HP Spectre x360 review: What happens when Microsoft helps build a laptop?

he Spectre x360 is HP's newest flagship notebook. It's also probably the closest you'll get to seeing Microsoft build its own laptop. You see, though the machine has Hewlett-Packard's name on it, HP designed it in close collaboration with engineers from the Windows team, optimizing everything from the fan noise to the screen's color gamut. The result is a well-built laptop with fast performance, long battery life and a nearly bloatware-free version of Windows. And at $900 to start, it undercuts almost all of its rivals. Is there anything not to like?

Gallery: HP Spectre x360 review | 40 Photos

Summary

The Spectre x360 is one of our new favorite laptops, thanks to its premium design, fast performance, vibrant screen and comfortable keyboard. It's relatively heavy compared to competing laptops, but it mostly makes up for it with nearly best-in-class battery life.

Hardware

HP and Microsoft may have designed one of my new favorite laptops, but they hardly reinvented the wheel in the process. In fact, I think the pair owes at least a little credit to Lenovo, and maybe Apple, too. Think I'm trolling? Consider the evidence. As its name suggests, the x360 has a 360-degree hinge similar to Lenovo's Yoga series that allows the screen to fold back into tablet mode (and Tent Mode, and Stand Mode -- yep, HP even stole Lenovo's names for its different usage modes). Then there's the design. Like the MacBook Air, the x360 is fashioned out of unibody, CNC-machined aluminum, with a wedge-shaped profile that tapers subtly from back to front. It's not a wholesale copy-job, to be sure, but the machine's resemblance to a Mac is unmistakable.

HP and Microsoft owe at least a little credit to Lenovo, and maybe Apple, too.

Still, HP managed to improve on what's otherwise a tried-and-true formula. Take the hinge, for instance. Though it feels as smooth and controlled as anything Lenovo ever produced, HP's version uses a different kind of mechanism that "folds into itself" (to quote what I was told when I first saw it). This allows the machine to be equally thick regardless of whether the screen is in tablet mode or folded shut, like a regular notebook. Speaking of thickness, the machine measures 15.9mm (or 0.63 inch), with the weight coming in at a relatively heavy 1.44kg, or 3.17 pounds on the Quad HD model. In fact, the x360 is actually 3.26 pounds on the full HD version (one panel is thinner than the other).
Either way, it feels noticeably denser than a typical 13-inch Ultrabook, and it's definitely heavier than the super-light Yoga 3 Pro. That's irrelevant if you plan to park it on your desk and use it in Stand or Tent mode to watch movies, and it doesn't even really matter when you use the thing as a regular notebook -- it's still easy to tote around in your backpack or shoulder bag. What you might find, though, is that a relatively large, 13-inch PC like this, particularly one this heavy, isn't well-suited for tablet mode. If you do choose to use it that way, I suggest resting it on your lap; holding up a three-plus-pound device gets tiresome after exactly five seconds.
On the plus side, at least, a slightly bulkier machine means fewer compromises when it comes to ports. On board, we have three USB 3.0 connections, along with a full-sized HDMI socket, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD card slot, a headphone jack and a volume rocker, for use in tablet mode. That's no small thing at a time when some laptop makers are trying to get away with including just one port. Finally, HP sells Ethernet and HDMI-to-VGA adapters for $30 apiece. (In my first look, I initially said they came in the box, but that's not true; HP just included them gratis for us reviewers.)

In addition to that lie-flat hinge, the keyboard and trackpad are also entirely HP's -- and in some ways they're better than the competition, too. The metal buttons have a similar spacious, island-style layout as many rival machines, except the keys have a full 1.5mm of travel, making them much cushier than what I'm used to on Ultrabooks. (Perhaps this is one benefit to having a slightly thicker machine: less of a reason to settle for a flat, lifeless keyboard.) In addition, I appreciate how relatively quiet the buttons are, even despite their springiness. Also, most of the keys are large enough that I can find them by feel, without having to worry about hitting the wrong one. Even the arrow keys -- some of the few shrunken buttons here -- were easy to get to when I wanted to highlight text.
What's funny is that although HP teamed up with Microsoft on this, it didn't use one of Microsoft's own "Precision" touchpads; instead, it went with a clickpad from Synaptics. Make that an extra-wide clickpad -- the trackpad here has much the same elongated shape as on the Spectre 13, HP's last-generation flagship. When that model first came out, the idea was that people could use so-called touch zones on either end of the trackpad to more easily pull off certain gestures specific to Windows 8 -- you know, like swiping in from the right to expose the Charms Bar. As it happens, the Charms Bar is about to go away in Windows 10 (set to launch in a few months) and so, there are no touch zones here, per se; just one really wide touchpad. HP figured, even if you don't need those zones anymore, you might still enjoy having the extra horizontal space. I have to say I do.
In general, the touchpad is reliable; the cursor almost always goes where I intended, and multitouch gestures like two-finger scrolls work well, too. I would prefer a slightly lower-friction touch surface, but if a little more drag means more accurate tracking, then that's fine. Better that than a smooth touchpad that doesn't actually do what I want it to.

The x360 comes standard with a 1080p, optically bonded touchscreen, but is also offered with a 2,560 x 1,440 panel for an extra hundred bucks. Unfortunately, I've only had the chance to test the full HD edition, so I can't tell you firsthand just how pixel-dense the Quad HD option is. But I think I can guess, and I bet you can too. If you think the 13-inch MacBook Pro's 2,560 x 1,600 display is gorgeous, you will probably appreciate this as well. As it is, I didn't find myself pining for the sharper panel, especially considering how great the battery life is when you settle for the lower resolution. Thanks to a 72 percent color gamut, the tones here are nice and rich, though not overly saturated. Also, though the viewing angles on this IPS screen aren't perfect, they're wide enough that I could still watch movies and get work done with the screen dipped forward, within a certain range of flexibility. As for audio, the dual speakers on the laptop's bottom side exhibit some of the tinniness I've come to expect from notebooks, but it's no worse than what I've observed on other machines.