HP Just Released the Best Laptop It's Made in Years
The HP Spectre x360 (the 2016 model) is a slim,
light, durable 2-in-1 notebook/tablet for the masses.
Not
all laptops are the same.
You
discover this when you realize how much the keyboard sags on cheap Chromebook
models or the speakers for playing Netflix movies sound like they are stuffed
with cotton.
The latest HP Spectre x360, an updated model that is
brand new for 2016, is a step forward for HP--it's the best laptop the
company's made in some time. I like it better than the more stylish (and more
expensive) HP Spectre, for reasons I'll explain later. The x360 has
a few minor issues you should know about before you buy one, but it's a
powerful and light 2-in-1. And for anyone who needs a serious productivity machine,
it is a major ally.
In
terms of design, the x360 is thin (at 0.54 inches), light (at 2.85 pounds), and
durable. The enclosure is made from CNC machined aluminum, and in my tests the
laptop felt rugged enough to withstand a drop or two. The keyboard doesn't sag
when you type.
I really like the 13.3-inch display, which goes
almost to the edge on the side, similar to the Dell XPS 13 (the new 2016 model).
This is a new trend with laptops. If you use an Apple MacBook today, check the
edges of the screen--there is a wide bezel. Dell pioneered a thin bezel, so in
some ways HP is following suit here. It makes the laptop itself smaller and
lighter with the same screen real estate.
In a
demo, HP pointed out how the webcam on the Dell XPS 13 is off center, located
on the lower left of the display. That's a good point, although this is the
future of laptop screen technology. When there's an edge-to-edge screen, there
isn't room for a webcam in the normal spot. With the XPS, it looks like you're
off to the side.
Hammering on the x360 keys, I tended to type as
fast as on any recent laptop, including my personal favorite--the Google Chromebook Pixel 2015, which is not for sale
anymore. I have yet to try the new Apple MacBook Pro that has a Touch Bar with which you can
swipe through photos on a secondary display above the keyboard, but I imagine
that will be a curiosity and not a productivity booster per se. For me, the
x360 worked fine typing up multiple documents and answering email all day. No
problems there.
The real point of choosing this 2-in-1 is that
it converts into a tablet by rotating the screen. You can also set it up on
both ends like a tripod to watch movies or show a sales demo. Windows 10 is not
the best touch operating system, mostly because there are still not enough
touch apps to make it work as an iPad replacement yet. I did like swiping
through photos and videos. I doubt I'd use the tablet mode that often in my
daily routine unless more high-quality Windows 10 apps emerge.
Battery life runs around nine hours. My test machine, which
costs $1,299 and
uses an Intel Core i7 processor, 512GB hard drive, and 16GB of RAM, lasted all
day without any problems, and that was with videos running in the background.
I do
have a couple of minor complaints. On the x360, there are Home, End, Page
Up, and Page Down buttons to the right of the keyboard for some reason. I kept
hitting Home by mistake, which takes you to the beginning of a sentence. The
wide trackpad is spacious enough, but it's a bit on the slippery side. When I
used two-finger scrolling in the Chrome browser, my fingers didn't always
register on the trackpad.
The
one thing that makes this x360 laptop (which costs $1,049 for the Intel Core i5
base model) a better buy than the thinner HP Spectre (which costs $1,020 for
the base model) is that you won't hear as much fan noise. It might seem like a
minor issue, but the x360 stayed super silent during my entire test without any
whine or noise from the fan trying to keep the laptop cool.
Sleek,
silver, stylish, and fast--the HP Spectre x360 gets my nod as the best HP
laptop.
By John Brandon
http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/hp-just-released-the-best-laptop-theyve-made-in-years.html?cid=nl029week46day15
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