HP Spectre x360 15-bl002xx Convertible Review

[Bernie Pechlaner]

"......and you snub the Spectre's Keyboard for not having much travel and the arrow keys not being to your liking? Sorry, but this site has stopped being useful for my shopping decisions now...."

Sorry you feel that way. I'm not entirely sure where I said that the keyboard has shallow travel (it doesn't). And yes, coming from HP EliteBooks, Thinkpads and Latitudes with individual up/down arrow keys (which I happen to use quite frequently), I DO believe that the combined keys are nuisance. The deductions for the keyboard are absolutely minor, however - even if I had given the highest possible score, it wouldn't have had much of an impact, as a lot the scores are calculated automatically based on the test data entered.
As an owner of quite a few different notebooks (Lenovo, HP, Asus, Dell - including some ancient ones as well which I can't seem to part with), I try to be as fair as possible.
And BTW - I am with you: I personally wouldn't get the new MacBook regardless of the price simply for the extremely shallow keyboard which I don't think I could ever get used to. Not everybody agrees and I know people who couldn't care less how shallow the travel is.

Bernie

[TimP]

Hey Bernie and others owning the Spectre x360,

few days ago I got mine with a 256 GB SSD. It's a great product but i can hear a horrible high frequency sound (maybe coil whine) coming from the laptop. I can hear it most on the left side, especially in the front corner on the left side of the touchpad.
And there is another sound I can't really discribe, but it mostly occures when there is written on or read from the SSD (which in my model is a Samsung one) and when I use the Touch-Screen.

Is that with your test model too?

Greetings
Tim

[Johan B.]

So it's not available with 1920x1080?  :(

[Bernie Pechlaner]

"....but i can hear a horrible high frequency sound (maybe coil whine) coming from the laptop. I can hear it most on the left side, especially in the front corner on the left side of the touchpad.
And there is another sound I can't really discribe, but it mostly occures when there is written on or read from the SSD (which in my model is a Samsung one) and when I use the Touch-Screen...."

Hi Tim,

No, our Spectre was completely silent. That said, I have a Latitude right now which makes the sound you describe when the SSD is accessed - particularly noticeable when running drive benchmarks.

Thanks,

Bernie

[dthrp]

I'm confused... Last time I visited this review the rating was 82%, now it's 86%. What changed?

[julez82]

Having owned this laptop for less than a week before returning it. Have you experienced any game breaking issues with the touchpad?

I returned my Spectre, because the touchpad simply did not work the way you would expect it to work. Coming from a late 2013 MBPr and having an HP EliteBook X360 in the office, it just seemed dismal. 1 finger click and drag releasing and not being consistent, cursor movement upon click release and really just random jumpiness or accuracy issues.

I'm really debating on giving the XPS 15 a shot. Unfortunately I'd be sacrificing some of my wishlist for it (Windows hello, Type-C charging and even though I may not use it much, the whole 2-in-1/pen concept).

[Bernie Pechlaner]

I'm confused... Last time I visited this review the rating was 82%, now it's 86%. What changed?

Hi,

We've reclassified the Spectre - it's now in the Multimedia category (see the comment in the intro)

Thanks,

Bernie

[Bernie Pechlaner]

Having owned this laptop for less than a week before returning it. Have you experienced any game breaking issues with the touchpad?

I returned my Spectre, because the touchpad simply did not work the way you would expect it to work. Coming from a late 2013 MBPr and having an HP EliteBook X360 in the office, it just seemed dismal....

Hi julez82,

No - no major issues even before the driver update. That said, most people will agree that the MacBook's touchpad is simply superior to anything out there (can't comment on the EliteBook)....

Thanks,

Bernie

[des]

be warned!!! the PWM on this screen is there even at 100% brightness and looked with a camera with high shutter speed is VERY worrying. It's identical to my Mi Air 13 which should have 50Hz of PWM but here they write 1000Hz for the spectre. Try yourself! I also tested the older x360 spectre and it did not have any PWM, as notebookcheck said. Don't buy displays with pwm, especially if they have it over 30% brightness

[puremind]

It wouldn't have had much of an impact, as a lot the scores are calculated automatically based on the test data entered.
As an owner of quite a few different notebooks (Lenovo, HP, Asus, Dell - including some ancient ones as well which I can't seem to part with), I try to be as fair as possible.

Bernie

Bernie

There is a big, big mistake on the evaluation of the display, the contrast of the display you measured is actually 1200:1 rather than 700:1.

Let me explain: for some reason there is an adaptative brightness mechanism on this notebook, however it adapts very slowly (within 15 seconds). This means when you measure black levels coming from a brighter APL, you will grossly overestimate them (therefore underestimating contrast).

You need to set a latency time of 15 seconds in your measurements and measure a constant APL greyscale OR measure an ANSI pattern.

It took me a while to figure this out, but when you come from a dark content to white or near white, it takes a long time for the brightness to pick up. This is supposed to avoid eye-strain.

Likewise, when you move from bright content to a black or near black content, it takes time for the display to dim.

