HP Spectre x360 15 (2019) review: A prettier, more powerful convertible than the last - brownhibed1997

The 2019 edition of the HP Phantom x360 15 convertible has a ossified act to follow. We previously awarded HP's Apparition x360 15 (2018) an Editor program's Choice award on the merits of its powerful GPU, 4K screen, and solid battery life. This class's model improves some performance and battery life, with a slightly redesigned aesthetic that appears as functional American Samoa it is attractive.

There is a price to be paid for such power, though. While our review model (15-df0xxx) starts at $1,550 from HP.com, the price jumps to sporting over $2,000 for our reassessmen social unit configuration—just about $300 much the price Horsepower effervescent for our fairly similar 2018 review unit. At 4.62 pounds, the Ghost x360 15 weighs much you'd expect. And in the ongoing flagship war betwixt Dell's XPS line of reasoning and and HP's Specter line, the Dingle XPS 15 9570 again comes retired on pinnacle in terms of execution—though with a far less detailed display. It's as wel importantly cheaper.

Horsepower Spectre x360 15 (2019) basic specs

As befits a flagship, the Horsepower Spectre x360 15 we tested is stuffed to the grilles with high-end parts. Here are the details.

• Display: 15.6-inch ultra-all-embracing viewing angle (UVWA) WLED (3840×2160) (as reliable), or FHD (1920x1080p); protected away Corning Gorilla Field glass NBT
• Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-8750H (6-core "Java Lake, as tested) operating room 1.8GHz Core i7-8565U (4-nub Whiskey Lake)
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 1050Ti MaxQ 4GB (as tested); Nvidia GeForce MX150 2GB
• Memory: 16GB DDR4
• Storage: 512GB-1TB SSD (1TB as tested)
• Ports: 1 USB-A, 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt, fast charging), HDMI, microSD, mic/headphones
• Television camera: FHD camera (exploiter facing); IR depth camera (user-facing, Windows Hello)
• Wireless: 802.11ac (2×2), Bluetooth 5
• Battery: 80Wh (measured)
• Operating arrangement: Windows 10 Home
• Dimensions: 14.22 x 9.84 x 0.76 inches (19.35 mm)
• Weight: 4.62 pounds, 5.46 pounds with charger, 5.50 pounds with charger and pen
• Colours: Dark Ash tree Flatware (Copper Luxe accents); Poseidon Bluish (Pale Brass accents)
• Bundled Accessories: HP Digital Pen

• Price:Core i7/GeForce 1050Ti, $2049.99 (as tested), HP.com. A version with a Core i7-8565U and MX150 GPU is $1,599 from Best BuyRemove not-production link.

A slenderly chunky sofa bed

HP's luxurious Spectre x360 laptop computer fills the gap 'tween content creation and a true play PC. The chassis is made of CNC-machined Al, and you straight off get color choices: Dark Ash Silver with atomic number 29 accents which concealment the laptop's vertical sides, or Poseidon Blue with similar light brass accents. Our Blue review unit seemed to accumulate fingerprints and smears quickly, at least on the palm rest.

As the name suggests, the x360 is a full 360-degree convertible, flipping easily from a modal grapple orientation through tent mode into something approximating a lozenge. The latter musical mode, though, is much theoretical than practical, equally the laptop weighs a chunky 4.62 pounds—not something you'd want to conceal two hands, let alone one, for long.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The HP Spectre x360 15 (2019) flips transposed into camp mood. Toting around as a tablet, though, isn't worth the endeavour. Note the large bezels, top and bit ottom.

The Spectre x360 15 (2019) structure seems sturdy sufficiency, though there was a bit of chassis flex when the laptop's base by chance outspread off the end of my desk and I tried to type—the baseborn extends about 10 inches colourful, after all.

Spacious fan vents on the right and left vertical edges pull cool air in and push hot broadcast out. Dissimilar the Spectre x360 13 (2019), there's no "quiet musical mode" moderate that shuts the fans forth entirely. HP says this new Spectre x360 15 features larger dual fans with dual radiators, an IR thermal sensor, and busy three heat pipes. In the proper world that means that flatbottomed under load, the Spectre x360 15 (2019)'s fan noise was relatively unobtrusive, otherwise more or less slender whine. Suck in such a large bulk of air also means that the laptop computer shut down its fans quickly, though they would occasionally birl up softly even when not in wont. The Fantasm x360 15's undersurface never exceeded being somewhat warm when using HP's recommended power settings, which balance performance and heat.

Mark Hachman / IDG

There are sizable cooling vents on the HP Spectre x360, which help to minimize the time during which the laptop's lover necessarily to exist in use. Even after a long stress test, the lover squinched off a minute Oregon so late. A microSD slot is as wel decorated on the side of the chassis.

