison

Absolutely love it! I caught it on sale to boot! Plus got it open box certified! So amazing! Cannot say enough about it. There are times I know it's way more powerful than what I needed it for but If anything it accommodates all my needs and then some!

Outside looks: My first impression of this new Spectre was “wow” absolutely beautiful laptop. It’s actually heavier than I expected and feels like it’s made of very rigid metal. The outside edges are gold colored with the main body in dark brown. The top lid has a satin finish with angled shiny gold colored edges, and a HP logo in gloss gold right in the middle. The bottom of the unit is very plain, the same satin brown finish as the top with two rubber feet running the width of the unit. There are only two screws visible and a long strip of perforations for cooling also running the width of the machine along with two larger exhaust vents on both the left and right side. There are also two perforated speaker ports towards the front corners. On the left edge there is a power button “in an unusual place” mounted on a 45 degree angle next to the power port, then there’s a HDMI out port, a section of exhaust vent and a headphone jack. On the right side there is a lightning bolt port, “set in the corner also at a 45 degree angle like the power button” a USB C port, a full sized USB 3 port, a very tiny switch to turn the camera on/off, another section of exhaust venting and then a micro SD reader “not full sized this time”. The front has nothing on it and the back just has the two very heavy duty solid metal hinges one having and embossed “Spectre” logo in it. Screen quality: The screen is absolutely gorgeous, the colors are very vibrant and clear. My only complaint and personal preference is that the 3840x2160 resolution can make the text of some applications so small they are almost impossible to read. I would prefer anything 17” and under to have a 1080 screen at most and I’ve adjusted the resolution down to that. Unfortunately when downscaling does make everything larger and easier to read some of the fonts look fuzzy in certain apps. Playing movies the screen is stunning, one of the sharpest screens I’ve seen in a while, and the viewing angles are really wide with very little change from side to side viewing. The screen is covered in high gloss glass and does have quite a bit of reflection to it. Keyboard / Trackpad/Pen: The keyboard is extremely good on the Spectre laptops and this one keeps up with the previous models. HP was able to include a keypad which I prefer to have on all my laptops and keep the whole keyboard full sized. There are very small margins on the right and left side of the keyboard and that helped them keep the size close to desktop sized keys. The base is extremely stiff and you really can’t feel any flex in the keyboard while typing. I could easily type on this all day long. The keyboard is also backlit with two levels of brightness available, on high it’s not so bright to be annoying and on low it’s perfect for viewing in a dimly lit room. The one annoyance I have with it, is the backlight automatically shuts off after 30 seconds of in activity. I really dislike this and wish there was an option to have the backlight always on while plugged in. I asked HP support about this and they stated there’s no way to adjust this. The trackpad is nice and big, it’s wider than most, and typical of what HP uses in other machines. It does not have dedicated L/R buttons but the usual pressure sensitive bottom L/R corners, not my favorite either but it works. The multi finger scrolling works most of the time, I’m just not a big fan of track pads and always use an external mouse. The pen is similar to the other pens that came with the other HP laptops I’ve used, it’s very accurate and makes drawing on the screen easy. It is powered by a single AAAA battery and you’ll want to take that out if you don’t use the pen for extended periods. There’s no place to store the pen either so you’ll have to keep track of where you place it. Sound Quality: This Spectre comes with 4 speakers, 2 above the keyboard and another 2 toward the front on the bottom edge. There’s a Bang & Olufsen label on the right just above the keyboard. Sound quality is excellent, very clear and bright, it’s lacking bass but I never expect much bass out of thin portable laptops either. The volume gets fairly loud but not overly, at full volume it was clear and not distorted, just don’t expect it to fill a room, but plenty for sitting and watching a movie in a small area. Wireless Connectivity: HP uses an Intel AC-9560 card that includes Bluetooth. My wireless signal was excellent on both 2.4 and 5 GHz, 2.4 giving greater range as usual but the 5 GHz signal never dropped too low while checking it walking around the house. I have 1 GB fiber and was able to get 470Mbps+ up and 380Mbps+ down consistently on the 5 GHz band. I find that pretty amazing as my desktop usually pulls around 350Mbps down at the same distance. Ports: I’ve noticed a trend toward getting rid of ports on the 2-1 machines lately. This one does at least have one full sized USB 3 port on the right side, along with a USB C port and a Lightning bolt capable port. Unfortunately this didn’t come with any type of adapter for those ports but I did have a USB C to USB 3 hub and that worked perfectly plugging in a thumb drive and an external 1tb hard drive. There’s also a full sized HDMI port on the left side and you can attach either an external monitor or TV there “I haven’t tried this out yet though”. If you like using an external mouse you’ll be using up the one single full sized USB port so you’ll have to get some USB to USB C adapters for anything else you want to connect or use a Bluetooth mouse to free up the full sized port if you really need it. Gaming performance: This Spectre happens to come with the Geforce MX150 and has 2gb of DDR5 memory. It’s good enough for some casual gaming, especially older titles. I installed Steam, set up Fallout 4 and Witcher 3. Fallout 4 runs really good at medium-high settings, on maximum there’s some stutter slower frame rates so I’d never run it more than medium “it still looks great though” Witcher 3 runs really well on low-medium settings, high is playable and on ultra it’s just way to slow to play enjoyably. Even with the settings on medium the game looks really good on this screen and plays plenty well. The device does get very hot while gaming though. Internals and upgrading: If you want to open up the unit you have to remove the bottom rubber strips to access the hidden screws, “I won’t be opening this one up to take a look inside but fortunately the maintenance manual is available on HPs website. Likes: The design, while a little unusual “due to the beveled edges and angled corners”, is visually striking, and everyone I showed it to thought it looked amazing. The weight and how rigid the overall unit is make it feel like a premium laptop. The keyboard is excellent, and one of the best I’ve used in a 2n1 laptop. I can type comfortably on it for extended periods without feeling cramped for space. There’s very little flex in the base of the unit and it feels rock solid while typing. With this also having a keypad it feels like it’s more business oriented than a media / gaming laptop. Overall speed wise this new Spectre is fast really fast. With this unit having 16 GB of memory and the newest Gen 8 I7-8565U processor and a fast 512 GB SSD drive, it doesn’t have any problems running any desktop software that I threw at it, “MS Office Suite, Photoshop, DVD Creator”. I also streamed videos from Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu without a hitch. The screen “when set at full resolution” looks pretty amazing while watching videos. The 512 GB SSD should be plenty for most people, I’m used to seeing 256 GB drives in these so the extra drive space is nice to have. Geekbench 4 scores were 5198 single core and 16246 multicore, which beats my desktops I7-6700s score of 4675 single core, and almost matches its 16421 multicore score. It comes with both the HP IR camera and finger print reader for security. The IR camera and facial recognition work really well and unlocks the laptop faster than I could put in a password and just as fast as using the finger print reader. When the IR camera activates there are two fast flashing IR illuminator lights on each side of the camera, with these the IR camera can identify you in pretty much any lighting situation. I tried this out by turning off all the lights in the room at night, the screen was the only illumination in the room, and the facial recognition instantly identified me and unlocked the laptop. Heat: During normal use the Spectre never got hot, it stayed plenty cool but when I played any graphic intensive games things really started heating up. After 30 minutes of playing Witcher 3 the keyboard was getting noticeably warm around the WASD keys, and the rest of it was just plain too warm for comfort. My thermal camera shows a top temp around 122 at the left side vent and around that same temp just to the right of the WASD keys. The whole unit was uncomfortably hot after 45 minutes of playing. I’ll be using this laptop for web browsing, work related software, email and media. Light gaming would be fine but anything graphic intensive like Witcher, in my opinion, just gets way too hot for comfort. Under normal use conditions the laptop never heated up anywhere near the Witcher heat levels and remained comfortable even after many hours of use web browsing and watching movies. Final thoughts: If you are looking for a top tier business / media laptop that’s convertible and want a larger screen this new Spectre is definitely something well worth considering. This would also be an excellent device for a college student “although expensive”, typing papers on this would be a breeze. The build quality is really outstanding and the metal construction just makes it feel like a premium device, although a little on the heavy side.

