Bottom Line
The HP Spectre x360 13t
midrange convertible-hybrid laptop combines premium, all-metal
construction, a refined portable design, and solid performance that
matches that of more expensive systems.
When HP wants to impress people, it turns loose its top designers on its Spectre premium model line of laptops and ultrabooks.
The latest offering is the HP Spectre x360 13t (13-4003) ($999.99 as
tested), a convertible-hybrid laptop that combines some of the best
elements of competitors into a slick and polished system. It's clearly
built to take on the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014)$860.00 at Amazon,
but it adds a touch screen and a convertible design that gives you
laptop and tablet functionality in one machine, similar to the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro£1,048.97 at Laptops Direct. The best part, however, is how HP has priced the Spectre x360 13t $999.99 at Best Buy to compete with the likes of the Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224$872.99 at Best Buy. It's our Editors' Choice midrange convertible-hybrid laptop.
Design
The Spectre x360 takes some of the best design elements from both the
MacBook Air and the Lenovo Yoga and combines them into a premium
convertible system. It has the same basic multimode design, with a
360-degree hinge that allows four different use modes: Notebook, Stand,
Tent, and Tablet. This isn't HP's first convertible-hybrid (the HP Envy x360 15t£529.97 at PC World came out last year), and it's not the first Spectre laptop to so closely mimic the look of the Apple MacBook Air (the HP Spectre 13T-3000
did that, too), but it is the best combination of the two I've seen.
The aluminum chassis has a unibody design, and has a minimalist
aesthetic that you'd probably mistake for an MacBook were it not for the
lack of a glowing Apple logo on the lid. But the bare-metal chassis
still looks and feels exquisite. The main surfaces have a soft, matte
finish, while the narrow edges of the laptop are jewel cut with polished
metal that glints in the light.
The slim design measures just 0.63 by 12.79 by 8.6 inches (HWD), and
weighs only 3.26 pounds. Compared with HP's other convertible—the
15-inch, 5.29-pound Envy x360—it's a featherweight, but the size
difference isn't really comparable. Looking at more similar systems,
it's slightly heavier than the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014) (2.91
pounds), but a full pound heavier than the 2.6-pound Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro.
As a laptop, that weight is barely an issue—even a full pound is hard to
notice when tucked into a laptop bag—but it's a big difference for a
tablet.
The decision to use milled aluminum instead of the plastic and carbon
fiber you see on other systems means that the narrow chassis is still
very sturdy. And unlike some convertible laptops, the Spectre x360 keeps
the same thickness whether it's closed or in Tablet mode. There's still
a bit of a gap around the edges due to the tapered chassis, but not
much.
The hinge edges on both the lid and 
chassis
are rounded, allowing them to be set closer together, and to rotate
smoothly on the geared hinges in what HP calls a "synchronous orbit"
motion. The curved edges also make a comfortable handhold, whether
carrying the closed laptop or using the tablet. But the real magic is
the hinge itself. Instead of sticking two basic friction hinges
together, as they did on the HP Envy x360, the Spectre x360 has a
different mechanism altogether, a geared cam linkage that makes for an
extremely sturdy hinge, no noticeable flexing when opening or
re-positioning the display, and an extremely fluid motion as you move
from one mode to the next. To top it all off, even with a more
complicated geared hinge, there's less bulk associated with the hinge
hardware than you'll see on other multimode laptops, with the possible
exception of the Lenovo Yoga Pro 3's watchband hinge.
The 13.3-inch display is only available with full HD resolution
(1,920-by-1,080 pixels) right now, although a Quad HD (3,200-by-1,800)
model will begin selling next month. That resolution isn't bad at
all—and it's higher than the 1,440-by-900 resolution of the Apple
MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014)—but when compared with the Quad HD displays
on the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro and the Dell XPS 13 Touch$1,349.00 at Dell,
it still seems low. The display is bonded directly to the glass that
covers it, so the color quality and brightness is as good as a full HD
In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel can display. The 10-point capacitive
touch sensing on the screen worked well throughout our hands on and
testing.
The sound is also very good. While past HP products have featured
Beats Audio sound, the Spectre x360 does not, largely due to Apple's
purchase of Beats. But the lack of Beats branding doesn't mean the audio
is worse off. In fact, since HP's engineering team was doing the actual
designing of the speakers in those past Beats-labeled systems, there's
no dip in quality at all. When tested, the speakers offered clear, crisp
sound and a fair amount of bass. Additionally, the downward-firing
speakers offer good sound quality in every use mode, including Tablet
mode.
The full-size keyboard has metal keycaps, which feel more luxurious
than the plastic keycaps seen on the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014)
and the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. More importantly, the keyboard feels great to
type on, with solid feedback, a full 1.5mm of key travel, and backlight
for visibility in low-light environments. In normal lighting, the
lettering on the keys is plainly visible, and the backlit keys look
great in a darkened room, but you might want to turn off the backlight
in some dim lighting, because the glowing letters can blend into the
silver of the keycaps in certain instances.
