Review: HP Spectre x360 15

Introduction and design

The ultra-light and thin craze has undeniably changed the landscape of Ultrabooks, and now it's transforming the world of 15-inch laptops. In 2015, we saw some incredibly thin and powerful notebooks, like the Toshiba Satellite Radius 15 and Dell XPS 15.

Now HP, introduces the Spectre x360 15, one of the thinnest 15-inch, 2-in-1 laptops.

Measuring just 0.63 inches (16mm) thin, it comes at the same thickness as its 13-inch Ultrabook sibling, the HP Spectre x360. What's more, the starting weight of this rig is just four pounds, making the HP Spectre x360 15 truly one of the thinnest and lightest 15.6-inch laptops of this year so far.

Design

The Spectre x360 15 is an absurdly thin notebook. When you hold it from the side, it feels a bit crazy that it's as thin as its Ultrabook sibling. What's more, it's just a gorgeous piece of machinery built with an entirely aluminum chassis.

The all-metal body makes it feel as if you're wielding a shorter version of Cloud's sword from Final Fantasy VII. It doesn't help that this convertible has oddly wide dimensions, making it one long slab of metal. Meanwhile, its front edges meet to create a defined, curved wedge.

Luckily, it's not designed to be as sharp as the cheese-cutting MacBook Air. Instead, the edges are blunt, nicely rounded and feature a mirrored finish, a classy touch some might remember from HP's original 13-inch hybrid.

The 15-inch Spectre x360 is basically a blown up of its smaller predecessor in a similar way to the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Like Apple, HP stuck with the same number pad and focused on improving the sound system by adding a pair of speaker grills instead of bolting on a number pad.

The keyboard layout has been changed up with a new side row of shortcut keys, like a Home and Delete key. While they're meant to helpful, they often get in the way. For example, when I mean to reach for the Enter key normally found on the edge of the keyboard, I end up hitting the Page Down button and go flying down webpages instead.

I also wish HP would have used up more of the available space on the keyboard deck for larger keys. As it stands, the keyboard is like a tightly knit set of island keys floating in a sea of aluminum. HP could have made each chiclet key larger by either expanding the keyboard's overall size, or reducing the amount of space between each key.

HP's extra wide trackpad makes a return on this 2-in-1 laptop. The pointing device's broad proportions make more sense here than with a 13-inch model, but it's still positioned askew in the middle. If your hands are on the home row, some of your palm will sit on the trackpad at all times, causing all manner of accidental mouse tapping and zoom gestures.

You can easily avoid this by turning off some of the gesture controls, but that will eliminate some of the functionality of Windows 10. Thankfully, when you're not rubbing against it while typing, the trackpad feels almost as smooth as glass and delivers a decent click.

The Spectre x360 15 may have a number of annoying quirks, it's an undoubtedly premium device. Its all-metal body is still a rarity in the Windows laptop world, and, on a 15-inch system, it's almost unheard of.

You also get a larger selection of ports, including three USB 3.0 ports with an SD card reader. HP has included a USB Type-C port, but it only supports data and charging devices. Luckily, you won't find yourself up the creek without a video connection, as the Spectre x360 15 also has built-in HDMI and mini DisplayPort options.

Sound off

One of the HP Spectre x360 15's more notable features is its four speakers spread across the top and bottom of the base. While it might seem this quad-speaker setup was designed to amplify the sound space by firing off at the same time, only two tweeters activate at a time, depending on whether you're using the machine as a traditional notebook or holding onto it as a tablet.

By simply being forward facing, the 15-inch hybrid's speakers sound better than the usual bottom or side-firing tweeters typically found in notebooks. At lower volumes, the speakers produce a balanced listening experience with audible lows and softened highs. However, when you start to turn it up – and you will have to often – the audio experience falls apart into a tinny mess.

Similarly, the 2-in-1's 15-inch screen renders deep colors and distinct levels of contrast, but it's not very bright. Even in a well-lit office, I often find myself increasing the screen brightness past 50%. You'll also have to max out the display's backlight, if you plan on using the machine next to a sunlit window. Even then you're still dealing with a considerable amount of glare.