Last year, around this time I purchased the HP 15" xSpectre 360 laptop from Best Buy and fell in love. It is simply said, the best laptop I have ever had the pleasure to own. This year, I had a need to replace an aging computer, so without reservation, I chose this years newer HP 15" Spctre x360 15-df0013dx. This is HP's most powerful Spectre yet and it's everything last years model is in terms of goodness and then some! One simply can't overlook the sheer beauty of these machines. The Dark Ash Silver with Copper Accents is simply stunning. And the quality feel of every aspect of this laptop reeks of luxury in design and parts. It just doesn't look or feel like your average laptop. And to be honest it isn't your average laptop. The screen is simply stunning. First of all, it's Corning Gorilla Glass 4 and it's 4K. Trust me, 4K Video is rendered in as good as the best 4K TV clarity you could own, maybe even better! It's immersive on steroids, with over 8.2 million pixels, covering 3840x2160 resolution. The 8th Generation Quad Core Intel i7 Processor with NVIDIA GeForce Graphics provides the graphic power to do anything you could want. This laptop comes with 512GB of blistering fast SSD Storage, with a battery that can go up to 16 hours and 15 minutes on a single charge. I remember when a charge of 4 or 5 hours was considered amazing! Add in 16 GB of RAM and 8 GB Cache and this is one powerful lightweight powerhouse. It weighs an astonishingly low 4.79 LBS and is only .76 thick. This laptop is Windows Ink able and comes with a HP Digital Pen in Dark Ash Silver. Use this with a photo editing app and the options are endless in what you can do. And the audio system is from Bang & Olufsen, with HP Quad Speakers. Translation: It provides some of the best sound on any laptop I've ever heard. In terms of connectivity, you get: 1 USB-C 3.1 Type A port 1 Thunderbolt 3 port 1 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type A 1 HDMI 2.0 port 1 Headphone Jack. If there is any disappointment and this one is minor is the laptop only provides a Micro-SD card reader. I don't have any gear that uses Micro-SD cards. I need to figure out how to use my SDXC memory cards, but I'm sure there are adapters for that. Setup with this laptop was so easy. I mean So So easy. I have a backup service for all my files, so I turned the laptop on and the Windows assistant walked me through the initial setup for Wifi, etc, performs some updates and let's you choose from three ways to sign in using your face, your fingerprint or a self defined Passcode. From there, I simply logged into the backup service, got all my files, documents and photos put exactly where I had them and installed all the other things I use such as Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud, seamlessly and easily. Since I also have a HP Tango Printer (I really recommend this printer), connecting to the printer was instantaneous and gone are the days of having to downloading printer drivers. So there you have it. I'll break the Pros and Cons down this way: Pros: Just about everything I wrote above - Really! Cons: I wish this came with a SDXC Card Reader and that's about the only wish I have. If you can't tell, I'm beyond sold on these HP Spectre laptops. They ooze quality, they ooze design sophistication and they just work beautifully.

