HP Spectre x360 14: Review

There are many great laptops on the market right now, especially in the 13- to 14-inch size range, where Intel’s Ultrabooks are the best. Over the last few years, HP has been building up its Spectre brand, and the HP Spectre x360 14 is in many ways the culmination of that brand in one nearly perfect laptop. It replaces the XPS 13 2-in-1, but only slightly.

The main differences are price and personal preference. What is so great about the Spectre x360 14? Not just because of the 3000 x 2000 OLED display but also because of all the small changes HP made to the OS. Some of the audio is also the best I’ve heard on a Windows PC.

HP Spectre x360 14 Specifications

PROS

• Fashionable looks
• Shortcut keys and software that come in handy
• The box has a rechargeable pen and a case to carry it in
• Performance is full of life (apart from gaming)

CONS

• No HDMI port
• No choice for LTE mobile broadband
• The 007 SPECTRE octopus logo was nowhere to be seen

Costs and Availability

HP Spectre x360 14 powerful performance and beautiful design come at a high price. It costs $1,369 to start, about the same as the Core i7 Dell XPS 13 ($1,259) and the MacBook Pro 13 ($1,299). You can get one from the official HP store, the Intel website, or, if you’re hoping to find a good deal or sale price, from a major retailer.

Display

HP Spectre x360 14 has a 3:2 display, found only on Microsoft Surface devices, and is getting harder to find on Huawei laptops. It is much taller than 16:9, which the Spectre x360 13 comes with. Here, HP made the right decision. This part is 13.5 inches and has thin bezels on all four sides. It also makes the Spectre much more fun to use as a tablet or for drawing.

HP gives you three choices for Spectre’s screen. HP Spectre x360 14 has two USB-C ports for charging and connecting, a USB Type-A port, a headphone/microphone jack, a microSD card reader, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.0 for connecting wirelessly to devices and peripherals. With Wi-Fi 6 compatibility, you can use next-generation wireless internet speeds to move files to and from cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive, eliminating the need for external storage. It’s also great for anyone who needs a fast, reliable connection for video calls and online meetings.

Tilt Pen and Keyboard

The chiclet-style keyboard has a shallow profile and feels great to type on, but if you’re used to mechanical or optical switch keyboards, it may feel a bit “mushy” and take some getting used to. It has two levels of backlighting that make it easy to type in almost any setting. You can also turn off the backlight entirely in bright rooms or when it would be too distracting, like in a meeting. Both the screen and the trackpad can be controlled with simple gestures. On the screen, you can pinch to zoom, swipe, and tap; on the trackpad, you can pinch to zoom and scroll quickly.

Audio

HP Spectre x360 14 worked with Bang & Olufsen to put high-quality sound into this thin laptop. The four speakers above the keyboard produce a clean, clear sound both when the device is in laptop mode and when it is in tablet mode. With the HP Audio Boost software that comes with the laptop, you can make custom audio mixers that fit your music tastes and easily switch between different presets when trying something new.

Battery Life

HP Spectre x360 14 has an updated 4-cell lithium-ion battery that HP says can play videos for 21.5 hours. In our web surfing tests, the battery lasted just over 12 hours, like a typical work day. That’s better than the Dell XPS 13 (11:7 as tested) and almost as good as the Lenovo Yoga 9i (11:15 as tested). More importantly, it means you don’t even have to think about plugging in all day or for several days.

Conclusion

The HP Spectre x360 14 is an excellent long-term investment if you want to upgrade your mobile workstation. On the official HP store website, you can change how the laptop is set up to get the best balance of power, performance, and design. Even though the price is high, the high-quality parts are worth the extra cash to keep up with today’s and tomorrow’s needs for graphics, processing, and internet and wireless connectivity.

FAQs

Performance of HP Spectre x360 14?

HP Spectre x360 14’s Intel Core i7 CPU can handle almost anything you throw at it, from standard work programs like Google Docs, PowerPoint, and Chrome to streaming movies, music, and even casual gaming.

How long do the batteries last for the HP Spectre x360 14?

This laptop has an updated 4-cell lithium-ion battery that HP says can play videos for 21.5 hours. In our web surfing tests, the battery lasted just over 12 hours, which is more like a typical workday.

Cooling of HP Spectre x360 14?

Since this is a thin 2-in-1 laptop, there isn’t much room for air or liquid cooling to keep the machine at the right temperature. But the built-in fans do a good job of pulling heat away from important parts like your CPU and forcing it out of the vents in the bottom of the laptop.