HP Specter x360 14 Review

Our verdict

This 2-in-1 laptop combines beauty, power and intelligence to create the ultimate entertainment hub and workhorse.

To the

Outstanding sound quality

star display

Intuitive touchscreen and pen control

Ultra portable

Against

Very expensive

Limited port connectivity on less expensive models

No 10 button option

Pen input difficult for left-handers

Today's best HP Specter x360 14 deals

$2,059

at Amazon

HP Specter x360 14: Specifications

Price:

$1,669 as verified

CPU:

Intel Core i7-1165G7

Advertisement:

14-inch 1920 x 1280 FHD (as tested) or 3000 x 2000 OLED touchscreen

Battery:

12:11 (tested)

Storage:

8GB

Storage:

256GB to 512GB SSD

Dimensions:

11.75 x 8.67 x 0.67 inches

Weight:

2.95 pounds

The HP Specter x360 14 is a convertible laptop powerhouse with top-of-the-line hardware that delivers outstanding performance for both work and play. Available in three colors (silver, black, and navy) and with an ultra-slim profile of just 0.67 In inches, the HP Specter x360 offers a touch of sophisticated style that complements its internal components perfectly. Whether your office is where you are today or looking to upgrade your laptop at home, you hardly will find a better option.

However, buyers be warned, this 2-in-1 laptop comes at a steep price. Entry-level models start at $1,369 (although HP is reducing that to $1,249 at the time of publication), meaning many customers are looking for cheaper ones Need to search for options. However, if you're willing to spend a little more to get a quality laptop that will serve you well for years, or just want to buy the best of the best, the HP Specter x360 14 is an excellent option. Indeed it's so good that it won the Best Laptop Design award in ours

Tom's Guide Awards 2021

.

HP Specter x360 14 (1TB) at Amazon for $2,059

HP Specter x360 14 Review: Pricing and Availability

As mentioned earlier, this laptop's impressive performance and beautiful design comes at a steep price. With a starting price of $1,369, it's comparable to laptops like the Core i7

Dell XPS 13

($1,259) and the

MacBook Pro 13

($1,299). You can get one from the official HP Store or Intel website, or try your luck at major retailers if you want to get lucky with a good deal or retail price.

I tested the $1,669.99 version, which comes with an Intel Core i7-1165G7 2.8GHz quad-core CPU (which can be overclocked to 4.7GHz), 512GB Solid State Drive, 16GB RAM, integrated Intel Xe graphics and a 14-inch FHD touchscreen display.

It comes with a rechargeable MPP2.0 Tilt Pen, perfect for digital artists or anyone who prefers to take handwritten notes during class or meetings, and a faux leather protective case to prevent damage while in use are stowed in your backpack. Carrying case or carry-on. I suggest going for the 1TB SSD and 2K OLED screen options to ensure you have plenty of space for projects and optimal color ranges if you're working with photography, video or graphics.

HP Specter x360 14 Review: Design

The HP Specter x360 14's body is machined aluminum and is available in three colors. The Poseidon Navy model I was able to test looks stunning and was the envy of households.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The 180-degree hinges feel sturdy and solid when the laptop folds into tablet mode or back into traditional laptop mode; there's virtually no lateral play, which is great for long-term durability.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The laptop weighs just under 3 pounds and manages to pack a 14 inch screen into an 11 inch body; this laptop is only 0.67 inches thin and easily fits into almost any bag when commuting to work are on a business trip or going to the library to finish a term paper.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The included protective case is made from smooth black faux leather with plenty of padding to protect your heavy investment from flexing, scratches and minor knocks and bumps.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The included rechargeable MPP2.0 Tilt Pen looks and feels like a high-quality traditional ink pen, and the input buttons are perfectly placed for left- or right-hand use. The pen comes with two extra tips, making for quick and easy tilting allow replacement if a tip is damaged or worn out.

