Review: HP Spectre x360 16 — a big convertible laptop for the creator in you

Microsoft made a big splash with their CoPilot+ announcement not long ago, but while all major PC manufacturers announced that they would be releasing CoPilot+ PC we are yet to see too many actually on the market.

What we are seeing though is some great laptops still arriving on the scene.  Some of us are still on the fence of the real world usefulness of AI and CoPilot+ and as such there is definitely still a place for the pre-CoPilot+ PCs.

HP has released a range of their own Intel AI PCs, without the CoPilot+.  We were sent the HP Spectre x360 16” laptop to test out and we have been impressed with it as a whole.  Of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect device but this laptop certainly passes muster.

The Spectre x360 range from HP is the premium convertible laptop range with 360 degree hinges and touch displays of either 14- or 16-inch in size.  The HP Spectre x360 16-inch laptop we were sent is their most premium Spectre laptop with a touch 2.8K OLED display, with 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 3.80GHz processor and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX4050 GPU.

The Spectre range can cost anywhere from the top end $5,148 (review laptop) down to just $2,999 for the 14-inch Ultra 5, 16GB, 512GB version.

Hardware and design

The HP Spectre x360 we were sent is available in Nightfall black aluminium with a ‘sandblasted finish’ only and while I don’t hate it, it is very laptopy.  I feel like something as cool as an x360 needs more than just a boring grey – I bought my son an x360 for school a couple years ago and I’m sure it was less boring than this (and you can be sure I didn’t spend 5k on his school laptop!

In saying that, it doesn’t affect how it functions so let’s move on.

The HP Spectre x360 16 is HP Spectre x360 weighs 1.95kg which, although not the lightest laptop around, is easily manageable if you were carting it around for personal use.  

The ports available on the laptop are minimal at best and to be honest that does not concern me.  It is more indicative of how most of us use laptops these days – do we really plug much into them anymore aside from maybe a dock, a monitor or occasionally an external hard drive or thumb drive?

There is USB Type-A 10Gbps port along with a full size HDMI 2.1 port, a  1 headphone/microphone combo jack and two Thunderbolt 4 with USB Type-C 40Gbps ports – you may miss the second Thunderbolt 4 port on first look but it is there on the back right corner of the laptop.  Wireless connectivity is covered with support for Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.3.

Underneath there is a large vent for cooling along with rubber feet underneath to prevent slipping.  

The overall build quality is top notch and you can see why HP laptops are not cheap.  The feel of them is premium and feel like they will last as long as you want them to.  It feel solid in the hand with rounded edges to make it comfortable to hold, carry and use.

The lower deck has a massive trackpad which HP state is 60% larger.  Larger than what I’m not sure but it’s huge and I’m here for it, although it can make using the left and right click on it troublesome at times.  The haptic feedback of the trackpad can be edited inside the laptop settings by turning the haptic feedback on or off and adjusting the intensity of the feedback to what you prefer.  

You can also adjust the sensitivity of the touchpad too which I am a massive fan of.  I prefer it to be very sensitive, allows me to fly around on the interface faster.

The keyboard is a decent laptop keyboard which, if you’ve read one of my laptop reviews before, is great for me.  This is the style of keyboard I prefer.  I would like a little more travel on the keys but it’s a portable laptop so a small amount of travel is to be expected.  The keyboard is backlit which I love with two brightness settings, three if you count off as a brightness setting.

The hinge is a 360 degree hinge which does have some stiffness to it, which means that you will need two hands to adjust it to the degree of tilt you desire but it also means that it will not shake, wobble or fall out of the position you decide while using it.  

I like the idea of the 360 degree hinge because it allows me to read articles etc and mark them up as if I was reading on a tablet or old school paper.  Your use case may differ but for me it’s a great addition to any laptop.  

Performance

You’d expect a laptop with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB M.2 Gen 4 SSD and an Nvidia GeForce RTX4050 GPU would perform well. And you’d be right.  I ran some standard benchmarks on it and got decent results although not as high as some premium laptops designed specifically for gaming.