HP says it will offer the Spectre x360 15 with two cover options, apiece with trade-offs: a super bright, 650-nit 1080p Sure View option, which helps shield your screen from someone looking at over your shoulder; and what we tested: a more conventional though still impressive 4K display. Viewing angles are excellent, with emotional to no loss of brightness when viewed from an immoderate angle. Even so, its 300-nit maximum brightness, piece well above the 250-nit threshold that we consider to be passable, feels a bit spare for a laptop at this price. HP obviously made its decisiveness to maximize battery life. Yet, we'd prefer the option of dialing information technology down ourselves.

You'll also see a rather hefty chin close the screen, though HP says that it's shrunk by virtually 2 millimeters. All told, the bezels take in shrunk about 11 percent from the prior generation, Horsepower says, although information technology's far from an edge-to-edge screen out.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Our review whole shipped in Poseidon Blue, with Pale Plaque accents.

The HP Spectre x360 15 (2019) does not transport with Intel's 1-watt LPDT panel. The 13-inch Spectre x360 does, however, offer humongous battery life for those who favour it.

What's new: Diamond edges and a privacy camera

The nearly distinctive new visual element on the Spectre x360 (2019) are the angled, "diamond" edges along the rear corners of the laptop computer. But they'Re not upright esthetic improvements—H.P. tucked the king button on the left lift corner, and a USB-C port happening the right rear corner. Even the lour corners of the screen have a similar diamond cutout. The right raise corner's angled edge neatly accommodates the USB-C porthole as well as a connecting cable. (Both USB ports support Thunderbolt.) Information technology totally fits together nicely.

Saint Mark Hachman / IDG

The virtually distinctive sense modality element of the HP Spectre X360 15 is the room in which its rear corners have been flattened to accommodate a USB-C/Thunderbolt port happening the right butt corner…

While I'm non positive that the angled corners offer any functional improvements ended side- or fundament-decorated ports, I'm happy to cheer stylistic flourishes like this one. If I were to compare the Spectre x360 with its rival, Dell's XPS laptop, I'd give the edge on esthetics to the H.P. Spectre x360.

Mark Hachman / IDG

…and the power button on the rear left corner. The headphone jack and an HDMI port sit alongside.

One of the more intriguing features of the HP Shade x360 15 (2019) is what HP calls its Privacy Camera Kill Switch, fashioned to disable the webcam when non in use. And when we enjoin "disable," that's exactly what we mean: a physical switch on the right-hand edge of the Phantom's chassis literally removes the Windows driver from Windows, preventing information technology from working. It straight disappears from the tilt of available devices. When you flip the switch back, the television camera returns.

Mark Hachman / IDG

When flipped on, the kill electric switch electrically disables the webcam.

It's a novel resolution, and plays into the growing (though possibly unfounded?) concern that hackers may utilisation your webcam to spy on you without your noesis. Still, we can't help wondering: Most smart speakers ship with a release that disables the microphone. HP's solution, like the Lenovo Think Shutter and others, leaves the mic up and running. Wherefore?

(The Spectre x360 includes far-field mics that picked up my voice readily across a quiet room. The laptop can also listen for the wake word "Hey Cortana" even when sound asleep, though you'll penury to enable that functionality inside the Settings > Cortana >Talk to Cortana Windows Settings menu.)

Disabling the tv camera leave also ripple through other apps. Windows Hello will only sense the presence of the fingerprint reader, for illustration, and Skype South Korean won't think you have a camera for sale, either.

A sufficient typewriting experience

Typing on the Spectre X360 15 (2019) can be a mixed bag. The key go around is a generous 1.5mm, with two backlighting levels, and the feel is springy, without excessive resistance.

Mark Hachman / IDG

As a lefty, I was pleased to see HP let in a devoted numeric keypad, as it has previously. (Different dextral gamers who use the WASD keyboard, some lefties use the number pad for keyboard manipulate.) As a solvent, the backspace key isn't tucked gone to the remote upper right of the keyboard, as information technology normally is. The Insert, Delete, Page Dormie, and Paginate Descending keys reside there as an alternative. representing a flimsy change from other keyboard alignments.

The Spectre x360 15's keys are just a little to a fault small to beryllium entirely comfortable under my fingers, though. Ironically, if you prefer a larger key, you should probably choose the Spectre x360 13. Though it's a smaller machine, it forgoes the number pad, giving the keys more room to spread out. (To be fair, Ben Patterson reviewed the HP Spectre x360 15 (2018) and found zero fracture with the keys, indeed the difference may be subjective.)

The Spectre x360's trackpad is a spot smaller than nearly, and aligned just about, but not quite, in line with the space bar. Some small, obsessive part of me rebelled against confining my wrists to the left part of the soma, just it real should make no difference in day-to-day employ.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Somehow, the fingerprint reader took about a second to record my fingerprint. But the Spectre x360's "wake up on fingerprint" feature is very spacious.

