Laptop & PC
HP Spectre x360 14: Keeping the 2-in-1 laptop dream alive 🌟
#HP Spectre x360
The core concept of the convertible, or 2-in-1 PC, hasn’t changed much over the last decade: Why limit yourself to a tablet when your laptop can fold a full 360 degrees? 🔄 This allows it to function as a large slate or a display propped up without a keyboard getting in the way. 📱 While most PC manufacturers have abandoned this form factor, HP is sticking to its guns. 🔫 Windows may never have evolved into the tablet-first platform Microsoft once imagined, but there is still undeniable value in a machine versatile enough to adapt to your workflow. 💼
That was my conclusion two years ago when I reviewed HP’s 16-inch Spectre x360. Now, the company is back with a more compact iteration, the Spectre x360 14. 💻 This model boasts Intel’s newest processors equipped with AI-accelerating NPUs (neural processing units) 🤖, significantly faster Intel Arc graphics 🎮, and a stunning 2.8K OLED panel. ✨ Best of all, unlike its bulkier predecessor, this 14-inch version is actually manageable as a handheld tablet. 🤳
#HP Spectre x360
Even if you have no intention of ever flipping the screen, the HP Spectre x360 14 stands on its own as an excellent premium laptop. 💎 For many, it offers a refreshing, traditional alternative to Dell’s new XPS 14, which features an invisible trackpad and a capacitive function row. ⌨️ While the XPS looks futuristic, adapting to its experimental inputs takes patience. ⏳ In contrast, the Spectre x360 14 is intuitive and familiar to anyone who has used a notebook computer. 📓 (You can figure out the rotating screen in ten seconds, whereas Dell’s invisible trackpad was still causing me grief hours into testing. 😫)
Design and hardware 🏗️
That sense of familiarity could be viewed as a lack of risk-taking on HP’s part. The Spectre x360 14 checks every box for a modern premium laptop: a sleek metal chassis, a vibrant screen with razor-thin bezels, and a spacious trackpad with haptic feedback. 🛠️ However, aesthetically, it doesn’t stray far from the 13-inch Spectre x360 I reviewed back in 2019. While it would be exciting to see a major design overhaul, I can’t fault HP for refining a formula that clearly works. 🧪
#HP Spectre x360
With this model, HP focused on subtle but meaningful refinements. ✨ It features a wider 14-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, moving away from the squarish 3:2 aspect ratio of the previous 13.5-inch model. 📏 The trackpad is now 19 percent larger—dominating the palm rest—and offers configurable haptic feedback. 🖱️ HP retained its fantastic keyboard but increased the keycap size by 12 percent for better typing accuracy. ✅ To streamline the deck, the power button and fingerprint sensor have been combined into a single key (though the laptop also supports Windows Hello facial recognition). 👤
Connectivity remains largely the same. 🔌 You get two USB-C ports on the right rear (one located on the signature cut corner), along with a drop-jaw USB Type-A port and a headphone jack on the left. 🎧 As is often the case, the lack of a built-in SD card reader is a disappointment, particularly for a machine targeted at creative professionals. 📸
Although the Spectre x360 14 looks like its predecessors, HP claims significant changes under the hood. 🏎️ It now runs on 28-watt Intel Core Ultra CPUs rather than the older 14-watt variants, supported by a cooling system that provides 10 percent better airflow. 🌬️ Impressively, HP implemented these performance upgrades without increasing the chassis thickness of 17 millimeters. 📏 Weighing in at 3.2 pounds, it is also slightly more portable than the 3.5-pound 14-inch MacBook Pro. 🍎
#HP Spectre x360
The webcam has received a substantial upgrade, jumping from a 5MP sensor to a 9-megapixel one. 📷 It utilizes hardware-enabled low-light adjustment via quad-binning—a process that combines data from four pixels into one to capture more light. 💡 This results in a brighter, sharper image during Google Meet and Zoom calls, with accurate colors. 📞 With Windows Studio Effects background blur enabled, the quality approached that of a mirrorless camera, though it did tend to overexpose in direct sunlight. ☀️
Audio performance is solid thanks to a quad-speaker array featuring two upward-firing tweeters near the keyboard and two front-facing woofers. 🔊 While the bass response is thin compared to Apple’s MacBook Pro, vocals and music remain surprisingly clear. 🎶 The system also achieves impressive volume levels without distortion—a feat for such a slim device. 🎸