However what matters here is intra-picture contrast or constant APL contrast, as this allows you to find out how good each individual picture of a video or content will look like. An ANSI pattern gives you the contrast and brightness at an APL level of 50% white.

This is why subjectively you found the display attractive but your low contrast measurement unfairly decreased the overall mark for this FANTASTIC laptop.

I myself ALMOST did not buy this laptop because of the 700:1 contrast you measured. You ABSOLUTELY need to correct this and give it the excellent overall score it deserves (and as someone pointed out, you can set up the right click zone, keyboard and touchpad are the best on the market right now for me, I play video games on this laptop and the tactile feedback is nothing short of amazing compared to a MacBook or other competing devices). For me the only thing preventing it from getting perfect marks is the older generation NVIDIA, but the laptop is such a joy to use, I really don't mind for a multimedia laptop.

Another note about the display - the lower priced model has an inferior display, also calibrated to 1250 contrast but with lower peak brightness (270cd/m²). No matter what APL level I used I was not able to trigger a higher brightness level and I am wondering if this is a software limitation as I can find none of the dynamic brightness mechanism on this particular model! The contrast and colors are very good but maximum brightness is limited (even after deactivating auto dimming and setting brightness to 100%).

It seems the more expensive version having the pen is pushed as a device for artists and therefore brightness is better accommodated. I have ordered a replacement for the cheaper variant and will report if I observe the same behaviour again.

[dthrp]

Please review the 2017 15" Samsung Notebook 9

[Emiliano Bolesani]

Hi! How would you compare the build quality of this one compared to the new Samsung notebook 9 15"?

The specs are fairly similar but for the display, of which I would personally prefer a non touch FHD.

Thank you!

[dthrp]

@Emiliano Bolesani:
Depends on what you mean by build quality.
If you're talking about how strong the materials are, then the Spectre is wins by a small margin. It's around 800 g (1.7 lbs) heavier than the Notebook 9, and the chassis is composed of thicker aluminum vs thinner magnesium alloy of the Notebook 9. This would potentially make the Spectre harder and more torsion resistant.

However, if you're talking about actual, real life durability, then Notebook 9 probably takes the crown. The way most of us break laptops, we either bang them repeatedly against tough surfaces, or drop them once or twice from an ample height. There're Youtube videos of reviewers performing drop tests on 2017 LG Gram, a similar ultra-light laptop designed with exactly this kind of durability in mind. So in that regard, the Notebook 9 would make better survivor thanks to its lighter weight and more tensile (shock absorbent) chassis.

Although, I haven't studied physics since middle school so it's all just a wild conjecture here. If you ask me, I'd personally go with the Spectre because of the much better keyboard, but both are some of the best dual-core 15" laptops to date, so it's really hard to go wrong with either of them.

[Emiliano Bolesani]

Thank you very much for reply! It has been a difficult choice for me to narrow down to some computers. Don't mind the weight, and I am always very careful with my devices.

The tablet mode and pen support are features which I most probably won't use. But the keyboard is a key issue for me: why do you say the spectre's superior? You feel some flex over the keys in the samsung or is it a typing issue?

As far as I know they both have low travel keys, right?

[dthrp]

@Emiliano Bolesani:
No problem, glad I could help!

Something to note is that every keyboard is different, between same models that are a generation apart, and even between two identical models purchased from a same store. Some brands like business laptops, and consumer lines that happen to mention keyboards in their front page (like Macbooks' butterfly or MSI's steelseries) make effort to control quality to certain extent, while others simply don't.

I personally look for 5 things in a keyboard: travel, actuation force, material quality, layout, and backlight quality, in that specific order of importance. Ideal travel is higher than 2.4 mm, but that's not happening in the consumer section anytime soon. :(  So the next thing I look at is the actuation force required to press each key, ideally around 70 g for me. When its lower than that, keys lose tactility, essentially the ability to quickly go down and spring back up, and I easily notice since I'll lose ~10 wpm. Keycaps should be made of anti-microbial plastic (rough grainy texture) or hard metal. Some people are pretty stubborn on layouts hence won't buy laptops without their preferred design, but I've come to live with what I get, so long as the alphabet keys are normally sized and spaced.

I've had my hands on last gen's Spectres and I measured 1.6 mm of travel and 65 g of pressing force, both of which are rarity in the current ultrabook market. Keys feel metallic which is better than most laptops' smooth plastic, and the deck has little flex to it. As for the layout and backlight, they're decent enough. Samsung apparently falls behind in all five areas according to many reviews, which makes me wary, because the Spectre is only just good enough for my spoiled appetite.

To my knowledge, HP's Envy, Spectre, Probook and Elitebook lines have always made consistently good keyboards. And since I type a lot for a living and use laptops as my daily driver, a bad keyboard really isn't an option for somebody like me.

Some good reviews with commentary regarding keyboards:
Laptopmag
http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/samsung-notebook-9-15-inch
http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/hp-spectre-x360-15-inch
Daniel Rubino of Windows Central
http://www.windowscentral.com/samsung-notebook-9
http://www.windowscentral.com/hp-spectre-x360-15