HP Spectre x360 Review - Six Months Later

Introduction

The HP Spectre x360 is one of the best laptops on the market. After reading several reviews and browsing in-store, I decided on the Spectre x360 mainly due to the power you get for the price. For just over $1,000 (very slightly lower than the retail price), I was getting this configuration:

i7-5500U Broadwell processor
8GB RAM
256GB SSD
Full HD 1080p IPS display

Six months ago that was the best deal for such a thin and light laptop - the Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 was around the same price at the time, and that came with an underpowered core m processor and a much more limited port selection than the Spectre x360, though it was lighter and was equipped with a QHD 3200x1800 display. Having seen others experience scaling issues with such high resolutions in certain productivity applications (not including Office), I opted for the Full HD Spectre over its QHD option. I hoped that the Spectre x360 would last me many years of heavy use when I purchased it, so let's see how it's holding up...

The Hardware

I have had no issues with the hinge, and it feels exactly as it did when I purchased the device, allowing me to flip the Spectre into tablet mode with no issues. The hinge is a bit loose for my taste (it does wobble a bit when you use the touch screen without supporting the screen with your other hand) but since I don't like using the touch screen extensively when it's in laptop mode it isn't really an issue for me.

Like the hinge, the keyboard has held up perfectly well. It is an excellent keyboard, with no flex, and is one of the best you can find on a laptop. The trackpad is wide and awkward, but still functions very well and has shown no signs of wear. The IPS Full HD display is excellent, with great viewing angles and colors. It is a bit glossy though...

Despite a few bumps from everyday use, the Spectre x360 looks and functions pretty much as well as it did when I first took it out of the box. It is a bit of a fingerprint magnet, but those can be easily cleaned.

The Software

When I first purchased the Spectre, it ran Windows 8.1. Everything performed extremely well, except for the Wifi card. While it got great speeds while in the same room as the router, it performed rather poorly when farther away compared to other devices. This was definitely a driver issue.

The upgrade to Windows 10 made the situation much worse. Several times, the Wifi would simply stop responding, forcing a restart of the system before I could reconnect. Drivers downloaded through HP's driver utility often caused more problems than they resolved - sometimes the trackpad stopped working. However, the updates downloaded from HP in December and earlier this month seem to have resolved all of my issues. The wifi has performed very well, and there have been no issues with the trackpad after the latest Synaptics touchpad update.

Tablet mode isn't exactly a joy to use on this machine. While the slightly large bezels are good for providing a nice grip on the sides without accidentally touching the screen, the laptop is simply a bit too heavy for comfortable tablet use. Tablets definitely need to be lighter than 3.2 pounds to be comfortable. However, I have found uses for this mode while lounging on the couch or when I was on a cramped flight - I was able to play Civilization V and Beyond Earth in "Windows 8 touch mode" for several hours in tablet mode. Of course, more casual titles such as Sonic Dash from the Windows app store also function very well on the Spectre x360.

The Performance

The Spectre has been a great performer. I have been able to do several tasks at the same time with few to no slowdowns. The fan does come on occasionally, but the laptop never gets too hot. Casual and mid-range games run well on the Spectre, including Civilization V, which runs great at 720p and is playable at 1080p.

Boot times are almost instantaneous thanks to the SSD. The drive itself isn't the fastest, but it is a decent SSD with 550 Mbps of read and 280 Mbps of write speed. The 512GB SSD is definitely a faster option, but the smaller, slower SSDs will definitely suffice for general tasks.

Conclusion

The HP Spectre x360 (2015 Broadwell edition) was an excellent value at the time it came out. It has proven itself to be worth its cost with its versatility and power for the price. As a very light tablet user, the Spectre has essentially done everything I would use a tablet for. For others that may not be the case due to its weight and the awkwardness of having the keyboard on the backside of the tablet. If weight is an issue, the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, Lenovo Yoga 900, and Toshiba Satellite Radius 12 are convertible laptops that are lighter (and in the Toshiba's case, smaller).

I give the Spectre x360 a very positive endorsement given how it has held up over months of fairly intense, everyday use. It is a top tier machine at a good price that will hopefully last for several years.

Verdict:

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Links:

You can find the Spectre I just discussed here:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-natural-silver/4221601.p?id=1219708600575&skuId=4221601

Of course it is now available with sixth generation Skylake processors:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-natural-silver/4351701.p?id=1219735412367&skuId=4351701
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/HP-Spectre-x360-13-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC-Intel-i7-6th-Gen/productID.323246400
http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp-spectre-x360---13t-touch-laptop-m6w88av-1

You can find the comparable Lenovo Yoga 900 here:

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/yoga-laptop-series/yoga-900-13/#80MK0011US

And the Toshiba Satellite Radius 12 here (at a very good price of $799 for the 1080p version as well):

http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/satellite/radius-12/P20W-CST3N01