HP Spectre x360 14 review: Luxurious, with long battery life

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The luxurious HP Spectre x360 14 is back with some new bling—Intel’s Tiger Lake CPU. The results are as impressive as we’d hoped, with some of the fastest multi-core benchmark scores we’ve ever seen.

The features spoil you as much as the speed. With its roomy display, powerful graphics, and exceptional battery life, the Spectre x360 14 will please productivity mavens and content creators alike. Facial and fingerprint recognition, a physical camera shutter, and a Thunderbolt 4 port round out the perks.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Go there for information on competing products and how we tested them.

Specifications

Let’s take a look under the hood of the HP Spectre x360 model (1Q881AV) we reviewed, currently $1,590 on HP.com:

• CPU: Quad-core Intel Core i7-1165G7
• Memory: 16GB
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 13.5-inch, 1920×1280 IPS touch
• Webcam: 720p with physical camera shutter
• Connectivity: Thunderbolt 4, SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps Type-C, SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps Type-A, MicroSD memory card reader
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
• Biometrics: IR facial recognition, fingerprint reader
• Battery capacity: 66.5 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 11.75 x 8.67 x 0.67 inches
• Measured weight: 3 pounds (laptop), 0.6 pounds (AC adapter)

Two other Spectre x360 14 SKUs are available on HP.com. A less-expensive $1,300 version with a Core i5-1135G7 processor, 8GB of RAM rather than 16GB, and a smaller 256GB SSD with 16GB of Intel Optane memory. A pricier $1,960 model boasts the same basic specs as our review model save for a much larger 2TB storage drive and the addition of HP’s Sure View privacy display. A fourth Spectre x360 version that’s a Best Buy exclusive comes with a 3000×2000-pixel OLED display and a 1TB SSD with 32GB of Optane memory.

Our midrange model misses out on some niceties, but it doesn’t skimp on RAM or the CPU. Its Core i7-1165G7 processor and 16GB promising to deliver some serious horsepower. The integrated Intel Iris Xe GPU will be a plus for mobile content creators, while the 3:2 ratio of the Spectre x360’s 13.5-inch display (a first for the Spectre series) will make it easier to work with lengthy Word documents or Excel spreadsheets.

Thunderbolt 4 headlines the Spectre’s solid connectivity options,. There’s Wi-Fi 6 support for those with cutting-edge routers. In addition to the fingerprint and facial IR options, there’s even a rechargeable, MPP 2.0-compatible HP Tilt Pen included in the box.

Ben Patterson/IDG

The Spectre x360 14 comes with HP’s Command Center suite, which lets you manage how the laptop juggles its resources. First and foremost is Smart Sense: When your laptop’s on battery power, it optimizes performance based on your open applications. You can switch to more traditional “Balanced,” “Cool,” “Quiet,” and “Power Saver” modes, while a “Performance” mode lets you pull out the stops.

The Command Center also has a Network Booster that shoulders quality-of-service duties for bandwidth-intensive apps, while a Focus Mode helps you hone in on the task at hand by dimming non-active windows. Rounding out the Command Center’s features is an Adaptive Color mode that adjusts the display’s color temperature based on the ambient light. Display Control can tune the screen for color accuracy. Finally, a nifty “in-bag detection” feature optimizes the Spectre’s power consumption and keeps it cool while it’s sitting in a bag or a backpack.

The Spectre x360 14 bears Intel’s Evo brand, meaning it’s designed to certain specifications: 11th-gen Core i5 or Core i7 processors, a 12- to 15-inch display with a minimum full-HD resolution, a chassis no thicker than 15mm, and Intel’s Dynamic Tuning technology, which helps to optimize battery life by intelligently balancing CPU and GPU workloads.

Design

HP’s Spectre x360 laptops have long been sleek, gorgeous creatures, and this new Spectre x360 14 is no different. The Spectre’s CNC-machined, gem-cut edges and gold, logo-stamped hinges are as arresting as ever. The laptop has a solid, premium feel.

