I have been using Windows since 1995, but never have I ever used a 2-in-1 laptop as my primary PC, until the beginning of this last month. I have had the HP Spectre X360 13 (2018) for over a month and I felt it deserved the thorough deep-dive its exorbitant price deserved. This is not a laptop for everyone; it might not even be for those who may be able to afford a MacBook, because the Spectre X360 13 (Early 2018) is actually quite a bit more expensive. It’s hella premium, and deservedly so.

We had the top of the line kit from HP but if you are looking for discrete graphics, you are in the wrong review. The 13-inch model simply doesn’t have enough room for a GPU. Here are its specs:

The HP Spectre X360 (2018) comes with an exciting retail package, that includes the HP Pen, two adapters – one for Ethernet and the other for a VGA adapter – and a much-needed cleaning cloth for the display, which you will touch around with your grubby fingers. You also get a leatherette sleeve with a Velcro flap and a slot for the HP Pen, which is quite cool and something you don’t see in most laptops.

I’m still on the corner of the traditional form factor over convertibles. So HP has to do a lot with the Spectre X360 to convert me. The stand-out feature in the X360 13-inch is its flipping display, which goes flat and then some to give you multiple usage modes. It’s by far the coolest thing you can do and a great prank to pull on unsuspecting friends as you push the display beyond its usual position. In one word, I would describe this convertible as heady.

HP opts for a more straight-edged industrial design, which definitely makes it look aggressive. The rounded corners are overshadowed by the sloping but flat edges, and the gently sloping lid with its lovely satin finish is a delight to hold. The dark gold HP logo looks fantastic and I loved how it seemed to disappear into the ‘ash gray’ lid in certain lighting conditions.

HP Spectre X360 13: Ports

HP has not gone bold with an all-USB-C layout. There’s plenty of room for traditional USB ports on the Spectre X360.

On the left you will find a USB Type-A port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button to turn the display on and off in tablet mode. There’s also a microSD slot on the front of the left side. On the right, you will find two Thunderbolt 3 ports, the touch fingerprint scanner and the volume rocker.

Even though it looks odd at first glance, the large square keys on the HP Spectre x360 13 make for a great keyboard experience. One big reason is that you don’t need to adjust too much when coming from a traditional desktop keyboard. The layout has no surprises; even though the home, delete, page up and page down keys have been shunted to the right side which in turn leaves the up and down direction keys to take the room of what should be one key. Which is to say it’s a little cramped on the right.

Below the keyboard is the large touchpad or trackpad – possibly the largest on a Windows machine, besides the Huawei Matebook X Pro. It has a very similar texture to the top deck, but it’s recessed in and finding it is no trouble at all. The smooth surface itself has integrated buttons so tapping and clicking on it is seamless. But the same can’t be said of double-clicking quickly – get used to using double taps to double click.

I don’t have very good things to say about the fingerprint scanner -on the HP Spectre x360 13. It’s flat on the edge and if you are using the laptop on anything other than your lap – such a perfectly reasonable work desk – getting the sensor to recognize your finger is frustrating. It’s right on the edge, and as a result your entire finger may never be able to cover it, so you have to be really careful in training it.

HP Spectre x360 13: Display

The HP Spectre x360 13 boasts a bright and vivid 13.3-inch IPS LCD screen, which is right from the top shelf. You can get it in 4K outside India, but here HP restricts the top-end model to full HD resolution, which is a shame in my opinion. The whole point of paying over Rs 1,50,000 for any laptop would be for the graphics power or a high-resolution display, but here you have to make do with a 1080P display, which is not bad by any means – just not the best.

As a hybrid, one of the pre-requisites is a touch display and the HP Spectre x360 13 goes one step further with support for the active stylus or HP Pen, which is included in the box. It offers 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, which is not the best in the world, but still good enough for entry-level professional or student-level graphics work.

Among all these modes, I found tent and the traditional laptop mode to be the most useful. Tent mode is especially great for watching videos while sitting back on your couch or for listening to music and seeing visualizations while you read a book or go about doing your chores.

The brilliant display is matched by the well-rounded speaker, which has very good clarity at high volumes and robust mids to make video consumption great. The bass is not that great so you won’t find a deep rumble for music sessions, but it gets loud to compensate for this. It’s still pretty good for everyday usage, and you won’t find yourself looking for a pair of Bluetooth speakers for sure.

Thanks to the Intel 8th Generation Core i7 8550U CPU, the performance on the HP Spectre X360 13 was amazing. You also have the 16GB of DDR3 RAM at 2133MHz, to thank for that and the 512GB SSD for the lightning fast boot times and the app loading times.

Adobe Photoshop CC started up in just 10 seconds for me and the average start-up would take around 20-25 seconds. Reboots also hovered around the 25-second mark. You will not find a much faster Ultrabook than this, and despite all the bloatware that Windows saddles you with, you can get everything you want very quickly on the HP Spectre X360 13.

HP Spectre x360 13: Battery Life

The Spectre x360 13 has a 60Wh battery and HP boastfully claims it can go on for over 10 hours, which is what you would see in a typical office these days. The reality is closer to 7-8 hours, which is still quite amazing for most users. But that’s with careful calibration of the brightness at around 50% and with nothing too CPU intensive. The battery life is great for media consumption as the laptop can easily last 8-9 hours on a single charge and that’s awesome for binge watching. It helps that the display is so good for online content.

As a premium 2-in-1 laptop, not many rivals can compete with the HP Spectre X360 13. It’s truly one of its kind and there are very few flaws in this notebook. Nevertheless, for the sake of balance, let’s list them down here along with all the things that impress.

  • Elegant build and unique colors
  • Extremely portable
  • 360-degree form factor
  • Bright display with thin bezels
  • Top-notch Ultrabook performance
  • Active stylus support
  • Windows Hello IR Face Unlock
  • Excellent trackpad
  • Decent battery life

Cons

  • Glossy display
  • Awkward and slow fingerprint scanner
  • Slightly cramped keyboard

Oddly enough, you will not find any competing Windows convertible in this price range, so the HP Spectre x360 13 (2018) is truly in a league of its own.

You could go for powerful gaming PCs as well, but the trade-off is a premium experience versus a gaming laptop experience, which is not always as refined.

As you can see I have had to nitpick to find flaws in the HP Spectre x360 13 (2018). It is simply one of the best premium Windows convertibles in the market and one which can be used in a variety of modes. It has everything a user would ask for from a premium Windows PC and bonus features such as the active stylus support from the HP Pen, the Sure View privacy feature for the display, speedy performance, and a stunning body and design that truly sets it apart.