What really stands out is the touchpad, an extra-wide HP ImagePad
sensor that measures 5.6 by 2.6 inches. It's similar to the ControlZone
touchpads seen on the HP Envy x360 15t and the HP Spectre 13T-3000, but
HP has done away with the textured zones to the right and left sides of
the touchpad—used exclusively for edge-swiping gestures in Windows 8—and
has instead simply extended the touch surface. One potential pitfall
with a 5.5-inch-wide touchpad is that a larger sensor means a greater
possibility of accidental brushes as you type and adjust your hands on
the palm rest. Thankfully, HP has stepped up its game, with
significantly improved palm rejection on the touchpad, enough so that I
didn't run into any issues while using the laptop. In fact the only
issue I had was that the wider clickable sensor sets the left and right
button zones farther apart than is comfortable to use. But even then, I
ran into very few false positives or unregistered clicks.
Features
The Spectre x360 13t has a full selection of ports, with a full-size
HDMI port, a mini DisplayPort, an SD card slot, and three USB 3.0 ports.
In a welcome move, all three of the USB 3.0 ports also offer
Sleep-and-Charge, so you won't need to remember which is which, or hunt
for the right port to plug into when the laptop is in a bag or backpack.
For a wider array of port availability, HP also includes two USB
adapter dongles: One provides an Ethernet port, while the other offers
VGA output. On the right-hand side of the laptop, you will also find
physical volume controls and a Windows button.
HP has also taken pains to offer a better Wi-Fi experience to
customers, and our testing seems to bear this out. The laptop has
dual-band 802.11AC with a 2x2 MIMO antenna for better throughput even
over longer distances. Using the Wi-Fi in the Labs, in my apartment, and
around Manhattan, the experience was always solid. Other wireless
technologies include Bluetooth 4.0 and WiDi.
For storage, our review unit is outfitted with a 256GB solid-state
drive (SSD), though the laptop is also sold with 128GB and 512GB drives.
Using a SATA interface, the drive performance may not be quite as fast
as the PCIe-based storage found in the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch, but
the differences won't be noticeable in everyday use. It's also a big
step up in speed from the traditional hard drives used in the Toshiba
P55W-B5224 or the HP Envy x360 15t, though these systems do boast more
storage space (1TB and 500GB, respectively).
In order to optimize performance and battery life, HP teamed with
Microsoft to tweak several aspects of the system, most notably the
software load. The result is one of the cleanest consumer laptops we've
seen in that regard. Outside of a 12-month trial offer for Microsoft
Office and a 12-month trial of McAfee LiveSafe security, you'll find
apps from Netflix, The Weather Channel, and Skype. HP covers the Spectre
x360 13t with a one-year warranty, and also offers a free year of
online support, and 90 days of phone support.
Performance
The Spectre x360 doesn't skimp in processing power, with an Intel Core
i5-5200U CPU and 8GB of RAM. This low-voltage processor is built for use
in ultrabooks, but unlike the power-sipping, passive-cooling Intel Core
M line, which is used in tablets and ultra-slim laptops, the Core i5
doesn't trade power for a better thermal profile. The result is a laptop
that easily outperforms Core M-equipped systems like the Lenovo Yoga 3
Pro.
Graphics are handled with Intel HD Graphics 5500, an integrated
graphics solution. It should be more than enough for browsing the Web
and for streaming media, and even some photo and video editing, judging
by its performance in 3DMark. The Spectre x360 scored 5,213 points in
3DMark Cloud Gate, and 341 points in Fire Strike Extreme. Don't look to
this laptop for gaming, though; it managed only 14 frames per second
(fps) in Heaven and 15fps in Valley, both at Medium-quality settings and
1,366-by-768 resolution, far from playable performance.
In PCMark 8 Work Conventional, the system scored 2,707 points, well
ahead of the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro (2,094 points) and right in line with the
Toshiba P55W-B5224 (2,757 points) and the HP Envy x360 15t (2,682
points). Cinebench R15 scores showed a similar story, with the Spectre
x360's score of 258 points leading the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro (147 points) by
a large margin, and offering performance nearer to other top-performing
laptops, like the Dell XPS 13 Touch (249 points) and the HP Envy x360
15t (241 points).
On our battery rundown test, the Spectre x360
scored an impressive 8 hours 45 minutes. It outlasted nearly all
competitors, like the Toshiba P55W-B5224 (7:51) and the Lenovo Yoga 3
Pro (8:19). The only comparison system that lasted longer in testing is
the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, which lasted a record-setting 15:51.
Conclusion
The HP Spectre x360 13t (13-4003) is a superb mix of design, function,
and performance, with premium touches, like a versatile convertible
design, a unique geared hinge, a spacious touchpad, and enhanced Wi-Fi.
The fact that it delivers all of this at a midrange price is just icing
on the cake. Compared with the Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224, the
Spectre x360 offers similar performance, a more compact and portable
design, and better battery life, making it our Editors' Choice midrange
convertible-hybrid laptop.
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