A little over a year of using and still running strong. everything still functions the way it supposed to. Only ONE flaw so far, the rubber strips on the bottom didn't hold up. they came off on their own. hopefully they glue them on better for future laptops. without this rubber strips, the laptop gets VERY slippery. I dropped it once because of it. and it got a small scuff/dent. i wish it had one more USB drive slot

Having been a serious geek in the computer and software industry for many years, it takes something really special to impress me. The new HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 laptop is one of the most impressive laptops that I have come across in many years. Unboxing HP has something special with this model and they love to show it. As soon as I opened the shipping box I was impressed with the laptop box itself, a flat black top with the metallic copper word SPECTRE in the center and a very sturdy all white base. It was as if HP was shipping me a large piece of jewelry. When I removed the lid I did indeed discover a beautiful jewel of a laptop. The combination of carbon fiber grey top with copper hinges and the HP logo in the middle implied “quality craftsmanship”, which was reiterated by the view of the keyboard and monitor after I raised the lid. The inside of this jewel revealed a beautifully smooth Gorilla Glass display above the copper hinges, a Bang and Olufsen speaker stretched across the width of the base above the keyboard, an ash grey full keyboard is spaced comfortably across the base, and more than ample touchpad sits at an offset left, but centered below the spacebar. A small fingerprint scanner pad sits just below the period key of the numeric keys. The base is metal and has the look and feel of quality manufacturing. The sides of the base have extensive venting slots for cooling, USB-C port, USB port, USB Thunderbolt port, Audio out, a camera privacy switch, HDMI, and SD card slot. The bottom of the laptop has additional base speakers. Setup A single page setup guide with pictures was more than enough for knowing where to attach cables. Though I clearly didn’t pay attention to it since it took me a couple minutes to find the power switch, which is neatly hidden in the beveled top left edge of the laptop. After powering up, Windows Cortana voice provided the instructions for setup, including keyboard type selection, fingerprint registration, wifi selection, Windows updates, sending of an integration app to my iPhone, and enabling of the included digital stylus pen. It was all easy to step through without any glitches. Specifications This laptop comes with some significant horsepower at a very reasonable price. • 500 GB Solid State Digital drive • Intel Core i7-8565U CPU @ 1.8 GHz 1.99 GHz • 16 GB RAM • Windows 10 Home, 64 bit • Fingerprint scanner • Full-size backlit keyboard • 15.6 inch, UHD Gorilla Glass Touch Screen Display • Built for Windows Ink digital stylus • Bang & Olufsen speakers • GeForce MX150 • Preinstalled with ○ McAfee Security ○ Netflix ○ Microsoft apps Performance The first thing I wanted to test was the sound quality of the Bang & Olufsen speakers. I did this after installing Apple iTunes. The speakers are very clear and crisp. A lot of the bass was lost when having the laptop flat on the desk. Once I elevated it in a tilted stand then the bass speakers came through a lot better. Since I’ll be using this laptop for development and writing, I installed VS Pro 2017 with MS SQL Server. Thanks to the high-speed wifi and the SSD drive, the installation was the fastest I’ve seen yet. For a good test of the GeForce graphics I installed Civilization V and No Man’s Sky. I followed this with my normal set of tools for writing and development: VS Code, NotePad++, Scrivener, and some utilities. The development tools are crazy fast on this laptop. With the combination of the SSD drive and the Intel Core i7 CPU running at 1.8 GHz with 16 Gig of RAM, the Spectre is a serious developer’s laptop. As a development machine, with the screen brightness at around 70%, I was able to easily squeeze out 7 hours of battery life with more left over. HP says 10 hours, but I did have music playing as well. While I’m impressed that this comes with the GeForce MX150 graphics card, the laptop reverts to the built-in Intel graphics chips for normal use. I’m assuming this is to help conserve battery life. I confirmed this with a solid hour of Civ 5 in tablet mode. (Which is an awesome feat due to amazing screen touch responsiveness.) The battery went from 100% to 41% after an hour and the laptop got pretty hot from the intensive graphics. The Gorilla Glass does a pretty good job of resisting finger smudges when in tablet mode. Overview In the past I have not been a big fan of HP laptops. Coming from Apple devices for most of my past laptops, I had some high expectations. The HP Spectre x360 far exceeded my expectations! The size and weight are just right for my laptop needs. I love the rubber strips on the bottom for preventing sliding of the laptop when it is laying flat on my glass desktop. (I know. It’s the simple things.) This is the first laptop I’ve seen which easily switches from laptop to tablet mode and back without confusing the Windows environment. When I’m at home this is my primary desktop computer and is attached to an external monitor via HDMI and an external mechanical keyboard. It works great as a serious home computer. While I’m not a serious gamer, I do appreciate the higher quality of graphics that the GeForce provides, as long as I do my gaming while plugged into power instead of relying on the battery for more than an hour. For steaming movies, the beautiful screen combined with the Bang & Olufsen speakers provides a great experience. I highly recommend this beautiful jewel of a laptop for any developer or casual laptop user. It is not a serious gaming laptop, but it will provide enjoyable moments of quality gaming. While the price might seem a little high for a non-serious gaming laptop, the quality of the materials and the craftsmanship makes it worth the money, especially when you’re at the coffeeshop and people start asking about it. I would give it 6 stars if I could.

The HP spectra is an awesome computer very easy for start up even for a novice myself, I also love the HP support.

The HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 laptop features a metal design, with a sleek look and colors. However, the body design is questionable. While working on my desk, I felt the laptop wobble a bit. I am not sure if the rubber feet in place are stable enough. Since this is a 15" display, it is a bit bulkier than other 2-in-1 laptops in its class. You cannot use the stylus on-the-go like other 2-in-1 laptops. The stylus comes separate from the shell; it does require you to carry it with the laptop which is not necessarily convenient. However, that is because of the 15" screen size and thin body. HP did include a nice leather case with it that does hold the laptop and the stylus. So this makes up for the "pop-out" feature that most 2-in-1 laptops feature. While using it in tablet mode, I felt that the Spectre was again, too bulky, because of the large screen size and weight the laptop carries. I would not recommend using it in tablet mode since it is cumbersome to use. It was not easy to take notes on it or test the pen features. One feature that is prevalent in the Spectre x360 is the SD card slot; it is a full-size slot. Those who upload photographs or other data will like this feature. In previous 2-in-1 laptops, I have owned, there was no SD card slot. Also included are an HDMI out port and a 3.1 USB port for fast data upload. Seeing an HDMI port in the Spectre x360 is refreshing since my old 2-in-1 required a conversion cable for this. The display is a 4K video display (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) and 60hz refresh rate. While testing 4K video content on YouTube and other websites, the laptop started humming loudly and overheating. When I scaled down the video, the Spectre x360 did not hum loudly or overheat. I am not sure why this happened since the Spectre x360 features an AMD RX Vega M graphics chip. Not to mention it has an i7 core processor. I continued to test 4K video content with, unfortunately, the same results. Again, it has a stunning display with bright colors, but I am cautious to continue playing 4K content when the laptop continues to overheat, and the fans continue to "hum" loudly. The keyboard is OK; the keys are too low, unfortunately. I frequently pressed other keys on the keyboard and it did not feel comfortable under my fingers. However, the keyboard is backlight functional, which the user can turn on or off with ease. What some 2-in-1 laptops, like the Spectre x360, are doing is including a fingerprint scanner for faster sign-on functions, as well as security. The fingerprint sign-on feature for me is easier to use, and I commend HP for including it in the Spectre x360. The battery life of the Spectre x360 is ok; while running background apps and updates (on a full charge) for about an hour, the battery already drained to 70%. While watching the 4K video on YouTube (the battery drained to 60% in about twenty minutes). My suggestion is to find a middle ground and not run 4K video and be careful with what you run in the background of the Spectre x360. Multitasking seems to drain the battery at a fast rate, but the processor does allow you to multitask without a hangup, which is a plus. Overall, the HP Spectre x360 is a beautiful looking laptop, with questionable designs to the keyboard and mobility (weight and bulky exterior for tablet usage). The 4K display is stunning, but only for a short time until it heats up, and the fans hum loudly. HP still has some work to do with the Spectre line. However, they are trending in the right direction with most of their design choices.

1 - Pro Can't go wrong with an i7 8th Gen, 512 SSD, 16G Ram and a Dedicated Graphics Card. The computer's processing performance is great, no complaints. The Graphics card is not made for heavy gaming, it's made for light gaming. I use it for light graphic design work on the go and it performs well. Screen is great crisp resolution for watching videos or working on graphics, I like the battery life, I've gotten about 10hrs doing some light programming on high performance and high brightness settings. Cons - ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE hardware. This is where HP messed up on the execution on the effort to create a premium laptop. #1 The fingerprint reader, I don't care for much, I like to do face recognition personally, but since it's a feature included I'll mention it. It's not very accurate, it's not horrible but you can tell it's not a good quality peace of hardware. #2 Touch-pad, This peace of hardware is HORRIBLE, ABSOLUTELY GARBAGE. Many people may not notice it a lot because their movement of the mouse pointer is probably very pronounced where as I sometimes may need to move it just a few pixels as I'm editing photos or working on designs on Photoshop or Illustrator. It's horrible to even move the cursor from one character to the next when programming. Basically it flinches, snaps back to the previous position, and clicks, all in one instance. Again, this only occurs with very gentle moves of the mouse.