Specifications and performance

As mentioned before, the Spectre x360 15 looks like an outlandishly wide laptop, but in reality it's actually narrower than other 15-inch laptops. The hybrid's broad 14.8 x 9.75 x 0.63-inch (37.6 x 26.8 x 1.6cm; W x D x H) shape is exaggerated by the rest of the machine's more modest dimensions.

Thanks to being smaller, the HP machine is easier to slip into a bag than the 15.04 x 9.94 x 0.78-inch (38.2 x 25.3 x 2cm) Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1. Meanwhile, the Toshiba Satellite Radius 15 is slightly more compact with its 14.9 x 9.6 x 0.79-inch (37.8 x 24.4 x 2cm) dimensions.

No matter how you slice it, though, there's no denying this hybrid is lighter than your typical 15-inch laptop at 4.02 pounds (1.82kg). By comparison, Dell and Toshiba are heavier convertibles, weighing 4.7 pounds (2.13kg) and 4.96 pounds (2.25kg), respectively.

Spec Sheet

Here is the HP Spectre x360 15 configuration sent to techradar for review:

CPU: 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-6200U (dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.8GHz with Turbo Boost)Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520RAM: 8GBScreen: 15.6-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 Full HD, WLED-backlit, IPS touchscreenStorage: 256GB Flash SSDPorts: 1 x USB 3.0 Type-C, 3 x USB 3.0, HDMI, mini DisplayPort, headset jackConnectivity: Intel 802.11ac WLAN and BluetoothCamera: HP TrueVision Full HD webcam with dual digital microphonesWeight: 4.02 poundsSize: 14.8 x 9.75 x 0.63 inches (W x D x H)

What you see above is the basic configuration for the HP Spectre x360 15, priced at $1,149 (about £806, AU$1,607). It's by no means an affordable 15-inch laptop, which mostly start around $700 (about £494, AU$967) for a similarly basic Intel Core i5 processor and 500GB hard drive.

That said, most 15-inch laptops don't come built entirely out of metal with a 1080p display, convertible features or even a touchscreen right out of the gate.

Dell offers some stiff competition in its Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 for $1,049 (about £741, AU$1,449). On top of costing less, you're getting a high-end spec version of the Dell hybrid that's even better equipped with a UHD display and Intel Core i7 CPU.

If you're willing to spend a little more, you can also get Toshiba's Satellite Radius 15 for $1,249 (about £882, AU$1,725). Like the convertible Inspiron, the Radius 15 is a better-equipped machine than the Spectre x360 15, with a sharp 4K screen and 12GB of RAM giving it more to multitask with.

Fortunately, the optional 4K screen is only a $60 upgrade for the Spectre x360 15 in the US. Australians, however, wont' have much choice for this upgrade as the laptop isn't available for the region. HP's 15-inch hybrid is only available in the UK with a 4K display, faster Core i7 CPU and double the storage and RAM for £1,299 or $1,549 (about AU$2,166) – roughly what you would pay for a fully decked out Ultrabook.

I have to hand it to Dell for having the best value-oriented laptop – and a solid one, at that. If you're looking for an extremely color-correct display, the Toshiba Radius 15 excels in this category.

The Spectre x360 15 is a premium device with an all-aluminum shell, and the bigger price tag reflects this. It's also the lightest and thinnest system out of these three laptops, but whether paying more for the extra portability is worth it is up to you.

Performance

Thanks to Intel's latest line of Skylake processors, the Spectre x360 15 flies even with the lowest-end Core i5 processor. The 15-inch hybrid easily tackles everyday tasks from web browsing to image editing as well as some light gaming.

However, without a discrete GPU, like the 15-inch MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 15 proudly tout, this system doesn't pass muster on games more graphically intensive than the odd round of Hearthstone or exploring the storied woods in FireWatch.