Ben Patterson/IDG

Of course, “solid” is a nice way of saying that the Spectre x360 14 feels a tad heavy. Having been spoiled by a series of lighter-weight systems over the past several weeks, I could feel the difference. On the plus side, the Spectre’s heft includes a generous 65 Watt-hour battery, and—as we’ll see a little later—that pays big dividends off AC.

Display

The HP Spectre x360 14 is the first of its family to come with a 3:2 aspect ratio on its display. Yes, you’ll see chunkier letterboxing while you’re watching full-screen movies, but you’ll be scrolling less while working in lengthy documents or spreadsheets. That’s a fair trade-off for mobile professionals.

Ben Patterson/IDG

The Spectre x360 14’s display is a pleasure to behold. It offers razor-slim bezels and a 90.33-percent screen-to-body ratio, for maximum viewing space. The display supports 100 percent of the DCI-P2 color gamut, which, on top of the aforementioned Adaptive Color and color-accuracy modes, should  keep creative types happy. The IPS display boasts wide viewing angles, but if it’s privacy you’re after, you could always opt for the Spectre SKU with HP’s Sure View privacy screen.

Keyboard, trackpad, speakers, webcam

The HP Spectre x360 14’s keyboard has a snappy, premium feel. Avid typists (I’m one of them) will get a kick out of the clicky keys. A laptop this size must skip the numeric keypad, but you do get a right-side column for the Delete, Home, Page Up/Down, and End keys.

Ben Patterson/IDG

The hotkey selection includes ones for the HP Command Center, keyboard backlighting (two steps are available), and mic mute. Yet another hotkey engages the webcam’s physical camera shutter. Speaking of the camera shutter, the Spectre x360 14 actually gives you visual feedback when the shutter is closed, something we wish more laptop vendors would implement.

Ben Patterson/IDG

The Spectre x360 14’s touchpad is about 13 percent larger than in previous Spectre models, and it allows for smooth, precise cursor control. Of course, a bigger trackpad can attract false inputs, but even when I deliberately mashed my palms on the bottom corners of the touchpad, the cursor barely budged.

You get two methods of biometric authentication with the HP Spectre x360 14, and both worked well. Sitting in the keyboard next to the right Alt key is a fingerprint reader, which reliably read my swipes. An IR camera for facial recognition is in the top display bezel. It did such a good job of unlocking Windows practically the moment I looked at the screen, I used it almost exclusively during my testing.

The Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers on the Spectre x360 14 are powered by an array of four up-firing drivers. While the audio is fine for Zoom calls and OK for music, don’t get your hopes up. Listening to “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” Bruce Springsteen’s spare vocals sounded relatively detailed, but the bass response was muted, even after fiddling with equalizer settings in the Bang & Olufsen audio app. 

I was more impressed by the Spectre x360 14’s 720p webcam. Videos still look characteristically grainy and blotchy, but the camera captures vivid color along with deep contrast, and the cam appears to be working overtime to tease out as much detail as possible. It will serve you well during Skype and Zoom calls.

Ports

The HP Spectre x360 14 comes with just a handful of ports, but they’re the right ones. As with previous Spectre laptops, there’s an angled Thunderbolt port on the rear right corner, only this time we’re talking Thunderbolt 4, which guarantees support for two 4K monitors or a single 8K display at 60Hz, docks with up to four Thunderbolt 4 ports, and the ability to handle longer cable runs, including 50-meter optical cables.

Ben Patterson/IDG

You also get SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps Type-C and Type-A ports for legacy devices, a microSD card reader, and a combo audio jack. Strangely, there’s no laptop security slot, so think twice before leaving this laptop unattended at Starbucks (remember going to Starbucks?).

Ben Patterson/IDG

Click here to read about the HP Spectre x360 14’s performance

• HP Spectre x360 14 1Q881AV

  It’s a little on the heavy side, but the HP Spectre x360 14 delivers the goods when its comes to sheer performance and battery life

  Pros

  • Sizzlingly fast multi-core performance
  • Gorgeous 3:2 display
  • IR and fingerprint biometrics
  • Physical camera shutter

  Cons

  • Feels a bit heavy at nearly three pounds