UNBOXING (5/5): The Spectre x360 15 has a premium unboxing impression. I wasn’t flabbergasted, but it definitely led to some anticipation and excitement. In the box, you get a leather pouch to hold the laptop and HP Pen (which is also included), the laptop itself, the DC power adapter and the documentation. I was not expecting the leather pouch, whatsoever, but was very pleased that HP has included it, so I’ve been using it. It’s a nice snug fit, very professional looking, and the pen can be stowed away in the dedicated slot above the velcro strip. The pouch certainly won’t be holding your DC power adapter, but HP is betting that you won’t need to charge this laptop mid-day. BUILD QUALITY (4/5): Among premium 2-in-1 laptops, the Spectre has a very solid all-aluminum chassis with no keyboard flex and average display bend/wobble for a laptop of this caliber. The display hinge is ever-so-slightly off center (HP needs better Quality Assurance), but is quite sturdy, which is certainly reassuring for long-term use. The edges of the device are angled, but don’t feel sharp, so holding it is comfortable. It comes in around 4.5lbs, so this is definitely a heavier machine, despite being thinner. Premium metal designs typically come with this tradeoff, but I’ve personally found it to be worth it, considering the durability as well as experience. DISPLAY QUALITY (4/5): The Spectre x360 15” has a 3840x2160 IPS display—specifically the AUO30EB by AU Optronics. It reaches around 400 nits brightness average and looks crisp and clean, as one should expect. If you’re looking to do color sensitive work, I’d advise researching this panel to determine if it meets your needs. That being said, this display is great for productivity and entertainment purposes with no noticeable backlight bleed. I’d love to say this display blew me away, but frankly, I have been spoiled by a Dolby Vision display, and even at only 1080p, the Dolby Vision display’s contrast and vibrance kept my eyes glued to it. Don’t get me wrong, this Spectre’s UHD display is great, but if you’re looking for that WOW factor, I’d advise you to at least research laptops with a Dolby Vision display (which come in both 1080p and UHD variants). That being said, if you aren’t already spoiled with such technology like I am, then this display will still spoil you with crisp, clear images and videos. TOUCH SCREEN INPUT (3/5): As for the touchscreen functionality in Windows 10, I found it to be shoddy when trying to scroll on pages in various applications as well as the Chrome Web Browser. This wasn’t the case in Microsoft Edge for some reason. You can expect other aspects to work just fine, but you may encounter lag when trying to performing lengthy swiping gestures in various apps. After doing some research, it seems like this issue may be attributed to the touch screen’s firmware. Do not try to install firmware from other HP laptop displays, as it will brick your touch screen and pen functionality. Hopefully HP can release a firmware update for this display. I’ve tried getting a hold of them, but they have not been responsive. This lack of touch screen reliability will be a deal breaker for many—and rightfully so, as this Spectre x360 touts itself as a premium 2-in-1, but it’s lacking the touch screen reliability that gimps it as a 2-in-1. Instead, it’s a good premium laptop, but there are already plenty of those at cheaper prices. PEN INPUT (2/5): HP created a premium-feeling pen, but in application, it’s mostly unreliable. What makes this unreliable is the “pressure sensor” inside the pen. I’ve found that as you tilt, it becomes more difficult for the pen tip to apply enough force to the pressure sensor. As a result, I commonly experience unregistered strokes, and that just leads to a frustrating writing experience. If you were considering using the HP Spectre for lots of pen functionality, this pen is not the most reliable, so I don’t recommend using this PC for that purpose. HP does sell other pens, but I’m not sure those products ultimately lend to better results. KEYBOARD (4/5): The keyboard on the Spectre is a pleasure to use, but took me a day or two to get used to. The key presses are relatively quiet, and I think HP was going for that kind of experience, whereas my other 2-in-1 has louder, more tactile key presses and took no adjustment period for me to begin typing at full speed. Even so, the Spectre delivers a typing experience that isn’t cramped or forcing me to extend my fingers beyond their normal comfort. There’s no keyboard flex, making this a very solid typing experience. While I do prefer my other 2-in-1’s keyboard experience, I can definitely say this keyboard outclasses the keyboards on many other laptops that I have owned and reviewed. As a software engineer, I believe this keyboard would lend itself well towards productivity purposes. The keys are backlit and have two brightness modes as well as having the ability to