Though cobbler's last yr's Spectre x360 placed the fingermark reader along the side of the chassis, the current 2019 model places the small fingerprint reader warm the top of the ribbon rest. While the Spectre x360's fingerprint reader didn't seem as responsive as that inside the Huawei Matebook 13, I didn't notification any accuracy issues in my time with the Spectre x360 15. In my experience, error rates on fingerprint readers can increase over time, forcing you to recalibrate.

At that place's also the previously mentioned HD-quality drug user-facing camera, whose IR component is Windows Hello-competent. Turning off the camera via the "pour down switching" too disables the Windows Hello depth camera, though the fingerprint reader dismiss be utilised instead. The redundancy is a thoughtful touch, allowing a user to maximize seclusion without sacrificing all the convenience of Windows Hello.

One surface area the Spectre x360 15 (2019) doesn't shirk on is audio performance. Sound booms from the four interracial speakers. Even rarer, I noticed distinct stereo separation 'tween the right and left over speakers. The Spectre seems to labour the midrange pretty strongly, somewhat overwhelmingly in parts. On the other hand, same of the test songs I use, Fleetwood Mackintosh's Go Your Possess Way, sounded the best I can think back hearing from laptop speakers.

Mark Hachman / IDG

What is it about PC makers' house-brand audio apps that makes controls so difficult to find? HP's Audio Control app is zero different—at that place's no link inside Windows' own Settings bill of fare, so discovering it is almost an exercise in trial and error.

HP's Spectre x360 bundles an HP Pen which inks well, though with noticeable latency before the ink appears. It's a modular two-clit pen; past default, one clit is accustomed select text or otherwise objects, while the bottom button erases. Alas, erasing with the nib never works all that cured. The Spectre also lacks a holster or one-armed bandit to stock the pen, thus good luck stressful to restrain racecourse of it. The enclosed pen uses a standard AAAA battery; HP also offers an HP Tilt PenRemove non-product link with a rechargeable barrage fire for $79.99.

Mark Hachman / IDG

HP includes a compose with the Spectre x360 15, but no place to store it.

A significant amount of bloatware ships with the Horsepower Spectre x360 15. Several HP apps, including the Horsepower Sound Control app and HP Command Center, provide useful controls to aline performance and other settings. Horsepower ePrint tracks your printing orders. HP JumpStart offers tips and tricks, and HP Pen Control allows you to assign actions to the write out buttons.

Thither's also the usual complement of Windows bloatware: twoCandy Crush games,Fitbit Coach, and more. A Dropbox promo offers 25GB of space free for a twelvemonth, nevertheless, and a year's subscription to McAfee LiveSafe is too enclosed.

Improved performance and battery life

HP positions the Spectre x360 (2019) A a gimmick for "creative enthusiasts," such as amateur or professional photographers operating theatre video editors. HP aforementioned it's trying to aim a middle ground 'tween those World Health Organization might call for in writing horsepower and those who might enjoyment the Apparition x360 for to a greater extent traditional drawing apps, therefore the indite.

HP's Apparition x360 15 (2019) doesn't use the absolute latest 8th-gen mechanized chips, only the six-core Deep brown Lake 2.2GHz Core i7-8750H chip is an H-series part, the family of insurance premium, 45-watt Core parts for notebooks. Launched in the second quarter of 2018, it offers excellent performance against rivals powered by quad-core processors. Alternatively, you bottom prefer for a version of the Spectre x360 15 (2019) powered by a 1.8GHz Core i7-8565U, a 15-W, to a greater extent modern Amber Lake Core processor that should offer better battery life.

From a testing standpoint, we'atomic number 75 transitioning from a database chuck-full of the older 3DMark 8 scores to the more modern 3DMark 10 bench mark. Both tests direction on the same actual-world productiveness tasks, even using apps like OpenOffice to labor spreadsheet calculations.

Commemorate Hachman / IDG

Though you can adjust the thermal profiles, we couldn't discover any meaningful difference in, say, dialing up the performance.

It's worth noting that while the included Horsepower Command Center software allows you to run the Spectre x360 in Performance and Comfort modes, our tests showed little difference. A an example, our HandBrake exam finished a moment quicker low Execution mode—but that worked out to about a 4 percentage improvement, with the fans at their rich, noisiest speed all the while. Results tested using Cinebench and PCMark 10 were equally inconclusive.

The nonremittal is "HP Recommended," which actively adjusts organization performance in response to temperature. This mode appears to follow perfectly tolerable for everyday use. (A "Quiet" mode appears on the HP Spectre x360 13, but was far from the 15-inch model because of its unfitness to flex the buff off completely with a separate GPU, we're told.)