HP Specter x360 14 in review: Connections

The model I tested featured a single USB-C port for connectivity and charging, a USB Type-A port, headphone/mic jack, microSD card reader, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless peripheral and device connections .I recommend buying the next configuration to get a second USB-C input if you want to connect a second monitor or quickly transfer files to an external storage device. The limited input ports might not be a nuisance for most users, but if you have multiple storage devices like flash drives or external hard drives, or want to connect peripherals like mice, it can be frustrating to constantly plug and unplug devices.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Even the Bluetooth 5.0 connection only allows for the setup of 2 simultaneous devices; bad news for anyone who has invested in multiple wireless peripherals like headsets and mice, or needs to connect multiple mobile devices to their laptop.

However, with Wi-Fi 6 compatibility, you can take advantage of next-generation wireless internet speeds to transfer files to and from cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive, making external physical storage a moot point. It's also perfect for anyone who makes frequent video calls and virtual meetings and needs a fast, reliable connection.

HP Specter x360 14 in review: Display

With your new Specter x360 14, you can choose between a 1920 x 1280 FHD or a 3000 x 2000 OLED touchscreen. The Full HD screen is sufficient for most applications at work or at home. HP claims that it can deliver up to 1000 nits of brightness depending on your customization options, which means you can watch videos or attend virtual meetings in almost any lighting environment and visual calls. It also has incredibly wide viewing angles.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The screen gets bright enough for most settings, and in our tests we measured an average brightness of 365 nits across the display. That's as good as Apple's latest MacBook Air (365 nits), but slightly behind competitors like that Dell XPS 13 (469 nits). Colors look great too; In our testing, the HP Specter x360 14 with a 1920 x 1080 FHD display covered 105.3% of the sRGB color spectrum, beating out the XPS 13 (97.9 %) but lagged behind the MacBook Air (114%).

I tested our review unit with YouTube and Hulu in both tablet and laptop modes, and even at extreme side angles, colors remained vibrant and lifelike. If you're a digital artist or work in video production, you might want the OLED touchscreen for more even brightness and improved colors and details.

Both options are made from Gorilla Glass to ensure durability when using touch controls with your hands or the Tilt Pen. The glass feels smooth and sturdy with very little flex, so you don't have to worry risk damaging your screen when you swipe, write, or tap away from your programs and files.

HP Specter x360 14 Review: Keyboard and Tilt Pen

The chiclet keyboard has an ultra-slim profile that feels great to type on. However, if you're used to Switch mechanical or optical keyboards, it might feel a bit "mushy" and take some getting used to. It has two levels of backlighting to make typing easier in almost any environment, and you can turn off the backlighting in bright rooms or switch off completely during distractions like in a meeting.

Both the display and trackpad allow for intuitive gesture controls; you can pinch, swipe, and tap the screen to zoom, and the trackpad allows pinch-and-fast-scrolling to zoom. Taking notes with the tilt pen feels almost exactly like that Writing with traditional pen and paper, and the program that analyzes handwriting in digitized text is great at picking out words and letters, even if you're like me and have terrible writing skills.

If you're left-handed, you might want to use Sticky Keys to lock the Windows start button and taskbar so you don't accidentally close your document or graphics program in the middle of a project. While it's a minor annoyance, it does the user-friendliness of the Tilt Pen comes in handy when you want to annotate a report or PowerPoint, write yourself a to-do list, or do some preliminary sketches for clients. The pen has two input buttons that can act as a right and left click on a mouse , or they can be adapted to whatever program you're working in for personalized shortcuts. This is great for quickly switching brushes in Photoshop or effects in Lightroom.

HP Specter x360 14 Review: Audio

HP has teamed up with Bang & Olufsen to bring high-quality audio to this slim little laptop. The four-speaker array above the keyboard delivers clean, clear sound in both laptop and tablet modes.

While many laptop speakers can "tinny" or "hum" at high volumes, Bang & Olufsen's speakers sound amazing even at full volume. From dialogue in movies and shows to industrial noise rock and techno, everything comes across loud and clear .I put on some podcasts and personal playlists while doing chores and could even hear everything clearly in other rooms in the house.

With the HP Audio Boost software included with the laptop, you can create custom audio mixers based on your music tastes and quickly and easily switch between multiple presets when you feel like doing something different.