be completely off. TOUCHPAD (4/5): With the synaptics drivers, the sensitivity and mouse acceleration felt slow—forcing me to lift my fingers more frequently to move the mouse cursor across the large 15.6” display. After uninstalling the Synaptics driver in the Device Manager under the “Mice and other pointing devices”, it began using the Precision touchpad drivers. I found myself enjoying the experience a lot more, and the sensitivity was perfect. On top of that, all the touchpad gestures began to work flawlessly, lending to increased workflow and productivity. SOUND (4/5): In terms of sound quality, the Spectre’s Bang & Olufsen speakers get plenty loud while maintaining clarity without distorting. I personally found it sounded best in the normal laptop mode, but it also sounds good in tent mode. That being said, it does lose some of its resonance in tent mode because the speaker unit above the keyboard will be firing away from you, rather than towards you. HP chose to counter this problem by also putting speakers on the bottom of the chassis, so that you have speakers facing towards you when in tent mode, as well. While I personally think this speaker is outclassed by the Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers found on a different premium 2-in-1 laptop, the Spectre still holds its own by delivering a very enjoyable audio experience that everyone can appreciate. I/O (5/5): One advantage that the Spectre has is its availability of ports. It’s equipped with 2 USB-C ports, one of which supports Thunderbolt 3. Either port can be used to charge the Spectre. It also has a standard USB-A port. Additionally, an HDMI port is available for use with an external display, but it should be noted that it defaults to using the Intel UHD Graphics 620 and will only switch to using the MX150 if an application calls for it. There is also a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack, a microSD card slot, and a switch to toggle the webcam connection. Lastly, the DC power jack is the default method of charging the device. PERFORMANCE (4/5): This is where the Spectre really shines as a 2-in-1. It’s equipped with a quad-core Intel Core i7-8565U with 8 logical threads, 16GB RAM and a Toshiba KXG50ZNV512G NVMe SSD with a drive capacity of 488,386MB. The Spectre delivers excellent performance, considering its lower-voltage CPU. After upgrading to Windows 10 Pro, I was able to run docker containers and a full stack web development environment without hiccups. The SSD is a NVMe drive. Utilizing a GTX 1080 in an eGPU, performance was comparable to other Thunderbolt 3-capable laptops and was more reliable than my other premium 2-in-1—as it did not incur any peripheral latency from my mouse and keyboard when stressing the eGPU in a game like Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 3440x1440 at the Highest preset. So if you’re looking for a 2-in-1 capable of being used with an eGPU, I think this Spectre is an excellent choice. As for the Nvidia Geforce MX150, it’s got 2GB of GDDR5 memory for light gaming capability. This GPU is intended more for competitive eSports-type of titles like Rocket League, CS:GO, League of Legends, and the like. You certainly won’t be playing at the native 3840x2160 resolution of the display unless you’re playing 2D titles. Those who are primarily focused on productivity or other media consumption will find that this GPU should do what they want. BIOMETRICS (3/5): I live in a climate without much humidity during the winter. Sometimes my fingers end up drying and more cracked, but this usually hasn’t been a big deal for fingerprint sensors on smartphones. This Spectre uses an off-the-shelf fingerprint sensor from Synaptics which isn’t particularly great, in my opinion. While it works, it often takes me a few tries. You may have a different experience than myself, but it’s also worth mentioning that this issue is not exclusive to this laptop; rather, it’s commonplace for this particular fingerprint sensor. BATTERY (5/5): In terms of battery life, the Spectre x360 is fantastic. I’m easily getting a full day of use with lighter workloads—such as writing up this detailed review. With heavier workloads, you’ll definitely get a few hours, but it will be dependent on your usage. The device charges via the DC power adapter OR through the USB-C ports. I’m pleased to say that I’ve used third-party 65W and 100W USB-C chargers with this laptop successfully. I do like that you have the choice between DC or USB-C charging, unlike some laptops which only charge through one or the other. Having more options is better! CONCLUSION (3/5): As it stands today, this Spectre x360 does not quite live up to the great expectations of a '2-in-1'. While it’s a great as a premium laptop, it doesn’t make sense to pay the extra cost for an unreliable touch screen and pen. If HP can fix the issues regarding the touch screen and pen, I’d give it a solid recommendation.