Benchmarks

Here's how the HP Spectre x360 15 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Cloud Gate: 5,661; Sky Diver: 3,452; Fire Strike: 848Cinebench CPU: 288 points; Graphics: 42 fps,GeekBench: 3,022 (single-core); 6,395 (multi-core)PCMark 8 (Home Test): 2,719 pointsPCMark 8 Battery Life: 5 hours and 23 minutes

While my review sample only came sporting a lower-end Core i5 chip, it still put up some impressive benchmark scores that wiped the floor with the Dell and Toshiba's respective hybrids.

In the PCMark 8 test, which simulates a day's worth of tasks including video chatting and photo editing, the 15-inch Spectre scored 2,719 points. By comparison, the Broadwell-powered Dell and Toshiba topped out with 2,239 and 2,179 points, respectively.

Graphically, the HP hybrid also pulled ahead, delivering 3,452 points in the Sky Diver 3DMark benchmark. Thanks to the major enhancements to integrated graphics in Skylake, the Inspiron 15 lags behind again with only 2,547 points. The Radius 15 also suffers from this generational gap in silicon and in pushing a higher-resolution 4K screen, two factors which end up dragging down its Sky Diver score to 2,452 points.

Battery for (half-)days

Higher benchmark scores are nice and all, but the laptop's most impressive figures come from its long battery life. Thanks to packing a denser 64.5WHr battery, the Spectre x360 15 lasted for 5 hours and 23 minutes on the PCMark 8 battery test. Dell's 15-inch, 2-in-1 laptop lasted for a considerably less impressive 3 hours and 40 minutes. Meanwhile, the 4K Toshiba Radius 15 drained the fastest, shutting down after a short 2 hours and 45 minutes.

In techradar's standard battery test, we play Guardians of the Galaxy on a continuous loop with screen brightness and volume set at 50%. You can expect this laptop to easily get you through six hours of usage, and seven if you crank down the screen brightness. Still, I wished it came a little closer to HP's original claim of 13 hours of battery life.

On my own, I squeezed 5 hours and 31 minutes out of the Spectre x360 15 while browsing the web, streaming Google Music, writing this review and watching a good chunk of YouTube and Netflix videos.

Bundled software

Once again, HP has done an admirable job of keeping the amount of preloaded software to a bare minimum. There's still a small sprinkling of bundled apps, but almost everything has its uses.

HP Support Assistant – An essential always-on system tray application, which keeps an eye out for software updates, such as new BIOS installs and Intel HD Graphics patches.HP Recovery Manager/Media Creation – Back up your laptop and restore it with these preloaded apps.Verdict

The HP Spectre x360 15 is an impressively thin and light hybrid notebook with more than a few features to make it stand out. It's a sleek machine that packs an overall smaller footprint than most 15-inch machines – all while integrating one of the best hinges for a 2-in-1 notebook ever made.

We liked

The metal body of the Spectre x360 15 is on a whole other level compared to most thicker and plastic 15-inch laptops. The aluminum frame is exquisitely thin and hasn't sacrificed anything in the way of battery life or performance – two areas where this machine delivers in spades. The screen uses an excellent IPS touch panel and it only gets better if you add on the affordable 4K screen.

We disliked

Everything there is to like about this 15-inch hybrid is accented by an annoying quirk. The vibrant display is lacking in brightness, the balanced speakers lack power and the laptop's ergonomics could use work, with a larger keyboard and smaller trackpad.

Final verdict

Ultimately, the Spectre x360 15 is an excellent 15-inch, 2-in-1 laptop that stands out with its thin, metal body, strong performance and long battery life. However, the same elegant engineering also raises the price and profile of this 15-inch hybrid into the realm of the 15-inch MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 15. But it has no hopes of keeping up with either when it's limited to just integrated graphics.

Meanwhile, the HP has other, more affordable rivals with the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 and Toshiba Satellite Radius 15. Dell's hybrid comes at a better value and with stronger ergonomics, while Toshiba's convertible offers one of the best displays on a laptop today.

Still, you'll get through a longer day with the Spectre x360 15, thanks to its portability and longer battery life. If you're willing to deal with the annoyances and have no qualms with the higher price, this is a fine machine for students and light office work.

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