HP Spectre x360

J_Dublin15

Anyone else got one? Took delivery of mine today and gotta say, it's absolutely beautiful, great screen, sound, build quality oozes class, nice keyboard and feels just as good if not better than a Macbook Air..

Just as good as the reviews I read about it. The only gripe is on the trackpad the left two thirds of it are left click and the right most third right click which sometimes can make you left click by accident.

Mine came courtesy of HP Store at £889 via Parcel Motel, but it's out of stock there now but they are supposed to have more stock in a few weeks.

PC World have the basic 4GB RAM 128GB SSD for €1,199 but I notice Harvey Norman have the 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD model for the same price, which really shows PC world up for their pricing.

Evil_g

So how's it going nearly 3 months later OP?

I'm sorely tempted to splash out on the i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD version.

Harvey Norman have it for €1,249 which is still slightly cheaper than the HP website.

Curry's have the 4GB RAM, 128GB version for €1,149 but I think the extra specs offered by HN are worth the hundred quid.

Is there anywhere else I should look or anything else I should consider?

I don't think I need the i7 chip and I'd prefer the slightly better battery performance that comes with the i5.

I think there's a good chance I'll never use the touch screen, but I intend (hope) to get 5 years out of this so I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

(That said, does anyone have any experience with the Dell XPS 13?)

J_Dublin15

Once upon a time Harvey Norman were selling that configuration at €1,199 when PC World were selling the lower spec one for the same price.

I have no complaints with the Envy, the battery life is simply amazing, I can go days without needing to charge it, the screen is beautiful, honestly I've still never seen such a clear and sharp screen. The only thing I would say is the Microphone is not perfect, It's very good, but it doesn't have the range that my old HP DM4 did where I could speak on it from ages away, but it's still good, and the audio on the Spectre is good but no more than that, since the speakers are under the laptop.

The machine is fast, virtually silent and the build quality seems to be great, although the real test of that will be when I've had the machine a year or so. Probably not your best gaming machine, but then again I didn't buy it with this kind of thing in mind. It's very quick to shut down and start up thanks to the SSD drive. The light that turns the keyboard backlight on and off is always on by default even when the keyboard backlight is turned off which can be annoying, but there is now a BIOS update to disable that.

Since the RAM is believed to be soldered on to the board, and is not upgradable, I strongly advise you to get the 8GB version of it to future proof yourself, because else you're gonna be stuck with it forever, which is not gonna be a good thing since I'm sure you'd like to upgrade in the future.

Vs The XPS 13
I've actually used both laptops and I much prefer my Spectre actually, although I admit there are some things that the Dell has in it's favour, such as being smaller and lighter and smaller bezels, although honestly, the smaller bezels mean the Dell has a smaller keyboard and touchpad than the Spectre which are not full size, which isn't as comfortable to work on, at least for me.

The things I think it does better than the Spectre:
- It's smaller and a touch lighter.
- Smaller Bezel
- It has better audio.
- Slightly better microphone.

Things it doesn't do as well
- Doesn't have the ability to rotate 360 degrees
- The battery life isn't as good as the Spectre for sure
- The keyboard isn't full size.
- No Touchscreen
- No HDMI port.

Evil_g

Thanks for the great reply. You've pretty much made up my mind for me.

Battery life is very important for me and it doesn't look like anything other than a Macbook comes close to the Spectre.

Some people might dismiss the fold back screen as a gimmick, but I spend a good bit of time on public transport so I can see myself using it quite a bit.

It's also got one more usb port than the XPS.

The shortcomings you highlight (Microphone, speakers, gaming, slightly heavier than XPS) are not important to me at all.

And I still don't know whether I want/need a touchscreen...but as the XPS and Spectre are pretty much the same price it's not really important in my decision.

Anyway, I've a few week before funds become available so I have time to sleep on it if anyone else wants to try to change my mind.

J_Dublin15

The battery life is great, honestly, I've not had a lptop come close to it.

As far as a portable laptop goes it's the best I've ever had,, small, lightweight, long battery life, and whilst the screen is a reflective/glossy one, it's such a bright screen that it's not as much of a problem as I'd thought it would be, but obviously sunlight does effect it, but not as much as it would do if the screen wasn't bright.

You know using it as a tablet, isn't great, it's not bad, but it's a fraction too big to be used as a proper out and out tablet, but for use on public transport, folding it to watch movies many ways, or using in confined spaces, the 360 degrees part of it can be really useful.

What put me off the XPS was the keyboard, the smaller than normal keys just didn't sit well with me, I could type much quicker with the full size on the Spectre and it felt much more natrual.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Worth getting this over the XPS13? I can get the i5/8GB/256GB SSD for around the €900 mark.