HP Spectre x360 13.5-inch 2-in-1 evaluation: Places up a powerful battle—with aptitude

HP’s 13.5-inch Spectre x360 has slightly one thing for nearly everybody. An ultralight construct places it a fascinating class of convertibles with a frosted end and flashy accents. A 3:2 display stands taller than most and consists of an OLED choice that is vivid but pure wanting. There are additionally intelligent design decisions, like a chamfered edge with a charging port, light-up quantity/mic mute/digicam shutter keys, plus respectable port choice.

The Spectre x360 13.5-inch will get an A+ in appears to be like and scores excessive (however not completely) in design particulars. However it has some room to develop in relation to productiveness, particularly in comparison towards different extremely succesful ultralights in its value vary.

For many who insist on squeezing each ounce of efficiency out of a sub-1-inch-thick convertible, there are stronger rivals. However for the remainder, the 2022 Spectre is close to the highest of its class.

Profitable design

HP’s Spectre lineup continues to characteristic a number of the most tasty ultralights round, even when they’re mildly much less hanging this yr. The Dusk Black colour of my evaluation unit consists of accents so pale that they appear extra silver than the “brass” that HP describes. A skinny, reflective, silver strip runs across the lid and deck, making a layered impact when viewing the shut PC from a aspect. Oddly, you may even see a touch of the keyboard when viewing the closed laptop computer from the left or proper aspect, so I am slightly extra involved about mud getting contained in the PC when closed than I might sometimes be.

Visually, the hinges pop a bit lower than final yr’s mannequin, which included contrasting colours throughout all the backbone and hinges. However, extra importantly, this yr’s hinge retains the display reliably in place irrespective of how far I bend the lid again.

Plus, the aluminum lid was tougher to bend and felt denser than that of most different ultralight laptops I’ve examined recently.

That paired nicely with an equally strong deck; nonetheless, the deck’s sloped edges sometimes made my wrists slide once I typed. This may occasionally have led me to extra incessantly stumble upon the touchpad when typing, inflicting abrupt, distracting interferences in my workflow.