#HP Spectre x360
Despite housing an NPU-equipped processor that accelerates tasks in Paint, ClipChamp, and Windows Studio Effects, the Spectre x360 14 doesn’t technically qualify as an “AI PC” by Intel and Microsoft’s standards. 🤖 The missing piece? A dedicated Windows Copilot key. ⌨️ Personally, I haven’t found that key essential on the XPS 14 or 16. Launching Copilot from the taskbar is easy enough that dedicating physical keyboard real estate to it feels unnecessary. 🖱️
In use 🚀
The HP Spectre x360 14 performed on par with other machines we’ve tested running Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H chip. It is snappy and efficient, offering a noticeable leap over systems from two years ago. 💨 My review unit, equipped with 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, scored 30 percent higher in the PCMark 10 benchmark than the 2022 Spectre x360 16 (6,493 points versus 4,785). 📊 In the multi-core Cinebench R23 test, the new model scored 78 percent higher, highlighting the strides Intel has made since its 11th-gen architecture. 👣
The most significant upgrade isn’t the AI capabilities, but rather the Intel Arc graphics. 🎮 These offer a dramatic improvement over older integrated graphics. In the 3DMark TimeSpy Extreme benchmark, the Spectre nearly matched the performance of the NVIDIA RTX 3050 found in the older x360 16 (1,435 points vs 1,730). 🏎️ That is remarkable for a device this thin and light. While it isn’t a dedicated gaming rig, I managed to play Halo Infinite at 1080p at around 30 fps, suggesting it can handle lighter indie games with ease. 🔫
#HP Spectre x360
Thanks to the generous RAM and the Core Ultra chip, the laptop handled my daily workload without a hitch. 💼 I routinely juggle dozens of browser tabs, photo editing software, YouTube streams, video calls, Slack, and Evernote simultaneously. 🌐 The OLED display makes everything look incredible, even basic text on a webpage. 🌈 With a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz, scrolling through content feels incredibly smooth. 📜
When I first tested a Spectre x360 five years ago, I fell in love with the keyboard. ⌨️ It offered a satisfying typing experience with ample travel and feedback—like a finely tuned instrument begging to be played. 🎹 Fortunately, HP hasn’t ruined that magic. The larger keycaps make typing even more comfortable, and the tactile feel is as excellent as ever. 👌
#HP Spectre x360
However, I do have reservations about the new trackpad. ⚠️ While the swiping is smooth and the haptic feedback feels indistinguishable from a physical click, the palm rejection software is sloppy. 🖐️ While typing rapidly, my palm would frequently brush the trackpad, causing the cursor to jump and select a different window. 🖱️ It happened often enough to disrupt my creative flow, and I hope HP can resolve this with a future software update. 🔄
As a convertible, the 14-inch Spectre is far more practical than its 16-inch counterpart. 🔄 A gentle push flips the screen around the keyboard, transforming it into a tablet or a “tent” for media consumption. ⛺ The 14-inch form factor works much better as a slate simply because it is lighter and easier to hold one-handed, though you will likely still want to rest it on your lap for extended use. 📱
Rotating the device feels less cumbersome due to the narrower display. I found myself using tent mode to watch YouTube in bed 🛌, and occasionally folding the keyboard back to use it as a stand-supported touchscreen on the couch. 🛋️ I find the versatility of a 2-in-1 much more pragmatic—and cost-effective—than the flexible OLED screens on emerging foldable laptops. 📂
#HP Spectre x360
The Spectre x360’s main weakness is battery life. 🔋 In the PCMark 10 Modern Office test, it lasted just five hours and ten minutes. ⏳ By comparison, the ZenBook 14 OLED managed 12 hours and 43 minutes. There is clearly a trade-off for maintaining such a thin profile. In real-world usage, I typically had to reach for the charger about six hours into my workday. 🔌
Pricing and the competition 💰
The Spectre x360 14 offers solid value for a high-end convertible, starting at $1,450 for a model with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. 🏷️ At the time of this writing, that model is discounted by $300, making it an even better deal. (HP deserves credit for skipping a paltry 8GB RAM option, which would bottleneck most users. 🍼) For $1,900, you can upgrade to the Core Ultra 7 155H, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD. 🚀
#HP Spectre x360