I was shopping for a very competent 2-in-1 during the summer, and had the option of this laptop vs a Lenovo c930. Both offered similar specs and features, and decided to give HP a try. The design is absolutely beautiful, gem cut meaning that the laptop has a bit of flare to it. The laptop works wonderfully for every day usage. As a student, it will run the programs needed, and it’s a fairly quiet laptop! It has fans located in very convenient spots, meaning that your laptop wont get too hot. The speaker system sounds amazing, however, if you decide to put it on full blast, you will hear a little scratchiness from the volume simply being too high. Keeping the speakers around 70 is honestly loud enough, and maintains that perfect sound quality. The 4k display is amazing, and while it does consume battery life quicker than a regular full HD screen, the battery life will last you for quite a while. For video and regular usage (studies, work, youtube, netflix, etc), this laptop would land you a solid 5-6 hours. The 2 in 1 aspect is very smooth in transition. However, this IS a 15 inch laptop; it is not as light as you think! If you are a clumsy person or would rather prefer something lighter, a 13in screen would suit you better! This laptop DOES come with a pen, however, there are small downsides to it. First, the pen requires an AAAA battery, not usb charging. Second, the laptop has no place in which you can store the pen. You must carry it and keep track of it at all times. If that is a dealbreaker for you and you would rather a laptop that can have that option for you, Lenovo c930 is a similar laptop for you! However, if you want a laptop with a gorgeous and stunning design and dont mind keeping track of a pen, then this is the one for you.

