Its images are slightly soft-focus but reasonably bright, colorful, and static-free. The 720p webcam has IR face-recognition capability, joining the fingerprint reader to give you two ways to access Windows Hello logins. ![]() (More about the latter in a minute.) The buttonless touchpad glides and taps smoothly, and clicks quietly. The keyboard incorporates functions often moved to the palm rest or sides, from the fingerprint reader (which replaces the right-side Control key, a slight quibble if you often use that) and power button to special keys to toggle the webcam privacy shutter and launch the HP Command Center utility. But otherwise, the brightly backlit keyboard is fine, with dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys and a somewhat shallow but snappy typing feel. I always criticize HP laptop keyboards for arranging the cursor arrow keys in a clumsy row instead of the correct inverted T, with half-size up and down arrows squeezed between full-size left and right arrows. The two-button tilt stylus kept up with my fastest swipes and scribbles in tablet mode, with a comfortable pen-on-paper feel and good palm rejection as I rested my wrist on the glass. Colors are rich, vivid, and saturated, and fine details are sharp. The Spectre's OLED screen is lovely to look at, with ample brightness, sky-high contrast, pristine white backgrounds, and deep blacks. But once you get used to their roughly 20% taller view of browsers and productivity apps, it's hard to go back to a 16:9 screen (unless you use your laptop primarily for watching videos). Microsoft uses them for its various Surface Pro tablets and Surface Laptop clamshells, and the Acer Spin 713 is one of our favorite Chromebooks. ![]() A New Perspective: Awed by OLEDĭisplays with 3:2 aspect ratios aren't unprecedented. The ZenBook Flip S, in contrast, wins points for providing an HDMI output, but it loses an equal amount for omitting the audio jack. You'll find two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports on the right side (actually, one on the side and the other, suitable for the AC adapter, on the diagonal-cut rear corner), along with an audio jack and a microSD card slot.Īs with the Dell, you'll need a USB-C dongle to connect an external monitor if it has anything but a Thunderbolt or USB-C interface. The laptop's left edge holds a USB 3.2 Type-A port. The screen bezels are ultra-thin (HP boasts a 90.33% screen-to-body ratio), yet the webcam remains properly located, positioned above, instead of below, the display. Among hybrid laptops that have screens with a 16:9 aspect ratio, the 13.3-inch Asus ZenBook Flip S is 0.54 by 12 by 8.3 inches, and the 14-inch Lenovo Yoga 9i is 0.6 by 12.6 by 8.5 inches. The screen barely wobbles when tapped in laptop mode, and you'll feel almost no flex in the chassis if you grasp its corners or press the keyboard deck.Īt 0.67 by 11.8 by 8.7 inches, the system is slightly deeper than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (0.56 by 11.7 by 8.2 inches), as well as barely heavier (2.95 versus 2.9 pounds). (You must hold the base down while lifting the lid.) Two hinges let you fold the display back into the easel, tent, and tablet modes well known to hybrid users. HP's stylized four-slash logo decorates the lid, which unfortunately takes two hands to open. It's available in Nightfall Black with Copper Luxe accents, or Poseidon Blue with Pale Brass accents, each $10 more than the shy silver model. Like previous Spectres, the HP is one of the most attractive laptops you can buy, with gem-cut contrasting edges highlighting its CNC-machined aluminum chassis. ![]() (The stylus clings magnetically to the side of the laptop, instead of fitting into a niche.) One of HP's Sure View Reflect privacy screens is optional a rechargeable tilt pen and carrying sleeve are standard. The A$2,499 base model at HP Australia's website combines Core i5 power with 16GB of memory, a 512GB solid-state drive, and a 1,920-by-1,280-pixel touch screen. The Spectre x360 14 is an Intel Evo laptop, so it flaunts the chipmaker's latest innovations including rapid wake, Thunderbolt 4 ports, and an 11th Generation "Tiger Lake" processor with Iris Xe integrated graphics. Spectral Analysis: Sleek, Svelte, and Stylish Add to that some immaculate engineering, gorgeous OLED screen technology, and a stylus pen and USB Type-A port that the Dell lacks, and the Spectre edges out the XPS 13 2-in-1, snatching the Editors' Choice award as our new favorite premium convertible. Basically, it says, "I see you and raise" to the 16:10 display of the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. The Spectre x360 14 (starts at A$2,499) is an elegant convertible laptop that ditches the older system's 13.3-inch touch screen-and its familiar 16:9 aspect ratio-for a 13.5-inch panel with a squarer 3:2 ratio, for a superior view of text and web pages. HP still sells the Spectre x360 13, but you can forget about it.
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