HP Specter x360 14 Review: Performance

The Intel Core i7 CPU in our review unit can handle just about anything you can throw at it, from typical work programs like Google Docs, PowerPoint, and Chrome to streaming movies, music, and even casual gaming.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

While I wouldn't classify the Specter x360 14 as a gaming laptop, you shouldn't have any trouble playing games like Minecraft, Among Us, or Fortnite with friends for a few hours. More graphically demanding games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will do will definitely push the laptop to its limits, so maybe keep that on your desktop or console.

In terms of raw numbers, the HP Specter x360 14 review unit we tested scored a respectable average of 4,937 in our Geekbench 5 general performance test, beating out the similarly priced one

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371

(3880) but falls behind competitors like the Dell XPS 13 (5254).

The SSD is fast enough, as evidenced by the fact that the Specter x360 14 moved files at a decent clip of 764MB/s in our file transfer test (which measures how fast a laptop clones 25GB of files). That's decent, but behind competitors like the Dell XPS 13 (806 MB/s) and the

ZenBook Duo 14

(921Mbps).

If you want to edit video on the go, know that our Specter x360 14 review unit performed decently in our Handbrake video editing test, converting a 4K video to 1080p in just over 17 minutes. That's better than the 18 minutes , which our Dell XPS 13 review unit took to complete the same task, but much slower than the 7:44 minutes it took the MacBook Air to do it.

HP Specter x360 14 Review: Battery Life

This laptop has an updated 4-cell lithium-ion battery, which HP claims is 21.5 hours of continuous video playback; Our web browsing tests showed a battery life of just over 12 hours, which is typical for a typical work day is more realistic. That's better than the Dell XPS 13 (11:7 in test) and almost as good as the Lenovo Yoga 9i (11:15 in test). More importantly, you can spend all day or several days with it before you even have to think about connecting.

If you need to top up your battery, the USB-C port supports fast charging, so you can have up to 50 percent battery in just 45 minutes, so you can charge it during a lunch break or during a meeting.

HP Specter x360 14 Review: Security

The model I tested had basic options for work and home laptop security, in my opinion. It had a physical camera shutter and a dedicated mute button for the built-in microphone, which is both useful for virtual meetings and ensuring no one is in your office or listening to your calls without you knowing.

When you're dealing with sensitive information or creative projects, the integrated fingerprint reader creates a password-free login shortcut for important programs, files, and accounts to prevent theft and unauthorized access. The integrated webcam has infrared capabilities and works with Windows Hello to enable facial recognition for another layer of protection.

HP Specter x360 14 in review: Cooling

Since this is a slim 2-in-1 laptop, there isn't much room for air or liquid cooling to keep the device running at optimal temperatures. However, the built-in fans do a good job of removing heat from key components like of your CPU and push out of the vents on the bottom of the laptop.

During typical office work, the notebook never gets too warm and the fans stay relatively quiet, which is great for those who work in an open office or share workspaces with others. The HP Command Center app lets you choose from four presets for the Choose fan operation or manually control the fan to match your work. You can also use this app to monitor your fan speed and CPU temperature to spot problems before they escalate.

HP Specter x360 14 in review: conclusion

The HP Specter x360 14 is a great long-term investment for anyone looking to upgrade their mobile workstation. You can customize the configuration of the laptop on the HP official store site for the best balance of performance, performance and design.

If you're not tied to Windows, the

Apple MacBook Air with M1

gives you better battery life, better colors, and better photo/video editing performance for about the same price.

On the other hand, MacBook users looking to switch to a Windows-based computer will love the familiar feel of the HP Specter x360 14's keyboard and USB-C ports, as well as the beautiful FHD and 2K OLED displays The convertible 2-in-1 form factor is ideal for anyone looking to streamline their workflow and eliminate redundant devices like tablets. The 180-degree hinges make it a breeze to switch from a traditional laptop to a tablet for watching videos or to draw.

Though the price is steep, the premium components are worth the extra money to keep up with current and next-gen graphics and processing demands, as well as internet and WiFi connectivity.