Specifications
- CPU Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
- GPU Intel Arc Graphics
- RAM 32GB
- Storage 2TB SSD
- Display 14-inch, 2.8K, OLED, touch
- Battery 11:01
DESIGN
it’s been awhile since I’ve touched a pristine beauty like this. The Spectre x360’s deep blue chassis is like a refreshing ocean breeze in the swamp of monochrome laptops. The corners at the hinges are sliced off, airing a premium minimalist aesthetic. I’m just happy that the power button is no longer on those corners (you don’t know how many times I’ve accidentally turned off a Spectre).
The slick design continues onto the deck with a bold keyboard and large touchpad walled in by two top-firing speakers. While the bezels on the display are rather thin, the gap between the hinges that connect the deck and panel is concerningly wide. It gives off a sleek machine look, but as someone with a chaotic one-year-old at home, I fear for this machine’s safety. Doubly so that (no surprise) it’s a 2-in-1, so it can jump into a tent or tablet mode. Magnets keep the screen secure against the chassis in tablet mode
DISPLAY
My greatest guilty pleasure in life is an expensive OLED display — the HP Spectre x360’s 14-inch, 2880 x 1800, OLED touchscreen doesn’t hit LG levels of greatness, but it’s damn pretty.
According to our colorimeter, the HP Spectre x360 covered 85.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is a bit far from the average premium laptop (98.5%). However, it was enough to outclass the ThinkPad (70.9%), Swift (79.1%), and MacBook (81.3%).
At 366 nits of brightness, the Spectre is plenty bright, but doesn’t quite meet the category average (431 nits). The ThinkPad (452 nits), Swift (374 nits), and MacBook (558 nits) all outshined it
PERFORMANCE
Sporting an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with 32GB of RAM, the HP Spectre x360 14 shrugged off a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos without issue.
On the Geekbench 6.1 overall performance test, the Spectre scored 12,358, soaring over the average premium laptop (8,443)
The HP Spectre x360 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 7 minutes and 30 seconds on our HandBrake benchmark, which is a bit faster than the category average (8:10). It almost lapped the ThinkPad (10:13), but it was overtaken by the Swift (3:18) and MacBook (5:38).
HP’s 2TB SSD sports a transfer rate of 1,362 megabytes per second, which nearly matches the average premium laptop (1,378 MBps). It beat the SSD in the ThinkPad (1,249 MBps), but not the Swift (1,458 MBps) or MacBook (2,956 MBps)
BATTERY
A laptop can warm my heart with great battery life, and you can consider my heart officially warmed. The HP Spectre x360 14 lasted 11 hours and 1 minute on our Laptop Mag battery test. That’s nearly an hour over the average premium laptop (10:02), and it outlived the ThinkPad (8:28) and Swift (9:50). Unfortunately, almost nothing can survive the MacBook (17:16)
FINAL THOUGHTS
The numbers don’t lie — the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) is a star, and a hell of a one at that. From performance to battery life, this machine is a dream. But why didn’t I give it a perfect score? Well, I wish the display performed better and that there were more ports to go around.
If you’re itching for someone a little cheaper that offers a brighter display and significantly more battery life, I can only recommend the MacBook Pro 14 as a suitable substitute.
Otherwise, the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) is the perfect choice for those who want a reliable premium laptop