HP Spectre x360 15T Review
- 1 HP Spectre x360 15T Specifications
- 1.1 PROS
- 1.2 CONS
- 1.3 Price
- 1.4 Ports, sound, and display
- 1.5 CPU
- 1.6 Design
- 1.7 Battery Life
HP’s new high-end, high-performance 15-inch laptop, the Spectre x360 15T, takes a different approach to the high-end, high-performance laptop market. The company says this laptop is for people who want a big screen and pretty good speed in an excellent package.
The Spectre x360 15T does excellent with the “great package” part. It’s a bigger version of the beautiful Spectre x360 with a 13-inch screen. Both have a CNC-milled metal body and a 10-point touch IPS screen that can fold back into an A-frame or tablet shape. The incredible thing is that the Spectre X360 15T is the same width as the 13-inch model, even though it has a much bigger screen.
HP Spectre x360 15T Specifications
| Price | $1,149 / £1,199 / AU$3,399 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-1165G7 |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Xe |
| RAM | 16GB LPDDR4 |
| Screen | 13.3-inch FHD |
| Storage | 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Weight | 2..8 pounds (1.3kg) |
| Camera | HP TrueVision HD 1080p IR Webcam |
| Connectivity | Intel Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 |
PROS
- Beautiful aesthetics
- Long-lasting battery life
- Powerful performance for regular use
- Type with ease on this roomy keyboard
CONS
- Despite being unable to match the capabilities of comparable laptops, its footprint remains enormous.
- Competitors using quad-core processors are giving dual-core a beating.
Price
The HP Spectre x360 (2021) can be bought in different ways and at different prices. A model with an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD starts at $1,149.99 in the US. In the UK, the base model costs £1,199.99 and has an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.
The version we will review here has an Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The price is £1,399.99 or $1,349.99. There is also a model with the same CPU and RAM that costs £1,699.99, a 1TB SSD, and a 4K OLED screen. The Spectre x360 also has three different screen sizes: 13 inches, 15 inches, and 13.5 inches. The 13.5-inch screen has a larger 16:10 aspect ratio.
Ports, sound, and display
Even though the Spectre x360 15T has a small body, it still has a lot of ports. You get three USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a full-sized HDMI port, a mini DisplayPort, an SD card reader, and a combo analogue audio jack. HP also has a futuristic-looking USB-C port, but it doesn’t work with Thunderbolt 3.0. Instead, it only works with USB 3.1 Gen 1. Even though it’s USB 3.1, the speed is almost identical to USB 3.0.
Regarding the sound, HP put four Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers inside the Spectre x360 15T, but they aren’t as loud as the speakers in other laptops in the same price range. They aren’t bad, but I thought the B&O name would be better. Our review unit’s screen is a 1920×1080 IPS panel that can be used with touch.
CPU
Even though the Spectre x360 15T looks good, it has a hard job ahead of it: convincing people that it’s worth giving up the speed that most companies put into their top-of-the-line 15.6-inch computers. Dell’s XPS 15, Samsung’s Book 9 Pro, and Apple’s MacBook Pro 15 are natural rivals. They all have quad-core and separate GPUs, but the Spectre x360 15T only has a dual-core CPU and built-in graphics. How important is that show? Yes, it’s just as important in some tests as Ron Burgundy thinks it is. Compared to other computers with two processors, the HP does pretty well. The Core i5-6200U chip is just a step down from the Core i5-6300U chip in a Surface Pro 4. But the story is different when it comes to quad-core computers. The dual-core CPUs are no match for the quad-core CPUs from Dell and Samsung. They’re also bigger and heavier.
Design
You’d expect a high-end design with a high price tag, and HP’s HP Spectre x360 (2021) is just that. We never doubted it would, because the last model was one of the best-looking computers we’ve ever seen. So, it’s unsurprising that HP’s new model is another beautiful laptop. The Spectre x360 looks the same as the previous model, which isn’t bad since we liked how it looked. The Spectre x360 is made of brushed metal and has various colour choices.
The screen can flip back, turning the Spectre x360 into a tablet-like device. The 360-degree hinge feels solid and reliable. The word “Spectre” is carved on the right side, a nice touch that adds to the general high-end feel of the Spectre x360. On the right is an audio-in jack and a full-size USB port. A full-size USB port on such a thin, light laptop is a nice touch.
On the left are two USB-C ports, a microSD port, and a webcam kill switch. The second one lets you turn off the webcam when you’re not using it. This is an excellent tool for people who care about their privacy. It’s a big selling point, and it shows, along with the full-size USB port and microSD slot, that a thin, light laptop can have multiple links without sacrificing design. It sure beats the two USB-C ports on the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) and MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020).
Battery Life
The HP Spectre x360 (2021) has a long battery life, one of the most critical ways that Intel Evo technology improves quality of life. Our battery life test, which runs a 1080p video file at 50% brightness until the battery dies, lasted an incredible 11 hours and 22 minutes. The last HP Spectre x360 also did well in this test, with a score of 10 hours and 55 minutes.
Still, the extra half-hour is excellent, and it shows that the more powerful parts haven’t made the battery life worse. So, the Spectre X360’s battery is excellent and well-balanced. It can last just as long with light use as with average use.
This laptop can quickly get you through an entire workday, making it an excellent choice for business users who want a device with superior performance and great looks that don’t need to be plugged in until they get home.