One thing I noticed though was the CPU Profile 3D benchmark underperformed – further research indicated that this may be due to a bug that HP has acknowledged and is working on a fix for.  In everyday use though I did not detect any slowdowns or issues, even when using it as a workhorse driving a 45-in UW curved gaming monitor.  

I was able to play quite a few games on it without any issues, even when pushing an external monitor – as you’d hope so with a discrete RTX4050 GPU.  It may not be up to a dedicated high end gaming laptop but it can certainly double as a casual gaming and productivity machine – creators should love this, especially in tablet mode with pen support (not included with the review unit unfortunately).

Booting up is super quick and the Windows Hello camera worked as it should, fast and accurate.  All usual work was performed with a breeze.

Display and audio

The display is beautiful to look at, as many OLED laptops are these days.  Its specs are: 

40.6 cm (16″) diagonal, 2.8K (2880 x 1800), OLED, multitouch-enabled, 48-120 Hz, UWVA, edge-to-edge glass, micro-edge, anti-reflection Corning Gorilla Glass NBT, Low Blue Light, SDR 400 nits, HDR 500 nits, 100% DCI-P3

The high resolution display is a pleasure to use with accurate colours that pop and deep blacks and I can see why HP recommends it for creators.  

The brightness is just 400nits but that is incredibly bright inside and can be used relatively comfortably outside but you may have issues with glare at times, as you would with most laptops.

The audio speakers sit either side of the keyboard and underneath at the front of the laptop. They are decent but they are laptop speakers so don’t expect mind-blowing power.  They are never going to be great and most people use headphones anyway so it’s not an issue either way.  The speakers are good enough for decent movie consumption and of course with the beautiful OLED display movies look great.

Battery and charging

I was able to easily get a day’s use of the laptop doing basic work, playing some basic games and listening to music.  Not sure what more you could ask for but I’m super happy with that.  It wouldn’t be often I’d be away from a charger for that long.

Of course, playing more intensive games or using video editing software etc will kill the battery life a lot faster.  Luckily the laptop is charged using USB-C port so you can plug it in anytime using a USB-C charger. The charger included is a 140W USB Type-C power adapter, charging a 6-cell 83Wh battery.

The HP Spectre x360 16 supports HP Fast Charge and, with the laptop off, you can charge from 0 to 50% in about 45 minutes – according to HP.  In my testing, with the laptop on (but lid closed), I was able to charge from 8% to 61% in 39 minutes so you can be sure HP’s statement is fairly accurate.  Another 23 minutes will get it to 80% for that extra bit of peace of mind.

Software

The HP Spectre x360 16 arrived with Windows 11 and some may not like it, I’m a fan.  It may take a while to get used to for some but imo there’s nothing wrong with it.

So many laptops include McAfee and I’m not sure why.  Well, we all know why, McAfee most surely pays a fee to get their software pre-installed on laptops.  I’m not a fan and feel that there are better third party security suites available out there (Trend Micro for one) but for me I’m very happy with the stock standard Windows security suite included with Windows 11 (and I hate the continuous McAfee popup reminders).

There is some basic HP software installed to help you use various features including the webcam.  Nothing over the top and it’s a productivity laptop so there really isn’t that much you can change and customise – outside of the standard Windows settings for things such as the touchpad.

Should you buy it?

The HP Spectre x360 16 is an expensive laptop but you get what you pay for. The OLED display is extremely high resolution and produces amazing colours and incredible blacks. The hinges are solid and allow for full 360 degrees of rotation of the display and the full tablet use.

The laptop is designed for high end users who want to create, and with the inbuilt discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX4050 GPU it can process large videos with ease. It is relatively portable, even though it is packed full of goodness and is a 16-inch laptop, making it incredibly useful for creators on the go.

If you want to check it out, you can head to the HP online store, or the usual retailers.