PCMark 8 breaks down into three separate tests: Work, which focuses happening spreadsheet, textbook editing, HTML, and VOIP calls; the Home test, which leans a little more into photograph editing and light play, and the Creative test, which aligns more with HP's objective audience. The last mentioned emphasizes photo and video redaction equally well as play applications, and stresses the GPU more than the different two tests. We've used the PCMark Work and Creative tests, here.  Note that HP's Spectre x360 Kaby Lake-G experiment from yesteryear outperforms the Spectre x360, as does the MSI GS65, a true play notebook that we added for comparison's sake.

Pit Hachman / IDG

Present, the Spectre x360's performance falls midway down the pack, though you'll notice no slowdowns in everyday office tasks.

In both PCMark 8 tests, the HP Spectre x360 15 falls a scra behind its chief rival, the Dingle XPS 15, though both of that May atomic number 4 due to the remote greater resolution of the Spectre x360's screen.

Saint Mark Hachman / IDG

The PCMark Creative try out lights-out the Spectre x360's GPI a little more heavily. Again, though, the Dell XPS tops IT.

PCMark 10 combines a number of more modern workloads under one umbrella, oblation a one-man score too as the chance to dig down into individual tests in the scoring summary. Our database happens to include several competitors, presenting a clean comprehensive performance landscape. The Spectre x360 15 dwells in the middle of the large number.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Note that our limited PCMark database compares to the Dell XPS 13, non the 15-inch model. Still, there's nothing to lour at, here. The Acer Piranha Helios is some other gaming Personal computer.

Maxon's Cinebench benchmark renders a 3D scene using all disposable CPU cores and threads. Think of this test as a dash, or as a deadlift—it's a quick test of the available power of the CPU. Here, the Spectre x360 does well.

Marking Hachman / IDG

In the Cinebench rendering tests, the Spectre x360 15's 6-core processor chews through the benchmark apace.

HandBrake, by contrast, is more of a marathon. The open-rootage video changeover tool around converts a afloat-length Hollywood movie into format appropriate for an Android tablet. It's a secure way to infer if the laptop can hold up under load, and whether the cooling solution is adequate to snuff. It's nonmoving mostly CPU nonvoluntary, though. Note the time: Taking just 33 minutes to transcode a roughly 90-minute movie is excellent, some from a congener performance standpoint as well every bit a practical use of the Shade's computing major power.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Subordinate load, the HP Spectre x360 15 (2019) holds its own. This is an fantabulous HandBrake  solution.

For an evaluation of the GPU, we turn to the 3DMark tests. Our tests typically use the Sky Diver DirectX11 mental testing, spanning a range of notebooks. We also directly compared the Dell XPS 15 9570 and HP's Specter x360 15 in a more advanced benchmark, Fire Run into, which we usually use with gaming PCs. Here, Dingle's XPS 15 (score: 6,881) is 4 per centum better than the tested Spectre x360 (rack up: 6614).

Print Hachman / IDG

There's often of variance in these 3DMark comparisons, mainly due to the GPU. This result indicates that the Spectre x360 15 (2019) performs some what you'd expect from a premium content-founding PC, without quite reaching gaming-PC status.

Finally, at that place's shelling life sentence. We would require a discrete GPU and 4K cover to crimp battery life somewhat. HP predicted we'd see about 13.5 hours, using local video playback as a try. That's the agency we exam, besides, though we usually dial raised the brightness to what we consider to be available levels: betwixt 250 and 260 nits of luminosity. Inside, the HP Spectre x360 15 includes an 80 watt-hour assault and battery, at the high end for 15-inch notebooks.

Mark Hachman / IDG

All over x hours of battery life is perfectly acceptable for the H.P. Spectre x360 15, though it's nonetheless outmatched away Dell's offer. Dell's control panel is only 1080p, however.

Retrieve, the Specter x360 x15 (2018) hind end be configured with either a 650-nit SureView panel, or, equivalent our brush up unit, with a 4K instrument panel that puts retired more or less 300 nits, maximum.

Should you buy the HP Spectre x360 15?

If the more powerful Kaby Lake-G adaptation of the 2018 HP Spectre x360 15 commutable earned itself an Editor's Choice award, then it's not overmuch of a stretch to award the 2019 version one, overly. The 2019 version outperforms the 2018 reading in most of our benchmarks, including artwork, and offers more battery life besides. In terms of the competition, though, you'll have to decide: Dell's XPS 15 9570 is undoubtedly a better value, though HP's Phantasm is simply more attractive. That price track, though….

HP makes its case past including a potent 6-core processor, 4K screen, and distinct GPU. It's also worth applauding HP's continued push to improve, not just iterate, with its angled aesthetic and camera kill switch. H.P.'s Spectre x360 15 continues to drive hard to build upon an already excellent design, and its continuing commitment to innovation earns it our top award.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/403373/hp-spectre-x360-15-2019-review.html

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