Let me start by saying, I did not need a laptop...better yet...another laptop. In July 2016, I bought an HP Pavilion 13.3 x360 laptop (I3 with 4 GB RAM and 500 GB Hard Drive). In January 2017, I bought an HP Envy 15.6 x360 laptop (I7 with 16 GB RAM and 1TB Hard Drive. In November 2018, I bought an HP Spectre 13.3 x360 with 16 GB RAM and 500 GB SSD). I got this on a Black Friday Deal. In May 2019, I bought this HP Spectre 15.6 x360 with 16 GB and 500 GB SSD). I got this at the clearance price offered. All of these laptops are still going strong. The Pavilion is my take it to work laptop that I use during lunch. It gets a bit bogged down at times. As you can see, I didn't need another laptop. However, I have had my eye on the Spectre laptops ever since I purchased my Envy laptop in January 2017. The Spectre laptops are fantastic laptops. Let me say, I did not purchase either of Spectres without doing a lot of research and reading reviews. I have not experienced any of issues that some have indicated in their reviews. Fan noise - I hardly notice the fan noise. I have clocks in my house that make more noise than the fans on my Spectres, or the Envy or Pavilion. Maybe I have hearing issues. Speakers - No issues at all. Hinges - Ah no problems there. Too hot - I have a cat that generates more heat than the Spectres. This laptop is fast--boots up and shuts down quickly. The screen is beautiful. The battery life is great. I can't say enough about this computer.

The best 2-in-1 laptop that can be used for data analysis, manuscript writing, as well as graphic designing. I have been using the laptop since 4 years now and it has so far shown no problems neither any issues.

Overall I've had good experiences with HP computers. So when my almost 4 year old HP started throwing up BIOS errors I knew it was time to look. Only a few lap tops 2 in 1's matched my criteria: needed 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, touch screen and 2 in 1 design. Based on some of the negative review aspects of Dell and Lenovo competing products I got this HP Spectre. First, the speed is amazing - it takes only a few seconds to boot and come to life. The speed of opening and using programs and Apps has increased my work efficiency and volume. Even with graphics heavy applications this machine is amazingly quite with the fans only coming on infrequently. The audio is better than the Beats on the previous HP which got junked up with Windows driver updates. The most amazing aspect is the 4K display. The clarity is so good I no longer need glasses for most of the day even though the fonts are smaller and my co-workers are amazed. Finally, the battery life is impressive. I was taking a video course and the battery stayed at 100% for almost the entire half hour course. This definitely beats the pants of the Apple products I looked at just to appease a few techie friends. This is definitely 2 thumbs up and if I had more thumbs, they'd be up too.

I debated for a couple weeks if I should take the plunge and invest in this laptop. After reading tons of reviews, stats and comparisons I decided to take the next step, purchase and never thought about the expense again. This laptop is the "real thing". It's very fast (I am creating graphics and editing pictures with NO delays) and the 4K display is just not to be beat. Last but not least the actual unit is very aesthetically pleasing. Thanks HP, this laptop is perfect for me.

I have both HP and Apple laptops. I made this purchase right after buying a MacBook Pro. As much as I like the MacBook’s apps and weight (super light) I can really appreciate the speed and ease of apps on the Spectre . Plus it is an awesome looking piece of machinery to just look at, Aesthetically pleasing. Impressive in all ways. The price is another factor. For all this laptop provides, its really a no-brainer to have made this purchase.

I have had this laptop for about a month. It is generally easy to use. I really like the keyboard set-up. The trackpad acts up once in awhile. Screen resolution is great and battery life is much better than my last laptop (which was also an HP). It is one of the most beautiful laptops you've ever seen. It's slightly on the heavy side for its size, but it feels very solid. My biggest gripe is that sometimes it doesn't go to sleep as it should and runs down the battery. I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again!

My Spectre x360 2-in-1 15.6 4 K Ultra HD rocks! I love its ease and general functionality. I have migrated from Mac to PC with this computer, and what I thought was going to be a nightmare, has become a dream. The laptop is great - fast, accurate, easy-to-find stuff and dang, dang good-looking. I catch people giving it admirable glances. My teenage son says that I have achieved "Tech Dominance." Every time I whip this thing out, people are awed by its awesomeness. Now, I have not had this joi-de-vivre for but a month, and yet it appears sturdy and elegantly holding up to my rather rigorous travel load. Oh, the battery life! I have yet to see below 40%, and I am off-cord a whole lot. It's a power-sipper for sure - the gorgeous beast. Buy it, hold it, and it'll treat you well.